Anybody Flown With Continental ??

[Babyboo]

Anybody flown with Continental?? What are they like and hows the service ??

Have found some flights for August that the price would make it worth flying indirect for AND losing our deposit paid to VH for a fly drive ....

 

[Dazed]

I've flown before from Edinburgh via Newark. Was a 757 with no back of seat screens but otherwise was fine. A few years ago now but good service as I remember. Also found transfer at Newark much easier than at Manchester last year.
I seem to fly with different airlines each time -Monarch, BA, Continental then Virgin. Not a lot of difference in economy especially if you sleep most of the way!
Hope it's OK as I've just booked with Continental again -cheapest flights I've ever booked!

 

[rsbuxt]

Hi

We've flown from Manchester & Birmingham via Newark and they are OK - nothing special, but OK. The staff were kinda mature in relation to others I have flown with, but experience meant they were extremely efficient. "Entertainment" was poor, but that's a small complaint.

Rich

 

[Miffy2003]

We've done five return transatlantic trips now with Continental. The last three have been on planes with seatback entertainment that includes films, TV shows, games and music; you can stop and start them at will and IMO are far superior to Virgin's seatback entertainment (I've only ever flown on the LGW route with the system which isn't great).

The seat pitch is similar to VA/BA.

I find the staff very pleasant and they were brilliant with my DD when she was poorly.

The food ... is airline food, I can't be any more positive

The indirect flights can be a drawback but I am happy to sacrifice a direct flight to be able to fly from my local airport (Bristol) and not have to go up to London.

 

[Babyboo]

Thanks for all your responses.

Now just need to persude DH that flying indirect to save ££'s is worth it.

Just one more question - what happens about luggage and do you get the same allowances on the internal flights??

Thanks
Melissa x

 

[wayneg]

Thanks for all your responses.

Now just need to persude DH that flying indirect to save ££'s is worth it.

Just one more question - what happens about luggage and do you get the same allowances on the internal flights??

Thanks
Melissa x

5 years since we used CO but we had no problems with them.
Your luggage is checked thru to Orlando so you have full allowance the whole way.

Economy Class - International - Europe, Micronesia, Middle East and Asia 2 Checked Bags - no charge Each bag at a maximum 50 lbs (23 kg) and 62 linear inches (157 cm) (total length + width + height)

 

[T16GEM]

Nothing but praise for Continental from us, we will be doing our 4th flight with them this coming January, Birmingham to Newark then into Orlando Intl this year was the first time that we have used their seatback entertainment and we found it to be good, the games and movies entertained the kids pretty well.

Food - ok, nothing special just normal airline food, drinks are always available, if you want something else between services then the crew were happy to get it for you. If you have little ones the only thing to be aware of was I ordered kids meals for our DD3 and DS2, they gave them jarred baby food as they mixed up and gave us infant meals. There were no spare meals but luckily they didn't really want to eat that much.

Service - Agree that the crew are more mature, but in a way I like this as they are more experienced in what they are doing, we had a fantastic crew on the way back who saved a whole row at the back of the plane for us so that we could move and the kids could lie down to sleep on the flight.

We managed fine with the luggage allowance too, I think we may have been slightly over but they let us off!

One thing that we found handy was that they now have a US plug under the seat for charging laptops etc, we found this great as the kids were using my netbook for movies and we were worried about the battery running low, we needn't have as we could charge it - just make sure that you have your plug adapter in your hand luggage.


HTH

 

[earthelves]

Used Continental 3 times last year from Edin to Newark & twice this year..All GOOD is what i say

 

[pixiepower04]

Only positives with me too

With the luggage you have to go and collect it, clear immigration and put the luggage through again, this means you clear immigration at point of entry so no hassle at Orlando

 

[Lizzybear]

Flew with them last year and no problems and this was flying in and out of different airports (with changes both ways, phew!) Using them again this year so hope to have a positive experience again. Their prices and flexibility for multistop flights are very good and since this is what we like to do I can see us using them frequently in the future.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Used to fly with them a lot, very good even when they were in Chapter 11.
good efficient service and food OK. Presidents club at Newark OK, but better than Deltas in Orlando!
However, never found the Buisness class fares cheaper from BHX to MCO indirect with them than Virgin or BA LGW-MCO, always seem to be very expensive in comparison.

 

[merlin307]

hi

Recently back (2 weeks ago) after flying from EDI to MCO via newark, and we loved the flights.
didnt have to worry about the bags at all in either direction - didnt have to collect and re submit through check in.
we had a small delay in newark going out, but then a major delay coming back which meant we missed our connection, but they were great, put us up in a hotel and gave vouchers etc. for the next day - and booked us through to the next available flight the next evening - which gave us an extra day in new york which can't be bad.
If the price is right then I would definately use them again - its more convenient changing in newark (immigration was a 5 min wait - compared to the usual half our at least at orlando) and added to the holiday.
entertainment was better than virgin or ba in our opinion, but food about the same.

 

[Lizzybear]

If anyone is flying Continental soon who has never flown indirect before I would say double check if you need to recheck your bags outbound or not, we did and i'm aware that this is the procedure with most indirect international flights. Inbound it should go straight through with no need to recheck it, if in doubt look at the luggage tags and it will say if it's been checked to the UK or not

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

As with all flights to the USA, wether direct to orlando or indirect to another "hub" you have to collect your bags at the airport you first land in the USA and go through Customs at.
then hand the luggage over at the checkin desk for your onward flight.

 

[Babyboo]

Thanks for all the positive comments.

But what do you know - the price has gone up around £1k today for the flights we were looking at.

I'm going to keep an eye on them and if they come down to the £1600 that they were for the 5 of us, before I have to pay Virgin for our fly drive I will jump on them.

 

[wayneg]

As with all flights to the USA, wether direct to orlando or indirect to another "hub" you have to collect your bags at the airport you first land in the USA and go through Customs at.
then hand the luggage over at the checkin desk for your onward flight.

Obi, there was a thread recently about this, someone posted they did not have to collect going out, it also happened to us once, maybe 8-10 years ago. The luggage was checked in thru to Orlando.
I know its rare, only once in 20+ trips for us but is it to do with flight numbers? usually you have a flight # to hub then a different one to Orlando. The one where we did not collect was same flight number thru to Orlando from Manchester, even though we changed planes.

 

[T16GEM]

Thanks for all the positive comments.

But what do you know - the price has gone up around £1k today for the flights we were looking at.

I'm going to keep an eye on them and if they come down to the £1600 that they were for the 5 of us, before I have to pay Virgin for our fly drive I will jump on them.

Before booking our flights for next January we were monitoring the prices daily, we got ours for £327 pp, then 2 or 3 days later they went up to £798 pp, now they are back to around the £425 mark so the prices with CO do tend to fluctuate but if you see them around the £340 - £350 mark I would just go for them as they don't seem to go any lower than that.

We were happy to wait until the prices were at a level we were happy with, if they go down more then hey ho, but as long as you are happy with the price you get then that's ok.

 

[Babyboo]

One more quick question,

Are you able to pre book seats with Contiental when booking through Opodo, Airline Network etc.

 

[Lizzybear]

One more quick question,

Are you able to pre book seats with Contiental when booking through Opodo, Airline Network etc.

With Opodo definitely yes (in the E-mail confirmation there is a reference number which you can use on Continental's website, did this last year and again this year) and I imagine this is the case for most if not all similar sites.

 

[Beep]

Hiya,

I tracked the flights last year ready to book this year. Ours went from around the £395 mark through Airline Network to nearly £900 so it's well worth knowing what an 'average' price is.

We didn't have a lot of flexibility for our flights as we are travelling with parents and getting married there too so we booked ours as soon as they came available. It worked out about £60 (I think) more than the lowest price we had tracked last year so we were happy with that. They are more than double the price now...

You can request seats on the Continental site if you have booked through Airline Network, and on the AN site there is a link to check the flight to see if there have been any changes to flight times. Ours has changed three times since booking in January!