Why Continental can blow me... Options

[Hartmann]

I have been switching back and forth between AA and Continental (CO) for work so that I can gain status on both of them (I have status on AA but I want Executive Platinum), so I decided to take CO for a vacation to Boston. My girlfriend and I were flying out of IAH at 7:40am so we arrived at 6am and got in line, which was out the door because of Spring Break.

We waited in line for about 30 minutes till a lady a came up to me, asked if I had checked-in online (I had) and asked if I had my confirmation number (I didn't have a printer so I said "No"). She told me to go to the Continental.com bag drop, we did.

We get over there and wait 45 minutes because they were having trouble with some people's bags and finally got to the kiosk, where it asked me for my confirmation number. I called over a CO employee and told her that I didn't have the number and in a rude tone she tells me that's all we can use in that line. I explain to her how we were sent over from the other line even though I didn't have a confirmation number. She goes on to tell me to get my confirmation # or go to the other line. I call a friend who logs into my e-mail account, gets my confirmation # and helps me out, or at least I thought. After the bickering and waiting and finally getting the # into the machine, the window for us to use the kiosk to check bags had expired (30 minutes before flight). The CO employee that had been rude has the gall to laugh at us... I almost lost it but didn't want to get arrested.

She directs us to the line we had come from even though there were people behind the counter who could have helped us and got us on our way.

We head back to the other line and wait, me knowing at this point it would be a miracle for us to make our flight. Then after waiting 10 minutes, the employee who was rude, comes over, opens our line and directs about 10 people, including us back to where we just came from to check our bags.... None of the people had their confirmation numbers but the people behind the counters helped them. They finally helped us but we had missed our flight. CO put us on standby for the next flight (which was oversold) and then finally confirmed us for the flight after that. Basically we sat in an airport for 10 hours.

I went to customer service and complained, a lot. They gave me a $5 voucher (each) for a drink or set of headphones on the flight... unbelievable.

Then to top it all off, during this process they had deleted our reservation, rebooked it, but did it incorrectly, putting my girlfriend and I on separate flights. They fixed that finally but didn't have us sitting together. At least the folks at BOS were nicer and got us seats together.

Just a bad experience.

[impala454]

I personally think eating a meal on a plane is over-rated (unless of course you have a 15 hr flight or something). you won't find a whole lot of flights within the US that are longer than about 7-8 hours. and I gotta say I have never eaten something on a plane that I thought was even remotely appetizing. if I have a long flight, I'll usually just grab something in the airport or when I get home.

And yeah SW doesn't fly into boston, but everything over there is so close together it doesn't really matter. from where i live in houston it'd take longer to get to bush iah than you would to get from providence (where sw does fly) to boston. even shorter between baltimore and DC. they're practically a DFW metroplex copy they're so close together.

[Hartmann]

I personally think eating a meal on a plane is over-rated (unless of course you have a 15 hr flight or something). you won't find a whole lot of flights within the US that are longer than about 7-8 hours. and I gotta say I have never eaten something on a plane that I thought was even remotely appetizing. if I have a long flight, I'll usually just grab something in the airport or when I get home.

And yeah SW doesn't fly into boston, but everything over there is so close together it doesn't really matter. from where i live in houston it'd take longer to get to bush iah than you would to get from providence (where sw does fly) to boston. even shorter between baltimore and DC. they're practically a DFW metroplex copy they're so close together.

You haven't sat in BOS traffic. It looks close, but it's at least a 1-2 hour car drive. You can fly to Manchester but it's the same situation. Once you are out of BOS proper, there's nothing till you get to Providence, then you gotta deal with that traffic. For people who live there, it's worth it. For those of us renting cars, it's a waste. A note on that option on Southwest.com, they just started putting that option up there, they used to list RI and NH under their own states but they're trying to get more power up there without buying space at Logan. If you're in downtown Boston you can't beat a 5 minute train ride to the airport for $1.

Like I said, CO food is actually pretty good. I had a salad and a chicken sandwich on my last flight, and I was impressed. Eating a meal before your flight isn't always an option and CO does provide decent food. This is especially helpful for those flights that takeoff before or after a meal "time" and land before or after a meal "time". CO food is much better than grabbing McD's and holding it on the plane till your body's clock tells you you're hungry.

[impala454]

You haven't sat in BOS traffic. It looks close, but it's at least a 1-2 hour car drive.

so you'd rather sit in an airport with bad airline service for 10 hrs? or have three extra connections which add 2-3 hrs onto your flight?

Like I said, CO food is actually pretty good. I had a salad and a chicken sandwich on my last flight, and I was impressed.

if that's the same chicken sandwich and salad i had on continental going to PA a few weeks ago, we must have completely separate tastes... the salad to me seemed like someone just sliced a chunk of iceberg off into a plastic tray. the chicken sandwich tasted like something that'd sat in a school room cafeteria for a few days.

Eating a meal before your flight isn't always an option

no it pretty much is always an option...

i dont mean to pick on ya, but you are telling us one airline is better than another because they serve some shitty food... i'll take an extra few hours off my trip, great service and a lower airfare over a crap sandwich any day.

[Hartmann]

so you'd rather sit in an airport with bad airline service for 10 hrs? or have three extra connections which add 2-3 hrs onto your flight?

I have never sat in BOS for 10 hours, even for international connections. 2-3 connections? You are looking at a good day in the airport with 2-3 connections with SW depending where you fly.

if that's the same chicken sandwich and salad i had on continental going to PA a few weeks ago, we must have completely separate tastes... the salad to me seemed like someone just sliced a chunk of iceberg off into a plastic tray. the chicken sandwich tasted like something that'd sat in a school room cafeteria for a few days.
no it pretty much is always an option...

The meals are touch and go. Sometimes you will get good ones, sometimes you will get bad ones. Continental owns Chelsea catering, so if you're at a hub your food is much better. I got an iceberg salad with veggies in it and a good dressing.

I am not saying it is the greatest food on the planet but it holds me over during my travel since I do not have time to go searching for food in the airports. Travel for me is billable time, so I don't sit in airport restaurants and bars, I get work done and if I am not working I am usually working out a delay or a connection problem. If I have time, I'll eat, but if I don't, airline food holds me over.

i dont mean to pick on ya, but you are telling us one airline is better than another because they serve some shitty food... i'll take an extra few hours off my trip, great service and a lower airfare over a crap sandwich any day.

I am not saying CO is better because of their food, not at all. The food is not a selling point, just an added bonus. Also, I hate the free seating policy on SW. I always get an aisle seat, usually on an exit row.

[impala454]

I have never sat in BOS for 10 hours, even for international connections.

well i meant continental (as in your OP talking about bad service).

2-3 connections? You are looking at a good day in the airport with 2-3 connections with SW depending where you fly.

well what i mean is, it seems like the other airlines tend to make connections that are downright stupid. on continental, I flew down to Houston (from Lubbock) before flying to Philly. On AA, they had us connect through DFW to go to vegas. That's 2 hours in the air added to the flight, not to mention downtime in DFW. I didn't have a choice on that trip, as someone else had booked our trip.

just doin a quick lookup on aa.com for lubbock to vegas:
AA has a few options (all go through DFW)- $276 for a 9hr flight, $287 for a 5hr flight, $461 for a 4hr flight, and even a $900 flight (not sure how the hell that one came up).
SW has a flight for $274, 2 hrs non stop
CO has a flight for $464 ~5.5 hrs with 1 stop (in houston!?)

here's another one, lubbock to chicago:
SW = $438, 1 stop, ~5 hrs
CO = $638, 2 stops, ~8 hrs
AA = couldnt even find a flight...

now I totally understand if they don't fly to a specific city you need to go to, but I can see where you'd need to eventually eat on the plane if your trip took three hours longer than it should, simply because the airline is limited in its connections.

Also, I hate the free seating policy on SW. I always get an aisle seat, usually on an exit row.

yeah i guess that's just personal preference... I personally hate assigned seating. I usually get there a tad earlier and snag the emergency exit row.