According to threads on Flyertalk next year the United Red Carpet Clubs and Continental President Clubs will rebrand as United Clubs.

I don’t know why President couldn’t stay in the name, but since the brand colors are blue and gold and CO has blue carpets for elites it doesn’t make much sense to keep the name Red Carpet Club.

At least Delta spiced it up with the word Sky.

I don’t fly Continental very often, but twice this year I was asked if  I worked for the airline after boarding.

The first time was on CO Express.  I asked for a margarita.  The FA asked me if I worked for CO.  I (honestly) said no mostly because I was afraid they had some policy about alcohol.  She replied “oh, you look like a flight attendant.  I would have given it to you for free if you said yes.”

Then yesterday I was seated in the exit row and thought it was interesting that I hadn’t been briefed yet (my side only had me, the other side only had FAs in uniform).  The FA working the flight passed by and asked “Are you a flight attendant?”  I said “no.”  He said “Oh, have you been briefed about the exit row?” and then he proceeded to do the briefing.  I know my exit row responsibilities and don’t need the spiel, but I also don’t want to be the reason for someone to get reprimanded for not briefing me.

I’m not sure why they think I work for them.  Both times I was wearing a wrinkly blue shirt which isn’t the right color and I’d be in trouble for the wrinkles if I did work for them.  I also wear Dansko clogs, but I started that because everyone working in hospitals wears Danskos.  They aren’t very common among flight crew, but I’ve seen a few over the years.

I also see many business men wearing blue button-up shirts and black pants.  Surely I’m not the only lady who travels in such attire.

…Maybe next time I’ll pretend and see what happens.

I know I’m a little late for cyber monday, but before you shop online this holiday season make sure you check your frequent flyer program for their shopping web portal to earn extra miles.  These are also good for programs where you just need some activity to retain your points.  Not every store is in every portal so you might want to check all your programs before just going directly to the site.

Airlines

Alaskan: Mileage Plan Shopping (http://mileageplanshopping.com)
jetBlue: Shop True (https://trueblue.jetblue.com/group/trueblue/shoptrue)
Continental: Shop OnePass (http://www.continental.com/CMS/en-US/marketing/custcomm/promotions/Pages/onlineretailpartners.aspx)
Delta: SkyMiles Shopping (http://www.skymilesshopping.com)
Frontier: EarlyReturns Mall (http://www.skymall.com/frontiermall/)
Airtran: a+ Rewards Mall (http://www.airtran.com/mall)
Spirit: Free Spirit Mall (http://mall.spiritair.com/)
United: Mileage Plus Shopping (http://www.mileageplusshopping.com)
US: Dividend Miles Shopping Mall (http://www.skymall.com/usairwaysmilesmall/homepage.htm)
Virgin America: The Red Store (http://www.the-red-store.com/)

Hotels:

Hilton:(http://www.hiltonhhonorsearningsmall.com)
Marriott:(https://mrewards.shopmyway.com/?src=MRMALL)
Priority Club:(https://pcrshopping.dbgloyalty.com/)
Hyatt:apparently isn’t one.  Please correct in comments if there is
Best Western:(https://goldcrownclub.bestwestern.com/offers/retailpartners.asp)
Starwood:Couldn’t find a starwood either

Cash:

Also, since cash is king consider a cash rebate site such as Mr. Rebates or Fat Wallet

Rhapsody in Blue has been added to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ContinentalAirlines#p/u/0/jdI7kA2YqTw

It starts with an intro from Jeff Smisek and shows a plane with the new livery.  After that it switches gears to Continental.  It doesn’t try to go for attractiveness like many other official or unofficial safety videos, it is still a professional and to-the-point video.  Sorry to let down anyone hoping for a United-lina to offer them the same viewing pleasure as Deltalina.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2010/04/26/daily67.html

I don’t really like this.  From my Charlotte perspective it seems like Continental likes to focus on small flights with short connections and limited destinations even with connections.  I have no use for continental because either they don’t fly where I’m going, they expect me to make a 30 minute connection in the afternoon in EWR or they want twice as much as anyone else for the privilege of flying them (which probably goes back to supply and demand).

Until recently CO only flew regional jets (RJs) into CLT.  This meant that there was no chance of an upgrade.  It also meant a flight to IAH was uncomfortable.  They also don’t go anywhere…did I say that already?

United likes big planes.  United has a huge route structure.  United flies mainline into CLT.

I’d like to just see Continental go away instead of merge with my carrier.

They had been renovating the Check-in area between the B and C checkpoints for a while (the short-lived Midwest check-in area). Now I find out why. Before Delta, United, American, Continental, and Airtran were crammed in between the A and B checkpoints. Now United and Continental have jumped into the area between the B and C checkpoints and they are really emphasizing the Star Alliance affiliation.

I did not wander down to see if any changes have been made to jetBlue, Lufthansa, or US Airways.

Continental ends free food domestically

On my flight from MEL to SYD and SYD to LAX I started thinking about how United offers free alcohol on those routes due to competition.  US Airways stopped charging for beverages quickly after starting due to no other airline following suit.  The industry seems to stay competitive by following the leader in service cuts and new fees.  Continental seemed to be the lone holdout on US carriers though since they still offered free hot food on flights in the US.  While we can argue about the quality of the “Not dog” and the cheeseburger, it was still free and hot.

Who would have thought that by the time I landed this announcement was released.  I need to only think happy thoughts about airlines even though I never fly Continental.  I must admit there was a connection that went from 40 minutes to 20 minutes and my time to eat lunch disappeared so I appreciated the free cheeseburger since I didn’t have any cash on me which was the standard for other airlines’ buy-on-board at that time.

Now most airlines accept credit cards and I never leave home without them.

Delta still offers free snacks (peanuts, pretzels, biscoff cookies).  I honestly wouldn’t notice if that changed since I refuse that part of the service, but for all those biscoff addicts out there they may miss it.

This move by CO has little to no affect on my travel.  I hope it brings better paid choices or maybe lower ticket prices.

Full story here

Summary: Continental ranked healthiest snacks

Announced today that upgrades will be reciprocal. This is good news as a whole, but has little impact on me. First off United has smaller First cabins so upgrades will be difficult, second, it’s only recent that CO has mainline service to CLT and they don’t have mainline service most of the time I fly them so I will probably never get upgraded on CO. I’m not sure how CO elites will affect my ability to upgrade on UA.

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Continental. They have some of the least convenient connecting flights out of CLT and are usually more expensive than other options so I rarely fly them.

Last week I thought I’d give them another look now that they are part of star alliance. They did let me enter my United number on the day it was official they were in the alliance. US Airways has been part of *A for a while and only recently allowed that.

Then it’s back to CO as usual. The GTAA kiosks at YYZ apparently denote elites differently than the CO tickets would and this new *A notation was not known to the gate agents. Agent announced elites could board so I handed my BP which said EA (for elite access) and *G (for star gold) but the GA did not know what this looked like and questioned me if I was elite. I had my *G card in hand just in case b/c the text size on the BP from the GTAA kiosk was rather small.

Then we get to CO really being CO. For some reason CO has really short minimum connections and most of my flights are exactly the minimum (but most DL flights from CLT to ATL will get at least an hour connection in ATL). There has only been 1 connection on CO at IAH where I didn’t have to run. This time I had to wait so long to get to a gate and have the gate agent match up the jetbridge for deplaning and get my valet bag that by the time I was finally in the terminal they were paging me to board immediately (plane was to depart at 9:00 pm and it was only 8:40 when this announcement was made). I had to run from 1 spoke of the C terminal of EWR to another. By the time I got there my bag was open and I dropped my papers. Some lady was in my seat and was quite mad that I’d want my seat.

…then we waited for 15 minutes with the door still open. I ran for nothing.