Job Discussion Forums

[Dragonlady]

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[Guy Courchesne]

I'd heard of these temporary embargoes before...anyone know why they happen?

[MO39]

What did you do with the bag you decided to leave behind?

I'll be leaving for Mexico in about a month, and I don't want to have this happen to me. I guess I'll weigh my bags on my very inaccurate bathroom scale and hope for the best. A couple of years ago, I was flying within Mexico and had to pay a huge extra charge because one of my suitcases was way over the weight limit, but I wasn't told to leave one of them behind in the airport.

[Sgt Killjoy]

These temporary embargoes are by flights only and they have nothing to do with Mexican customs. Instead they have eerything to do with Continental not having enough space on a full plane for excess baggage from everyone. If you fly first class, they will not impose an embargo.

They use the term temporary embargo to make you think it is something out of their control, but it isn't, they are the ones issuing the temporary embargo.

[MO39]

Thanks for the inside dope, Sgt. Killjoy! What you say makes a lot of sense. After all, why would Mexican Customs care if you're bringing in a lot of used clothing and toiletry items in your luggage? I wonder if this type of "temporary embargo" is common only to Continental, or are all airlines guilty of this practice?

[spiral78]

All.
Especially around big holiday times. It happens in mid-late Dec/Jan too.

[MELEE]

I once flew from Chicago to Mexico City on Dec. 28, on Contential!. It was snowing in Chicago and the airport was about to be closed down for a storm--my flight was one of the last to take off. When we landed in Mexico City, they informed us that in order to take off in the storm, they had left ALL the luggage behind in Chicago.

[lozwich]

This could be happening because of the amount of fuel on the plane. The more fuel a plane carries, the harder takeoff can be. So why not carry less fuel? Well, in bad weather especially, an aircraft wants as much fuel as it can carry in case it has to divert.

Yes, I am an EFL teacher with a handy indepth knowledge of the aviation industry. Weird.

[Gary Denness]

I have heard that weight is more of a factor for planes taking off from Mexico City than most other places, because of the altitude - but that wouldn't explain embargos coming into Mexico...

[lozwich]

You're right, but if there was a big snowstorm around Chicago, they would have needed more fuel to fly around it, and also (casting my mind waaay back, so prepared to be wrong here) I think in bad weather the weight of the plane and the condition of the runway could affect the take off. This means that a plane full of fuel, people and luggage would need a longer runway length to get airborne, which would not have been safe in the snow.

[MO39]

This is all very interesting and also reassuring to me. Since I'll be leaving for Mexico at the end of September, I won't be flying during the high season or into a snowstorm, though a hurricane might still be a possibility!

On another note, the latest reports on the Weather Channel and CNN say that Mexico City may feel the effects of Hurricane Dean sometime after it makes a second landfall in a day or so, somewhere between Tampico and Vera Cruz!

[Guy Courchesne]

Yeah, they say Dean is the size of Texas...big storm. I imagine we'll get some extra wind and rain here, but nothing the likes of a real hurricane. We'll see...

[leslie]

Bye

[leslie]

Bye

[Dragonlady]

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