Hello,

This thread was started as follows:
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Lufthansa NOT Following Originating Airline Bike Policy?

I just came back from a tour to Mallorca and a couple of the other participants said that on a prior tour that Lufthansa (Austrian, Swiss, etc.) failed to follow their originating (U.S.) airlines baggage policy and instead charged Lufthansa's egregious $500/bike for the return part of the trip.

I have a tour booked through United but returns via Austrian/Lufthansa at the end of September and am wondering is If I will also run into this issue and if there is anything that I can do to prevent/charge back if this happens to me.

Thanks,
Steve
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but the moderator deleted it in error as spam and couldn't recover it. So after doing a bit of research II am re-posting it with a slightly different title.

same thing happened in Japan. My bike and I flew Alaska from PDX to LAX, and JAL from LAX-tokyo.

There was no charge because I'm MVP Gold with Alaska.

Home bound was a different story and they charged $$$. When I asked why, it was because exactly like you described.

This appears to be a definitive answer:

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/section-399.87

§ 399.87 Baggage allowances and fees.

For passengers whose ultimate ticketed origin or destination is a U.S. point, U.S. and foreign carriers must apply the baggage allowances and fees that apply at the beginning of a passenger's itinerary throughout his or her entire itinerary. In the case of code-share flights that form part of an itinerary whose ultimate ticketed origin or destination is a U.S. point, U.S. and foreign carriers must apply the baggage allowances and fees of the marketing carrier throughout the itinerary to the extent that they differ from those of any operating carrier.

[Doc. No. DOT-OST-2010-0140, [url=https://www.federalregister.gov/citation/76-FR-23167]76 FR 23167, Apr. 25, 2011]

Here is an airline industry practices website and an attached document:
https://www.iata.org/en/programs/ops...age/standards/

It looks like this pretty much answers the question with bikes/baggage policy on code-share flights. You might want to save this for reference.

See my next post. Was the outbound and return flights booked at the same time and on the same itinerary? If so, you may have recourse for a charge back.

i suspect your flight from us to europe will follow the AA guidelines, and if there were a change of carrier en route, you "might" continue under the originating carrier baggage policy. or might not.

but a return flight is a separate flight, and in your case lufthansa/austria is the originating carrier, and will charge for baggage accordingly.

That's not what CFR399.87 above states. From my reading it includes the ENTIRE itinerary booked at the same time which includes the return flight.

Airlines being the weasels that they are, will probably point out that a bicycle is not "baggage" as such but rather a "special item", that out of the goodness of their hearts they let us check in as baggage.

+1

While I haven't had many issues with different baggage fees on inbound vs. outbound flights - this is useful information to have and save away. Hopefully it forestalls an issue at check-in but if not it becomes part of a more official letter to customer service.

I've found that often airline personnel don't always know their own carrier rules (let alone special rules for US origin/destination) and as often as not I think that has worked in my favor. I am polite and patient though if a charge seems high I will also bring it up. For example, flying from New Zealand to India I believe the airline policy was to charge by the kilo but they somehow found an exception for "sports equipment" that turned it into a nominal charge. I had what seemed like a very high charge flying from Indonesia to Timor Leste until I realized the price quoted was in Indonesian Rupiah so what I heard as "330" was really "330,000 Rupiah" or about US $20.

i'ma'bet their lawyers can argue the definition of "itinerary" in their favor. would be easy to support that "home" is not your destination, but rather your origin, that a round-trip journey may be ticketed at the same time and printed on one paper for convenience, but contains two itineraries.

but i'm not a lawyer, and would feel foolish arguing the meaning of "is" in court. i hope it works out for you, and wish you the best. but be prepared.
good luck!

For more data points... Does anyone know or have access to any travel agents who may have relevant experience in dealing with this issue?

Latest update... I went on a second European tour with a single purchased itinerary on United. This time the return flight from Salzburg originated on Austrian/Lufthansa (United's code-share partner). First they claimed that I needed a "reservation" for a properly packed bike box whereas United doesn't. After about 30-45 minutes multiple phone calls and a lot of hemming and hawing (slow day at the airport) they finally decided that I could put the bike on the plane. However, they decided that I needed to pay an arbitrary 200 euro "excess baggage" fee. Not wanting to leave my bike in Salzburg I reluctantly paid the fee.

I am currently disputing the charge through my credit card. We'll see what happens.

Sounds like code-share flights policy can be summed up in two words: "Cha" and "ching!"