southwest pilots!! a question, if you please...

[Kream926]

speaking of frills or lack of, im flying tomorow for the semi-annual parental visit on AA for the frist time. i looked on my itinerary and it sais that breakfast will be served and brunch on the way back. is this for real? BTW its on a MD - 88

 

[cforst513]

i don't see why not. i've flown AA only once (from CMH to LAX and back) and i got treated pretty well. the 767 to LAX had food service which cost like $3 (i had to dig deep in the wallet for that one) as well as a movie. on the way back, on a super-80, i was able to ask them for 2 drinks and a bunch of the free snacks. they treated me well.

where are you headed to and from, Kream? did the ticket say anything about having to pay for the food?

 

[Kream926]

tul - buf

nothing about paying for it

 

[Yank McCobb]

...............

 

[jarhead]

Frills still available...

Continental Airlines Continues to Offer Full Service Product on Domestic Flights at No Cost
Monday June 27, 1:27 pm ET

NEW YORK, June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As passenger traffic increases during an already-busy summer travel season, Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL - News) continues to be the only major U.S. carrier to offer a full array of complimentary amenities to customers traveling in economy on domestic flights including meals, entertainment, non-alcoholic beverages, pillows, blankets, magazines and curbside check-in.

"In an environment where our competitors continue to cut or charge for economy-class amenities, we have chosen to preserve our product by keeping the services we know our customers value," said Jim Compton, Continental's Executive vice president of Marketing. "We continue to focus on providing the best service in the industry and offering a superior product to our customers is clearly a big part of that."

Meals and snacks are served at mealtimes in economy class on flights over two hours in length. Examples of meals offered in coach on Continental's domestic flights include the following:

Breakfast
* Cereal basket with milk, banana and muffin, and coffee, juice or tea
* Tray with hot breakfast egg sandwich on croissant or biscuit, fruit
appetizer and yogurt

Lunch/Dinner
* Sandwich with fresh snack (apple or carrots) and candy

Sandwich options include smoked turkey, turkey and cheese, oven
roasted turkey, baked ham and cheese, tuna salad and roast beef.

* Hot sandwich or personal cheese pizza, salad cup (pasta or potato
salad), packaged chips and Pepperidge Farm cookies

Hot sandwich options include barbeque chicken on a Kaiser roll,
charbroiled hamburger, breaded chicken on a Kaiser roll, spinach
cheese stromboli, turkey club and chopped steak and Swiss cheese.

On many of Continental's domestic flights, free inflight audio and visual entertainment is included. Feature films currently offered on Continental's domestic flights include: Be Cool, Hitch, Robots, Sideways, The Wedding Date, A Guy Thing and 13 Going on 30. Movies change monthly. July's offerings include: Fever Pitch, In Good Company, Miss Congeniality and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, and Beauty Shop.

For video-equipped flights under 90 minutes in duration, Continental offers the acclaimed ContinentalVision, with a variety of programming including sitcoms, news, music videos and travel features.

Up to 20 audio channels featuring a variety of music and talk-radio options are available on audio-equipped domestic flights. Customers are offered a selection encompassing everything from opera to oldies to hip-hop.

In addition to Continental's acclaimed inflight magazine, Continental, a monthly publication featuring the latest business and travel trends, the carrier offers a number of well-known, national publications on its flights. A sampling of magazines found on Continental's recent domestic flights include: Conde Nast Traveler, The Economist, Elle, Entrepreneur, Food and Wine, Golf Digest, GQ, Newsweek, Time, and Travel & Leisure.

Pillows and blankets are stocked on all domestic and international flights at no added cost to ensure customer comfort.

The carrier continues to offer curbside check-in to all customers at no charge, whereas some competitors have begun charging per bag.

Continental Airlines is the world's sixth largest airline. Continental, together with Continental Express and Continental connection has more than 3,000 daily departures throughout the Americas Europe and Asia, serving 150 domestic and 130 international destinations, more than any other carrier in the world. Nearly 400 additional points are served via SkyTeam alliance airlines, which include Aeromexico, Air France/KLM, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Korean Air and Northwest Airlines. With 41,000 employees, Continental has hubs serving New York, Houston, Cleveland and Guam, and together with Continental Express, carries approximately 56 million passengers per year. Continental consistently earns awards and critical acclaim for both its operation and its corporate culture.

For the second consecutive year, FORTUNE magazine named Continental the No. 1 Most Admired Global Airline on its 2005 list of Most Admired Global Companies. Continental was also included in the publication's annual "Top 50" list, which ranks all companies, across a wide variety of industries, that appear in the Global Most Admired Companies issue. Continental again won major awards at the 2005 OAG Airline of the Year Awards including "Airline of the Year" and "Best Airline Based in North America" for the second consecutive year, and "Best Executive/Business Class" for the third consecutive year. For more company information, visit www.continental.com .

 

[typhoonpilot]

a quick question: my girlfriend is flying from CMH to PHX tomorrow. for that long of a flight, is there any in-flight entertainment (besides the flight crew and flight attendants)?

I envy someone who thinks that a 3 or 4 hour flight is long. Mind you, without in-flight entertainment or a good book to read while sitting in a cramped airplane that can be an eternity.

TP

 

[cforst513]

heh heh, i take it from your name and the fact you're a 777 driver, you do a lot of overseas stuff. the longest i've been in an airplane during 1 leg is a bit over 4 hours, from ORD to LAX. so CMH to PHX is long to me! i have yet to experience the whole 17 hour trip over the cold, dark pacific!

 

[Iceman07]

Just my tooscents...

I had been an AA fan since I was about 7 years old, when my sister and I went from LAX to JFK on a AA 707. I tried to fly nothing but AA, I dreamed of flying the big silver birds. When I started traveling quite a bit on buisness, I always treid to go AA.

But....

A couple of years ago (not long after 9/11) I quit flying AA after too many 6 - 8 hour delays, surly flight attendents, rude, uncaring gate agents, personell that didn't have a clue, etc. etc. etc.....

So I started flying SWA. Man, what a difference. The crews are (almost) always friendly, caring and knowledgable. The on-time performance is so much better.

A couple of examples for you:

When I fly, I try to take my bike with me. I know that:

1) AA (and most other majors) charge $80.00 each way. OK, so I know this, so I just accept it and pay the fee. I don't like it, but in order to train while on the road, I just bite the bullet.

2) SWA charges $50.00 each way.

Two years ago, I was going from BDL to LAX on AA, and after paying the $80.00 for the bike, the agent then says: "Oh, and there will also be a $40.00 charge for over-size baggage" "Huh?" says I: "I just paid you $80.00 for the bike, why are you charging me another $40.00?". "Well, SIR, thats just the way it is, the box is over-size, so we have to charge you the over-size fee also". She wouldn't even discuss it with me, just either pay the fee or leave the bike. Horrible attitude. I wrote a letter to AA corporate, and they just sent me a form letter saying that that was thier policy.

Strike 1.

Year and a half ago (January 2004) I am going from JFK to Mexico City through Miami. I am watching the weather, and there is a big system over the midwest, the wx at JFK is not great, but there is some freezing precip. so we push-back "on-time" but then wait in the de-ice pit for 1 1/2 hours. As far as I can see, there is exactly one deice truck out there.
Needless to say, I miss my connection in Miami, so I walk up to the gate agent, and ask him what he can do. "Well, sir, there is only one flight to Mexico City this evening, and it is overbooked, so I can't get you on it, we are going to send you up to O'Hare, then down to Mexico City". One of the few (maybe the only time) times that I actually lost my temper. "There is no way in heck that you are sending me up to O'hare" "Well, I am sorry sir but there is nothing else we can do" I am steaming at this point. I know that if they send me up to O'Hare, there is no way I am going to get the Mexico City that evening.

Luckily, there is a passenger (yes, another pax) standing next to me that is also going to MXC, and he keeps his cool. He says to the agent: "Well, sometimes if they know we are going to be delayed, they will automatically put you on the next flight, can you check to see if
they put us on the flight?". The gate agent then very relunctantly checked, and sure enough, we are on the later fight.

Strike 2.

I write a letter to AA, and guess what I get? Yup, a form letter stating that since it was wx related, there is nothing they could do.

Strike 3.

I will not fly AA again. But they don't care, I am just one pax, there are a lot more where I came from.

I fly SWA everywhere now. Even the long hauls. The seats are more comfortable, the crews are great (Thanks to Capt. Bruce this past Saturday, BTW. While on a flight from BDL to MDW, he gave my 8 YO daughter and I a very nice cockpit tour before the flight. He let her sit in the FO seat, and was so great with her.)

There is a good reason why SWA is so succesful.

 

[RunUp]

heh heh, i take it from your name and the fact you're a 777 driver, you do a lot of overseas stuff. the longest i've been in an airplane during 1 leg is a bit over 4 hours, from ORD to LAX. so CMH to PHX is long to me! i have yet to experience the whole 17 hour trip over the cold, dark pacific!

Try LAX to MNL on Philippine Airlines. The longest 15 hours of my life.