Hello fellow aviation fanatics! In November my usual travel partner, my dad, and I went to Houston (IAH) to visit family. We went straight from LGA to IAH.


I was looking forward to this trip as it was my first trip on Continental. It was also an interesting trip as CO had recently joined my favorite airline alliance, Star Alliance.
The trip was to be a day trip. We would arrive in the morning and spend some time with my dad’s cousin and then return to IAH for our flight to LGA.



Got up at 0400 to head for LGA:


Which was apparently too early for my dog to get up! The time on the picture says 0500 as I never turned the time back on my clock after Daylight Savings. (I fix this problem soon)

LaGuardia Airport with directions to the US Airways Shuttle as well as the Delta Shuttle:



United hanger near the Central Terminal:



Empty CO baggage claim:





CO check-in:



This picture was really taken at 1 minute to 5, not 6. We were planning to take the 0630 flight.





CO gate:




As I said, we were planning on taking the 0630 flight. We passed by the 0530 flight at about 0520 and asked if we could get onboard that flight. We fly standby and the flight still had seats so we got on! It was cool thinking afterwards that we were in security while most passengers were already on the plane.




Continental Airlines
STAR ALLIANCE MEMBER
New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA)
Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental (IAH)
Boeing 737
11th November 2009



I did not take many pictures at first, as it was still dark and I had an aisle seat. Plus I think I was half asleep during taxi.


CO seat:






The flight had about 10 empty seats all together.

After this the time stamp on the photos is correct. The flight took off shortly after 0530am.


Drink service (OJ):



Breakfast:





The free CO breakfast consisted of Total cereal, a banana, with a jug of milk. The total was nice, but I’m not a fan of bananas. I do think it is nice CO still gives free food. It is not much, but still something for free!


On the flight Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban was the film. It was nice to even have a film to watch. I did watch some as I had nothing else to do.




Toilet:




Cabin:




CO magazine:




The CO magazine cover was about joining Star Alliance. CO seems to be proud to be joining Star.



Something with Sky Team still written on it:




Shortly before landing I switched to an empty window seat to try and view landing.



Lovely winglet:






IAH:




CO at IAH:



Continental Express:



CO:




Our craft from LGA:





Continental has some really nice gate podiums.
Star Alliance already on basically everything:




Quiet C Gates:




What a beauty:






Lots of CO flights:




More on those podiums:





We were not in any hurry so we had some more breakfast at some place in the gate area. Tried grits…I don’t know how people like them. Yuck!







Fox News ‘shop’



I always see the MSNBC ones in NY…I like the Fox ones better!


Outside:



On the rental car bus:


More CO:

CO Express:




Indeed!




On our way with a helpful GPS:




Whenever you see multiple buildings with the same airlines name on it…you know you’re in a hub:




Houston:







Rental car:




After a few lovely hours with family…it was back to the airport.








Checked-in for our flight and headed for security. The line was humongous and it took a while! We finally made it through. Grabbed a bit of pizza before the flight.



CO:

Busy terminal:





Nice!




CO hanger:






CO Service center with Star Alliance lower banner:




CO:




Here is our plane back to LGA with a bird flying right over the cockpit. I thought something was wrong with the plane when I looked at it later:








CO’s fellow Star Alliance partner, Air Canada Jazz:




Three CO Express lined up behind us for takeoff:





This was a great takeoff!
We did a loop and went right back over IAH.




IAH:




Another CO going down the runway at IAH:




Beautiful IAH:







Great views from takeoff!



F/A’s starting dinner service:



Another shot of the service:





The F/A’s were great in almost every aspect. Thank God we had a few hours on this flight! The F/A’s were very slow with the dinner service. We were sitting in the last row, I got up to go to the bathroom, etc. Sat down again…and I don’t think they had moved.




Nice and old:




Sun starting to set, still no food:





Dinner:







The dinner consisted of a Turkey sandwich with BBQ sauce, a salad, M&M’s , and Refresh mints. The ‘sandwich’ was not that good. I don’t like BBQ and that did not help. Nice small free meal.


My usual Coke Zero:


Loved getting a can!

It was soon dark and not much happened after that.


It was apparently very windy in NY, and we were told to expect a bit of a bumpy approach. Well..the approach was fine. The landing was one perhaps the first time I was actually a little afraid on a plane. We were shaking and going wide from side to side and I was expecting the pilot to go around again. We hit the ground and went up again before slamming down again and slamming on the breaks.


Even the F/A ‘thanked’ our pilot for the wonderful landing while making her announcements, which I found to be a bit rude to the pilot…the way she said it.


That’s it I’m afraid!!! Thanks so much for reading. It was my first time on CO, and I enjoyed it. Food was not what I would call good…but it was free. I also loved the inflight film and tv shows. I respect CO for keeping these things.



Until next time, Thanks! Comments are always appreciated.

Happy flying,
Tommy
(aka JFKMan)