Air China Charging for sporting gear
 

We were competing in our World titles in China recently and never had a problem with our extra baggage until we went back till we left the venue and flew back to Beijing, upon spending two days in Beijing we went back to the Airport to re-check our bags and fly back to Australia only to be told by the same Airline we flew there with that we now had to pay a whopping $2000 for our extra 2 bags weighing all up 40kg. Under their own guidelines they allow waterski gear snow gear shotput and a few more sports to travel with their gear for free upto 23kg how ever because we were sailors and did not carry massive bags with us they decided that our gear was just extra baggage and we had to pay for it. To top the lot when I was arguing my point with the duty manager at the Air China desk he proceeded to tell me that I had to pay and then started to laugh about the whole situation. Talk about discrimination, you go to represent your country and dont have a problem with your bags for an internal flight and because we didnt fly directly out of china they extort AUD $2000 from us....
I took it up directly with Air China Australia when we got back only to be told there is no way they are refunding my money...
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can handle this situation?? Legally

I am confused and want to clarify. Your bags were all 40kg or more but the policy allows the weight to be up to 23kg?

No our 3 bags that were not sporting gear were 22kg our two sporting gear bags were 20kg each 3kg under weight on the allowance.

Well.....either way......2k bucks usd (I'm assuming) is ridiculous. Absolutely crazy. The Chinese are not known for compassion or bending rules. I'm thinking you may have to chalk this one up to a life experience. Hopefully someone else will have something useful to add.

I think it was 2,000 AUD rather than $2,000 USD. That is still an eye watering $1,750 (ish)!!