Am I in the wrong here?

[Nextweektoo]

I booked a long haul flight from England with some internal flights for our destination with a travel agent. Ahead of the flight, I checked our baggage allowance with the airline and it said we had 30kgs each. 3 of our bags were about 25-7. Onto the second journey, the next airline on check-in stated that we were only allowed 23kgs each but if on a onward flight we could have allowance of the 1st flight but it turns out this only applies if you dont leave the airport. We were charged us an extra $60 for our 3 bags over 23 kgs for our journey and it's likely to be the same situation when we travel for our other internal flight. Would I be in the wrong to ask travel agent to reimburse the extra luggage fees we were charged?? Travel agent is saying it's not their fault!

I’d be very annoyed too.
I plan all our flights ourselves so am already aware of how much baggage weight varies between airlines, but I really think they should have pointed the rules out to you beforehand (if only so you could agree to pay for more
allowance). You’ve paid them to handle the headache of planning multiple intl/domestic flights and they are the ones who had to add the luggage details on. While I don’t know if they can be made to pay the costs, it’s definitely one of the (small) things that highlight poor service from what’s meant to be a smooth, hassle-free experience.

Where were you flying to?.

I think it unlikely you will get any money back from the travel agent. I would contact the second airline particularly if they are part of an alliance of airlines eg One World.

I'd have a look at the travel agent's ts and cs, but I would wonder what the point of them is at all if they don't check this kind of thing.

Is it because you broke the journey up? Like a couple of days in one place and then on to the next?

Did you look at the separate flight bookings? I don’t think you will get anything from the travel agent.

Thank you for your replies. I will have a look for their t&c. I just feel like this is not a common sense approach AND I used them for their expertise to avoid exactly this type of situation.
We are travelling in Australia and the two airlines don't seem to part of the same alliance 😔

I knew it would be Australia. The internal ones are a lot less than the international carriers. I do think the agent should have told you but when we were there last year and in the same position I did check the allowance myself. We left a suitcase with a relative and didn’t get charged.

I have heavy gifts I can't get rid of until final destination. They are also so strict on the hand luggage, so it will be a struggle to repack. Nevermind.

The travel agent should have pointed it out but they would not have been able to get you extra weight for free.
Your luggage allowance should have been on your ticket/ booking confirmation for the internal flights. Did you check it does say 23kg? It's not unknown for check in staff to make a mistake. If it does say 23kg then you have no chance of getting a refund from the travel agent as they have provided you with the correct information on the ticket.
Your cases were not that much overweight. Could you possibly transfer some of the contents to your hand luggage? If not make sure you buy the excess luggage allowance in advance as it is often significantly cheaper than at the airport.

Aah - you are taking gifts. Sorry OP I was wondering what on earth you had packed that was taking up so much luggage allowance, but that makes sense now. Even if you don’t get a refund and the travel agent says it’s all in the Ts&Cs, I would certainly raise with them how unhappy /annoyed you are about this.

@Nextweektoo This is very common. Lots of internal flights are luggage limited unless you go directly onto them. It’s usually down to you to check. We always do as DH lugs camera gear around. So it matters what hand luggage is permitted and what weight on the smaller aircraft. We’ve been on flights when it’s 15kg. 23 kg is often standard allowance. It’s probably easier to send your gifts by post. Your agent isn’t responsible for checking your baggage allowance or your gift weights.

We are in Thailand at the moment and flew business class so a generous allowance for hand baggage (we never check bags) but we also have 4 internal flights booked with a budget airline so our hand luggage has to comply with their restrictions. The final internal flight is to connect with our return flight home so not even the opportunity to buy lots of stuff on the last day. We didn’t use a travel agent though.

We have previously booked “through” flights to the US but as the first leg was a short, budget flight we still needed to comply with their cabin restrictions each way.

I guess a lot of people get caught out by this.

Lesson learnt I guess, I just thought using a travel would take away some of that admin for a multi city journey 😏. I've put in a request to be reimbursed and will see if they agree!