If you’ve ever caught a plane before you’ll no doubt be aware that the mood of the airline staff at check-in can often be the difference between having a smooth trip and getting on the flight more than a few dollars poorer.
Over the years many bands that fly regularly had become well versed in the ways of wooing those behind the check in counter to avoid huge fees, that was until Virgin Australia announced their special baggage allowance deal for bands to much fanfare from the music industry.
But apparently that hasn’t stopped the some of those from the other side of the desk at Virgin, who ruined a recent trip by Canadian band Madison Violet after they charged then $1200 for their luggage while the band were flying from Sydney to Melbourne to play Port Fairy Folk Festival.
According to News Limited, the country-folk duo of Brentley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac who are frequent visitors to Australia, were forced to pay the $1200 excess after travelling with 10 pieces of gear including three guitars and three suitcases.
“It was ludicrous to have to pay that much for one trip,” Ms MacEachern said admitting they often pay excess baggage fees but nothing close to $1200.
“We do travel with a lot of gear but normally don’t pay much more than $200. In the last 10 years we’ve paid less than $10,000 overall for flying with our equipment. It was a sad travel day.”
The band lodged a complaint with Virgin Australia but say they haven’t heard back and aren’t holding their breath about getting their money back. On their flight back to Sydney airline staff were far more accommodating.
A spokesperson for Virgin Australia was quick to point out that such fees were extremely rare and that the airline was looking into the incident. He also said that he understood the band had been refunded but that there must have been a communications breakdown.
The spokesperson also stressed that Virgin Australia had worked hard with the local music industry to offer what he termed ‘generous allowances’ and that the airline has ‘received considerable positive feedback’.
However the incident with Madison Violet exposes a flaw in Virgin Australia’s policy.While the airline does offer extra baggage allowances for travelling musicians with cheap rates should you need to buy more, that deal only applies to local bands and international touring artists do not have access to them.
Qantas recently announced a new baggage deal for musicians too in response to Virgin’s offering but theirs also only applied to Australian artists.
Virgin Australia are continuing to press ahead by strengthening their ties with the Australian music industry, announcing a few weeks ago that they have invited key industry figures to a summit to discuss extending the baggage deal to Australian musicians flying internationally.
UPDATE: A spokesperson from Virgin Australia has spoken with Tone Deaf and we’d like to correct that international musicians do have access to the baggage deal provided that the promoter is a member of the participating organisations.
In this case the promoter was a member of the scheme and their booking did include the appropriate membership reference but this was ignored by airline check-in staff which is why they were entitled the the full allowance provided under our agreement with the music industry.
The excess fees were charged in error according to Virgin Australia and a refund has been issued alongside an apology.
