Comments on: Winging My Way North

By: dan

dan — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 13:22:10 +0000

Yeah, I used to fly Continental all the time, and I think, service-wise, it was one of the best. In the last couple of years since the new CEO took over and instituted wholesale changes in procedures to “tighten the ship”, along with various stuff imposed by Homeland Security, I’ve noticed the service quality plummet.

By: ksternberg

ksternberg — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 15:27:47 +0000

"you are required to wear your seatbelt on the outside of the blanket if youâ€re going to sleep, or theyâ€ll wake you up." Ladies and gentleman, for the convenience and safety to our insurance premiums, we ask that you keep yourselves tied up and don't move at all. Man! Continental sounds really sucky. Only somehwat related, but I just flew over to and returned from Paris on American business class. Very comfortable, decent and ample anough food. Mediocre wines, except for the Piper Heidseick and Perrier Jouet Champagne.

By: dan

dan — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 19:56:54 +0000

I’ve flown LAN, Aerolineas, and American to and from BsAs. Yes, as far as I know, LAN and Aerolineas provide free wine and beer with meals. They also accept any currency from either origin or destination or in-between stop countries along the flight – So, for example, a LAN flight, which usually goes through Santiago and Lima enroute to New York, accepts Argentine and Chilean Pesos, Peruvian Soles, and US Dollars. American charges, but takes either dollars or Argentine pesos. It also wasn’t just the lack of taking pesos that pissed me off, but the attitude and comment from the flight attendant.

In re blankets and seatbelts, they made an announcement specifically stating that you are required to wear your seatbelt on the outside of the blanket if you’re going to sleep, or they’ll wake you up. Continental is certainly not the service oriented airline it used to be!

By: asadoarg

asadoarg — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 16:25:34 +0000

>Continental

I don’t know if their policies are still the same but up until the past two years I’ve flown in and out on LAN, TAM, or Aerolineas. Never did duty free on the plane so I’m not sure what the currency situation was. I do remember you didn’t have to pay for wine, beer, or liquor. They even had a complimentary night cap cart before lights out. Since then I’ve been flying AA but only because I wanted non-stop to Miami and the prices were cheaper. Really ticked me off when I found out I had to pay $5 for a little bottle of wine or beer on an international flight. Not to mention the fun of watching the attendants run up and down the aisle of couple of times with flashlights to make sure us adults, err children in their eyes, were wearing our seatbelts underneath our blankets. This was when the seatbelt sign was off mind you. Even the movies were horrible, flicks that just came out on DVD. The other carriers would show movies that just left the theater. Guess I’m ranting too much.

Next time I think I’ll go back to LAN. I have mileage with both and since they are part of OneWorld I’ll be good to go.