Hello and welcome to my 3rd trip report. This TR will cover my journey from LAX to EWR.

Originally it was never intended that I would go to New York. I had planned to head for SFO for the day on the 7th of April just for the sake of flying. I booked those tickets in January. But then in early March my dad and I decided that I actually could go to New York for a few days and stay at my aunts home. I of course said yes so I cancelled my SFO trip (didn’t get any refunds back) and booked my ticket on Continental.com. I chose Continental because it was more convenient for my aunt to pick me up from EWR. I chose flight CO1703 on the 2nd of April from LAX to EWR because it would be operated by a 757-200W and CO1502 on the return on the 8th. That flight was to be operated by the 737-800W.

I was happy with my itinerary because it meant that I would add 2 new types of aircrafts. It would be the first 752 fitted with winglets and the first time for me onboard the 738.

The date of my departure came closer and closer and I got more excited. It was 3 months ago I last flew (ARN-LHR-LAX with BA on the 2nd of January 2009) so I was happy to fly again.

When I came home from school on the 1st of April I packed my bag. I wouldn’t check in a bag because I wouldn’t need a lot of things with me and also because of the bag fee Continental has, which is at $15 for the first checked in bag. I checked in online and chose seat 23A but didn’t print out my boarding card. Continental has a great tool where they publish a lot of info about ones flight. According to Continental.com I would fly on N21108. The flight would also operate at a 100% load.


I set the alarm at 4:45am even though the flight was scheduled to depart at 8:30am. We left home at about 5:10am and my grandparents dropped me off at 5:50 outside of Terminal 6 at LAX.


I went inside the terminal and the first feeling was, wow it is really small and cramped. The terminal was rather empty and I went directly to a check in kiosk and printed out my boarding card.

There were only about 6 other people ahead of my in line for security so it went by quickly.

I first went to gate 60, which is amongst the first gates after security to see my aircraft, but unfortunately gate 60 doesn’t offer any good views of the a/c.


These were the best pictures I could get of the aircraft. Gate 60 doesn’t offer any good views:








Later on I went around T6. I think that T6 at LAX is nothing spectacular, but it isn’t horrible either.

2 pictures of Terminal 6 close to Gate 60:




A Delta 757 also parked at Terminal 6:


Some Continental action at LAX:




After I bought a coffee from Starbucks I went to the gate as it was almost time for boarding. I took a seat at the gate area and the time went by, but we didn’t start to board. Then suddenly the screens displayed a new departure time of 9:55am due to weather program at EWR. A lot of passengers had now to rebook their connections. I grabbed my book and read till it was finally time for boarding at 9:05.They boarded the a/c by rows, but even though people began to form a long line. When they called my row I gathered my belongings and boarded.



April 2 2009
CO 1703
LAX-EWR
Departure Scheduled/Actual: 08:30/09:53
Airborne: 10:46
Runway: 25R
Arrival Scheduled/Actual: 16:52/18:47
Touchdown: 18:35
Runway: 22L
Flight duration Scheduled/Actual: 5hrs 22min/5hrs 51min
Taxi time: 1hr 2min
Flight time in air: 4hrs 49min
Aircraft: Boeing 757-224W
Reg: N21108

My first flight on a 757-200 with Winglets

Route on flightaware:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/C...3/history/20090402/1540Z/KLAX/KEWR

I was met by a friendly crew at the front door, and the crew apologized for the delay. I took my seat, 23A, and was happy with the view it offered.

View from seat 23A as I wait for boarding to complete:


I always choose my seat 2-3rows behind the wing, because I want a great view of the wing, but also I want to be able to see the ground below. At about 09:55 the door was closed and we began our pushback shortly afterwards. The pilot apologized for the delay but hoped to make up some lost time in the air. As we taxied to runway 25L the safety video was played.

Some UA aircrafts parked at Terminal 7:


As we are about to begin our flight, this company 738 is about to end its:


CO 738s parked at T6:


AA aircraft as it takes off into the skies:


After a short taxi we suddenly stopped on the taxiway and one could here that the engines were turned off. My first thought was that we had hit some kind of mechanical problem. Then the pilot came on the PA and explained that EWR called him and ordered a ground stop for about an hour and said that he turned off the engines because he didn’t want to waste any fuel.

Where we stopped and waited, due to a ground stop ordered from EWR, for approximately an hour:


Fortunately they ran the PTVs and the crew handed out the earphones for free. CO’s PTVs are actually really good. There are a lot of movies, music and games. CO’s PTVs are very well comparable to BA’s, as BA doesn’t have any games on their PTVs in Y. I played a few games while we waited for the ground stop to come to an end.
After a 45minutes stop on the taxi way we began to move again. We taxied the remaining way to 25L and had a powerful and shirt take off which is typical for the 757. The 757 is a great machine!

Anyone know the name of this airport/graveyard which I saw during the climb?






We climbed to FL350 and leveled off there. I began to watch a movie. I chose Yes man, but I didn’t find that movie good at all.
Not too long after take off the crew began to serve us the free meal which consisted of a egg and cheese sandwich, fruits and a muffin.

The free meal Continental offered on this flight:




The meal tasted good, but one certainly can’t get full on it. They also came around with the drink cart shortly after the meal was handed out.
About halfway through the flight the crew came around with the drink cart again and did so once again before we landed. I didn’t expect that they would make 3 rounds with the drink cart.

Somewhere over the United States:


Picture of the cabin (sorry for the bad quality):


About 2/3rds into the flight I experienced yet the worst turbulence in my years of flying. The pilot suddenly turned on the seat belt sign and literally 15 seconds later the whole plane shook extremely violently. Everyone onboard became very quiet and a lot of passengers held on to their seats. The Russian guy next to me bent forward and grabbed the seat in front of him. We went several times up and down “uncontrollable” and tossed around from side to side. You could hear how some people began to scream of fear (not very loud, but still hearable). The whole thing lasted maybe 10-15minutes. As I said it was the worst turbulence I ever have experienced so far, and the wing flex of the 752 was amazing to see!

The huge 752 winglet:


When we came closer to EWR we were apparently put in some kind of a hold. We made a lot of turns to delay our arrival to EWR.

We made several turns to delay our arrival into EWR:




Other traffic close to EWR:


Now a lot of passengers had probably missed their connections at EWR as we were close to a 2 hours delay. After a long approach we finally touched down on runway 22L at 6:35pm (18:35).

Delta jet also on approach to EWR:


As we exited the runway we had to wait for a few minutes before crossing runway 22R. 12 minutes after touchdown we docked to the gate.

9M-MRD (Boeing 772ER) of MH departing for ARN and KUL:


A330 of TAP Portugal to LIS:


G-VFOX (A346) of VS to LHR:


D-AIKI (A333) of Lufthansa to MUC:




Tails of VS, SQ and LH:


SE-REF (A330) of SAS to ARN:


G-ZZZA (772) of British Airways getting pushed in to the gate:


The cabin crew asked for those not with connection to remain seated so those with connections could have a chance to make them. They also mentioned something about that the flight to ZRH would wait for passengers onboard this flight.
I was amongst the last ones of the a/c. Well out of the a/c I made my way out calmly. Outside, in the cold NYC weather, I barely waited before my aunt came and picked me up and we drove home.



I had a great time in NYC. New York City is so much more different from Los Angeles, but I still like the life in California/Los Angeles better.
I also went with my aunt 2 days to the hospital and one day with my uncle. They are both doctors and as I am interested in medicine I really didn’t want to miss this opportunity, besides that I didn’t want to stay at their home with their 5 kids ranging from 2 to 9 years old  .



The night before I checked in online and I chose seat 14F which is an exit seat on CO’s 738s. It would be the first time for me onboard a 738 so I was kinda excited to add a new a/c to my log.

We left home at about 4:15pm and arrived at the airport about 50minutes later. As I didn’t have any bags to check in I went directly to the security line. It took about 20minutes before it was my turn to pass security. When I was just to pick my carry on bag and leave, TSA took me aside andw anted to scrutinize my bag further. Apparently they saw my gel on the x-ray and looked for it. When the TSA guy found it he threw it away .

Before I began to discover the terminal I ate a hamburger as I knew that CO’s meal onboard wouldn’t be enough.

When I checked the departure screens my flight showed a half an hour delay. Anyway I went around terminal C before I went to gate C131 where my a/c just had arrived from PHX.

Continental tails/aircrafts at EWR’s Terminal C:




Continental aircraft parked at gate:


G-RAES (Boeing 772ER) of British Airways would later on depart as BA184 to LHR:


N29142 (Boeing 757-200) of Continental Airlines:


D-AIKJ (A333) just arrived from MUC as LH412


Continental Airlines aircraft parked at gate awaiting its next load of passengers:


N37277 (B738) of Continental awaiting its next flight to SJU as CO473


Continental 737s parked at Terminal C gates:




Nice line up of different Continental aircrafts. The closest one N195WQ (Q400) was headed for DCA and the 735 (N11641)was headed for ATL as CO1151:




The flight was 100% in both classes so I knew that the boarding process would take time. N37252 was the a/c operating this flight.

Only view of the aircraft I had from gate C131:




April 8 2009
CO 1502
EWR-LAX
Departure Scheduled/Actual: 18:50/19:44
Airborne: 20:28
Runway: 22R
Arrival Scheduled/Actual: 22:23/23:16
Touchdown: 23:10
Runway: 25L
Flight duration Scheduled/Actual: 6hrs 33min/6hrs 32min
Taxi time: 50min
Flight time in air: 5hrs 42min
Aircraft: Boeing 737-824W
Reg: N37252

My first flight on a 737-800.

Route on flightaware:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/C...2/history/20090408/2308Z/KEWR/KLAX

I boarded the a/c when they called my row and I proceeded and took my seat, 14F which is a exit window seat. It was the first time I sat in an exit row seat, so I was amazed of the legroom. I can understand now why some carriers charge extra for the exit rows.

Picture taken from seat 14F:


Pushback occurred at 7:44pm and we taxied to the end of the queue of aircrafts for departure. The pilot said that we were a/c 23 for take off and that we would taxi for another 40-45 minutes. The time went rather fast for me because I had a great view of a/c departing. We took off from runway 22R at 8:28pm. As the skies were clear I got beautiful views of the city and the surroundings. Our cruise altitude was 34,000feet.

The food was handed out to us shortly after take off. It consisted of small salad/carrots, a tiny brownie and a sandwich.

The meal that we got. Sorry for the bad quality:



During this flight they made only 2 rounds of soft drinks compared to 3 on the LAX-EWR sector. They played Bolt on the drop down TVs.
After the meal I read for a while before I tried to sleep. I actually fell asleep for maybe two hours. The huge legroom certainly helped. When I woke up it was maybe another 2.5 hours left. I read and looked out of the window for the rest of the flight. There wasn’t a lot to see down there, because it was dark outside, but when we flew right over Las Vegas the pilot told us that one could see the strip from the right side of the plane. I was certainly delighted with my choice of seat as I got great view of Vegas. All the lights looked nice in the sea of darkness surrounding the city.

Shortly after we began our descent into LAX. We made a parallel landing with a WN 737. We landed at 11:10pm on runway 25R. As we landed some pax began to applause. Years ago I head applauding as the a/c lands!
We parked at gate 60, where my journey began, at 11:16pm and shortly afterwards I was inside the empty terminal. I was on my way home in a matter of minutes after arrival!

All in all I had a good experience with CO. The downside was the delays I had, 2hours on my outbound flight and almost an hour on my inbound flight. One great thing is CO’s mileage program, Onepass. One gets 100% of the miles flown even though you fly on the most restricted Y ticket. I got about 4900miles on my trip. Compared to BA where you only get 25% of the flown miles if travelling in Y, Onepass is great. This has made me actually to now consider CO on my next flight to/from ARN. As I fly quite a lot between LAX and ARN the miles will rack up really quickly with Continental.

Hope you enjoyed my trip report. Please feel free to comment my trip report.