United Airlines/ Continental

[agc291]

We bought our tickets through Continental for a United flight...any one have good/ bad experiences they can share about their flights with them?

[norcal2]

I can tell you a secret about United/Continental that will do you no good flying in America but United partners with Asiana Airlines on Asian trips so you can get an amazing 1st class flight for United prices if the stars line up right. Sigh.

 

Basically our US legs were United and we found that how much you enjoy the flight depends on what type of plane you are assigned to. We got lucky and got the planes with two seats at the windows 737 I think??? They are as good and bad as most US airlines.

 

I liked United better than Delta though.

[bankerbabe]

Check for good seat assignments on seatguru.com

[norcal2]

Check for good seat assignments on seatguru.com

 

Good call! I love that site. Another trick is to request windows when you can't get assigned seating as that way if you get the 2 seaters at the window you don't get stuck in that middle sardine row with about 5 seats on some of their planes.

[dclark]

Two tricks:

1) Get a United and a Continental credit card. They are both free and when they merge the program, you'll have enough points for a free flight.

2) If they are still doing it (I think they are), Continental will give you (with the CC) two free passes to their airport lounge.

[nytraveller53]

Well, United/Continental are now like all the other airlines. Nothing special.

 

But, a couple years ago, Continental gave a FREE meal in economy! On a flight from Newark to Fort Lauderdale, we got a freshly baked banana muffin, followed by a mushroom and swiss omlet, potatoes, coffee, juice, and assorted rolls! Mmm.... That was REALLY good! Unfortunately, Continental has been sucked into the "cheap airline" thing...:mad:

 

Although I almost exclusively fly Delta/Skyteam airlines because I have a Gold Medallion card, so I get lounge access, priority boarding, free upgrades to Business (this happens a lot, now a days, they're having a hard time filling up first class!). It's really nice.

 

Enjoy you flight on "The Friendly Skies!" (John Heald would say, "My arse!");)

[Name Of The Game]

Remember just over a year ago Continental had those commercials that boasted they "still serve meals"? Now they want $6.95 for a hamburger. Yeah I'm sure that's real fresh. :eek:

[amunhotep]

Do check and re-check your flights/seating. In October we booked Continental for our May Splendor Cruise. All fights indicated as a United codeshare (meaning operated by United) Since that time we have had numerous itinerary changes and seat assignments disappear that have caused me to spend hours on the phone (to India?) to correct their mistakes. Several times they had us arriving in Denver after the flight to LA left, or had us double booked on different aircraft for the same flight. Trying to get six people seated together or near one another has been nearly impossible.

 

It appears as the Continental and United computers are not playing well with each other.

[agc291]

thanks for all of the tips! seatguru looks pretty cool i have never heard of it. I will be sure to keep checking our flight to make sure everything goes smooth.

[raggedyann6]

I booked 3 tickets to LA for our March 20th Splendor cruise using United frequent flier miles. I got an email last week saying they change the flight going home from a 1:30 departure to a 12:30 departure. This was not acceptable for me leaving one hour earlier than my original flight. I booked these flight way back in July and since then thought, boy I should have booked my flights out of Orange County. That is a smaller, nicer airport than LAX IMHO, even though it is about 10 minutes further from the LB cruise dock than LAX.

I told the United agent that I now wanted to fly home out of Orange County airport since that had a flight close to the time my original flight. He said that they did not have any super saver frequent flier award seats on the flight out of OC. I looked on line and they did have seats on the saver award which was 50K miles instead of the 25K miles that I originally booked with. I told the agent it was not my fault they changed my flight so they should let me fly out of OC. He asked his supervisor and came back and said yes they would. They did NOT have to do that so I was very happy they did allow the change of airports.

When the airlines tells you there is a change in time even if it is just 10 minutes different than your original flight you do NOT have to accept the change. You could cancel without penalty if for some reason you wanted to not go on the flight. It is just good to know this as you never know, things can change after you book with miles and you are stuck since there is a change fee if you are the one who wants to alter your flight.