Comments on: NBTA: Continental Goes Flat in BusinessFirst

By: CF

CF — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:35:17 +0000

DrCardio – 777s are supposed to start getting it this fall.

By: DrCardio

DrCardio — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:03:35 +0000

Any idea of what date/month these new seat configuration will take place on the Boeing 777 for Continental flights out of EWR? This info would be appreciated.

By: Steven

Steven — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:18:39 +0000

QRC, United’s first was one of the first flat beds around.

Euroflyer, many of the large European airlines have sloping flat in business: Lufthansa, Air France, SAS, KLM, TAP, Swiss, Brussels, etc. BA and Iberia have real flat. So the fact that UA is going completely flat is advanced compared to most European carriers.

By: QRC

QRC — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:44:55 +0000

CF – thanks for the feedback as usual, always responsive.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:20:53 +0000

Actually CF, many foriegn carriers are opening their doors to US based employees. As a matter of fact Cathay Pacific now has two US cabin crew bases, and Openskies (BA) cabin crew are all Americans (it seems the majority of them are Ex-MAXjet).

I’m with you on opening the doors to competition. The US airline industry spent years setting itself for the self-bestowed failure that now infests, and maybe a little competition would help them to clean up their act.

By: CF

CF — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:18:19 +0000

QRC – I tend to agree with just about everything you say. I’m all for opening up competition, but there would need to be requirements on employing people in the US, etc. Still, if a foreign carrier wants to do a better job, please do.

One thing I have to say though is that I don’t think you’re going to find champagne and caviar on any airline that tries this. Yes, JFK-LAX and possibly SFO can support that but not many other routes can. JFK-YVR? That only works because it’s a tag on an international route. Even that probably doesn’t work very well. If Cathay came into the US, I guarantee you that you wouldn’t see that sort of service on many routes.

By: QRC

QRC — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:56:26 +0000

Cranky, here’s what I vote for: Everyone drop the airline nationalism, let CX and SQ fly trans-con, maybe add QF for more than their one segment, let BA do whatever they want, allow foreigners to own airlines, and raise premium fares. Stop giving away so many free lunches to US frequent fliers who probably lose airlines money anyway (have I said before that the US airline is an odd bird, in that they actually reward people for losing them money? Case in point: When I was a student I got by flying trans-con for $250USD per round-trip, and AA gave me status. My gut says AA did not make money on me, but they gave me status anyway. I think you could spend less than $10k USD per year, and still get 1k or Exec Plat on UA or AA, respectively, which is probably nearly breakeven for the airlines, in addition to probably tons of extra frequent flier miles).

I say let Southwest and Jetblue – Southwest in particular, a great company – take care of the dirty work, and let the rest of the jokers figure it out themselves. The demand for quality is there…it’s not like American consumers aren’t discerning. The environment just forces US airlines to act like morons. The US airlines just don’t have the financing, competitive environment, experience, staff, or even backbone to offer pax an enjoyable experience at this point. Nearly 500k miles in the last 12 months on CX and UA, and I have gotten UA’s new product a total of ONCE. UA’s international F is still not even a truly flat flat bed, which is just embarrassing. Try UA’s ps F class JFK-SFO (or LAX), which is probably the best trans-con experience in the US (comparable to BA J, slightly wider with decent service), and compare it to CX’s JFK-YVR F class (massive bed and caviar service). Worse, even after the fuel surcharge CX F JFK-YVR was actually CHEAPER for me last month than the JFK-SFO F leg on UA. If the free market were ever allowed to actually work in America in the airline industry…

So back to CO’s announcement. It is a good step, but how far behind the curve are these guys really? When it makes big news that they’re announcing a FLAT BED in business (or as they call it, BusinessFirst?). Um……welcome to the 21st century.

By: CF

CF — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:45:55 +0000

Robin – Sadly that’s a lot easier said than done. The US airlines float their newly configured aircraft through the system, so you never really know until you get onboard.

By: Robin Johnson

Robin Johnson — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:33:37 +0000

What would be nice, would be a website showing which flights of which airlines have real lie-flat beds NOW!

By: GregR

GregR — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:29:06 +0000

Ohh, when I saw the headline I though they were now stacking people in the luggage bays….