Continental Airlines Flight CO3126 Lubbock, TX (LBB) to Houston, TX (IAH)
Scheduled Departure: 7:40 AM
Actual Departure:
7:34 AM
Scheduled Arrival: 9:12 AM
Actual Arrival:
8:57 AM
Equipment: ERJ-145
Class of Service: Economy
If I missed this flight I wouldn't make it to Newark in time to fly EWR-GRU. This would destroy most of my trip. And guess what? It almost happened.
I fly between IAH and LBB about 10 times per year. CO only operates one gate out of LBB but they always seem to lose planes and cancel flights for random reasons. This was one of those days.
I was booked on CO2970 departing LBB at 10:40 AM Saturday morning. This flight was completely sold out as was the preceding IAH-LBB flight. Friday night I set my alarm for 9:00 AM and went to bed.
At 11:41 PM my iPhone made the "Mail" beep. I usually ignore this once I've gone to bed but for some reason I decided to check it.
As of 11:41 PM on May 20, flight 2970 LBB - IAH on May 21 has been cancelled.
Go to Change or View Reservations at continental.com or call 800-525-0280 for more information.
CANCELED? The flight is booked solid and the weather is perfect. Starting to panic I call CO. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Hi I just received an email saying my flight for tomorrow morning was canceled?
Agent: Ok let me check (pause). Yes, it was canceled because we didn't sell enough seats.
Me: The flight was sold out...
Agent: Hmm...that's not what my screen says, let me try to rebook you.
Me: Ok...
Then guess what happened? ANOTHER $75 CHANGE FEE!!! I asked for a supervisor who was very apologetic and promised to make sure this wouldn't happen again. By this time it was 1:30 AM and I had to get up at 6:00 to make my new 7:40 AM flight.
So Saturday morning I woke up, drove to the airport, and was shocked to see a standby list with 40 names on it. Not enough seats sold my @$$.
I had seat 12A (exit row) booked on the original flight but I was moved to 1A (bulkhead restricted room) on the new flight. The FA was extremely friendly and managed to perform two round of drink service in about an hour. I was the first person off the plane.
(Lack of) legroom at seat 1A
Cockpit view
This gave me a 5 hour connection in Houston so I had time to leave the airport.