I recently flew Air Namibia economy class from Joburg to Windhoek and had to pay a weapon handling fee of Nam$ 510,- per case each way (approx USD 40,- per case each way). I had 4 cases and paid USD 320,- in total plus / minus. SAA and other airlines flying to Namibia do not levy these fees.

I wrote Air Namibia to express my annoyance at this extra fee. A full copy of the mail train is pasted below (if you want to read it - it does not make the best reading).

I would like to ask all AR members / readers
to copy the following text - or write your own - and send it to the 4 emails listed below and maybe we can get Air Namibia to actually look at this excess fee and perhaps even think about dropping it !

COPY PASTE EMAIL ADDRESSES AND TEXT -

bernadette.Coetzee@airnamibia.aero, liezl.smith@airnamibia.aero, Customer.Care@airnamibia.aero, michell.fourie@airnamibia.aero

Please note that as an international hunter who frequently travels with gun / rifle cases, I herewith express my disagreement at Air Namibia charging extra baggage handling fees of Nam$ 510,- per gun case for flights to / from Namibia.

SAA and other airlines do not charge such fees. I would ask you to rethink your policy with a view to waiving these fees for hunters and sports persons travelling to / from Namibia.


________________________________

THE EMAIL CHAIN STARTS HERE ...


From: Charles Weller
Sent: 21 June 2014 11:05 AM
To: liezl.smith@airnamibia.aero; *All at Customer Care
Subject: Baggage handling fees Rands 510,- per gun case


I am writing to complain at Air Namibia charging me and my wife Rands 2.040,- today when we checked in for flight SW 724 for Windhoek - this was for 4 sporting rifle cases!

This is Rands 4.080,- extra charges for the round trip !!

SAA does not charge this fee. Maybe we need to switch in future to SAA and stop flying Air Namibia.

Regards
Charles Weller

_______________________________

From: Bernadette Coetzee <Bernadette.Coetzee@airnamibia.aero>
To: Charles Weller, "liezl.smith@airnamibia.aero" <liezl.smith@airnamibia.aero>, *All at Customer Care <Customer.Care@airnamibia.aero>,
Date: 08/07/2014 11:58
Subject: RE: Baggage handling fees Rands 510,- per gun case -Passenger Weller


__________________________________

From: Bernadette Coetzee <Bernadette.Coetzee@airnamibia.aero>
To: Charles Weller/db/dbcom@DBEMEA,
Cc: *All at Customer Care <Customer.Care@airnamibia.aero>, Liesl Smith <Liesl.Smith@airnamibia.aero>
Date: 08/07/2014 15:36
Subject: RE: Baggage handling fees Rands 510,- per gun case -Passenger Weller



Dear Passenger Weller ,

We kindly would like to advice that we will revert by Friday on the excess baggage charges complaint send on 21 June’ 14.

Wishing you and your family a pleasant afternoon & evening .

__________________________________

Dear Passenger Weller,

Allow me to thank you for your effort to inform us about your experience whilst being in our care. We wish to express our sincere regret and
disappointment for the perceived services as explained in your e-mail. Please be assured that this is definitely not indicative of our General
Standard of Care and Reliability.

To enable us to finalize your complaint amicably and completely we need you to please provide us with
· Copy of ticket, baggage tag and passport boarding pass
· As well as proof of payment for the baggage handling

Requested documents can either be faxed, hand delivered or e-mailed to us – we prefer email as record is kept and can thus easily be contained
within our investigations and processes against your claim / enquiry. Also be informed that when you communicate with us electronically we require
that you email us to our pool email address Customer.Care@airnamibia.aero so that your enquiry does not go unattended when I am not at my desk
or called away unexpectedly. For information it should be pointed out that reports have now been requested & investigations are underway.

This procedure ranges between 5-6 weeks depending on the level of investigations and or assessments required before providing you with the outcome.
We’ll revert back to you on completion thereof. Please bear with us till then and we thank you for your patience and understanding.

In closing we wish to kindly inform you that unfortunately, claims cannot remain open indefinitely. If no additional supportive documents are received
as requested at any time within the period of 14 days your claim will be closed without further written notice. Thank you in advance
for your cooperation in attending to your enquiry.

Once again on behalf of Air Namibia Management and our staff, I would like to offer you our unreserved apologies as National Carrier.

Assuring you of the best possible attention at all times.

Air Namibia

______________________________

From: Charles Weller
Sent: 08 July 2014 2:13 PM
To: Bernadette Coetzee
Cc: *All at Customer Care; liezl.smith@airnamibia.aero
Subject: RE: Baggage handling fees Rands 510,- per gun case -Passenger Weller


This begs the question of whether you actually read my mail before sending the automated reply message.

Thanks nevertheless for taking the time to reply.

Kind regards
__________________

Dear Passenger Weller

Thank you for your interest in our business and the question you have posed to us – we appreciate the opportunity you grant us through this engagement.

Further note that all complaints received are read in detail and a certain criteria is followed to obtain passenger information in order to meet our Audit requirements and ensure that we cover the correct grounds when sourcing for this information from our passengers.

It is with regret that your understanding is that our response is/was automatic - one of my team members responded to you.

Furthermore because you are based in Nigeria I am redirecting your enquiry to our Southern African Sales office where Michell Fourie will respond to you on this matter regarding our Baggage Policy as a whole and specifically on the Sporting Riffle Cases.

Your patronage is valuable and I understand and respect the business comparisons in terms of costs and the decision you will make in the end.
We trust that Air Namibia will have the privilege to welcome you and your family on board your future flights to our part of the world.

Sincerely

liesl

Air Namibia

________________________

AND FINALLY .....

Dear Passenger Weller
Further to the email from Ms Smith below, just to confirm as per our airport manager in Johannesburg, a reply was sent yesterday by the operations team with more explanation on the baggage policy.
“As per the baggage policy, the handling fee for a rifle case is R510 per case. The passenger had 4 rifle cases which in turn makes the amount that he paid correct. I have attached the baggage policy to state the amounts.

Many thanks

Marcelle Ellis”

Baggage policy was attached to the original email.


Kind regards,
Miss Michéll Fourie
Country Manager Zambia and Sales & Marketing Manager South Africa
__________________________

CLEARLY THEY JUST DO NOT GET IT !!!!!!!!!!!!

PLEASE COPY AND PASTE AND SEND THE TOP TEXT TO AIR NAMIBIA AND MAYBE JUST MAYBE THEY WILL GET IT!

the exchange rate must have vastly improved since i left there 16 June. it was approx 10+ rand/Nam dollar per US dollar, making your expense probably worse than you thought!! either way, it is highway robbery.

Air Namibia is a national airline. That means government and government appointed personnel.

Your replies sound similar the ones I received from them in 2013 when they cancelled some of their flights due to equipment issues. The cancellations required us to re-schedule Lufthansa flights, hotels and various other chargeable fees. We asked AN to upgrade us as our additional fees were the result of their schedule changes. After escalating our request we received nothing but platitudes and excuses from AN. I am in no hurry to book with them again.

BTW, our flights took place just prior to the institution of the additional firearms fees of which you became victim. And I agree completely that they make no sense whatsoever. But it's Africa.

New Air Namibia "surcharges" for transport of gun cases have been in effect since early in 2013. I was able to avoid charges in August of 2013 because I had paid for my tickets in October of 2012 and because I got a letter from AN exempting me from those charges as I was "grandfathered".Charges are about $40-$50 from Joberg and $100 from Frankfurt EACH WAY!! After 6 trips to Namibia via Frankfurt I have abandoned that route. Between the BS German gun import permit required when even TRANSITING Frk., AND the Air Namibia surcharges I have "voted with my feet"!!ADIOS AN and FRK.!!

Hereafter it will be Delta to Joberg and SAA on to Windhoek for me. Hopefully AN will observe an impact on ticket sales,wake up and cancel
these surcharges...l