Travel photographer Brendan van Son has been all over the world. Remember, we even showed you those photos from his awesome trip to the Galapagos Islands.
But in his latest vlog, the mild-mannered van Son was uncharacteristically angry. After a long travel day to Manilla, Philippines in which we follow van Son through airports and mega-sized planes, the photographer suddenly comes on camera stating his disbelief and anger in which he says “I don’t think I am ever going to fly Emirates again.”
Being exhausted and upset, van Son promises to explain what happened when he arrived in Manilla. And sure enough, he does. Seemingly, the second he gets into his hotel room, van Son turns on the camera before pronouncing it is “rant o’clock.”
On the first leg of his 4-leg journey, van Son checked into his all Emirates flights in Madrid, Spain. Having a generous 30kg allowance on checked luggage, the travel blogger was well underweight. Like many of us photographers, he is careful to take as much of his camera gear in his carry-on as possible. He says he specifically asked the woman checking him in if his carry-on would be a problem, and after looking at it, she assured him that it was fine. The real problems started when he tried to board his connecting flight in Dubai, and then, all hell broke loose.
Van Son claims that the gate agent weighed his bag, and at 14kg, it was 4kg over the limit of 10kg. When they informed him that it would be a 165 Euro fine, van Son was angry, but grudgingly accepted it. Little did he know it was 165 Euro per leg…
In the end, van Son claims the cost of the penalty for 4kg over limit actually costs more than his flight from Spain to the Philippines. Having been on the receiving end of this before, I fully believe him.
It is one thing to fly on budget airlines and be aware of these types of situations…after all, there is a reason why your one-way ticket from San Francisco to Stockholm costs just $69. They are going to get you on every fee and penalty under the sun. But with an airline that likes to promote itself as high end, their response to van Son’s problem is troubling.
But, whoever is right or wrong, van Son lays the smack down towards the end of the rant. When he asked “why?” 14kg wasn’t allowed in the overhead bin, the response he got was safety. After all, if that bag came flying out, 14kg could really injure someone. Then, van Son looks into the camera and says what we all are thinking.
If you say it is not safe, then why all of a sudden, passenger safety doesn’t matter if I am paying you a couple of hundred Euro?
Yup. Preach on Sir van Son.
Check out more from Van Son on his website, Instagram and Facebook.