At the Check-in desk in Constantine, I put my luggage on the belt. It wasn’t very full. The Air Algerie agent said that my luggage was too heavy, and so I had to pay money. I asked how heavy it was, and he said 20 kg. I doubt just clothes would be that heavy. So I asked how much money I had to pay. He said 12000 Dinars, which is about $150 dollars (i.e., about 150 Euros). I started objecting, saying I don’t have that much Dinars, mostly because one can’t exchange dollars or Euros for Dinars. No one would get on a flight to Paris with 150 Euros worth of Dinars. Worthless. Also, I told him the flight itself didn’t cost as much as $150, so this charge was way too high. But, the Check-in person insisted that they would no take my luggage weighing that much (20 kg). So I asked what weight it must be. He hesitated, looked upward for a few seconds, and said 10 kg. So I stepped a few feet away and transferred clothes from my luggage to my backpack, leaving my luggage feeling 1/2 the original weight - - - hopefully now only 10 kg. I went up to the Check-in desk again. The Check-in guy put my bag on the scale, and said, “You still must pay 12000 Dinars.”. I asked why, and he said my ticket did not include any luggage at all. I objected immediately, saying that I had a round-trip ticket and that Air Algerie carried my luggage from Paris to here in Constantine. Therefore my ticket must actually have included luggage going both ways, round trip. But he continued to say that, no, my ticket didn’t include luggage, and that I must pay 12000 Dinars. At that point another Air Algerie agent walked up behind me, asking what was going on. When I told him, he said, “Come with me.” He took me 30 feet away, behind a pillar. He asked how much money I had. I said $40 US dollars and 20 Euros. He looked one way and then the other way. He said, “Give me the $40 and I’ll see what I can do.” A couple minutes later he said it was all fine, and they would take my luggage. So I went back to the Check-in counter, and they took my luggage, saying, “Don’t worry, it’s all fine. Everything is fine.”
