Airline Baggage Allowance and Excess Baggage Fees – Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and Air Asia

For those of us who often take advantage of cheap promo flight rates, the last thing we would want is having to pay extra in baggage costs.

Our team at Info Pilipinas looked into the baggage limitation of the 3 major airlines here in the Philippines namely Philippines Airlines, Cebu Pacific, and  Air Asia.

For this post, we checked the following info on these 3 airlines:

• Baggage Allowance included in the ticket
• Additional Baggage Rates you can purchase
• Excess Baggage Charges if you go over
• Luggage Size or Dimensions

Unlike the country’s flagship airline, Philippines Airlines, budget airline companies like Air Asia and Cebu Pacific DON’T have FREE check-in baggage allowance included in their airfare ticket rates, this you have to pay extra for.

PHILIPPINE AIRLINES

Each Philippine Airline ticket, even an Economy Class or a PAL promo fare ticket at that includes free baggage allowance between 10 kilos to 35 kilos. The free check-in baggage varies depending mostly on the type of accommodation you book or the type of aircraft flying that certain route.

In most cases, these are the Philippine Airlines free check-in baggage allowance:

Budget Economy: 10 Kilos
Regular Economy: 20 Kilos
Premium Economy: 25 Kilos
Business Class Promo: 30 Kilos
Premium Business Class: 35 Kilos

If ever you need more baggage than what is included in your PAL ticket booking, you have the option to add the Philippines Airlines Prepaid Baggage:

5 Kilos – Php 250
10 Kilos – Php 500
15 Kilos – Php 750
20 Kilos – Php 1,000
25 Kilos – Php 1,250
30 Kilos – Php 1,500
35 Kilos – Php 1,750
40 Kilos – Php 2000

If ever your luggage weighs more than the baggage allowance included in your ticket, you will end up paying the Philippine Airlines excess baggage fee which is Php 200/Kilo at the PAL check-in counter.

Take note of the allowed luggage dimension for Philippine Airlines flight:

Checked-in Baggage: Should not be more than 62 inches (158cm) in length and should not be more than 50 lbs (23 kgs) in weight.
Carry-on Baggage Dimension: Length, width and height of the luggage should not total to more than 45 inches (115 cm) and maximum weight is 7 kgs (15 lbs).

CEBU PACIFIC AIR

During booking, you can purchase add-on baggage allowance on your Cebu Pacific flights. Here are the additional baggage rates:

15 Kilos – Php 224
20 Kilos – Php 358.24
30 Kilos – Php 728
40 Kilos – Php 1,120

In case you completed your booking and forgot to include add-on baggage allowance, you can still add it anytime by logging on to book.cebupacificair.com and clicking on Modify Booking. You can still add your Cebu Pacific check in baggage allowance as long as it is at least 4 hours before your flight.

Note that flights on smaller Cebu Pacific planes only allows you to purchase up to 20 Kilo additional baggage.

If you go over-baggage at the check-in counter, the Cebu Pacific excess baggage fee is Php 200/Kilo.

Here are the allowed Cebu Pacific luggage size on flights:
Check-in Baggage Size: Max weight allowed may vary from 10kg, 20kg or 40kg depending on the type of aircraft
Carry on Baggage Size:  Should not be more than 56 x 36 x 23 cm at 7 Kilos in weight.
**Take note that Caticlan flights allows max of 5 Kilos hand-carried baggage only.

AIR ASIA

During booking you can purchase the Air Asia baggage allowance. The following are your options:

15 Kilos – Php 250
20 Kilos – Php 320
25 Kilos – Php 580
30 Kilos – Php 900
40 Kilos – Php 1,700

If ever you forgot to add this extra bagge during the actual booking, you can still purchase extra Air Asia check-in baggage but the rates are slightly more expensive:

15 Kilos – Php 288
20 Kilos – Php 368
25 Kilos – Php 667
30 Kilos – Php 1035
40 Kilos – Php 1,955

If you think you will be lugging heavy bags on the flight, we strongly suggest you purchase enough baggage allowance beforehand at least 4 hours prior to your flight. To do this just log in to your Air Asia Big account and do the Manage my Booking option.

At the airport you can still buy 15 Kilo baggage during check in but this will cost you Php 800. If you exceed the baggage weight with Air Asia the fee is Php 360 per kilo.

Checked in Baggage: Each bag checked in must not exceed 32 kg
Cabin Baggage Size: Only 1 hand carried bag with dimensions of no more than 56cm x 36cm x 23cm and not exceeding 7 Kilos in weight.

All in all, it is more cost efficient to purchase baggage allowance in advance rather than pay for extra baggage charges.

For the next post, we will be looking into the Baggage Restrictions or Allowed Items on board most airlines.

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