rkkwan

Checking the pdf schedule, starting 4/6, 739s will be "permanently" placed on some transcons. ERs of course.

Daily:
CO548 EWR-SFO
CO549 SFO-EWR

Mon-Fri:
CO1581 EWR-SEA (continue to ANC)
CO234 SEA-EWR (continue from ANC)

ANC will therefore see both flights as 739ERs five of seven days.

EWR-LAS/PHX already have 739 service. Wonder when we'll see EWR-LAX, SAN and PDX with them.

Scott6067

But the plugs work great!

J.Edward

x2

Keep you damn Reba reruns, give me IFP damnit!

rolov

My 739 ER flight to LAS on Wed was complete chaos, I was in the emergency row, but I could hear a guy a few rows up screaming about the lack of IFE
He was yelling "IM FLYING JET BLUE FROM NOW ON"
and oh yeah , they ran out of everything on board,
with almost 2 hours to go , they said " Our Bar is closed "

transportbiz

Even worse only 737-800's will be serving LAX-EWR beginning June 11th or about from what I can see in the schedules. Bye-bye CO to Europe in BF, if I can't get a BF seat ALL the way, forget it.

sbm12

This is typical for CO more than a couple months out. They put the 738 on the schedule and then as things get closer they put the actual planes into place when they figure out loads, demands and utilization issues.

No guarantee that the 752 will be there, but just because it is 738s across the board now doesn't mean that they will actually all be 738s.

doobierw

Concur. As a 757 guy, I used to look in the schedule in the out months to see what/where/when. Got nervous that they were switching every market the 752 flew to until I figured out they put the 738 in as a filler until they fine tune the sked.

CODC10

When I was doing EWR-LAX on virtually a weekly basis, despite coming up in the schedule as 738s from time to time, CO17/CO65 EWR-LAX were routinely 752 flights. On the way back, LAX-EWR, the schedule is much more sporadic, with CO1703 most often a 752 (2nd flight of the day, 1403 has been a 738 for at least the last 8 years).

CO16/90 see 752s from time to time, but more often than not, they are 738s/753s. Anecdotally, EWR-LAX is more of a 752 route, whereas LAX-EWR sees 753s instead, strangely enough.

CloudsBelow

Interesting.
Could be range / craft efficiency issues? The 753 has less range than 752. Factoring in winds, fuel burn on taxi and wait at EWR, etc. Maybe pushes the B753 to a point where it's not the best use of the craft on the westbound segment?
Maybe best to place the 753 on EWR-IAH-LAX-EWR type of rotation.
Just a thought.

qlabdad

It's really stinks to fly such a long flight without IFE, made much, much worse when you don't know in advance in order to bring enough entertainment for yourself. CO does a very poor job of informing passengers prior to the flight that no IFE exists and to prepare accordingly. Maybe they are afraid of scaring off passengers but it could be handled a whole lot better. Yes the info is available on the PDA info site but only frequent travelers know of that site and many of them (including me) already know the plane doesn't have IFE anyway.

Mackieman

Slightly off topic, but a while back you were talking about having to move, "down" to the left chair on the 737. Did all that change?

cjgibson

It's not just on the PDA site. Any passenger who checks their flight status at continental.com will see inflight amenities listed directly below the flight status.

SFO-SSA

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but I'll ask it anyway: Why doesn't CO put IFE on all its mainline planes ?

cjgibson

I flew EWR-PHX pretty regularly until about 3 months ago, and I was usually on a 737-900ER. I can't tell you how many times I heard something like "I can't believe Continental flies these old planes with no in-flight entertainment." Being the plane nerd that I am, I would explain that the plane was actually very new, and that a new IFE with personal screens would be installed in the coming months. That said, I don't understand why it isn't CO policy to overcommunicate the following by a power of 10 on the 738s and 739ERs without IFE:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this evening we're flying to Phoenix on a brand new 737-900ER aircraft. This aircraft doesn't have any in-flight entertainment yet, and we want to explain why. We're in the process of transitioning from overhead monitors to personal monitors. Once the new system is installed, you'll have access to dozens of movies and live TV channels. Since we've just started installing the new system, we're no longer installing the old system. While this is taking place, our newest planes will not have any entertainment system. We apologize for the inconvenience, but you might be interested to know that this plane is equipped with power outlets, so feel free to charge those laptops, iPods, etc. once we're airborne. The power outlets are located..."

Perhaps the gate agent could make this announcement once or twice so that passengers know ahead of time (and could purchase a magazine or a book)? Most people I've talked to are pretty cool with it once they know why. After all, most people aren't flying so that they can see Marley & Me...

PSU Mudder

Are they getting anywhere with the FAA certification? Seems like we've been waiting forever for them to actually start the installs.