After checking in for a flight from Lanseria to Cape Town, while walking to the security check, I was called back because my hand luggage was seen to be too big. I was asked to weigh the bag and it was deemed to be too heavy and told I need to pay a R350 fee to have an extra bag checked in. Since my checked in luggage had already been sent through, the staff told me they could not retrieve the bag for me to add additional luggage to it, so I was forced to check in my hand luggage. After complaining about this and being treated rudely and abruptly by the ticket sales desk I paid the fee.
When sitting in the departure lounge, there were at least 3 other passengers with hand luggage at least as big as mine and some even had two hand luggage bags (not laptop bag, but two full size bags). I was singled out and there was a large amount of inconsistency applied. If everyone had hand luggage checked and weighed and rules for these applied strictly, I would pay the fee without complaint.
To make the matter worse, after receiving my (very expensive, MontBlanc) hand luggage bag back when arriving in Cape Town, the handle was broken.
Certainly not the most South African way to travel.
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