Help me decide on Continental...
 

I'm a DL Gold, probably make PM this year. Home airport is PNS. With the issues with service at DL I am CONSIDERING a change, not absolutely decided. In light of that, I booked this week's trip from PNS-LRD on Continental, thinking I could get the flavor. I got it all right. The planes were nice and clean, FAs were one good one mediocre so far, but it was IAD that got me to thinking. The B terminal reminded me of the Manila airport in the early 70s, only without the gorgeous Filipinas. Since all roads on CO go through IAD, I wonder if that's my kind of service. Any of you think it's worth it to change loyalties? Right now I don't...but I welcome opinions.

Do you mean IAH (Houston-Intercontinental) rather than IAD (Washington- Dulles)?

If so, keep in mind CO is in the midst of a complete re-do at IAH. While the old Terminal C is/was definitely low rent, the newly remodeled C (and Terminal E) are very sharp.

IMHO, the biggest problems with CO are:
1. 50% EQM rule
2. poor reward availability
3. lousy international upgrade policy
4. tendency to use small aircraft on long routes (like, say, a 737 from Houston to Anchorage)

That said, the problems at CO probably outweight the major troubles at DL these days, which I am unable to list here since my computer only has 512 MB of RAM... :)

But are there any plans to redo Terminal B? Presumably if you fly PNS-IAH-LRD vv, you'll see a lot more of Terminal B than any other part of IAH. So the niceness of E and parts of C is a bit irrelevant.

And channa will no doubt be along shortly to point out that CO and DL have essentially the same award availability.

Okay, I'm a moron...
 

it was IAH, not IAD.

You read my mind. :D

DL has a couple oddball partners such as SQ and El Al. CO, however, has QF and HA. Both have VS. Other than that, they're pretty much the same.

With regard to terminal B at IAH, I thought only CO Express went through there. I don't think you'll have any mainline through there. The renovations elsewhere in C are nice, and term E is fabulous.

The 50% EQM rule? You mean for tickets not purchased through co.com? How do other carriers differ?

The only cities mentioned by the OP were PNS and LRD, which both have only ERJ service from IAH for the random day I checked.

Most carriers have some system where if you fly 25/50/75 or 100K miles on their metal, you get the lowest/mid/top tier elite status. For example, if you fly 50K miles on any revenue AA domestic fares, you will be mid-tier, no matter how you bought them or how cheap the tickets are (so long as they are published fares). They also have a parallel system (EQP) that rewards the purchasers of premium tickets, but they do not punish exclusively discount-fare flyers. Same for UA. Same for NW. Whereas if you buy cheap fares on CO but not from CO.com, you could fly as many as 49,998 miles without becoming elite. (You'd need to be very unlucky and never fly any segments less than the minimum mileage credit, and only fly cheap fares, but it's possible.)

COX and NW use B. Poor NW pax.

I asked the PC rep in Terminal B if, now that the south concourse of C is done at IAH, which is basically makes all of C and E "new", were there are plans to modernize B? She said yes and mentioned that she had seen the blueprints about a year ago, but she had heard that it has been postponed due to budgeting issues. She said it was to be a complete teardown and rebuild - said the new design would resemble a smaller scale version of Terminal E on both the north and south sides - no more bussing or props at A . She mentioned it would be a logistical nightmare during the consturction - no kidding.

I suspect we'll have to deal with B, as unpleasant as it is, for the foreseable future. At least the PC in B is pretty nice and has good reps working in it.

The only experience I think is worse than a B-to-B connection is a Comair-to-Comair connection in CVG. Talk about a 3rd world scenario...

With the exception of the IAH A Gates and Gates B84x, the B Terminal is just fine. Compare what CO is doing RJ terminal-wise with the likes of its competitors (think UA IAD G Terminal, or UA SFO and AA LAX remote bus terminals). IAH B has a Presidents Club, some shops, and jetways for most flights. Yeah it's a bit dated, but that's the only issue.

I'd much rather connect in IAH B to an RJ than say LAX T4 Bus Terminal to an AA Eagle RJ.

so true!

Those B84x gates with the shuttle buses are really intolerable. But I must say that the breakfast tacos at the little mexican restaurant are excellent - and can be had for "street prices." It is one of the best airport food deals to be found which kind of makes up for the rest to me. But then I guess that makes me pretty low maintenance if all it takes is a good cheap breakfast tiaco to make me happy.

disappointed in CO
 

IAH may be classed up soon, but every time I try to use CO miles, they want double. Too hard to use.

If you book O or Q fares on AA traveling over seas, you get no mileage credit. All fares domestically acquire 100% EQMs.

The Grass is Always Greener...
 

I fly 95% of my travel on CO metal and admit that I get occaisonally frustrated with frequently take for granted CO's level of quality.

Well last week I chose to fly a nonstop PIT CLT on USAir vs connecting thru EWR, CLE or IAH. Pathetic.... I won't go into details (filthy plane, uninterested gate agents, etc.) but I think every CO elite should be required to fly at least one leg a year on another carrier.

Although CO isn't perfect, compared to everything else out there, for me, it's the obvious choice.

And if you look at my post, I said 'domestic' for precisely this reason.