Travel stuff

[inulro]

Spending the extra money to fly directly from Bristol was worth it. Even the return trip with two connecting flights was less unpleasant than a direct flight & 3 hours on the coach from Gatwick. Altogether, flying Continental was a positive experience (food was edible & we didn't die of dehydration), and either Air Canada has markedly improved in the last 15 years or they just look good in comparison to some of the budget airlines we've flown.

EXCEPT. Both airlines overbook. Our AC flight from Boston to TO was overbooked but they handled it really well & made sure everything was sorted before anyone (incl. business class) got on the plane. OTOH, Continental waay overbooked our flight home, and despite checking in two hours before the flight (as early as we could, because of the connecting flight) we were without seats until 15 minutes before takeoff. They let everyone else on the plane before sorting out the seatless passengers, which didn't inspire confidence. During the space of time they were faffing about, the flights to Manchester, Gatwick and Birmingham took off, any of which would have been a less bad option than coming home a day late, but apparently that kind of thinking outside the box doesn't exist at Continental.

Despite the two hours of unnecessary stress, I'll probably use this route again, because the positives (ie not feeling like I've died today) outweigh the negatives.

Happy to be back? While it's nice to be back in my own home & play with the pets, it's also dark, wet and we have sufficient fireworks going off for that authentic Beirut feel.

Off to attempt to locate those teach yourself Spanish books I bought in Boston.

Comments

[techbint.livejournal.com]

Eep, not getting a seat until last minute sounds stressful. You'd think they'd have a better strategy worked out by now.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I think they might not have figured out that British people actually turn up for flights they've booked. I also think that thanks to their system that lets you check in remotely from the internet, they had no freaking idea who was actually there, and thus loading everyone onto the plane and seeing which seats were vacant was the only way they could work that out.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

And they didn't offer you first class as compensation?

[inulro.livejournal.com]

No. The guy at the check-in desk said they probably would, but it didn't work that way. The people whose seats we eventually got were sent to first class instead.