Karnataka student forced to ditch clothes, food at airport due to high excess baggage fee

According to reports, several passengers of AirAsia have faced a similar situation in terms of excess baggage fees due to confusion over fares.
Bengaluru airport
Bengaluru airport
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A young Karnataka student's plans to study abroad in Malaysia were disrupted when he was forced to abandon clothes and packaged food at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) due to an alleged discrepancy in excess baggage fees charged by AirAsia ground staff.

According to Times of India, Kartik Suraj Patil, a resident of Karnataka’s Belagavi and a 23-year-old chemical engineering graduate from Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), had secured a research fellowship program at a university in Perak, Malaysia. He booked an AirAsia flight from Bengaluru to Kuala Lumpur and packed 20kg of luggage for check-in. However, upon arrival at KIA on March 5, Karthik was informed that he would have to pay Rs 2,000 per kg for excess baggage, which he claimed was not stated on the official AirAsia portal.

Karthik said that he had carried an extra 5 kg of clothes and vegetarian food for a fellow student in Malaysia and was shocked to learn that he would have to pay Rs 10,000 towards excess baggage fees. When he showed the AirAsia ground staff the portal page that displayed the excess baggage fee as Rs 500 per kg, he was informed that the details were outdated and had not been updated. As a result, he had to abandon his clothes and packaged food.

TOI reported that several passengers of AirAsia have faced a similar situation in terms of excess baggage fees due to confusion over fares. AirAsia officials countered that the mistake was on the part of the student as he had referred to the domestic flights portal, where the excess baggage fee is Rs 500 per kg. Karthik maintained that despite the airline ground staff claiming that the excess baggage fee was Rs 2,000 per kg, the official portal still displays an outdated figure. The student has filed a complaint with AirAsia via their online platform.

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