Continental Airlines Flight CO92 Sao Paulo, Brazil (GRU) to Houston, TX (IAH)
Scheduled Departure: 9:10 PM
Actual Departure: 8:59 PM
Scheduled Arrival: 5:20 AM
Actual Arrival: 5:16 AM
Equipment: Boeing 767-200ER
Class of Service: Economy Hell

This ranks as one of the worst flights of my life. But I'll get to that in a minute...

CO uses GRU's Wing D for check-in. If you're facing the terminal it is at the far left end.

GRU Wing D


GRU Wing D window view


At about 5:00 PM the QR agents abandoned their stations and the equipment was changed to CO.

Continental's Turf


This is when everyone decided to rush the area and try to line up. One of the agents saw my elite bag tag and told me to go stand between two poles. I was a little confused until a few minutes later...

First!


At exactly 5:45 PM they opened check-in. I was already checked in for GRU-IAH and IAH-SEA so I just needed the tax stamp on my BP. I was worried because I didn't pay the R$67 departure tax on my ticket but they gave me the stamp! My agent was Swissport and not CO so he may have not had access to my full ticket information?

Security was easy. Shoes on, liquids in bag (but restricted to 100mL), laptops out. I accidentally left coins in my pocket but they didn't set off the WTMD. There were no NoS in sight!

The UA RCC is a long walk from the CO gates. The showers are still "out of order" but the other parts of the lounge are very nice. Wifi and drinks (self service) are complimentary. The snack selection is superior to that of the domestic RCCs and included deli meats, cheeses, sandwiches, fruit, and small desserts. The wifi was painfully slow and would reset itself randomly.

Boarding began on time around 8:15 PM.

GRU Gate 16


This was the same plane that operated my EWR-GRU flight and I had the same seat - 16A. Unfortunately my experience on this flight wouldn't be as nice as the previous flight - it would be much worse.

Everything began well. My seatmate seemed nice and we had a good view of N76156 as she prepared to depart for EWR.

Gate neighbor N76156


We watched N76156 take off followed by a TAM 77W. When it was our turn the engines roared and we took off in what seemed like less than half of the runway! The seatbelt sign went off about 10 minutes later and then everything went wrong.

What is this doing in my face?


Yup, that's a bassinet. And it drops 3-4 inches lower when loaded with a baby. Row 16 is sold as extra legroom (complimentary for elites) and now my legroom was still intact but my kneeroom was gone. The flight was full so my only other option was switching to row 17 (about 31 inches of pitch) which wouldn't work. I already posted about this in the CO forum so I won't dwell on it much here. My main issue with this is that CO sells this row as extra legroom then without warning adds a bassinet that takes away that benefit and doesn't offer any accommodations. Since we had already taken off I didn't have a chance to ask for IDB or negotiate something better.

The meal choices on this flight were roast beef or pasta. I selected the beef but it was too tough to cut. The rice was good and the salad was one of the best I've had in Y.

Roast beef


Now I couldn't bring my knees to a right angle without hitting the bassinet so I had to keep them extended throughout the flight. When I wanted to stretch or walk around I had to ask 16B to stand up then delicately climb over the seat.

The same pre-arrival snack was served and we landed in IAH a few minutes early.

At 5:00 AM there wasn't a line for passport control and customs. The CBP agent didn't care that I was over the duty free limit and waved me through. I saw several people being sent to agricultural screening.

After a 10 hour flight with a baby in my face the last thing I wanted to do was face the TSA agents. I'm sure you can guess what happened next...