NitroXAdministrator
(.700 member)
24/02/04 11:09 AM
Does Jo'burg airport suck?

I was wondering from more recent travellors whether the Departures Hall at Johannesburg International Airport still has the "weigh-in" counter at the main entrance?

When there in September 2002 I was surprised to find at the main entrance a counter filled with goons whose only purpose is to weigh your bags and extort money out of travellors.

Your bags are weighed well before you ever get to an airline "service" counter and if you are over the limit you are sent to an airport payments office to pay for the excess baggage weight.

Everywhere else in the world I have been too the airline itself does the weighing and because a lot of airlines have a customer friendly service attitude they waive any fee if it is not too excessive. They understand repeat business and service, and that goodwill from the customer is important.

Fro example the Australian carrier QANTAS one of the best and certainly most safest airlines in the world didn't even bat an eye at my baggage weight and never mentioned it. They understood I was carrying an extra bag with a firearm and ammo, plus camera gear, binoculars etc. They also understood I would probably use them again.

Not so Jo'burg airport, they want to piss off their "customers" from the minute they walk in the door. By the way this was the SAME return flight as the flight over.

Does anyone know who actually gets this money? It wasn't the airline collecting it, who after all has to carry the luggage. It was the bloody airport. I can't remember them ever taking down the airline or ticket details, just writing out a slip for the weight to take to the payments office. Of course I did get a receipt.

The charge was US$230 by the way and as you can see I certainly do remember it. Not much about the airport except the ridiculous charge. If I could avoid flying out of Jo.burg airport again I would. Previously I was able to fly direct to and from Harare airport and never had these problems.

PS Had I been American the fee would have been nil as I would have had an increased luggage weight allowance.



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