Bluepeterno1
yes £48 was a bargain, but the fact is they tried to charge me £90, if the official Turkish rule is £6 per kilo then why did they accept my offer of £50, I'll tell you why they were trying to rip me off.

if the official Turkish rule is £6 per kilo

As I said before, this has nothing to do with the airport, it's staff or Turkey. That is the work instruction given to them by the airline they are the handling agents for. Excess baggage charges have been in the schedule airline side of the industry since aircraft went in to commercial service. It's nothing new but is now becoming more prevalent in the charter sector because of the economic climate. The charging is often negotiable and they will waiver some baggage, but that's at their discretion.

Just to give you an idea of the reason for excess luggage charging (sorry, going a little off topic here), I'll use a Rolls-Royce powered Boeing 757-200 as the example which is what Thomas cook often use to Turkey. The figures quoted are not absolute, but near enough for this purpose. They have a fuel capacity of 34,000kg giving a range of 2,600 miles (with fuel reserve). MAN-DLM is roughly 2,000 miles. The aircraft would therefore use around 27,000kg of fuel each way (ie, a lot!). The maximum take off weight (MTOW) are approx. 108,860kg. Therefore, fuel is approx. 25% of the weight of the aircraft depending on the passenger and luggage load. For every 4 kg of weight on the aircraft, 1 kg of this is fuel. Therefore to carry your 10kg of excess baggage, the airline needs to add 2.5kg of fuel. Imagine if every passenger or couple did this. With up to 235 passengers onboard the aircraft, if half of them had 5kg of extra luggage that would equate to 590 kg of excess luggage. I'll not bore with with the physics of flight, but the more weight on the aircraft, the more lift is required generated by a greater the angle of attack (wings) and therefore drag. This increased drag means more power and therefore fuel. This would require an extra 148 kg of fuel. At $130 a barrel, fuel costs are considerably more than they used to be. That is why airlines are clamping down on excess luggage and are being more strict. They can't absorb the cost anymore. There is a high markup on the charges, but as stated above, it's about discouraging people bringing too much luggage.

Darren

Darren
Fair comment mate, I bow to your greater knowledge on the subject, but what it means to me is that my wife and I will not buy Turkish products to bring home,so the Turkish economy will suffer, and if all visitors do the same then they will lose the British tourist trade pounds, and in the long run the tourist will go elsewhere,like Bulgaria where the pound is worth more, so our beloved Turkey goes to the wall.
What a shame that would be. Think about it, no tourist, no airlines, no airport, no work for the people, no holiday lets so hotels go bust, shops go bust as no one is buying anything, the list is endless, believe me there will come a time when the British people will say enough is enough. And who will suffer the most, not us it will be the lovely Turkish population, therefore it is up to the Turkish government to do something about it now, not wait until it happens.

But the cost of aircraft fuel will affect your flights to Bulgaria as well and you would be charged for excess baggage there also, the high cost of fuel isn't something that is perculiar to Turkey.

I thought the main gripe on this thread was people who were not over their limit being charged.

Quite right Doe, but the holiday would be much cheaper and the exchange rate would make up for this. Could you answer a question for me, how many airports you have been to charge you to use a trolley, I have been to many and never been charged, also how many people pass through Dalaman who need a trolley, multiply that by £2, £1 for arrival and £1 for departure, and they are making a bomb, although supermarkets here charge £1 to use one you get your money back when you return it. Please remember when we go to Turkey we are not only visitors we are Customers, I for one would like to be treat like one at Dalaman airport.

That's why I said the excess baggage issue and the airport charges are two seperate issues. We're just going around in circles here!! To me, the airport costs are irrelevant. I know before I travel what to expect so it's a conscious decision. I just simply don't pay the prices at the airport by either taking provisions with me or doing without (and keep to my luggage limits!). It certainly won't put me off travelling to Turkey (roll on 29th August!) and wouldn't stop me travelling to any other country for that matter. The two weeks inbetween transitting the airport are far more important than the couple of hours in departures.

Darren

Dalaman Airport Baggage excess/high prices/Discussion 2007 Darren this is the heading for this thread, so I have a right to say anything about baggage charges and high prices.
, or am I wrong on this?

These are public boards and anyone can express their opinions and experience. That's what they are here for and is a great tool for all. Especially those who have never travelled through Dalaman and don't know what to expect. Maybe I wasn't as clear as I could have been. The excess baggage issues is not the same issue as the pricing at the the airport. No-one is disagreeing that the airport pricing is excessive, bordering outragous. It's been well known for a while that Dalaman is the most expensive airport in europe. But that pricing is governed by the airport authority. Excess baggage isn't. This is the place to discuss it but we have to be clear what the underlining issue is.

Darren

A little off topic here, but, at Antalya airport recently, they have stopped charging for airport trolleys - maybe Dalaman will follow suit?

Most airlines allow you to pay for an extra 5kg of luggage when you book your flight and charge somewhere around £7.50 each way. If you think you are going to be bringing back more why not do that? We are now really good at limiting our luggage and last week I took 12kg out and brought back 16kg. They didn't charge me for the 1kg. I limit it by buying toiletries there and using it all or dumping it before I return. Same with cheap flip flops. I dump my book when I have read it. If any of my T shirts etc are looking a bit old I bin them before I return. We only take one pair of shoes in addition to the ones we wear on the plane and we wear the heaviest. When it's hot I don't really need a lot of clothes and no longer see the need for posh new outfits every night, it's easy enough to buy washing powder and wash things there. My husband is even better and takes very little as do my sons so that leaves a bit more space for any shopping.

Another thing with bringing in lots of stuff from turkey is that by rights you should pay duty on a lot of it ,couple the price of that to the price of excess baggage costs and it would not be worth while buying anything out there ,far better to pay for the extra 5kilos and take a lot less stuff with you and stick to the limits ,can only imagine how much it would have cost some people in the past

Bluepeterno1

Just went through the Thomas cook booking site, they charge £30 for an extra 5 kilos for a party, so Darren was correct it is Thomas cook doing the charging. won't be flying with them again, I stand corrected. But the other prices are too high, and again I can be wrong, but I thought Dalaman was run by the Turkish government, so they could do something about it if they wanted to.

It's not only TCX that are charging for an extra 5kg with a standard allowance of 15kg (they've actually been doing this since 2006). From summer 2009, FCA will also introduce this and XL introduced the 15kg allowance this year. There's only Thomsonfly and Monarch left in the charter sector not to have reduced their standard allowances, but watch this space! We'll all have little choice in the future, especially after all the mergers and less competition.

Turkish airports are government owned (State Airports Administration, DHMI) but 'new' Dalaman was constructed and is operated by ATM Airport Construction and Management which is a private company. I suppose it's like a public-private partnership over here (eg new hospitals) and we know how expensive they are! I suppose they're trying to recoup their $150 million investment sooner rather than later. While people pay the prices they've no need to reduce them. I agree with you there Bluepeterno1. Wait while Turkey is accepted in to the EC. No more genuine fakes to bring back so the decrease in allowances may not be a problem.

Darren

Bluepeterno1 you can bring back £145 of souveniers before you incur tax. This is in addition to cigs, booze and perfume. This amounts to £580 for my family of 4 and no amount of our Turkish delight a few cheap T shirts and even a bit of gold/silver would amount to that. A carpet might go over the £145 but on the whole most people unless they know what they are doing are completely ripped off over those. I travel to Turkey and other destinations 5 or 6 times a year and use all the well known airlines. They are nearly all reducing their luggage allowances. You have choices - don't go, reduce your luggage weight or pay the approx £15 each for 5kg each way.
PS another tip for reducing your luggage is to get a really lightweight bag, obvious but looking at the luggage in my recent check in queue most people had really heavy cases.
As for the high charges at Dalaman - don't pay them. Most hotels will run you up a picnic to take with you or if you are self catering you can do it yourself. It's a really good idea to take food anyway incase of a long delay.

well all i can add to this is you should all know by now that dalaman is one of the most expensive airports to buy refresments at and also the airlines that serve us from there have a excess baggage levi on the 15 kg flights
it just means the wives will have to leave a few pairs of shoes behind ( only joking before i get hung by all you lovely ladies ) the answer is fly with airlines like turkish with a 20kg weight

maverick57uk,

Although it's not possible to fly with Turkish Airlines from all airports and it's a long way round having to transit though IST.

Darren

jmk, i am well aware of the £145 allowance , but when you have teenagers paying
£20/30 a pair for designer jeans which cost over £100 a pair in the uk 2/3 pairs along with tops shoes handbags ,the £145 allowance goes straight out the window ,never mind the fact that it is llegal to bring fakes into the country.

Bluepeterno1

I was ripped off at Bodrum Airport a few years back. A lot of money for two coffees and a couple of Danish Pastries. I had a winge about it at the time but it is history now. I now go prepared with something to drink and something to eat whichever airport I'm travelling through. I will never again pay those stupid prices.

I have only once been charged for excess baggage - about £12 I think it was - so I now either take less or I leave a few old t shirts there when I come back.

Someone earlier was talking about spending £1500 over there. I cannot begin to imagine what I could spend that sort of money on while on holiday. It would be a hell of a lot of Turkish delight or apple tea.

If I wanted to buy something in Turkey that weighed, for example 2kg, and I was saving £10 on British prices I would have to consider whether it was really worth risking paying an extra £12 in excess charges just to get it home. If I was saving £50 then it would be worth the risk.

Well BP1 I just thank my lucky stars that my teenagers are happy with a good holiday, a box of Turkish Delight and a Tshirt! We did buy some genuine Levis once but the saving was minimal, we decided then it was nicer to spend our time sailing than trudging round shops. I have also bought a bit of jewellery now and again but never mega bucks stuff. I have occaisionally bought a carpet but again just on the limit, unless you haggle fiercly on those they will be over the limit and just as expensive as in UK. If the fakes are illegal in UK the answer is don't buy them if you want to stay within the law on return. We do spend money in Turkey but it tends to be on stuff we need while there not stuff to bring home. I think with the high price of fuel at the moment the 15kg limit is fair enough and let those who want to bring more pay for it.