As a platnium, its very rare that I fly coach on a transcons and that happened last week. I do not understand why Continental flies 800's and cramps the seats so close. With JETBLUE's seating and televisions, I understand that this is the airline of choice for transcons. Why can't Continental give room just on the transcons...

Does anyone really care about meals at mealtimes. I would rather buy food on the plane which is better or at the airport.

Frequent topic, but yeah, I agree CO transcons in coach are bloody awful. I couldn't give a ....ing t**t about "meals at mealtimes". I'm far from a "PoS, and I can't stand sitting in coach from EWR to SFO. The only thing that makes it tolerable, is knowing that I'll be in Sonoma County in a few hours. SFO-EWR on the otherhand...

I think that Continental is doing a careful balancing act right now, and, based on the bottom line, it's working out for the carrier. I only fly JetBlue if I am making a last minute purchase, since CO fills up fast and I end up with a middle seat.

Most people don't complain about the pitch in coach; they focus on price. I think that CO tries to favor the elites by holding (sometimes) bulkhead and exit row seats. Overall, however, I agree that it's cramped. Flying across the country on Continental in coach isn't fun. If a passenger wants comfort, JetBlue is the way to go.

I recently booked a transcon on Jet Blue instead of Continental for this exact reason. Believe me, it's not convenient getting to JFK from NJ, but I was willing to put in the extra effort to be significantly more comfortable for the 5 hours in the air. I have another California trip planned for September and am waiting to book it until after I experience Jet Blue first hand.

I am only a Gold, so there's no shot at an upgrade. Virtually impossible to score a mileage upgrade either. But the idea of being squished into that tight coach row for 5 hours forced me to consider flying another airline (for the first time in over 3 years).

I hope CO Insider or someone else is listening. Those coach seats with their meager pitch and very hard seatbacks are just torture for long flights.

dc

JFK is a pain! I recently switched to AA for the year--I will be Platinum in about three hours. AA provides much nicer service from LAX to NYC (yep, to JFP on a B767). I don't look forward to the drive from Queen's through Staten Island to NJ!

I agree that regular rows in CO coach are horrible, not only because of the 31" pitch but mainly because of the lack of adequate seat padding. But there's not a snowball's chance in h*** that CO is going to overhall the entire coach product even remotely soon. It would cost a fortune at a time when the carrier has just returned to profitability. Heck, they take new deliveries every year and they have the exact same uncomfortable coach seats as the rest of the fleet. The only exceptions are the 753s with the slightly more comfortable coach seats and 32" pitch (like the 767s).

FYI--

Maybe I'm missing something, but the Song-inspired coach on Delta can't be much different than JetBlue. More pitch, in-seat entertainment, and cutesy snacks. They got rid of the Song name, but they kept the product, and are rolling it out on all of their long haul aircraft. I believe by this fall, all 757s will have the better coach + a FC cabin...and by next year, every flight over 1500 miles.

I know the issue used to be no mileage on Song flights...but now that it's all Delta operated and this seems like a viable alternative for people who have given up on an upgrade and are willing to go to JFK for a decent coach experience. You get the comfort and miles in your home program, versus comfort and no miles.

Right now there are several transcons on the 1-class 757s that are Song configured, but mileage earning. I stick to CO though...

Does anyone really care about meals at mealtimes

I was going to start another thread about this subject, but since we are talking about transcons...
Why is it that the F meal service in the CLE-LAX nonstops is a significant step down from that offered to those flying EWR-LAX? The difference in milage is only about 275 miles, and the time to fly the route is at least 4 hours in either direction (which should be enough time to deliver the service without rushing through it). The cost of an F ticket appears to be similar so why the degradation in meal service? If you want to fix something without sinking a lot of money into revamping airliners and equipment, may I suggest that this would be an excellent way to start @:-) In fact, this could be an excellent way to start expanding CLE long range service and start taking some of the heat off of EWR, which is becoming a joke of an airport (My thursday 5PM CLE-LAX flight was delayed almost 3 hours because the flight to CLE from (where else) EWR was delayed that amount of time. And yes, I know the weather story

Because they can. Not a "transcon" is "not a transcon". Continental seat pitch will never change (for the positive anyway) and it's food in coach will never get any better. sigh

I don't think it has anything to do with the distance, I think it's competition on the two markets. Continental is up against some other very good product on the LA/NYC market, so they have to upgrade their offering as a result. They don't have the same competition out of CLE.

I have written voluminously on CO's inadequate coach, especially on long flights. To me transcon in CO's coach is simply dreadful. Inadequate legroom, rock-hard thin seats. Only two lavatories for as many as 141 passengers and 2 f/a's on the 737-800 which mainly fly these routes. Mediocre IFE on screens which are often not working properly.

Then there are the little things. Those little boxes for the IFE at your feet that further restrict your legroom. If the person in front of you reclines their seat you cannoty work on your laptop.

As has been pointed out here, CO clearly has the worst transcon coach product of any airline. Not only is B6 far more comfortable, but other traditional airlines such as AA, DL, and UA all have a better transcon product as well. And, amazingly, CO rarely has the lowest fares. Often they are exorbirtantly expensive.

I think it's pretty galling to be sitting in this despicably uncomfortable cabin, listening to Larry Kellner lecture us in his video how much better CO's product is. Perhaps, in the interest of decency, Larry should record a different version of the video that could be played to the coach cabin separately.

Finally, many of us CO elites used to do OK because we could get upgrades on these flights. But CO also has the smallest FC cabins of any carrier flying transcon and so it's no wonder that upgrades are so hard to score.

CO is not going to change this, as others have noted. Then again many of us have already taken our business elsewhere, so they may eventually feel the need to upgrade the product.

Then again, if you think transcons on CO are bad, try their EWR-HKG. That's 16 hours with the same 31" of seat pitch and rock-hard seat. Cruel and unusual punshment...

Ah, you don't get it. The purpose of "Meals at Mealtimes" is frequently distraction. If in coach, between the time they get the cart out for the drink and when you get your after-meal drink, you've killed an hour wondering about your own order and noticing that the guy next to you is dumb enough to fork over another $10 for a double bourbon.

Serously, "Meals at Mealtimes" are, in part, entertainment. Although I actually appreciate them sometimes, especially breakfast if leaving on a transcon from the west coast. Especially if the banana isn't green and frozen solid.

the meals at mealtime aren't so bad, the chicken sandwich or the cheeseburger are edible, but that pizza is really disgusting.

It would be nice to have more pitch but CO is able to fill the seats, so that's the way it will be. They are adding 2 F seats to all the 738's, so that will help a tiny bit, but they do sell most of those seats.

As for the difference between EWR and CLE to west coast, they only do transcon service on transcon flights. You don't get transcon service from EWR to SLC or ABQ even though they're "almost" west coast. I'll note that CO's transcon service is significantly better than the other transcon but not "ps" service of others. CO does transcon EWR-SEA/PDX/SNA/SFO/LAX/SAN, UA and AA only do their flagship service to LAX/SFO.

I do think that CO should provide a better "mid-con" dinner, because what they have is sub-par compared to UA, but its not horrible. and CLE is 400 miles west of EWR. You should still get the cookies/sundae though...

Try the Low Fat option. While everyone else got the cheeseburger and potato salid, I got a quite decent hot chicken breast and greens sandwich on good bread. It was big too. Also got a tiny salad with light dressing and a small fruit cup. I was impressed.

On the outbound, I got a breakfast of omlet and potatos with fruit. Again, pretty good.

You're obviousy not refering to transcon in coach. Yes, it's true that CO offers a "hot meal" in coach (but only at "mealtime").

And what is that meal? A melted cheese sandwich? Apart from that the service in coach on CO is essentially nil and therefore indistinguishable from any other airline.

I don't know about you but I'll gladly take the legroom and comfort of AA, UA or DL on their "non flagship" transcons over the deeply cramped, horridly uncomfortable coach cabin of CO. The fact that CO serves a melted cheese sandwich makes no difference to me, I can just bring my own food on board.

At least on the other carriers I won't need to call a chiropractor as soon as I get off the plane.

While FT boards tend to concentrate on service in FC, let's not forget that over 90% of all passengers fly coach.