Continental - any feedback?

[Hilary]

Looking at flights with Continental from Bristol to Orlando via Newark, and would love to hear any feedback about the airline or that route

I've never considered this route before as I'd only ever found silly prices - even taking into account the convenience (for us) of Bristol departures. Now, however, I've found flights for £303 and am seriously tempted, even though we weren't planning to go again until 2010!

 

[Lottie]

We're going this way next Saturday, 7th! Will be the first time indirect so hope it goes well. Step-daughter did it in November, slightly late leaving Bristol missed intended flight from Newark to Orlando but were put on the very next one.

 

[wayneg]

Used them twice from Manchester but its a few years ago (4 or 5 years), both times thru Newark. No idea what they are like now but we had no problems back then.
Their customer services in Houston Texas were brilliant when my Mum passed away. Expedia said no refund for her ticket, got in touch with their head office and they made Expedia refund me.

 

[Maves Wife]

we have actually switched to using them instead of virgin - its amazing getting to orlando and not having to go through immigration, you do this in new york! Their in flight system is a lot better also as you can halt the programmes you are watching and restart when you are ready! Newark has loads of shops & because its a continental hub they have got buy in from the stores that they can only charge the same price as they would in their shops in a town/city/mall - so you dont get ripped off. The only problem we have found is that some of the announcers are very quiet & you cant understand them which resulted in us missing our flight But to be fair to continental they just put us on the next one as if it was a bus we had just missed instead of a flight!!!!!!The food is a lot better and the flight attendants are fab - and you can even get diet sprite. Remember to keep your headphones from your international flight becuase if you dont you will have to pay for them on your flight from newark down to orlando. Even when our flight was delayed & they had to put us up in a hotel they gave us about $40 worth of vouchers each for meals. I would def recomend them

 

[TinkTatoo]

We've used them loads of times, they are a great airline and I'd have no problem recommending them. Newark is really easy to get around and there are plenty of places to get something to eat.

If you have a look at the Continental web site there is a blue bar across the top, if you go to Travel Information and then Flight Status and Information it will let you check the flights out of Bristol. They have recently upgraded this page and it now tells you about the in flight entertainment so you can see if the Bristol flight would normally have seat back TV's

 

[pixiepower04]

I agree with Maves Wife. We flew in September from Edinburgh and it was great, we bought dvd players for the kids because we weren't sure about the inflight entertainment because only 60% of the flights had them but were really chuffed to find we had them, the kids though it was great.

We missed our connecting flight though because we only had 1hr 30 mins and we were sent all over the place but because the other flights were full we had to wait 7 hours until the next one which by the time we got to the hotel we had been on the go for over 24 hours!

Food was good, staff were polite and friendly, immigration was painless albeit a bit long (but we were in the back of the plane so last off and at the back of the queue).

Wandering around Newark for 7 hours was not as painful as it could have been because they have tons of shops and eateries and the Continental guy gave us food vouchers because of the flight delay so that was really nice of them.

I am only looking to go with them again next year and although we paid £1940 in September they have since dropped down to £1315 and if we were going again this year i'd snap them up like a shot.

I had always wanted to fly with Virgin but we have to get from Dundee to Glasgow to London to Orlando and the Glasgow to London bit is always with a codeshare and at £300 just for this bit we decided to give Continental a go and i'm so pleased we did.

 

[tinks86]

We flew from Orlando to Newark with them (we were spending a few days in NYC before flying BA home) and they were great for the internal flight - I am also thinking about using them to go from Bristol!

 

[Hilary]

Thanks for the really helpful replies, everyone

Well, I'm convinced - just need to work on DH

 

[T16GEM]

We always fly with Continental, always find them very well priced and their service is great, I also like going through immigration in another state so you just go straight through to get your baggage at Orlando.

Most recently we went in January with them Birmingham to Orlando and the main longhaul part of the flight had the seat back tvs, the leg from Newark to Orlando had no entertainment, but that's no problem really as it's so short a flight.

The only thing that I would suggest is that you get a decent changeover time as some times when you are going through immigration etc it does take a while and it's awful to be worrying about missing your connection! We had just over 3 hours this time and that was perfect.

Good luck convincing your DH!

 

[Lizzybear]

We flew with them last year (not the same route but did a change in Newark both ways) and found them fine.. Bit delayed landing in Newark as it's such a busy airport but since we had a generous connection time it didn't matter. They don't always have the seatback screens (if they don't then they have communal ones) but this didn't matter much to us. Ooh also, you can get Virgin miles (rather than Continental ones) with them which is a nice bonus

 

[disneyholic family]

we've flown them through newark and they're fine...
i'm not a big fan of newark airport, but it's a lot easier than kennedy.....

i wouldn't hesitate to fly them...

 

[Miffy2003]

Hi Hilary

We now prefer to do Continental from Bristol indirect rather than VA direct into MCO.

I love flying back, collecting the luggage and being back in the car within 30mins, and home just over an hour later. Fantastic.

I hate the journey home from Gatwick so am prepared to fly indirect for the convenience of a local airport.

We've flown with them four times now I think, so eight transatlantic flights in total. We generally find the staff very pleasant and the last time we had a fantastic seatback entertainment system. It's not a huge plane (3 seats, aisle, 3 seats) if that matters to you?

The food is .... airline food . DD never eats on planes but they do a wonderful fruit plate (pre-order) which she does pick at which is better than nothing so that is a bonus for our family.

Newark is a doddle, though last time they were messing around with the terminals and we had to go from one to the other and only just made our connection to MCO. The other positive for me is that there are quite a few connecting flights to MCO in the afternoon / evening, so if you do miss one there should not be a problem getting on another one.

HTH a little.

 

[Hilary]

double post

 

[Hilary]

Thanks again for the feedback from you all

I am saving this thread of 'evidence' as a trump card if DH should show signs of resistance!

I think he'd love to go, but is concerned about lack of cover at work and wants to talk it over with a colleague before committing to anything. So I should know by Monday evening whether or not we're going to go for it, or wait until 2010

Naturally, the flights have gone up by £35 pp since I first started looking , so the sooner we can decide, the better!

I hate the journey home from Gatwick so am prepared to fly indirect for the convenience of a local airport.

Absolutely, Karen! On our very first trip we drove back from Gatwick and vowed "never again" - it just wasn't sensible or safe. Since then, if we have to use Gatwick, we book a day room for a nap after we land before we set off on the drive home. We've also been looking at flying to Miami so that we can use Heathrow flights, as we've done that before and can just about cope with the return drive from there, but it's still not brilliant.

 

[Miffy2003]

Oh Hilary, I will keep my fingers crossed that you can use the necessary powers of persuasion to obtain the required result

 

[fearfall]

we have used Continental for flights to new york and they were fantastic, on time, great service