luggage allowance on multi-city bookings

Question

How does luggage allowance work on each leg of multi-city bookings (in order to force a stopover), vs. the same booking done as a one-way trip?

For example Air Canada has a very generous luggage allowance for flights from Brazil. You can go to the calculator at https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/home/plan/baggage/checked.html and enter From: GRU To: SAN Status: NONE Class: ECONOMY and you see:

1st bag Free

2nd bag Free

Each extra bag $85 CAD/USD (per direction, plus taxes*)

Max. weight per bag: 32kg (70lb)

So not only you get 2 free bags, each bag can be 32 kg, extra bags are also quite cheap and also 32 kg each.

A flight I am interested in, from GRU Sao Paulo to SAN San Diego, goes though YYZ Toronto, so I'd get 2 x 32 kg on both legs.

However I would be interested in a stopover in YYZ Toronto, and using Multi-city option I can book with a 2-night stopover in YYZ, for only slightly more then the flight without stopover.

But will then the 2 x 32 kg allowance still apply to the whole itinerary, including the YYZ-SAN leg? Or just to GRU-YYZ, and the YYZ-SAN leg will not even have any free checked baggage allowance at all, as the calculator for YYZ-SAN shows:

1st bag $31.50 CAD/USD (per direction, including taxes)

2nd bag $52.50 CAD/USD (per direction, including taxes)

Each extra bag $105.00 CAD/USD (per direction, including taxes)

Max. weight per bag: 23kg (50lb)

I don't know if it matters, but the YYZ-SAN leg is on Air Canada Rouge.

Answer 1

This is a very good question and I think I have the answer for you as I have experienced it on a couple of airlines before I chose to become loyal to American Airlines and One World Alliance.

When you choose to stop-over, you have to of course collect your bags which you have checked in for your first leg. When you come back for your second leg, if the airlines is still the same i.e., Air Canada, the same baggage rules apply. But as it is Air Canada Rouge, you will be following their baggage rules which would be different and you have to play by their baggage rules.

If you did not choose to stop-over, the baggage will be transferred without any charge to the Air Canada Rouge and the same baggage rules from your first leg apply.

In my experience, when I travelled with American Airlines to Montreal from LAX, I chose a stop over in NYC and the next leg, i.e., JFK to YUL, it was a small flight (an American Eagle jet) and I had to pay for my baggage. If I wouldn't have chosen the stop over, I wouldn't have to pay for my baggage at all and I could have collected them straight at my final destination.

Note: As in the above two scenarios, the flights are booked as a single itinerary in order to take advantage of the free checked baggages (without stop-over) and are operated by Air Canada and American respectively. Let's say you book two different airlines, like American from LAX to JFK and Air Canada from JFK to YUL from some third party website or an agent. You need to make sure that you collect your baggage after your first leg and re-check them on to the second flight. (Sometimes, if the airlines belong to a same alliance, the luggage is transferred directly over to the second leg and you can collect them at the final destination. One needs to make sure to confirm this at the check-in counter when you check-in your bags with the agent.) In these 3rd party cases, the baggage fees will vary from flight to flight and you have to pay the fee accordingly.

Hope this helps. Bon Voyage :)