Continental vs American Airlines

tinkerbell

Hey folks

Me n the other half are flying to Las Vegas later on in the year. The choice at the moment is either Continental or American Airlines. Both have 1 stop and AA is about €100 cheaper. I don't really mind paying the extra if Continental are worth it but which service is better? Any tv screens in the back seats or anything?

Thanks a mil.

TonyD79

Dunno about Continental but AA arnt the may west when it comes to Baggage Handling. Just back from holiday to Bermuda and States, went delta to JFK & connecting flight AA to Bermuda. My bags didnt arrive till the following day.They were ok when I flew back up to Ny but when I caught a flight from Boston to Chicago I was put on an earlier flight..luckly my bags arrived on the original flight.But it was a case of they didnt get the bags through in time and just put it on the next flight. Dont think you have to worry about losing your stuff but it can be annoying. Service was ok . Delta much better as I got AA back home.

BuffyBot

Not all that much of a difference really. Continental might win it by a small margin.

dogmatix

AA used to have a policy a few years back of giving a lot of extra seat space for economy passengers, but that was before 9/11 and i've not travelled with them since.

As far as i'm aware most if not all of the north american carriers are about 10 years behind the main european airlines in terms of in flight entertainment for economy passengers. That means no individual seat back vid screens, unlike BA and Virgin. But on a par with Aer Lingus and others.

Also some of the north american airlines can also tend to use smaller single aisle aircraft like 757's for their trans-atlantic routes and continental might be guilty there but I stand to be corrected.

You might want to consider going via london and therefore using BA or Virgin for the better in-flight service rather then AA or continental from Dublin/Shannon. I think virgin fly direct to vegas from london, so you would still only be having the one changover. Of course the dub-london-vegas option might be more expensive.

Dodge

Flew with AA from New York to Paris in December 03. Massive amount of leg room compared to any other airline I've flown with (Aer Lingus, BA, etc). They didn't have TV seats in the headrest (but did have a 'phone if you wanted to show off (and waste money) )

Service was excellent from a slightly older crew than Aer LIngus would normally have.

Haven't flown with Continental

BuffyBot

Flew with AA from New York to Paris in December 03. Massive amount of leg room compared to any other airline I've flown with (Aer Lingus, BA, etc)

It's worth noting that they no longer offer their "More room throughout coach" program and are now back to normal layout now.

pow wow

I haven't flown transatlantically with AA but I have with Continental. Their planes are 3-3 seat formation which can be a wee bit cramped. I don't know if AA are the same but they have one of the oldest fleets in America.

If you need the 100 quid go AA.

tinkerbell

Hey, we decided to go with Continental in the end so thanks everyone for the input Now we have one more hurdle to get over. We're flying to Vegas to San Francisco so need a domestic flight. Two options are United Airlines and US Airways .... since I have no clue on domestic US flights, can anyone shed any light?

BuffyBot

For a flight that short, it won't really matter. The two are much the same.

6ix

I've flown with Continental from Ireland to the US, and on domestic US flights and there were always TV screens on the back of the seats.

Enjoy!

5starpool

I know this is a bit late, but I flew AA from London to NY in March and there were seat back screens, and a decent bit of leg room as well as really good service. The time before that I went to the States I went with Air Canada, and that was the opposite, cramped, poor service, horrible food, and the announcements were in English and French. Very annoying. Never flown continental.

As said, for the internal flight, it is only 90 mins or less and you won't really care which airline. Go with the cheapest. US Airways are very reasonable. I have a short hop from LA to Vegas booked with them next month and it is less that $100 inc taxes.

dave2pvd

I agree: it doesn't matter which airline is used for the internal flight. They're all fairly poor.

Re lost luggage: it's often a function of the airport, not the airline.

So, pick the internal flight based on the shortest layover. But not less than 1hr.

When you get to Vegas, make sure you rent a car and go to G Canyon and Hoover Dam. The helicopter ride into the canyon is expensive, but absolutely worth it.

pow wow

tinkerbell wrote:

Hey, we decided to go with Continental in the end so thanks everyone for the input Now we have one more hurdle to get over. We're flying to Vegas to San Francisco so need a domestic flight. Two options are United Airlines and US Airways .... since I have no clue on domestic US flights, can anyone shed any light?

Both get you from A to B. In my experience the United staff aren't that friendly, but for a flight that short I'd go for whoever is cheapest.

brettmirl

American Airlines from Ireland to the USA is pretty poor. Flew with them to Chicago in March and the planes seemed pretty old and grotty. The in-flight entertainment left a lot to be desired. The movies were old and we saw the same ones going out as we did on the return trip. Also, there were no screens on the head-rests.

With regard to the food...on the return leg, the air steward asked did I want "brown stuff" or "yellow stuff" for the meal service...

A Woman in aisle next to me asked what he meant...he said "Honey, this is American Airlines, it's just brown stuff and yellow stuff".

For the record, the yellow stuff was chicken curry and the brown stuff was beef in a bbq sauce.


I flew Continental a few years back and their service was far superior to any other airline I've flow across the Atlantic.

On internal flights, I found Ted (which is the no-frills part of United) to be much better then both AA and US Airways.

squonk_ie

Continental used to provide an excellent service to New York up until a few years ago. However early last year they changed to 757s which are totally unnacceptable for transatlantic flights. Horribly cramped seats with no seat back screens. American Airlines use the 767 on the routes out of Dublin which has the 2-3-2 seat arrangements which are much more comfortable but also with no back seat screens.

jjbrien

squonk_ie wrote:

Continental used to provide an excellent service to New York up until a few years ago. However early last year they changed to 757s which are totally unnacceptable for transatlantic flights. Horribly cramped seats with no seat back screens. American Airlines use the 767 on the routes out of Dublin which has the 2-3-2 seat arrangements which are much more comfortable but also with no back seat screens.

Continental have now a second flight into Dublin each day they brough it in this year in May using a 767 200. Which has a 2-3-2 seat layout. I flew them recently and they are far behind other carriers the flights out of Dublin do not have seat back tv and show very bad movies on overhead screens. My advise get a psp on and download some movies and music on to it or buy a portable dvd player.