Air Jamaica: Do Not Count On Second Bag
Andrew Compart andrew_compart@aviationweek.com
Melanie Reffes melR6@hotmail.com
Air Jamaica is implementing a policy in which only the first checked bag for coach customers and first two for business customers will be guaranteed to be traveling with customers on New York-Grenada and New York-Barbados flights--and warns that the arrival of their other bags, which they would have to pick up at the airport, could take as long as seven days.
But Sue Rosen, senior director, customer service, said today that the airline expects the bags to travel with the customers most of the time. The airline anticipates baggage problems only when the flight is more than 85% or 90% full, she said, because the aircraft cannot accommodate two pieces of luggage of 50 pounds each per passenger if the flight is full. She also added that seven days until arrival was mentioned only as a "worst-case scenario."
"This is certainly not what we want for our passengers and hopefully it will be a rare occasion that it will take seven days - this is the maximum time," Rosen said. "Part of our issues in the past was that the passengers did not know that all the luggage may not travel on the flight and were rightly very upset on arrival. So often we hear from our customers, 'Just let me know.' By knowing that they are guaranteed one piece [or two pieces] of luggage they can plan accordingly."
The new policy also includes a $25 fee for the second checked bag for coach customers and the third bag for business class customers on those routes.
The baggage uncertainty could raise issues for some customers and potential customers. But Rosen said the airline faces special circumstances on those routes, and believed its customers would be better served to be told up-front about baggage issues that already were forcing some separate shipping. Rosen said there are other airlines in the region who limit free baggage to one per passenger and make excess baggage transport "subject to available space."
Air Jamaica currently offers two flights a week on the New York-Grenada route, which will increase to three or four during the summer, on Airbus A321 aircraft. New York-Grenada service will resume this summer, with 16 flights offered in total from July 2 to Aug. 30. The airline had canceled the route earlier this year but will bring it back for the summer because of expected demand by the Barbadian Diaspora living in New York who travel home for the summer, as well as tourists attending the annual CropOver festival held in August.
Both routes are heavy on visiting friends and family traffic, a lot of whom bring a lot of U.S. gifts and goods back with them from New York. Baggage loads also can get very heavy on some flights to New York with people bringing goods from Jamaica that their friends and family cannot get in the U.S. But the A321, Rosen said,
"We always had challenges with the Eastern Caribbean with baggage," Rosen said.
At peak times on full fights, the airline already sometimes received more bags or more baggage weight than the aircraft could accommodate, she said. For Grenada service, the airline used to send bags to Miami and bring to Jamaica on a freighter, then put them on an Air Jamaica bag-only flight from Jamaica to Grenada.
But Air Jamaica does not fly from Jamaica to Grenada anymore, and the Grenada service is not frequent enough to guarantee the bags will quickly follow if there even is room for them. The airline has contracts with cargo carriers to take the extra bags, but they are not available every day. That's why the airline made seven days the outer limit, Rosen said.
Rosen said the seven-day mention is what has caused the most travel industry concern. But she said the airline believes the new, stated policy is better than the previous unstated one in which customers could be caught completely by surprise.
"It really is an attempt to communicate better with our passenger and create an expectation, rather than create a horror story when they can't get their bags when they get there," she said.
The airline will announce when it is able to put all of the checked bags on a flight, but if that's not the case some customers still could be surprised when the arrive. If one of their bags did not make the flight, Rosen said, an airline employee will let them know as soon as they deplane. Air Jamaica said the status of the second bag can be tracked online to determine when it can be collected from the airport, Air Jamaica said.
So far, Rosen said, the flights have not been full and all of the bags have been traveling with the customers.
Photo credit: Airbus
