We booked our flight with Coastal Aviation from Dar to Zanzibar just one day before our departure to Tanzania. During the booking I noticed that the baggage allowance was only 15 kg but since there were not any other options I didn’t pay much attention to it.
The next morning I woke up soaked in sweat wondering how on earth am I going to fit my clothes for two weeks, books, hair dryer, epilator, chargers for 6 devices and accessories for the GoPro in just 15 kgs. I should add: 15 kgs that must fit in 36cm x 68cm measurment limit. On Coastal’s website they even specify that the pilot has a pocket size scale to check and that if the dimensions are larger the luggage won’t even go through the door of the cargo pod. Moments of real, palpable panick.
Reading again all the terms and conditions again I noticed that XL seat class is available upon request. The request meant sending a message to the company and waiting for a reply. I wasn’t very optimistic about the effectiveness of this procedure as we were already counting down the hours before the departure later that evening. Checking out related topics on TripAdvisor & Co didn’t help either, it was like writing your symptoms on Google and dicover that your days are counted.
Thanks God the sweetest one is a salesman so he knows how to break the balls until he gets what he wants. In a nutshell, after a few hours of chatting and messagging with Coastal Aviation’s customer service we upgraded one of the seats to XL, paid the difference (40 usd) and triple checked if the dimensions of our luggage will be ok.
Contrary to the common belief that in Africa things are less efficient than in our “developed” countries, I was once again surprised by how professional and helpful are people in Tanzania.
So, if you want to travel with more than 15 kgs with Coastal Aviation you should:
- buy the ticket
- write a message to the customer service with the flight reference, specifying the dimensions of the luggage and the weight
- make the payment through the link they will send you
- take all your essentials and enjoy the flight
