Cigar, I'm pretty good at this game, and so's my dog, who has made 4 transcons to Seattle from EWR, so far this year. You are better off not checking bags first, with a pet, since (a) if the pet doesn't go for some reason, neither do I, and (b) that bull s**t Quick Pak office is like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. You need to allow for delays there, so itr makes sense to go there first.

Next point. I knew the QP office didn't open until 5AM, and booked a 7AM departure. For some reason, although it operates Sunday through Friday at 7AM, CO 1554 to PBI, leaves at 6:30 AM on Saturday, our day of travel, in this instance. I was only advised of that a few weeks ago.

Lastly, we rarely check a bag, but my wife and I were going to our Florida home for the next 7 months, and had shipped what we don't keep there, but a few things had to be carried, and as long as we had to wait for the dog, it didn't matter.

I have my own business, and travel well over a hundred thousand miles a year. While it continually gets tougher, and you can't find many airports more unuser friendly than Newark, it just seems all these airline guys are in a feeding frenzy to cut everything they can think of. Continental, of late, has risen above that noise, and it's sad to see it going the other way.