Continental DO IV IAH 6-7 Feb, Flights to and from

As some of you may be aware, Continental Airlines threw a big party for 525 customers (who were members of One Pass as well as Flyer Talk) this past weekend in Houston. My wife agreed to accompany me this time (she usually does not like these events), because a number of FFOCUS members were attending (13 if I counted right).. FFOCUS is Frequent Flyers Organized and Concerned about Unacceptable Service, an advocacy group I chair and co founded. Here is the beginning of the trip report:

Friday morning, time to go to Houston--DO IV is about to begin...

The day started shortly after midnight, with an attempt to change our return flight due to a death in our extended family. While checking a different return, the seat map application failed, and would not return to the flight screen. I took a minute to email Scott the report of the glitch, and decided we'd just stand by for the early return.

Scott, however, was still working, and 10 minutes later emailed me they would look into the failure of the session and advised he had already changed our flights!!! Thank you Scott! (Scott O'Leary is CO's Managing Director of Customer Experience)

As usual, I packed at the last minute, and we left the house around 10:30AM for a 1PM flight (early so JoAnn could spend some time in the Presidents Club at LGA). There was no traffic, and we got to LGA by around 11:15, and settled into the club, which is located near the walkway to the parking garage, on level 4 of the LGA main terminal, outside security.

We noticed the inbound was due in 20 minutes late, but our flight was showing still on time. I had a little chat with the agent, who gave me a note for Scott asking for a change to one of the upgrade procedures. I kept checking the upgrade standby list (we were nos. 1 and 2 respectively with 5 seats open). We finally had one person jump us on the list, but even at 2 and 3, we cleared about 45 minutes before the flight.

Around 12:10 we went down to go through security, and found the line a little slower than normal, but after 15 minutes, we were through and on to the gate. The agent was busy working at the computer, and her colleague was helping arriving passengers with connections or other information. I waited until she was finished and then inquired about new boarding passes--she looked at the record, noticed that JoAnn and I were not seated together and changed my seat assignment so we would be together (thank you).

Finally on board, coats taken promptly with predeparture bevs served. Despite the late arrival of the inbound aircraft, we were off the gate 5 minutes early, and it was a very short taxi to RY 31--and with only 2 aircraft ahead of us, we were airborne within 10 minutes of leaving the gate.

Through 10,000, the FA's got up to begin their service - by the time they got to our row, however, there was no longer a choice of lunch-and the FA was VERY apologetic. All passengers in F were addressed by name, which is still a nice touch. Hot towels, and luncheon is served--mushroom soup (quite good), salad with shrimp, hot roll, and cookies. A quick nap, then off to finish a book which was taking forever to read.

Before we knew it we were descending into Houston, and we landed a full 40-45 minutes ahead of schedule. Off the plane, we went to find the underground train which would take us to the Marriott in the airport..of course we got on at the wrong side, and had to make 3 stops before getting to the hotel.

Friday night the welcome reception was held in the Marriott Hotel within IAH, where we happened to be staying. We made our way down to the reception about a half hour before it was to begin, which turned out to be a smart move since the line to register was already forming. We checked in and got our assignments for the following day's tours and panel assignments (We got Mystery Tour 1 for the tour, and I was selected for One Pass and Alliances and the Continental Product panels.

After checking in, we were each given a gift by CO--a set of four cups and saucers from their Business First China. Following that, drink tickets in hand, we made our way to the bar, and to my delight I found a bottle of Crown Royal waiting for me. Drink in hand we picked up some food, and began to mingle.

The first friend I encountered was Scott O'Leary, who I thanked profusely for helping me the night before, and we chatted for a bit, I introduced him to JoAnn, and we caught up a little. I then found a few more of my members, and we spent an hour or so socializing.

The theme of the party was Fun and Games--and this night the opening game was Miles or No Miles, fashioned after Deal or No Deal. I was chosen as a box model, holding number 16--wasn't chosen to play, but it was fun nontheless. Three games were played, and up to 1 million miles was on the table during any game.

After the "opening ceremony" we continued to socialize, and I finally found the real host of the evening, Mr. Larry Kellner, CEO of Continental. I introduced him to my group, and he engaged us in conversation for almost 30 minutes--talking about routes, the new alliances and answered most of the questions posed to him. I have to say--that for an airline CEO (or executive of ANY big company for that matter) to spend his or her own personal time meeting with and chatting with customers over a weekend is very impressive and says alot about the way he values his customers and employees...he kept crediting his employees for CO's consistent high CS ratings and success.

Finally the evening was over, and we were off to get a few hours of sleep before our "Mystery Tour" bus left at 7:30AM...

More to follow.

After a brief sleep we were up and had breakfast at 6:45AM in the hotel restaurant, then off to meet the group for the mystery tour. Some of the tours offered this year were:

Corporate HQ
Flight Kitchen
Inflight Training Center
Maintenance
Mystery Tour

It was during last year's event I got to fly the 737-800 sim (proud to say I flew it well and landed twice safely). This year it was the Mystery Tour....

We got on the bus, and as we pulled away, we were told about the tour: A charter flight on a 757-200 retrofitted with the new AVOD system. We were to depart IAH, do a low pass at HOU (Hobby), then climb to 15000 feet, overhead Galveston, up to AUS or SAT, then back to IAH. On board we found a complete set of Business First amenities - amenity kit, pillow, blanket, headset for each passenger (the flight was limited to keep all center seats free). Once above 10,000 feet the flight deck was opened for us to visit and take photos, and we were each served a snack bag, with senior executives of CO serving champagne and OJ for the duration. We also had the most famous CO FA's on board, including Chavon, the beautiful lady who starred in earlier safety videos at CO.

The hour and a half went quickly, during which time I drank too much champagne, but still got to play with the AVOD system. Before you knew it, we were on final at IAH, and towed back to the hard stand in front of the hangar, from which we had departed.

After a lunch with the members of FFOCUS, we went off to the first of our panels: One Pass and Alliances, which was headed by executives in marketing and customer experience. They explained as much as they could about the upcoming switch to the Star Alliance and announced that CO would leave Skyteam effective October 24th. Following that panel I attended the panel on Continental Product.

After that one, it was time for the big one--Q & A with CEO Larry Kellner and President Jeff Smizek. We had front row seats for that one, and during a slide show they actually flashed a photo of the FFOCUS pin (the cockroach)!! During the open question portion I did get up and thanked Larry and Jeff for hosting us and being open to talking to all of us, and I started what turned out to be a standing ovation for them.

After the Q&A Larry asked to talk to me for a moment, and during that conversation, I presented him with my last FFOCUS pin.

As we were the last folks out of the meeting due to my chat with Mr. Kellner, JoAnn and I were the only 2 passengers on the bus back to our hotel...we napped for an hour or so and got ready for the evening party in Hangar B at IAH.

The bus taking us to the hangar of course got lost, and it came to me to fire up VZ Navigator in my BB Storm to get us there--I did get a round of applause from by bus mates as JoAnn just rolled her eyes.

The hangar party was a catered affair which featured a number of games, including Let's Make a Deal and the Price is Right.....they had working models of CO's new lie flat Business First seat, their new Live TV product and they had a brand new 737-900ER open for us to walk through--which was really cool-this one was awaiting the install of Live TV.

Finally the evening was over and we got some sleep for the trip back to LGA, which was changed earlier to first flight of the day...continued below.

Here is a link to my Facebook photos of the event:

http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/a ... 1085547359

For the second day in a row, JoAnn and I had to get up at 5:30AM to catch a flight (although we didn't know that the first day). As explained before, we had to change our return flight to the first of the day back to LGA due to a death in our extended family.

We got to the CO terminal on the underground train, and having checked in on line, proceeded right through security--as I guessed there was no delay at 6:40AM. We met one of the CO employees I had been visiting with during the weekend, and their flight was leaving around the same time back to TPA.

CO has a nice feature in that you can check the first class upgrade list on the PDA site--I had been upgraded and as a Platinum companion JoAnn turned out to be number 1 on the standby list--7 of 8 seats booked, and she wound up alone on the list. When the gate agent showed up and finished her startup procedure, I asked about JoAnn's chance for the upgrade. After replying that she thought it was already full, she checked, noted that JoAnn was alone on the list, and gave me her new boarding pass.

As we boarded (737-500 has only 2 rows of F), I asked the gentleman due to sit next to me if he would mind switching with JoAnn so we could sit together. He agreed readily, and we settled in for a 2 hr 58 minute flight back to LGA. Once airborne, a hot breakfast was served, and again, I tried to finish that pesky book I had been reading for over a week. I am happy to report I DID finish it on this flight.

The flight plan was a little out of the way, perhaps due to winds--IAH north to Cleveland then east to NY using the MIP arrival--it usually goes via ATL then northeast into the KORRY arrival...in any case we arrived a few minutes ahead of schedule, found the car and then proceeded on with our day.

A perfect end to a great weekend.....with many thanks to our friends at Continental Airlines and the members of my group FFOCUS who joined us.

My BEST to you all....

Art, really enjoyable report about a class-act airline, I applaud them for doing another event like this for their best customers, "Brilliant Buisness" IMO anyway. It sounds like many very FF's participated and had a lot of enthusiasm for learning more about CO. It sounds like the Mystery Tour was the best event, I would have enjoyed that the most. My favorite part of the TR was when used the navigator for the bus driver and JoAnn just rolled her eyes, classic Art.

I am curious if any mention was made of the new 737-900ER that will be delivered soon in a Retro scheme that their employees are voting on the design/era to be chosen?

Thanks for another great TR Art

LGA777

Ron,

Yes Larry and Jeff mentioned that the employees were voting on which retro color scheme to paint it in...and that a new jet would be painted in those colors.

We were able to walk through a brand new 737-900ER--the photo of me in the engine is of that one...ship number 427.