Ok, maybe in this case, the correct term is “overweight,” but either way you look at it, you’ll have to leave those heavy bags at home from now on if you fly Continental.

Recently, most US airlines standardized their baggage rules to allow bags up to 50 lbs for free, bags 51 to 70 lbs for a fee, and bags 70 to 100 lbs for a bigger fee. Now, Continental has stopped allowing any bags over 70 lbs.

Really, if you can’t fit everything you need in a couple of 70 pound bags, there’s something wrong. Continental’s website does note, however, that you still check electric wheelchairs and other assistive devices free of charge.

Here are the weight restrictions for a few select airlines on domestic routes:

American – up to 50 lbs free, $25 per bag from 51 to 70 lbs, $50 per bag from 71 to 100 lbs
Continental – up to 50 lbs free, $25 per bag from 51 to 70 lbs
JetBlue – up to 50 lbs free, $20 per bag from 51 to 70 lbs, $50 per bag from 71 to 100 lbs
Northwest – up to 50 lbs free, $25 per bag from 51 to 70 lbs, $50 per bag from 71 to 100 lbs
Southwest – up to 50 lbs free, $25 per bag from 51 to 70 lbs, $50 per bag from 71 to 100 lbs
United – up to 50 lbs free, $50 per bag from 51 to 100 lbs
US Airways – up to 50 lbs free, $50 per bag from 51 to 70 lbs, $80 per bag from 71 to 100 lbs

I’m not quite sure why Delta put this press release out when it did, but they did, so here’s the latest . . .

Delta reannounced today this transcontinental service that we already knew was coming. This new product supposedly takes the best of Song and brings it onto Delta. Here are the details of this new service.

• First class on every flight (unlike Song’s coach-only service)
• Personal screens with live television, pay per view movies, games, MP3s, surveys, and flight path maps in every seat (same system used by Song)
• “Signature cocktails” including the Mile High Mojito and Mango Kiss (from Song)
• Meals in first class and buy-on-board in coach will soon follow (hopefully these will be like the excellent options offered on Song previously)

That’s all pretty straightforward, right? The confusing part involves how these are being rolled out. The ultimate goal to be reached sometime in 2008 is to have this service available on all flights over 1,750 miles or 4 hours. Of course, it’s impossible to just roll it out all at once, so there’s a phased in rollout.

First up is the 48 757s from the old Song fleet. Since those already have the tvs, all they have to do is re-cover the seats and throw in some First class as well. They’ll have generous 33″ pitch in coach, so the legroom is good. Starting this month, there will be 18 conversions per month, so you can expect to see these enter the fleet quickly.

JFK will get these planes first.

By the end of November, all JFK flights to the West Coast will get this service. I’m guessing from this map that I found on Delta’s website that this somehow includes the not-so-west coast cities of Tampa and Orlando as well as Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City.

Then it seems like Atlanta will be getting it next for its west coast flights.

As you can see on this mini-map, the west coast has a very broad definition. There are the real west coast cities of Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Ontario, Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Diego along with quasi-west coast cities of Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake, and Denver.

There are also a handful of cities in the east that don’t make much sense at first glance, including a bunch of Florida cities like Pensacola along with Baltimore, Philly, and New York. I’m sure these are included because the aircraft will be routed to those cities for utilization purposes. It’s just an added bonus for people in those cities.

The last map they offer is of Salt Lake City.

I think it’s funny they label this transcon service on the map considering that no flight from Salt Lake can technically be transcontinental, but they have Boston, Newark, and Washington/National on here as well as Portland, Seattle, and Sacramento. Strange.

Outside of these hubs, you can expect to see the long haul flying from Florida cities to the West and I would assume Cincinnati at some point. Those must be further down the line, maybe closer to 2008.

The moral here is that you should just be patient. You’ll be able to find out which flights have the new service on Delta’s website or on any site that uses OAG schedules. I know that we’ll be showing you which flights have it at PriceGrabber in the near future.

If you’d like to learn more, you can go to Delta’s media page and download the enormous 28MB video that last a little under five minutes that shows you all about the new onboard entertainment.

It’s entirely possible, nay probable, that Alitalia is the worst airline ever.

I’m not talking about being bad from a passenger perspective . . . there are probably far worse in the third world somewhere. But from a business perspective, Alitalia has to take the cake.

What prompted this outcry? Well, late last week, Alitalia canceled nearly 200 flights due to a strike by four of its unions. This is probably the 10,000th strike this year for these guys. What makes that even more remarkable is that lacking government support, this airline should have shut down many times over by now.

In the US, airline employees made some pretty hefty sacrifices for their companies. Strikes only became a threat after the second or third pay cut, and even then they never happened (though Northwest is still on the brink). Yet in Italy, the employees of Alitalia have this crazy sense of entitlement that just makes you shake your head.

So where does this come from? Well, it comes from the top. The Italian PM, Silvio Berlusconi was quoted earlier this year as saying that national pride should play a role in deciding the future of Alitalia. Forget about the fact that this airline is insolvent. If the PM thinks that it should exist, it will continue to exist despite market forces. So, with that crazy mandate to continue, the unions will keep striking, and the airline will continue to be in the running for the worst airline ever.

Those of you who read my posts on the PriceGrabber Discussion forums will remember that during the summer schedule ramp-up, it seemed like every Monday Delta would announce a slew of new destinations and routes.

Well, it’s been pretty quiet since the summer schedules were firmed up, but there appears to be hope on the horizon. Today is considered an honorary Monday since yesterday was a US holiday. Since yesterday was also the unofficial end of the summer season, it’s fitting that Delta came out with some new winter routes today.

On Dec 1, Delta continues it’s Mexico ramp-up with three times weekly flights between Mexico City and both Orlando and Salt Lake. In addition, on Dec 13, Delta starts twice weekly flights between Atlanta and Pointe a Pitre, the capital of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. All flights are on 737-800 aircraft.

I can’t wait to see what’s next for them.

This afternoon a judge ruled that, well, he’s not ready to rule yet.

So he told the Northwest flight attendants they won’t be able to strike tonight at 10p Eastern as they originally planned. I haven’t seen a new date when a ruling is to be expected but it could be coming anyday I suppose.

You won’t hear much from me again until Monday. My girlfriend and I headed out today to visit her parents, but sadly our bag full of toiletries didn’t make it with us. Stay tuned for the rest of the story next week along with a full trip report.