On Sun, 8 Jan 2006 14:27:33 -0500, Bob and Peggy Cooper 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>
>> 50 lbs per bag on American and Continental.  Above 50 costs.

Actually, Continental may be the only domestic airline that
still have the 2 70 lb check bag limit for coach, but only for
its OnePass Elite members.

Unlike previous years since 1999 when I always flew at least
75K paid miles on CO to get my Platinum status, last year was
such an exception that I had flown only ONCE before November,
and chalked up 3K miles for the one trip to LAX.

So, I had to scramble to get up to 25K miles for the year, 
just to qualify for SILVER Elite, and the main reason for
getting status is the checked luggage allowance!  Free
upgrades for Sliver is almost nonexistent -- even my Platinum
status doesn't get me many First Class upgrade anymore because
CO had reduced their First Class cabin size from 20-24 seats
to many 6-seater planes, and I hadn't seen any of those 
until this year!

To scramble for the needed FF miles to get the 70lb luggage
allowance for 2006, Sue and I flew to Honolulu for a stay of
only THREE nights;  LAS (that's Las VEGAS) for two nights in
Nov, followed by flying there for ONE night in December.  :-)  

Sue made the Silver Elite by the skin of her teech -- 25,200
miles.

So, our Platinum status, which we have enjoyed greatly for all
the free First Class upgrades since 1999, will terminate on
Feb 28, 2006 (while the qualifying period is from 1/1 to 12/31).

We'll be going to Cozumel Feb 21-28 just for that last CO
First Class fling -- too do a few dives and catch the first
two days of the Mardi Gras (Carnivale) in Coz, 2/26 - 3/4 
this year.


>
>Mexican Airlines will also ding you if you have to transfer to 
>their planes in Cancun or elsewhere.
>Coop.

Actually the transfer of checked luggage in FOREIGN travel has
its own set of rules.  I learned that in my 2002 trip to 
Cairns, then to Sydney.   If my checked luggage on Continental
were transferred to Qantas at Cairns, the allowance would 
have been the 70 lb limit.   But since I had to stay in Cairns
to do the liveaboard, my "domestic" flight on Qantas limited
my bags to 20 kgs (45 lbs).  As a result, I left two pieces
of 70 lb bags at the Cairns Hilton when we took our pilgrimmage
to Strikes Reef, leaving all our dive gears in Cairns.

The same thing was true of Singapore airlines.  We left two 
70 lb bags at the Singapore Conrad while we flew to DPS
(Bali) with Bjorn and others.

The theory there (it makes sense) is that if the ORIGINATING
airline has X lbs checked baggage limit and is transferred
(without getting back to the hands of the flyer until the
FINAL destination), the connecting airline usually honor 
whatever the originating airline allows.

-- Bob.