Whatever happened to …

… Continental Airlines?

I’m currently at 2176 m according to the altimeter on my watch and headed to Phoenix for the CSTA Conference. I’m too cheap to buy in-air wifi so I’m just jotting notes to turn into a post when I land.

When you hand over your luggage to the airplane company, there’s an expectation that it’s going to show up at the end of the flight. I’ve only ever lost my luggage once and, oddly enough, it was on the first flight I’d ever taken. We flew into New Jersey from Detroit and back for some reason and we were on Continental Airlines. Unfortunately, while I made it back, my luggage didn’t.

So, I had to go through customer service, describe the suitcase, its contents, etc. etc. I was panicking and could just remember that the suitcase was green and had clothes in it. After what seemed like forever, I was told to go home and wait.

So, I got home really, really late and got wakened early the next morning by a cab driver who had a suitcase for me! Throughout, it was great service – it just was frustrating. Continental no longer exists having been bought by United Airlines.

I thought I was going to go through the experience again yesterday.

By the crowds and the other empty Carousels, it seemed like 5 was the number of the day. Eventually, I got my luggage but I’ll admit to being a bit worried. There’s some special treats in their for my American friends so I might not have been welcome if it hadn’t shown up!

For a Sunday, your flight thoughts

• Have you ever flown on Continental Airlines?
• Can you name an airline that is no longer in operation?
• Have you ever had your luggage go missing on a flight? Was your return as successful as mine?
• Do you check your luggage through or are you one of those people that try to slam a big trunk into the overhead cabinet?
• Do you ever read the inflight magazine and look at the layouts of various airports and wonder why they don’t get their act together and just make an airport, an airport?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Just as a potential heads-up, blogging from here may be intermittent with all of what I’m doing. I’ll promised to catch up at some point.

And, I’m trying my best to adjust for time zones this time. I’m scheduling this for 3am MST time. Crossing my fingers that that translates into 5am EST.