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JAL amends international baggage rule

14 Comments

Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced a change in its baggage rules for international flights. Up until now, depending on the routing, baggage provisions on JAL's international flights were determined by either a weight system or a piece system. Effective onboard flights on and after April 1, JAL will simplify its baggage policy and adopt the piece system for every international route and increase the free baggage allowance to bring customers greater convenience.

Compared with the current piece system, free baggage allowance provided to First Class and Executive Class customers will also increase from two to 3 check-in pieces per traveler. Moreover, customers traveling in all cabin classes can now carry larger luggage as JAL has also raised the permissible total dimension (a sum of the length, width and height) of each piece which in the current piece system policy, is limited to within 158 cm but will from April 1 be increased to 203 cm.

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14 Comments
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Then try to check into a domestic flight! You will be charged extra for oversized or over weight baggage.

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Wow, a little bit of competitiveness from JAL. Perhaps if they had started thinking competitively years ago they wouldn't be in the financial situation they find themselves in now.

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Budget airlines usually charge passengers on each extra luggage to earn significant revenues. JAL's new baggage check-in rule can win back more in-advanced booking passengers.

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I think that already people are carrying on too large of bags. It takes forever to try to force them into overhead bins and leaves a lack of space for others with more reasonable sized baggage. I admit, I hate checking in my bags, but if people want to bring everything on with them, they should try to be sensible at least!

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I started hating JAL after my last Tokyo-NY trip. The Japanese ground created a havoc because my carry-on luggage wasn't according to IATA's norms. However, as I pointed out, there were at least a dozen Japanese passengers before me that had even larger carry-ons and they went OKed. And I had just arrived from NY with the same carry-on with no problem at all. In the end, they said my carry-on was OK, but only after a 10 minute bla-bla. I used to like flying with JAL, but they look like my former local city hall: a company managed by ojichans.

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There was a discussion about this a few weeks back on Japan Today about people carrying too much hand luggage where I gopt shouted down for suggesting the rule should be just ONE bag, to avoid creating the kind of chaos as sakurala has described above. I hope by JAL increasing their checked allowance that people will just stop bringing so much rubbish into the cabin. Let's face it, all you need is your passport, a book/kindle/tablet etc and maybe a small washbag. Don't see the need for anything else. What I find most annoying is people bringing expensive equipment like big cameras, flash units etc onto the plane. They are then quite happy to complain when you dare to try and put a pair of shoes into the overhead locker on top of all their 'stuff'. I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong) that Virgin Atlantic pretty much did last year what JAL have just announced.

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LostinNagoya: They might be inflexible on some things, but they compare favorably to the American lines flying the same route. Maybe ANA could give them a run on their money for customer service though..

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Agree with other posters.

Many customers load up their carry-on luggage with heavy, etc items to make their check-in luggage fit within the limits.

They see carry-on as way to get around having to pay charges for extra weight and thus we get large bags, etc.

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They just copied ANA who announced the same changes a few weeks ago. Meh.

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Some people are just idiots, last December this idiot couple was blocking all the other passengers because they let some fool get on the plane with a suitcase THAT DID NOT FIT IN THE OVER HEAD compartment, everyone was waiting and waiting while the fool tried and tried to put it in, I thought to myself this is BS, just wedged myself between hubby and his hot dumb wife and pulled all of my family right through, and this broke up the traffic, but in this case not JAL, but fools at AA that should have realized that know way that it would fit.

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Just to shed some light on my above comment: my carry-on is exactly what you see everywhere, it fits the overhead locker of all different planes I have travelled on. My point is that JAL ground crew is way too rigid, to the point of making something small details a headache to their customers. Now, I avoid JAL as much as possible.

@ Jason: believe it or not, the problem I described above happened on the Nagoya-Tokyo leg of my trip to NY, when I had to fly JAL. From Tokyo to NY, it was AA, and they were nice, no problem with "5cm plus-minus" as I had with JAL.

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Any airlines go strictly by weight? I've got chardonnay and whisk(e)y to haul.

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Frankly, I've had no problems with the baggage rule with JAL before. International weight limitations seem to be the only hard part to adhere to, but other airlines such as Delta and United tends to be stricter and they make you pay through your teeth for overweight luggage. In addition, when I recently flew JAL, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to pay for extra drinks, like I had to with United.

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They will have issues with baggage handlers internationally who are unionized and won't pick up bags heavier or bigger than standard size!!!

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