SR 103

March 7

Continental 1493
Orlando – Newark (Seat:5A)
757-300 (N75853)
Scheduled Departure: 12:25
Scheduled Arrival: 15:04
Actual Departure: 12:25
Actual Arrival: 15:00

Check In: My roommate and I arrived at the airport around 9:30am because we were dropping someone off who was flying Delta through ATL and his flight was at 11:30. We drove up to the DL curb dropped him and drove off to park the car. The tunnel that connects the parking lot to the terminal was closed so we had to walk over the rental car floor. As we went over to the elevator, there was a sign stating that passengers flying on CO/HP/AA could check in on this level. So we walked over and I headed to the e-ticket machine and I slipped my WP Gold card. What do you know; “Operational upgrade” was being flashed in front of me. I was assigned 5A for the first flight and 14F, the exit row, for the next one. My roommate and I put our bags on the belt for the agent to tags them. Before I could even say anything, “Mr. Tamboowala, would you like to have a complimentary companion upgrade?” “Sure I would.” My roommate seemed pleased but our ride seemed a bit ticked off that he was flying another airline later today instead of flying with us. We then said “bye, see you later tonight” to our ride, who would be joining us in SEA. Headed off towards security which was painfully long; it took close to 25 minutes to clear, which was not really long in reality. The CO/HP area was really crowded so we headed to the AA area which seemed much quieter. Eventually we headed over to the CO side.

Boarding: Around 11:55 boarding was announced and both of us headed over to the jetway. After the boarding pass was sent through the scanner the agent wished everyone a safe and enjoyable weekend. Nice touch, I must compliment CO here, the ground staff at MCO are great, far better than NW’s. My roommate and I sat down in our seats and a flight attendant came around to ask what we would like to drink. Our requests were brought over shortly and I saw that the two flight attendants were hanging jackets and taking drink orders the entire time we were at the gate.

The Flight: We pushed back on time and headed towards the runway. We jumped the queue by taking the outer taxiway and did a rolling take off. The 757 is definitely powerful and I love the feeling you get when these machines take off. Shortly after the flight attendant came around and took drink orders. There were no menus so the F/A verbally told us the two choices.
“We have a cheeseburger or a salad with two pieces of shrimp.”
We both had the cheeseburger and had a good laugh as the F/A continued down the isle, loudly emphasizing the fact there were only two pieces of shrimps in the salad. Hot towels were handed out and soon my coke came over with a packet of salted cashews. Eventually the meal came round. The tray had the following.

Cream of Mushroom soup
**********************
Cheeseburger with pickle, onion and lettuce
Potato salad, horseradish, tomato ketchup
************************
Pecan Delight Chocolate

The soup was good and quite filling for me. The cheeseburger was lacking in cheese but was decent. The meat was nice and soft and the ketchup was a nice touch. The potato salad, I swear, had only about 4 small slices in it; nice but wish there was more. The chocolate I gave to my roommate as I can not eat pecans. As far as the entertainment goes, Continental vision was showing some comedy at first but I had a major problem. From my left I was getting English and from my right I was getting Spanish; really annoying when you are trying to watch it. Also channel 5 “Hot Hits” was not working. Oh well guess it is not my luck to have working entertainment on my 753 flights.

Arrival & Transit: We began our decent around 14:45. The view of downtown NY was fantastic from the window. The view never ceases to amaze me no matter how many times I land at EWR. We had a smooth touchdown and taxied to the gate. Quite an array of international airlines greeted us as we taxied to the gate. Once we reached the gate we walked over to the third pier in terminal C, the new international one. I normally grab a seat around gate 124 as that provides a great view of the CO planes with the NYC skyline in the background, a great place to spend a couple of hours while waiting. Both of us sat down talking about our flight as this was my roommates first time in First Class. We got a couple of phone calls saying that due to problems in PIT, our ride to MCO was put through ORD instead. I won’t mention what airline he was changed to, but lets just say he is a pilot and he enjoyed every minute of channel 9.

Continental 103
Newark – Seattle (Seat:14F/Changed to 1F)
737-800 (N38268)
Scheduled Departure: 16:50
Scheduled Arrival: 19:50
Actual Departure: 16:50
Actual Arrival: 20:05

Boarding: We eventually got to our gate, C111, around 16:15. Boarding commenced five minutes later for FC and elite. We decided to go ahead and board to get some overhead space for our bags. As my boarding pass was swiped through the machine, the ground agent said “one moment Mr. Tamboowala, you have a new boarding pass.” Within a second the machine printed a new stub with 1F. “You got the last seat left in First Class. Have a pleasant flight.” Oh man! I am happy but now I feel guilty too, my roommate will have to sit in the back while I sit in the front. Oh well perks are perks, I have spent too much time and money on KL/NW/CO to refuse this. I got to row one and there was already a lady in 1E sitting down. I took my magazine out of my bag and as I was trying to get past to put the bag in the overhead bin the lady says loudly, “Oh let me take that. Oh wow, your bag is much lighter than mine!” The entire First Class section started laughing when she said that; I have no idea why. Soon the welcome drinks came round and the door was close at 16:40 as boarding was completed. I heard the crew saying it was an empty flight with 18 and 68 being the final headcount. We backed away exactly on time and the normal Gordon Bethune welcome message came on as part of the safety feature, a message that I know like the back of my hand, this being my 15th flight with in CO in the past ten months. We lined up for take off behind three company 737’s and the Privat Air 737 bound for Düsseldorf.

The Flight: We departed around 17:05 and as soon as the seatbelt sign was turned off, hot towels were handed to us. Refreshing and I hope CO continues this as it is a welcome addition to a nice product. Then the F/A came round to collect our dinner choice, the menu was as follows.

TO BEGIN
Warm roasted nuts served with your preferred cocktail or beverage

APPETIZER
Smoked, peppered Atlantic salmon accompanied by salmon roulade with cream cheese and creamed horseradish

SALAD
Fresh mesclun greens and frisee with buffalo mozzarella cheese, red tomato slices, chopped chives and a Kalamata olive

Offered with your choice of balsamic vinaigrette or buttermilk ranch dressing

MAIN COURSES
Rack of Lamb
Baby rack of lamb complemented by demi-glace, presented on a bed of herbed couscous Sautéed zucchini, squash, eggplant, and
red and green bell peppers
Fine green beans

Herbed Breast of Chicken
Enhanced by morel mushroom sauce, served over Italian couscous
Medley of grilled artichoke hearts, oven-roasted red tomatoes, chanterelle mushrooms and pearl onions
Fresh green asparagus spears

Halibut
Seared halibut with toasted fennel and herbs accented by lemon herb sauce, offered with saffron risotto
Sautéed ****ake mushrooms, cherry tomato and salsify
Fresh green asparagus

Pasta Bowl
Pasta shells filled with sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese complemented by spicy eggplant arrabbiata sauce, topped with sautéed baby spinach
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese will be offered with your pasta

DESSERT
Vanilla ice cream with your choice of toppings

Freshly brewed Timothy’s Custom Roasted Milano Blend Coffee
Timothy’s Verona Blend Decaffeinated Coffee
Tea with your choice of milk or lemon

I opted for the ranch dressing and the chicken. Soon the warm nuts came around with my coke. A short while later, the nuts were collected and table linens were placed, something I had never expected on a domestic flight. The tray was put down immediately with the smoked salmon plate of it and bread was offered a second later. The salmon was great, I love smoked salmon and this was great treat. I emptied my plate fast and the F/A came over with a big smile and “I see you enjoyed that!” Shortly thereafter the salad plate was put in front of me and it seems like they were a little skimpy on the dressing, but it was fresh and tasted good. The chicken came over shortly and boy what a piece; it was huge. It was soft and hot and tasted good; wish I could say the same about the couscous. The asparagus was excellent as well but artichokes I did not eat as I am not a fan of those things. Eventually the F/A came round to collect the trays and a short while later she was back.
“What do you want on top of your Sundays?”
“What do you have?”
“Actually I don’t know, hold one second.”
A short while later she came back with,
“Ok, we have three choices today. Chocolate, butter-pecan and caramel. You can also add nuts, whipped cream and a cherry on top. What combination would you like today?”
I ended up having the caramel topping with whipped cream and a cherry. Boy was it good, a little hard but after a few minutes of waiting it became soft, and boy was it good. That was cleared once I was done and I reclined my seat, put my feet on the bulkhead and took a powernap. The movie on this flight was “Spy Kids II,” something I had no interest in watching. After about an hour or two I started reading my magazine and listening to channel 5, which was great. Eventually we started our decent into a cold and rainy Seattle.

Arrival: We touched down around 20:05, a few minutes late due to our extensive flying time of five hours and 45 minutes, and parked at Gate S10. We grabbed the shuttle to the main terminal which was fast. We waited for only two minutes and the bags started rolling out, mine being the third bag thanks to my WP Gold tag. My roommates came out fast as well and we were off to grab a shuttle to the hotel.


March 12

Continental 1580
Seattle – Newark (Seat:1F)
737-800 (N37267)
Scheduled Departure: 8:00
Scheduled Arrival: 16:01
Actual Departure: 7:58
Actual Arrival: 15:40

Check In: We checked out of the Holiday Inn Sea-Tac around 5:30 and took the shuttle to the airport which was a quick five minute hop. My roommate and I headed to CO’s counters while our friend headed over to the US ones further down. I tried the e-ticket machine again and what do you know, “operational upgrade” was flashing in front of me again for both flights. Thank you CO! As my boarding passes were printed I asked the agent for the complimentary companion upgrade possibility. She typed it into the computer and said EWR-MCO was confirmed while the SEA-EWR was unconfirmed. She said she put him on the list though. We checked our bags and off we went towards the US counters, but he was already on his way towards us so we met him half way and headed straight for the gates. Took the train to the S Satellite and went over to the USAirways gate at S5 so that our friend could try and get a window seat as he had been assigned a middle one. The US gate agent collected his boarding pass and off we went to Burger King to grab a quick bite. As soon as we were done, we saw the NW 742 land and we immediately ran to gate S9 where it was parking. I really love this plane, have no idea why but it is great. I just hope that the new colors coming out next month do NW justice, as they currently have one of the best livery’s around. 7:00 rolled by and we walked over to S5 again so that he could board his flight to PIT. His seat got changed to a isle so he was happy to say the least. After boarding was completed, we headed over to S10 and sat down for five minutes.

Boarding: Boarding commenced at 7:30 and we both boarded. As I got to my seat there was an Irish businessman yakking away on his cell phone. I sat down and I heard someone say that the flight had a load of 60%. Around 7:50, a ground agent came over to the F/A and said they had two upgrades to do. A minute later she returned with my roommate from the back and told him his new seat was 2A. He came and sat down and looked directly at me with a huge smile, I said “your welcome” to the point of nearly yelling. The F/A this time were not quite as good as last time. They did not smile nor did they take the jackets, the passengers had to give it to them. We pushed back with that annoying Gordon Bethune welcome message again; it gets annoying at some point.

The Flight: We lifted off and hot towels were handed to us with a grim face on the F/A; maybe she was having a bad day or something. Drink orders were taken and menu’s were handed out.

TO BEGIN
Assorted chilled fruit juices, a mimosa or champagne

Fresh seasonal fruit

Fruit yogurt

Assorted breads including warm croissants, crusty bagels, cinnamon rolls and muffins freshly baked onboard, with butter and strawberry preserves.

MAIN COURSES
Scrambled Eggs with Herbs
Accompanied by Lyonnaise potatoes, grilled smoked pork loin, chipolata sausage, sautéed mushrooms and red and yellow bell
peppers

Apple Crepes
Offered with smoked pork loin and grilled apple rings
Syrup

Selected Cereal
Served with milk, strawberries and a banana

Freshly brewed Timothy’s Custom Roasted Milano Blend Coffee
Timothy’s Verona Blend Decaffeinated Coffee
Tea with your choice of milk or lemon

REFRSHMENT
Will be offered prior to arrival

Selected cheeses served with grapes and crackers

Eventually she came back and plopped my glass of apple juice on my armrest. Leaned against the bulkhead like she was posing for a photo shoot and said;
“I know the menu says apple crepes but the caterers only loaded cherry crepes.”
I decided to have it as did my neighbor. Linens were laid out and the tray was slapped on it shortly thereafter. It contained a bowl of fruit which had two pieces of green and orange cantaloupe with a slice of grapefruit and a strawberry. They were sweet moist and fresh, nice. The other F/A that had been preparing the meals in the galley popped out and with a smile asked me to pick my choice from the bread basket, and I chose a croissant which was warm and fluffy. There was also a small tub of strawberry yogurt which was nice. The main course appeared and it looked good, but after the first bite I knew something was wrong, it tasted awful! The cherry filling they used was unappetizing and totally disgusting in my opinion. I barely ate one of the crepes as I decided against trying to eat the other one. The smoked pork loin was no better, but was edible. The trays were cleared and the movie started, Barbershop. I had no interest what so ever in it, so I decided to put channel 5 on, what do you know, no channel 5; great! I just reclined my seat and put my feet on the bulkhead and snoozed off. Woke up a little while later and the guy next to me offered me his USA Today, which I gladly accepted. Unfortunately it was full of articles about the current state of the airline industry, just what I needed, more depressing news. For those of you who do not know, I am currently in college studying for a degree in Aviation management. I did not need to be reminded of what is going on now. Anyway that helped pass the time and soon the F/A came around with freshly baked cookies, but this time she had a genuine smile and seemed perky. Maybe all she needed was a cup of coffee to pep her up. Soon the cheese plate came round and I declined but did accept another cookie which she willingly got for me. The pilot soon made an announcement that we would be arriving 20 minutes early, good news for my 34 minute connection time.

Arrival & Transit: We arrived 20 minutes early and taxied to gate C103. Perfect, our flight to CO / KMCO), USA - Florida">MCO was at C110, just across from it. We got off the plane and walked fast to our gate. The gate was full, I mean full of spring breakers who were making a lot of noise.. I had seat 3A and my roommate had 2A. Now since we had arrived a bit early and the agents looked like they were just twiddling their thumbs we both headed to the agent, who with out even looking at our boarding passes said,
“Look the flight is full. There is no way I can seat you two together!”
Sheesh! The least she could have done is look at our boarding passes and then said no. I mean how full is First Class? I have a feeling though she thought we were spring breakers and just treated us rudely because of that. Then again the ground service I have received at EWR is similar, I guess I need to be 40 and wear a suit and tie to be treated with some respect by them.

Continental 1493
Newark – Orlando (Seat:3A)
757-300 (Could not see, sorry)
Scheduled Departure: 16:35
Scheduled Arrival: 19:20
Actual Departure: 16:40
Actual Arrival: 19:05

Boarding: Boarding commenced shortly thereafter and both of us headed towards the line. We got through with no problems and headed to our seats. There was someone in 3B and my roommate politely asked if he would not mind switching to 2A.
“Sure, no problem,” was his response. We then settled in and the F/A came over and took our drink orders, which he promptly laid down with in a minute. We pushed back about five minutes late with Bethune talking away on the screens about how special CO is.

The Flight: Take off was fast and we were in the air in no time. The F/A came round again asking what we wanted.
“What would you like to drink and eat? Today we have a hot chicken sandwich or stuffed pasta shells. Which one do you want?”
We both decided on the sandwich. Soon the drinks came by with a packet of salted cashews again. The tray appeared a short while later with the following items.

Salad with Asian Salad Dressing
***************************
Chicken sandwich with zucchini and carrots
Potato salad & Salsa
***************************
Apple Tart

Ok, the salad was nice but the dressing, mixing soy sauce with lemon and vinaigrette is not Asian, at least not to someone like me who spent a good part of my life growing up in South East Asia. As far as the sandwich was concerned it was too hard, me or my roommate could not eat it. I just took my fork and dug the chicken out of it, which was kind of tasteless in the first place. The potato salad was nice but once again, more then 3 piece of potato would have been nice. The apple tart came after the tray had been collected and it was alright, lacking in apple but alright.

My roommate and I just spent the rest of the time talking to each other till I just happen to look out my window. Ahhhh! Right outside my window were the three things I did not want to see, The Speedway, Daytona Beach International Airport, and Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. It was just a reminder of all the work I have in store for me when I get back; though as we had already started our decent it was a clear view of Daytona.

Arrival: We touched down very hard onto Orlando’s runway a few minutes early. It was a quick taxi to our gate and we were off the plane fast. Grabbed the train to the main terminal and were at baggage claim in no time. Continental only has one baggage carousel in MCO which is easy for me to find considering the number of times I have had to use it. Bags started coming out but our bags were not in the first bunch. Eventually more people came down and the single carousel was a full to the point of there being no standing room, the Houston flight just came in. Thank you Continental for having one baggage carrousel for 2 fully loaded 757’s. Eventually our bags came out simultaneously and we were off with our ride that was picking up us and our friend on US, who came in 30 minutes before us.

Verdict: Thank you Continental for the upgrades, I do appreciate the fact that you honor NW frequent flyers and treat us the same as you do your own frequent flyers. The majority of your ground staff was great, with the exception of EWR, but I am used to that now. The cabin crew on the way to SEA on both flights were exceptional, but on the MCO were not up to the standard I have come to expect from CO. I am happy that I got served food in First Class, but the quality could definitely be better, I got a sore throat from the cherry stuff in the crepes.

What happened to the special feeling I got flying CO? The service levels have been becoming more erratic recently and I would like to know why? I realize it is a hard time in the industry and I do realize cost cutting has to happen but why is it that the service levels are dropping? NW seems to be improving in this area, yet CO seems to be on a downward spiral in terms of service. Then again, maybe I am just spoilt after flying airlines like KLM & Cathay Pacific. I by no means expect perfection, all I expect is consistency in service levels, something that a lot of other airlines have been able to hold on to in my opinion. Either way, CO is a good product that delivers what it is suppose to. Continental is still one of the better airlines around; good job on the whole Continental!

Hope it was not too long for you.

NWgoldelite

I've had the same problem with the spanish in one ear, english in the other. What I do is take the spanish ear piece off, and leave the english one on.

I've had that horrible cherry thing for breakfast from SEA-EWR. I learned to ALWAYS get the eggs after that incident.

I was surprised to see that you got an apple tart from EWR-MCO for dessert. Was it better than a pecan delight? For dessert from IAH-SEA I was served nothing more than a pecan delight from dessert. An apple tart would have been nice.

As usual great report! Keep 'em coming.

[This message has been edited by NWgoldelite (edited 03-23-2003).]

SR 103

I would not know unfortunately. I am allergic to pecans, I normally just give it to my traveling companion, whoever it may be. Like I said, the apple tart was a bit lacking in apple, but a nice change from the small pecan things.

Just out of curiosity, who do you think serves better food? Continental or Northwest?

NWgoldelite

It's really hard to say. I've been noticing a lot of cutbacks by Continental lately. It really depends on the route that your flying. I would say CO, but just barely. If NW would start giving out menu's, and increased the portions slightly, then I might reconsider. and u?

[This message has been edited by NWgoldelite (edited 03-27-2003).]

onedog

Thanks for the trip report and congrats on the upgrades.

Bretteee

I am amused that CO serve a cheeseburger in F class. I recently flew on CO from EWR to Denver in Y and we got a cheeseburger in both directions, with not even a plastic utensil to eat it with. I managed but 2 of my neighbours asked for utensils but they did not have any. However it was accompanied by awful cheese nachos and unedible hard nougat, nut candy covered in stale dark chocolate. They probably buy leftover candies in bulk. It would be wiser to serve nothing. Two years ago we got a large meat loaf sandwich.

This together with their "new" 737 with cramped, narrow, hard seats with little leg room did not bode well. I do not understand why KLM, BA and Frontier 737s are comfortable but CO are so uncomfortable.

NWgoldelite

I've had both, the CO F cheeseburger, and the CO Y cheeseburger. They are VERY different. The F cheeseburger is big in size, and is very good, in my opinion. It is also good quality. The Y one is quite small, and is typical coach food. I know when you hear cheeseburger in F you think, "oh big deal nothing special", but I would prefer it over other F meals, such as there turkey sandwich.

Bretteee

NWgoldelite thank you for the explanation. I forgot that there are $1 hamburgers and even $50 hamburgers in fancy New York restaurants.

NWgoldelite

[This message has been edited by NWgoldelite (edited 03-30-2003).]

freshair

Many congrats on all the upgrades! Bravo!

SR 103

I unfortunately have not had the pleasure of having a hot meal on any NW domestic flights so I cannot really compare the two. (International yes, but that is like comparing apples with oranges) Though on the MCO-EWR/DTW flights, in my opinion NW beats CO without a doubt. The NW meal was of better quality and the portions were bigger than CO. They also had a slice of cheesecake that was on the big side, much better than those darn pecan nuts chocolates.

As far as the cheeseburger question. It was of good quality, but I have had CO's meatloaf sandwich in the back and this was definitely better than that meatloaf thing.

SR 103

pallensf

After reading this, I sure do miss CO...

They were my main carrier when they flew out of SFO to HNL...ahhhh, the good old days...


Thanks for the report...

------------------
Patrick A. Inouye, CMT
volunteer trip reports moderator