Kulula’s baggage policy has changed. I tell you this because, unless you read the teeny-weeny small print on the confirmation emails, you wouldn’t know it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not grumbling or complaining, but it would have been nice to know through some well-thought-out, obvious messaging on the booking confirmation. Maybe something legible like the size above? From November 2011, Kulula’s policy allows you only one free checked-in piece of baggage (i.e. into the hold); additional bags cost R300 (online R200) each.
So it was that I found myself arguing with the check-in clerk recently. Eventually the problem was solved and I took the extra baggage as hand luggage (how crazy is that?). What worries me is the precedent – this smacks of the American system of commercial airline travel. Let me shout as loud as I can here: please let’s not copy one of the most idiotic systems on the planet. I realise profits are at stake and that airlines are under threat, but surely the answer can’t lie in messing up our system that, theft aside, is one of the best around. Kulula may have taken the lead here, but heaven help us all if everyone follows suit. As an aside, there’s a simple way around it – buy one enormous bag and shove all your little bags into it (to a maximum weight of 20 kilograms). What Kulula saves in baggage handling it will soon be paying out in chiropractors’ bills.
Photo by Steve Crane.
