Martina and I aren't the most frequent fliers but we do fly a bit. In 2014 we had - only counting flights we took together - about sixteen luggage check-ins with seven different airlines including two low cost carriers.

We always have at most one small on-board bag each and our checked-in baggage would be either only one large suitcase between the two of us or an additional small bag or back-bag. We never exceed our total combined checked-in luggage weight. But the large suitcase is often a few kilos above the ticket's max weight. In all these years of flying that was never a problem.

Until we checked in for our flight in Vienna and the Austrian Airlines check-in told us that we have to pay excess for our 28kg suitcase which we checked in in addition to a small 12kg bag even though we were 6kg below our combined limit and our hand luggage was 3kg below the limit. I was taken aback and mentioned that this was a first but was told that Austrian Airlines always did it like that. So we re-packed. But another great indicator on how great it is to fly with Austrian Airlines was when we were told on the next free counter that - after we re-packed - "You are almost there" since we still had 24kg in the large suitcase. (1kg off the ticket's allowed limit). So we moved 1-2 kg in to our hand luggage and finally were allowed to check in.

Leaving Vienna after a seeing our family and friends is always difficult and Martina and her mother were both emotional and having this useless experience did not help at all. So I decided to ask Austrian Airlines how their behavior could ever had lead to a positive outcome for anyone. After an automated response I was asked about the booking number and responded with the booking PDF, but never received an answer. I asked them again a week ago but apart from an automated response never heard back again.

We did go out of our way to fly Austrian Airlines the last two times we visited Austria; definitely not worth it.