ContinentalFan

I will be flying to Oslo next week and I am trying to find out what facilities Continental offers for BusinessFirst customers. Specifically, what shower facilities does Continental offer for arrivals? For departures, what lounge does Continental use for BusinessFirst customers? I got some feedback on departures in the Scandinavian Forum, but I'd like to hear from anyone who has actually flown BusinessFirst to Oslo.

Just for the record--and to let COInsider know--I contact customer support by e-mail, but they were unwilling to help. Here's what I got.

I do not show shower accommodations at the Oslo Airport. They do not have a presidents club either.

Thank you for contacting Continental.com.

UpgradeMe

Some Oslo departure lounge info here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ht=oslo+lounge

billygoat27

CO uses the BA Terraces lounge in OSL for departures, which is pretty nice. Lots of British newspapers, and little white bread sandwiches. Lounge is actually on the domestic departures side, and the CO departure area is on the other side of passport control. So, once you go past passport control, no going back to the lounge. No multiple entries either (can't leave/re-enter).

IAHflyer

Unless something has been added very recently, there are no lounge or shower facilites for arriving pax at OSL. It's a pretty small airport without a lot of facilities.

As previous posters have noted, be aware that the BA lounge is before you enter into the international departures area (from which there is no return allowed) Also note that the CO departing gate is at the very end of the interational terminal, beyond a separate immigration check point.

You can find more info about the airport here www.osl.no

GUWonder

CO uses the BA Terraces lounge on the domestic side of OSL airport for those passengers booked in business. In coach, CO is to be avoided by SkyTeam ElitePlus -- especially because CO is a miser when it comes to lounge access in the region and does not provide access to the very same lounge that KLM and Air France airlines use (i.e., the BA lounge).

For showers on arrival? "Try your hotel."

[There are ways to go from the international side of OSL to its domestic side, but it requires going through customs again and reclearing security. And it's certainly not obvious to everyone how to do such; and it may or may not be a case of YMMV, depending on how you try to go about it.]

ContinentalFan

Thanks for the help. I think both GUWonder helped me out with departures already. I think I got the departures down; I have to believe that Continental has an arrangement for arrivals.

I am confident that Continental has some arrangement for arrivals. I am not completely surprised that customer service doesn't know anything about it. Last year, I was on the flight to Belfast on day two. The concierge in EWR assured me that there were no shower facilities in Belfast: nothing was arranged for BF customers. Continental has always had some kind of deal with every new destination. It turned out that the airline did something at BFS. I am confident that there is some kind of arrangement in OSL. Actually, it reminds me of the good service I received in BFS, so I'll recount it!

With regard to Belfast, I didn't believe what I heard in Newark. So, when I got off the plane, I waited for the concierge to arrive (apart from Houston and Stansted , my experience is that, in the past five or six years, the flight is met by a concierge about one in five times). Well, two newly minted concierges arrived. They were really excellent and directed me to a hotel right beside the terminal. One of them tracked me down later in the hotel (I was having breakfast), gushed with apologies about what I was told in Newark. He almost seemed to take it personally; I think they were worried that people wouldn't come to Belfast. Well, he told me that he had a message into Newark to tell them about all the great things that Belfast had to offer for arriving passengers. When I was leaving, he tracked me down again. He confirmed that the people in Newark now know about the facilities in Belfast. When Continental does it right--which is more often than not--the product is excellent. It probably explains why the slip-ups are so infuriating to many of us loyal customers.

UA Insider

Hi ContinentalFan, To confirm what has already been stated, departing BusinessFirst customers will have access to the British Airways Terraces Lounge. As for arrivals showers, we use the Radisson SAS Airport Hotel - located 30 steps from the main door at the airport. The showers are located in the health club. You will need a BusinessFirst arrivals shower voucher, which can be obtained from the BusinessFirst concierge. Sorry you weren't given accurate information, I'll be taking this up with our support team.

GUWonder

Good to hear about the arrivals option for BF customers. Regarding departure lounge access, any chance of giving coach-flying SkyTeam ElitePlus, including CO Plats, lounge access (to the BA lounge) in the same way that KL gives access (to the BA lounge too) there?

ContinentalFan

Thanks again for the information, Scott. I hadn't a doubt that Continental had some arrangement for BusinessFirst passengers.

I know that Continental has a lot of moving parts; it's hard--virtually impossible--for every employee to know everything about the company. My suggestion on the help page is to have an option for people who want to ask question specifically about BusinessFirst--it could be routed to people who know that area well. It would differentiate the product yet again!

UA Insider

Thanks ContinentalFan, that's a great suggestion. We're also going to make sure information like this is more readily available - both at our front line, and online.

smoothtakeoff bumpylanding

heh .. nice! CO Insider gets my "breakthrough of the year" award ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

entropy

on a similar note, there has been a lot of confusion as to arrivals facilities at TLV. In March when I flew over, the concierge told me there was absolutely no arrivals facility. On my trip last month, the concierge told me there was an arrangement but only if ABSOLUTELY necessary.

In addition, the CO Website currently says (wrt TLV):
"Presidents Club members and BusinessFirst customers departing Ben Gurion International Airport may enjoy a complimentary visit to the Jet Set Club Lounge. Continental's Presidents Club at New York/Newark Liberty International Airport is at your disposal when awaiting your return flight."
then it describes the Dan Lounges, which ONLY BF customers are allowed to use these days. (the Jet set club no longer exists)

further, they mention this: "In addition to the lounges mentioned above the company also operates a V.I.P. lounge known as the Masada for incoming V.I.P. and S.V.I.P. service for outgoing flights."

As far as I know, Continental does not offer the Masada lounge for incoming BF pax, nor any of their other services for outbound pax, so why is this on the web page at all?

Something useful would be to mention that Israil provides convenient rail connections to/from Tel Aviv, Hertzliya, Haifa and Nahariyya, only steps from customs, and a link to schedules.

Finally, this just irritates me: the flight schedules show not just the TLV-EWR but also the TLV-EWR-ATL/LAX for CO 90/91/84/85. This results in far more flights than necessary. See below. TLV-EWR-TLV are the same time every day, its totally unnecessary to have the ATL/LAX bits on there as well, especially because they change on several days of the week and just make the whole thing confusing.

this is just 85....FOUR listings for the ATL part.
Various Aircraft
Tel Aviv, Israel (TLV) Atlanta, GA (ATL) Sun CO85
11:30 20:28 Various Aircraft
Tel Aviv, Israel (TLV) Atlanta, GA (ATL) Except Tue, Sat, Sun CO85
11:30 20:29 Various Aircraft
Tel Aviv, Israel (TLV) Atlanta, GA (ATL) Tue CO85
11:30 21:49 Various Aircraft
Tel Aviv, Israel (TLV) New York/Newark, NJ (EWR - Liberty) טיסה יומית CO85
11:30 16:40 Boeing 777-200ER
Tel Aviv, Israel (TLV

AVIZ

I was in TLV on Tuesday morning hoping to get into the Dan Lounge with my PC membership. The guy refused, saying I had to be flying on Continental not on another airline. I believe it has been updated so that any CO ticket (not just BF) will be valid.

Would you agree that we should have access no matter which airline we're flying?

entropy

if it was a p-club or worldclub yes, but its not. It would be nice if they had that arrangement, but at the end of the day, p-clubs are an added way to keep people loyal to CO, and paying a contract lounge to service people who are flying other airlines isn't exactly something they're going to be happy about.

I think the Dan lounge is only like $25 anyways.