Originally Posted by
sfogate
Two things determine flight status: the aircraft and the flight crew. These are not always the same and flight status is keyed to reflect the aircraft's arrival time. Someone else watches the crew's arrival time and will manually change the flights departing time to reflect the new/delayed time.
CO uses alot of hotels in the surrounding areas of every city. We don't know the condition of the rooms but make selections based upon room availablity, cost and shuttle service. If CO is paying for the rooms, don't expect more than a clean basic room near by.
Thanks for the explanation. If I had to guess - our plane was there (I saw it from the time I arrived at the gate) - but - because of the slight delay out of EWR - we needed a new crew (I'm not sure what the "in flight limits" are - but I recall they're about 8 hours - and a trip from EWR to LAX and then to IAH would be cutting it close - a slight delay on EWR/LAX would push it over the limits). So arrangements had to be made for another crew arriving from another flight to take the LAX/IAH flight.
If you are from Continental (you used the term "we" - so I suspect that) - I can tell you this place was clean and basic (I usually travel in luxury hotels but I think I can recognize clean and basic). The hotel was the Baymont on the Beltway 8 (something like that) - and since stranded travelers paying with airline vouchers apparently account for a lot of its business - I would insist on replacement of the hotel van (probably cheaper than making everything like the seatbelts work and sewing up all the foam popping out of the seats). I would also suggest cleaning the hair and other debris out of the tubs more frequently (although perhaps our room had this problem and others didn't).
Also - I would make sure the staff - especially in the restaurants - makes a living wage. Although I am pretty much a luxury traveler - I am also pretty sensitive about the working poor (who - these days - can be the working destitute). Many travelers who are stranded these days aren't used to staying in hotels - or dining in restaurants - or tipping (and - even if they are - many of them have been squeezed by economic conditions too). Many are also PO'd about being stranded in the middle of a trip - not in the best frames of mind. I realize the people who work in these hotels aren't your employees - but I hate to see people who are hard working and pleasant winding up with one or two tables tipping when they're serving 20. I know that airlines aren't doing so great these days - but there aren't many airline employees working for $3.50/hour plus tips.
Finally - it's funny that this was our first domestic CO trip in a while. Last trips were to Germany and Japan. Really nice - and not a missed connection in the lot. Go figure. Robyn