at the IAH PC in E: Rant on - sorry for the length:

Flying BWI - MEX in Y today with 3 bags to check (need the bags for bringing my fiancee and son home from Mexico). As Elite I know that I get two bags at 70lbs ea. My three bags altogether weighed 79 lbs and in fact one was completely empty - another had empty bags in it. I was hoping as a Gold Elite they would let the empty bag slide (as others Elites have experienced) but was expecting to pay a fee for a third bag. I thought the fee would be the same as the second bag fee.

At checkin the counter I show my Gold Elite card and ask if they can accommodate an elite with an empty bag. Nope, and, oh, btw, the fee is $100. Holy S, thats alot - maybe a supv. can do something? Supv shows up and after much back and forth including "well, lets treat him as Skyteam Elite for a Day" the Supv concludes: "Nope, $100 it is, and no accommodations even for elites, especially in these times." So, I agree to pay because there seems to be no option other than leaving the bag. Supv goes back to more important things and Original agent begins to process my credit card.

Only now she says "Cant do it", she says, "you are only allowed one bag at 50lbs." "No," I say, "clearly as an Elite I get two bags at 70lbs each and if I get upgraded (first on the list per PDA.com) I will get three - where are you coming up with only one bag?" She says the computer wont let her do it.

Several other agents try but end up with the same result. They are adamant that I only get one bag. I call the Elite Desk thinking maybe they can help. Elite Desk says they cannot do anything, it is up to the agents at the airport. ED does say, almost simultaneously as the counter agents, that there is an embargo.

Who makes the embargo? I ask. The counter agents say its the government.
I dont believe that - How can that be? If there is a govt embargo how come I get 3 @ 70 in F (pd or upgraded) but but in Y I get only one at 50? And if I get upgraded, likely, then I get three? This must be CO policy - not a govt policy. Which means someone at CO can make a decision. But no budging on counter staff. They agree I would get 3 if upgraded, but since the UG is not confirmed I only get one. OP Desk says its a CO policy, not govt, but says there is nothing more she can do, its up to the airport staff.

Eventually everyone agrees I get two bags at 70 but because of the embargo I cannot check a third.

OP Desk says BWI has lockers and suggests that since I will be returning on Sat maybe I can put the extra bag in a locker and pick it up in two days. We hang up. I ask the counter agents about this and they say no lockers since 9/11. I ask if they will send it back home for me. No. They did agree to hold it for me at baggage claim office until my return and so finally I complete check-in and go to the gate.

During all of this the counter staff were helpful and mostly patient as they worked with me ( I have to admit I got impatient when I was certain they were giving me wrong information) and I really appreciate that the counter staff agreed to hold my bag for two days instead of having to abandon an expensive bag.

Of course, I am in the PC at E because I got the UG and now should have my three bags at 210 lbs but only have two at 58lbs.

My question is this: how am I supposed to know there is a baggage embargo?

It was not in my ticket details, it was not emailed to me in TripNotes, it was not highlighted at time of purchase, there is no advance notice at online checkin.

Also, the embargo is 100% a CO policy - but it is massively unfair to have "secret" policies. Had I know I would not have brought this bag, it is very stress inducing to think I was going to have to abandon an expensive piece of luggage, plus I have to buy a new bag in Mexico now since I cant bring this one. CO.com baggage policy page does mention baggage embargoes, but it doesnt say about when they are or even what they are. It also does not say what the policy is during embargo periods.

More frustrating is that I am in free F will be in paid F on my return and I thought there might be a little consideration given for that fact.

How should I have proceeded with this before the trip to prevent this?

thanks

There is a link on the baggage information page about the Excess Baggage Embargo

http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...e/embargo.aspx

Mexico City, Mexico (MEX)
April 3, 2009 – April 15, 2009
November 15, 2008 - January 15, 2009
June 4, 2008 - August 31, 2008

That is the technical question to your answer. That is via: http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...e/embargo.aspx
Also, next time you're traveling with extra bags, it might be wise to check the page about excess baggage. In addition to having the cost beforehand, you might have noticed the Embargo information at the top of that page.
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...ge/excess.aspx

I'm trying to figure out how big your bags were....could you not consolidate them more and arrive at 2 bags? Could you have just taken tape (or as I saw in Singapore, shrinkwrap) and taped 2 of the lighter/smaller bags together?

But you were right in the end that the Embargo is CO's rules, though it is a little more logical than you probably realize. Most of the flights listed are on midsized jets with somewhat limited cargo holds. Add this to the fact that many fliers in latin america seemingly bring the whole house while flying, and you'll see why CO just can't accept any more bags. As an additional related note--I think that every person I've seen checking in for a latin america flight is checking a bag or 2, compared to a much smaller portion of domestic flyers (where 50% of people checking no bags opens up room for the rest to have 2 or 3 bags). In the end, I'd much rather CO takes exactly 2 bags from everyone instead of trying to take a 3rd from some people and then having to decide what gets left behind due to space.

Edit to add: Your last question is how could you have prevented it....
Assuming the bags were small enough, and if I were in your situation, I probably would have brought a roll of saran wrap, wrapped it in front of them, and then tucked in the ends somewhere so it didn't just unroll. Then, either toss it or throw it in the other bag.

thanks for directing me to that page on excess baggage - I missed the link to excess baggage and embargoes when I was looking at the baggage page and checked baggage rules.

The suitcases were consolidated, two of them had other empty bags inside; the three were all too big for anything but checking.

It would be helpful if CO put a note about embargoes when purchasing tickets during embargoes or in the trip notes emails they send out - I never would have known about bag limits and that I couldnt even pay to have a third bag.

I understand I also think they could have helped an elite out, especially since the one bag was empty and all together the three bags weighed just over the limit for one bag.

well, now I know. Thanks again.

My guesses for the dates....

April 3, 2009 - April 15, 2009 --> Corresponds to Easter, a major holiday in Mexico. Lots of travel and lots of people bringing gifts to their family.

November 15, 2008 - January 15, 2009 --> Corresponds to the time period of several Mexican holidays that fall in a row: Dia de la Revolucion (Nov 17), Virgen de Guadalupe (Dec 12), Christmas, New Year, and Epiphany (Jan 6).

June 4, 2008 - August 31, 2008 --> No holidays, but it is the summer and it may be a weight and balance thing given the high altitude at MEX.

No problem, it is at the top of the baggage page, but as you pointed out, it is not anywhere in the ticket sales area, and it could be a little larger on the baggage page. I don't think it would cost them much business to state "During specific times of the year, extra baggage (beyond 2) is not permitted to some destinations. Please see WEBSITE-ADDRESS to read more." And, they could even tailor it so that appears at the top of the page on search results for those specific cities...then anyone searching a flight to Cali would see it and note that it is year round, while someone flying to MEX would be able to see if the flights fall in the time frames specified.

As an elite, it is too bad they couldn't find a way to make it work otherwise--or at least direct you to some sort of a solution...something like giving you a handful of blank bag tags and you could use them to stick the cases together or such, since they were empty.

I too didnt know CO has Embargos on # of Bags.

However even w/o that I would have assumed as a Plat in Coach I would have been limited to 2 @ 70lbs. I wouldnt have expected a 3rd to be put on for free , even though someone booked in FC/BF gets a 3rd bag for free (or was UPed). I would have thought that I could purchase some cheap bag for a 1 time use in Mex for less then what CO would have assessed me, and thats what I would have done, flown with 2 and purchase one more in Mex.

alot better then pleading, or begging, or using up a favor.

I just annoyed that I didnt know I couldnt even pay for a third bag. I was hoping they would let it go without paying because it was empty and for being elite but I was prepared to pay what I thought would be the normal extra bag fee. Its not very clear that a third bag as an elite doesnt count as an extra bag in the same way as a second bag in economy.

I was thinking to just get a cheap bag in Mexico but I really wasnt prepared to just throw away an expensive bag.

But more notice when buying tickets during embargo periods would be nice.

Did you use OLCI? OLCI now asks how many pieces of checked bags you have and will let you know how much to pay (if any). I assume it will let you know you can't do 3 pieces if you punch in "3".

Another reason to do OLCI.

Or CO can have a message in Red, much like they do when you will have to overnight before making your connection, or when your booking an open-jaw and they have the message in Red so that you realize that your flying into ABC and returning out of XYZ.

A simple message can state in Red, please be aware the trip you are planning is during a time we have a Special Embargo on Excess bags and when we restrict the # of bags a person can check, click here to view the T&Cs, as not everyone does OLCI.

This is 1000% better as its very well possible if someone reads it they wont want to fly, if they 1st learn about it during OLCI its too late, unless they are willing to ante up all the change fees and differences in fares.

Well, I say CO should print the warning in red the whole animal restrictions whenever one book a ticket, too. While you can throw away a bag, you can't just throw away a dog.

My buddy was with his family and almost got nicked for excess baggage in a similar situation headed to the Dominican Republic a few weeks back. He managed to not pay extra as a platinum but I'm not exactly sure what the details were there.

I like the idea of the warning during booking, but that would be a much more complicated additional query to run than the forced overnight display, which actually doesn't require any extra transactions on the query side, just on the data presentation side, so it is actually a pretty "cheap" bit to display.

And not everyone books at co.com, so should CO seek out folks who book through 3rd party channels to make sure they know?

should be no problem, Ive seen the notes on numerous websites that my connection is the next day and that my res as it stands has me flying into 1 airport and out of another. so the warning about a Bag embargo or # of bags should also be able to be displayed.

If a person uses a real live TA (whats that you ask) they too should see some type of message pop up on their screen, just as other messages do.If not at least the person has to go after, if that helps any.

Airport change and overnight warnings are things that are rendered by the display engine, not the booking engine. It would be similarly easy to display a note for all UA/AA fares that all checked bags require payment or on all US fares that it costs $7 for a $0.50 beer, but for the system to also query against the various baggage embargo schedules and produce that information via the GDS would be a very expensive query in terms of computer processing time. And I'm not even sure that the GDSes support storing that type of information in their data structures.

I agree that it would be nice to see (though I haven't checked bags in who knows how long), but I wouldn't expect any travel booking vehicle to display the information any time soon. A good TA might know to check on some routes but that would be based on personal knowledge, not a screen pop.

I also had no idea there was such a policy in place. CO needs to do a much better job of getting the word out to travelers to prevent some counter angst.

As an elite, is my allowance nicked down to 50 lbs. from 70 on a single piece?