An OMAAT reader shared a frustrating experience he recently faced while redeeming miles. This isn’t the first time that I’ve heard of a story like this, so I figure it’s worth covering here.
In this post:
A frustrating surprise on an Oman Air business class award
I heard from a reader who redeemed Alaska Mileage Plan miles for two separate business class award tickets on Oman Air for travel in February 2025, from Cairo (CAI) to Muscat (MCT), and then five days later, from Muscat to Frankfurt (FRA).
He was traveling with two checked bags, and as expected, he had no issues checking his bags from Cairo to Muscat on the first ticket. However, five days later, when he went to check-in at the Oman Air business class counter in Muscat, he was told that his ticket to Frankfurt didn’t include a checked baggage allowance, and he was forced to pay $846.81(!!!) to check his bags.
The staff at the airport explained that his Alaska-issued ticket did not include any information about baggage allowance, and they suggested that he call Alaska. He tells me that he couldn’t get through to the airline, perhaps due to the time difference. So he ended up paying the costly fee to be able to take the flight.
He then shared with me the correspondence he had with customer service at both airlines after the flight, in hopes of being reimbursed:
- Alaska’s excuse was that the operating airline (Oman Air) sets the baggage allowance
- Oman Air confirmed that the ticket did not include any information about the checked baggage allowance
When he then wrote back to Alaska, they acknowledged that the ticket didn’t specify what the baggage allowance was, but declined to reimburse him for what he paid, instead issuing him a $100 Alaska discount code as a “gesture of goodwill.”
What causes this issue, and what we can learn
Generally when you book a business class award ticket, you expect that there will be some sort of a decent baggage allowance. For example, Oman Air doesn’t even sell business class fares that don’t include a checked baggage allowance.
What’s going on here is that this is a system glitch. For whatever reason, the partner ticket is issued without baggage information, and often in airline systems, that will translate to showing as no baggage allowance.
This isn’t the first time that something like this has happened, and there’s actually a FlyerTalk thread about people being charged checked bag fees for Oman Air awards booked with Alaska miles. Keep in mind that this is still a relatively new partnership, and Oman Air isn’t yet fully integrated into oneworld, and I suspect that’s what’s contributing to these glitches.
With that in mind, to avoid this situation in the future, here’s what I’d do:
- Log into your itinerary on the Oman Air website, and see what baggage allowance is shown there as well
- If Oman Air’s website shows no baggage allowance, call Alaska and ask them to reissue the ticket so that it shows the correct baggage allowance (which might require hanging up and calling again)
This shouldn’t have to happen, but it’s the best way to avoid this frustration.
What can be done at this point to get a refund
The reader has shared with me all his correspondence with both Alaska and Oman Air. While representatives at both companies are friendly, it’s the perfect example of the lack of accountability in the airline industry, and pushing off customers to the other party.
No one thinks a business class award passenger isn’t supposed to get a baggage allowance, yet neither party will take responsibility. An Alaska representative probably isn’t authorized to cut a check for nearly $850, while Oman Air probably doesn’t want to issue a refund, since the airline doesn’t feel it did anything wrong. The Alaska representative has stated that their decision to issue a $100 voucher is final.
So, what can be done at this point? I’ll forward this issue to a contact at Alaska. I’m not sure if that’ll do anything, but I’ll certainly try to help. At a minimum, I hope they can look into this, to avoid a similar issue in the future, because customers shouldn’t have to go through this.
Meanwhile the only other pathway I can recommend is to file a complaint with the Department of Transportation (DOT). Airlines are legally required to clearly display baggage allowances on tickets, and it sounds like that didn’t happen here, and therefore rules were being violated.
Bottom line
Premium cabin award tickets are typically supposed to include a checked bag allowance. Once in a while there are glitches that cause the baggage allowance to not correctly display on tickets. In those situations, you may be charged for checked bags.
An OMAAT reader recently dealt with this on an Oman Air award booked with Alaska Mileage Plan miles, where he was charged nearly $850 for two checked bags. This really shouldn’t happen, and it’s one of those frustrating situations where you then get pushed around between representatives from two airlines, as no one takes responsibility.
What do you make of this award ticket checked bag mess?
So were the bags over weight limit? This may explain a lot.
I was once checking in with Delta and when I put the bag on the scales, the agent told me "it will be $100, please". It was for international flight and I was platinum - but my bag was 24kg and the system automatically generated the invoice. Of course, it was all corrected when I moved 1kg to my carryon - but overweight...
So were the bags over weight limit? This may explain a lot.
I was once checking in with Delta and when I put the bag on the scales, the agent told me "it will be $100, please". It was for international flight and I was platinum - but my bag was 24kg and the system automatically generated the invoice. Of course, it was all corrected when I moved 1kg to my carryon - but overweight luggage is how you can end up with high fees even if you have good luggage allowance included.
This also commonly happens with UA awards on TK. The ticketing airline is at fault, they're the one who are supposed to add the correct baggage allowance to the ticket.
The reader should pursue a chargeback with their bank. They were charged for a service they had already purchased. Let Oman and Alaska fight it out from there.
The card issuer will receive the ticket information from Oman showing that no baggage allowance was included and then the charge will be reinstated.
Etihad had (has) the same type of issues for AA booked award tickets.
ya i'm now concerned about a trip i have with Oman Air also booked in business at the end of the year. their manage booking page doesnt really provide a lot of information and seems to be glitchy. i see no indicator of what the baggage allowance is for the flight even tho it should definitely be two. when i go to add bags, it wants to charge me to add bags and doesn't have...
ya i'm now concerned about a trip i have with Oman Air also booked in business at the end of the year. their manage booking page doesnt really provide a lot of information and seems to be glitchy. i see no indicator of what the baggage allowance is for the flight even tho it should definitely be two. when i go to add bags, it wants to charge me to add bags and doesn't have any indication of what my baggage allowance is. also can't select my seats as that page errors out.
sounds like i need to call alaska
This happened to me on a flight out of Atlanta to Ontario. The ticket lady (who was a Mexican) charged me $50 to check my carry on.
What would the price have been if the ticket lady had been Mongolian?
It’s weird that she showed you her passport. I’ve never had a member of airline staff show me their passport.
I am facing the same issue for a trip in June purchased with Mileage Plan miles. My routing is DOH-MCT-JED in Economy and the Oman Air confirmation page says 0kg baggage allowance. Alaska Airlines says they cannot do anything, and the Oman Air US ticketing office says I get 30kg allowance when they look into this reservation. I want to get this resolved before my trip.
What size and weight were his bags? I've seen people toting bags to check in at Miami the size of a stream trunk. I would think possibly a very large/heavy bag might get a hefty baggage fee-although probably not over $800.
Health and safety rules are pretty rigid, particularly when sending things to places like Germany, so I don't think you're allowed to check in any items exceeding 32kg. They'd have to be sent as cargo.
I just want to share the extensive negative experience of my partner and I on a recent trip DXB-MCT (stop-over) - BKK.
Before our trip, there were issues with the manage trip functionality on omanair.com. We could not get past the screen requiring us to add our contact information and could not select our seats.
Next, we could not check in online due to a generic website error.
In DXB, we were denied lounge access...
I just want to share the extensive negative experience of my partner and I on a recent trip DXB-MCT (stop-over) - BKK.
Before our trip, there were issues with the manage trip functionality on omanair.com. We could not get past the screen requiring us to add our contact information and could not select our seats.
Next, we could not check in online due to a generic website error.
In DXB, we were denied lounge access because "lounge access is not included on Alaska Airlines issued tickets" per the check-in agents.
My bag was damaged on the DXB-MCT and the feedback page for Oman Air errors out because it requires a ticket number but will not accept Alaska Air ticket numbers.
When checking in at the airport for our MCT-BKK leg, we were told that we had duplicate tickets and there was a very stressful 30 minutes while they figured out a path forward.
The lounge and onboard experience was sub-par and average respectively. I found the stress of all of these things a huge net negative and would not recommend anyone fly them. Best of luck if you do.
I reported this issue to Alaska Air and asked why they didn't perform the smallest amount of integration testing with Oman Air given that these issues were present on all of our tickets. The first few replies showed a complete lack of understanding and interest in understanding exactly what the issues were. The final response was incredibly dismissive and made it clear that they "feel the issue is closed" after offering 5,000 miles. I really wished they would have wanted to understand the issues in detail and commit to fixing them for all future passengers.
One reason why I started to follow Ben’s blog was to learn about such matters as are being discussed herein. Quite honestly I am appalled at reading some of the experiences. I was not aware that such problems existed.
Again, I thank those who have been helping to open my eyes to the dangers of not being able to fall back onto the services of a reliable booking agent.
I would do a 3 way conference call with reps from both airlines and tell them to figure it out, and get back to me when the charge is removed.
I want to live in your world where things like that happen
The idea of checking a bag fills me with horror, so I never do it. My Victorinox 22" 2-wheeler, plus TravelPro backpack are more than enough for a month away. If you cross over to the dark side and make it a rule to never check a bag, you'll be glad you did. It starts with the shoes.
Yes, everyone knows that it's super easy to get clothing covering 3 weeks and 3 seasons into a 2.7kg bag while keeping the total weight within the IATA-recommended* 7kg carry-on limit.
The 'dark side' presumably involves wizardry that allows one to start making objects disappear.
*SeanM has posted the relevant link in a previous post on this blog
Quite Throw*****, I would love to meet the person who could convince ‘She who must be obeyed”, to forsake her check in luggage when we go ‘walkabout’.
I share her view as, despite not being female, I always travel with at least two pairs of shoes plus the ones I'm wearing- about a decade ago, I got a fungal infection due to wearing the same pair of trainers every day and I don't want to repeat the experience.
With a CPAP machine and a laptop/tablet taking lots of space in my hand luggage, one large suitcase is doable but tight, and...
I share her view as, despite not being female, I always travel with at least two pairs of shoes plus the ones I'm wearing- about a decade ago, I got a fungal infection due to wearing the same pair of trainers every day and I don't want to repeat the experience.
With a CPAP machine and a laptop/tablet taking lots of space in my hand luggage, one large suitcase is doable but tight, and once it exceeds 21-22kg it's not easy to take up and down stairs etc, so I tend to check in two items (medium suitcase+cabin sized piece) unless I'm only going somewhere for 3-4 days.
I pack three days of clothes. I find a laundromat next door to a bar or cafe and spend an hour doing laundry every few days. I always meet friendly locals this way.
You are a backpacker in the truest sense :)
I have had this same issue booking Turkish Airlines reward seats through United. I was charged to Istanbul from Frankfurt, but on the return Turkish knew it was incorrect. In my case, United issued credit to cover the cost of the baggage.
KLM tickets on VS and DL are the worse for this
I Check-in VS a lot and I'd say everyday we get at least 10 KLM tickets booked as Standard Economy (Which Includes 1 bag) and shows 1 bag on pax KLM confirmation but the ticket issued shows no baggage allowance so generates a charge.
I had a similar issue with a LifeMiles ticket for a European airline (I forgot which one). I caught it before travel, called Avianca and the LifeMiles agent fixed it.
This is also known to happen on Garuda Indonesia awards booked with Delta Skymiles. Tons of flyertalk threads discuss this.
I almost missed a flight that runs twice a week running around AMS trying to sort out Delta’s error. I finally paid and won the eventual chargeback.
There's also Small Claims Court, depending on where he's located.
It's not exactly quick, but will generally result in a favorable judgement when the claimant is reasonable (and everything seems to point towards this being a totally reasonable claim).
Yes, as someone who has represented an airline in Small Claims/District Court many many times, I would recommend it if you exhausted other options, even if there is a technicality that the airline has decided is the final answer. Often judges at this level don't quite care about the details of the airline's contract of carriage or what some internal system says. The "reasonable person" test usually plays out. Now, the airline can appeal it.......
Yes, as someone who has represented an airline in Small Claims/District Court many many times, I would recommend it if you exhausted other options, even if there is a technicality that the airline has decided is the final answer. Often judges at this level don't quite care about the details of the airline's contract of carriage or what some internal system says. The "reasonable person" test usually plays out. Now, the airline can appeal it.... but the difference is that (depending on the state) in small claims court the airline can just send me (the regional management on a salary, driving down there to listen to people bitch about HOAs or repo'd vehicles all afternoon instead of going to the airport) but in appeals they've got to send an attorney who will probably be outside counsel billing for the work and it isn't worth it over low sums.
Only caveat - If you ever try to file a bag claim again or certain direct claims to the airline of damage/reimbursement, you may have to acknowledge that you've sued an airline before... airlines share this info. If you lie and they see you have, they have grounds to reject.
This highlights a potential risk that you run when booking award tickets on partner airlines. When something goes wrong, they both point fingers at one another and you end up trapped in a stalemate. Honestly, I'm amazed that this business of "I don't know nothin' - go ask them" still goes on in 2025...but it does.
It gets even better when they cancel/retime one of the flights and neither of them has any interest in sorting out an alternative routing.
Yeah, it happens even in the US on codeshares or interline flights. I've had a few issues of flying United connecting to or from Southern Airways or another carrier (booked as one ticket through United). I don't do separate tickets because then they'll call it a self-made connection and Southern is 98% sure to be late so you want them to have to deal with you... But I've had a number of times where Southern...
Yeah, it happens even in the US on codeshares or interline flights. I've had a few issues of flying United connecting to or from Southern Airways or another carrier (booked as one ticket through United). I don't do separate tickets because then they'll call it a self-made connection and Southern is 98% sure to be late so you want them to have to deal with you... But I've had a number of times where Southern canceled or was delayed and I had to cancel because it was just pointless to even complete my trip given their rebooking options and it's finger pointing galore between the two. Southern says United has to refund, as they collected the money. United says Southern hasn't even indicated the flight was canceled and do I have proof I can share, so they can do nothing. Maybe a benefit of status on UA, but they usually end up sorting it out. One time a supervisor told me they basically ate the $100 or so for now as a customer service point.
Could you explain the logic behind the DOT reference?
Assuming AS is entitled to claim that they only acted as an agent to WY, what does a US ministry have to do with the conduct of an Omani airline flying to Frankfurt? Wouldn't it be more logical to escalate the matter to the civil aviation and/or consumer protection authorities in Oman?
Regardless of the above, this is a cautionary tale on the value of...
Could you explain the logic behind the DOT reference?
Assuming AS is entitled to claim that they only acted as an agent to WY, what does a US ministry have to do with the conduct of an Omani airline flying to Frankfurt? Wouldn't it be more logical to escalate the matter to the civil aviation and/or consumer protection authorities in Oman?
Regardless of the above, this is a cautionary tale on the value of carefully checking baggage allowances on award tickets. I had to spend €50+ to take a suitcase on a 90 minute flight on a Flying Blue redemption which came without any allowance, and my elite status wasn't any help either as the flight was with a partner outside of the alliance (G3). I would've had to pay even more if I had turned up at the airport without having checked the confirmation email.
This seems like a persistent issue with Alaska Airlines. There is a long thread, started by me, on FlyerTalk of a similar issue with Alaska issued award tickets on LATAM. I got alarmed to notice no baggage allowance on my business class tickets when I was trying to select seats on LATAM website. I called both airlines and both started pointing fingers at each other without resolving the issue. Experienced folks on FlyerTalk assured me...
This seems like a persistent issue with Alaska Airlines. There is a long thread, started by me, on FlyerTalk of a similar issue with Alaska issued award tickets on LATAM. I got alarmed to notice no baggage allowance on my business class tickets when I was trying to select seats on LATAM website. I called both airlines and both started pointing fingers at each other without resolving the issue. Experienced folks on FlyerTalk assured me that LATAM check in desk agents are really nice about this issue and never bother anybody. I was really concerned but proceeded fully prepared to pay for baggage if needed. Sure enough, I was never bothered by the good folks of LATAM. That FlyerTalk thread continues to grow, which tells me that this is an ongoing issue on Alaska's side.
He paid Oman and not Alaska, and they, not AS, were the contracted carrier.
WY has 3 allowances in Buss Class - Studio 60kgs Flex 50kgs and Comfort 40kgs so it was clear he was entitled to something therefore it is clearly a WY error as it depends what the total weighed. Not clear what it is on award tickets and he should ctc WY
@ Icarus -- But his contract was with Alaska and not Oman Air, since Alaska was the carrier issuing the ticket, and the issuing carrier has to clearly disclose the checked bag fees.
You are right with this. Nevertheless WY took the additional money so they should return it. They already know and sort of acknowledged that this was a glitch with the correct baggage allowance simply not showing.
AK may be responsible for the system glitch and issuing a problematic ticket not showing any baggage allowance, but they didn’t collect any additional money from the passenger.
If AK were to reimburse this, it would represent...
You are right with this. Nevertheless WY took the additional money so they should return it. They already know and sort of acknowledged that this was a glitch with the correct baggage allowance simply not showing.
AK may be responsible for the system glitch and issuing a problematic ticket not showing any baggage allowance, but they didn’t collect any additional money from the passenger.
If AK were to reimburse this, it would represent a true cost for them. If WY reimburses, they would just refund the same amount they kind of inadvertently collected before.
They should never have collected this amount in the first place, as they (should) know, there are no fares in Business Class without checked baggage allowance.
Please read AS instead of AK. Sorry.
Ben respectfully you are incorrect time .
The contract is always with the operating and marketing carrier irrespective of who issued the ticket. You have a point re the bag allowance.
If the flight carried an AS code it is a different matter however award tickets must always be booked under the operating carrier code.
For example, had the WY flight been delayed or cancelled it was not AS responsibility to rebook them, only...
Ben respectfully you are incorrect time .
The contract is always with the operating and marketing carrier irrespective of who issued the ticket. You have a point re the bag allowance.
If the flight carried an AS code it is a different matter however award tickets must always be booked under the operating carrier code.
For example, had the WY flight been delayed or cancelled it was not AS responsibility to rebook them, only to refund them if the journey was cancelled and tkt unused. It would be WY per IATA 735d.
In this case it should be escalated to WY as it was they who charged him the fee not AS assuming he did not have over 60kilos .
The even bigger question here is why Oman Air would charge that exorbitant amount for the 2 checked bags. Even on LCCs the first bag will cost about €50 and the 2nd abit more. It simply doesn't add up how 2 bags cost that much. The $100 Alaska is offering is what the 2 bags would typically cost.
Something ain't clean in the milk here. Did the bags each weigh 100kgs?
@ InceptionCat -- Take a look at Oman Air's wild baggage charges beyond the standard limit:
https://www.omanair.com/en/extra-bags-weight
We're talking $25 per kg of luggage...
Insane!
Doesn’t Etihad also have wild charges on award tickets? I was about to redeem some leftover EY miles and came across threads about people paying $1000+ for luggage on redemptions.
No. I flew Etihad long haul business on an American award just few weeks ago. We had no issues checking in 3 30kg bags on 2 tickets.
You may be confusing their outrageous cancellation policy on their award tickets. They charge you 25% points even if you cancel right away and as much as 75% of miles for cancellations closer to the departure.
I'm pretty certain that the idea behind these fees, and probably the weight concept in general, isn't to make money from charging passengers a fortune for carrying their luggage (because these prices certainly won't be maximising the passengers' interest in carrying additional luggage) but rather to facilitate planning for cargo, fuelling and weight/balance calculations by discouraging people from bringing too much stuff with them. Additional money could be made without cannibalising the concept through selling...
I'm pretty certain that the idea behind these fees, and probably the weight concept in general, isn't to make money from charging passengers a fortune for carrying their luggage (because these prices certainly won't be maximising the passengers' interest in carrying additional luggage) but rather to facilitate planning for cargo, fuelling and weight/balance calculations by discouraging people from bringing too much stuff with them. Additional money could be made without cannibalising the concept through selling a certain amount of tickets with beefed up allowances in certain markets and/or through specific agents.
Clearly that was all a system designed in a world without 'light' tickets, frequent flyer allowances and so on and some airlines haven't optimised it for the 21st century.
It is as @Throwawayname says as far as weight planning as especially in lot of markets served in the middle east and southern Asia people want to bring a lot of stuff. I say this having loaded QR aircraft bound for DOH with 300 passengers and 900 bags. A QR manager also explained to me that they carry a lot of government contractors (and we did have tons of Pelican cases that weighed 80kg and...
It is as @Throwawayname says as far as weight planning as especially in lot of markets served in the middle east and southern Asia people want to bring a lot of stuff. I say this having loaded QR aircraft bound for DOH with 300 passengers and 900 bags. A QR manager also explained to me that they carry a lot of government contractors (and we did have tons of Pelican cases that weighed 80kg and up bound for Iraq and such) who are just passing on the overweight charges.