Flight one (Thursday):
CO365 CUN-IAH
Boeing 737-900ER (N53441)
Scheduled departure: 12:09
Scheduled arrival: 14:39
Seat: 1A

Check in was absolutely rammed, and even in the elite line I had quite a bit of waiting to do. When I did eventually get to the front there was a bit of confusion arising from my separate itineraries, and the agent had to write out my luggage ticket by hand. This, coupled with the agents ridiculous (on the face of it) claim that I wouldn’t have to collect and re-check my bag in Houston had me convinced that I’d never see my bag again. Resigned to my fate, I eventually made my way up to, and through, security. It seemed that every woman was having their luggage swabbed for drugs/explosives whereas all the men were given a fairly straightforward passage through to the terminal. I don’t usually bother with airport shots, but couldn’t resist this one. Most of the drugs name-checked are prescription-only in the UK (there was also ‘aspirin’ somewhat incongruously behind the hanging sign).



That’s it for images on this leg. First at check-in, and then on the flight itself, I found myself next to the spouse of one of the organisers of the conference I’d been attending, so I kept my camera hidden in a bid to appear ‘normal’. This person was very good company, and made the flight pass rather quickly. They were a committed CO flyer, where their partner was a committed UA flyer, and so they travelled separately. If nothing else the merger will be helping this couple fly together in the future!

The flight, including first class, was completely packed. This was during one of the east coast storms this winter, and a lot of people were being re-routed via IAH instead of EWR. One consequence of the full cabin was that the FAs were a lot less shy about topping up our glasses on this flight. The meal service had a seafood chowder that was inedible, and a chicken burrito that was surprisingly tasty. This flight was shortly after Kevincm’s TR Gold Run 2: Blame Canada! had appeared, and I made sure to pay close attention to Jeff Smisek’s eyes during the welcome video. I’m sorry to have to report that he does blink during the video, exactly once. Perhaps he is human after all.

When we got into Houston I was astonished to discover that the desk agent in Cancún had been telling the truth, and I was directed to a special line that led me to reclear security and enter the country, but without having to recheck my luggage. There were special signs and everything, that only looked a little like they were created by the work experience kid using WordArt. Even with quite a queue through security, the whole process took less than an hour, and I was kicking myself for allowing four for the layover. Time eventually ticked on, & I had to gird my loins for the final flight of this trip.

Flight three (Sunday):
CO4 IAH-LHR
Boeing 777-200ER (N79011)
Scheduled departure: 18:35
Scheduled arrival: 09:35
Seat: 17J

There were several calls for people to get their passports checked before boarding began. I had a pretty good seat in the boarding area, so I was trying to ignore them, but they were most insistent that we would not be allowed to board without the checks, and so off I duly trotted. Boarding pass suitably defaced, I went and sat back down for another couple of minutes before joining the queue to board.



Despite having thought of Continental as ‘my’ airline (well, no-one really wants to admit to Easyjet being ‘their’ airline, do they?) for about five years now, this was my first time on one of their widebodies. Except it wasn’t one of theirs- N79011 was the first Continental vessel to be painted in the hybrid scheme with UNITED titles. The cabin was in the same smart livery as their narrowbodies, but bigger. Duh. I was already impressed with the fact that CO were even able to offer AVOD in their 757s, but the choice on the 777s was much wider. You’d have to be pretty pernickety not to be able to find anything you wanted to watch here. Legroom was adequate, but almost invisible in the attached image. Sorry about that. Obviously I should have taken another photo in the morning, but I was a bit past it by then.



I burned one of my Continental currency units on a gin & orange during first service, and fired into the IFE. There was a free middle seat, & 17L kept himself to himself once the cabin door was closed (he was on his ‘phone pretty much constantly until then). Seriously, I don’t think he moved from his seat the whole nine hours. He must have a bladder of steel.

Mealtime rolled around, and there was a choice of chicken, or pasta with meatballs. I have a little rule about not taking the pasta, but I’ve broken it a couple of times (on Air France and Air Canada) without disastrous results, and I’d already seen the chicken in Kevincm’s recent TR, so I decided to live dangerously. And it was dangerous. It was every bit as unappetising as it looks, and probably the worst thing I’ve been served on a Continental flight. Although I should point out that I’ve never experienced the infamous Turkey Dog that used to be served on domestic flights from IAH.

*image*

Unlike Kevincm, I did seem to get a crew who seemed to be in the right business, and it was all male in my section of the ‘plane. One of them called everyone ‘mate’, which seemed appropriate enough given the destination, but just sounded really wrong in a non English or Aussie accent. Sorry. It's very small-minded of me, I know.

After the first film I tried to get a bit of sleep, and failed miserably. We all know how much recline we can get in economy, and it’s not conducive to getting a good nights sleep. I came out of this flight with one of the most painful backs I’ve ever experienced. It did leave me wondering if the 757s seats were more comfortable, but I expect the difference actually lies in the flight length. Breakfast appeared some time after I’d given up trying to sleep. I was beyond taking photo’s by this stage, but there’s a representative image on Kevincm’s report.Two important differences, though:

1) I had tea, not coffee
2) The croissant was surprisingly fresh. Probably the best I’d ever had on CO (or maybe the horrible dinner had skewed my taste calibration).

I think either I was delirious by this point, or possibly they bake them all on a Thursday afternoon in Houston, then distribute them through the network as required for the following week.

We landed at Heathrow, and pulled up somewhere in T4. Walking to the border control I was reminder of how nice a terminal this has become (by Heathrow standards) since BA moved out. The fact it’s the only terminal that doesn’t seem to be operating at several multiples of its design capabilities probably helps. If only they could sort out the transport links. IRIS was nowhere to be seen, but that’s no longer any kind of a surprise, and fortunately there was no significant queues at the immigration desks.

With a pretty full BusinessFirst cabin and lots of elites on board, It was quite some time before I saw my bag, and it was some relief when I eventually set eyes on it sliding down the chute. I trundled off to try & reconnect with civilisation (or at least Heathrow central bus station), and will leave you at that point. Thanks for your attention thus far, I would welcome any comments.

Weean.