Spanish Carrier Iberia is updating its luggage charges for those of you who want to take a bag in the aircraft hold.
And it marks a new luggage weight standard.
15, 23 or 32kg of luggage? Check when you book…
The airline is marketing this move as a “sustainability move”, to encourage passengers to pack less.
These new baggage options will be offered for flights within Europe.
- Then new 15kg option, starting at €13, depending on the fare paid, for passengers travelling light
- The classic 23kg option, starting at €18 depending on the fare paid,
- The extended 32kg option, which starts at €35. This is being marketed as being cheaper than paying the current overweight charges for the excess over 23 kg.
The airline has overhauled its excess luggage offering if you’ve chosen one of these new baggage options. The €60 penalty fee has been removed, with passengers paying from €312 per kilogramme above the rate they paid. The rate per kg. depends on the fare paid, and it applies only when passengers have booked one of the three weight options in advance.
These new options and rates are available on domestic and European flights operated by Iberia, Iberia Express, and Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum.
They are initially available to customers who book via www.iberia.com or the Iberia smartphone app, with the offering following to travel agents shortly.
When did “Sustainability” turn into “Money Grab”?
Iberia is making an interesting move with a new luggage weight class – creating a lower weight class to encourage its passengers to pack lighter, whilst putting up the other options.
Another airline that has a similar option is Ryanair, which offer a 10kg and 20kg bag option, whilst easyJet offers the same 15/23/32kg options on their services.
If you’re going to take a bag with Iberia, it will be more important than ever to check the weight of it – or to buy a bigger weight allowance than you think you need.
Your credit card and bank account may thank you for it.
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What were the old rates? These options don’t look that bad, at least compared to domestic baggage fees here in the US, and having the option to pay less for a light bag or more for a heavy one is nice – I just looked at Delta’s domestic rates and the price for a 51-70 pound (~24 to 32ish kg) bag is $100.
The light bag option wouldn’t be that useful here unless you had 15kg that wouldn’t fit in a carry-on, since (at least domestically) we don’t have weight restrictions on carry-ons (and where we do, we ignore them like a member of Johnson’s cabinet ignoring COVID protocols.)
I have to admire their gall in saying it has anything to do with “sustainability” – this is their best line since US carriers cut the weight limit on free checked bags (so very long ago…) from 70 lbs to 50 in the name of “baggage handler safety”. It amounted to “give us money and those handlers can suffer!”
(And on a side note, does remembering these days make me old?)