Elite From Hong Kong, joined Jun 2006, 2760 posts, RR: 10 Posted (6 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 18 hours ago) and read 6989 times:
Note: Sorry I don’t have any pictures on board. My digital camera broke and I was going to lend my friends one in the States, so I didn’t have it with me on board . Also, this is the first time that I am writing a trip report, and to such a large audience. I usually just write trip reports for a personal reference, not to display on a major site, so please be kind! Comments on how this trip report is would be greatly appreciated.
This flight had been an urgent, last-minute flight. I had to fly to the states for some family reasons and we were lucky to get a spot on the packed flight. Unfortunately, business was packed and so we had to settle with economy. This was my first time on Continental.
Date: April 14th, 2006 (10:25 AM) Flight: CO 98 (B777-200ER) Depart-Arrival: HKG-JFK Seat: 25L
That is my original flight stub. Sorry for the poor quality!
I arrived 2 hours before departure, and because it was a morning flight, not many people were at the airport. I checked in easily and killed some time as I waited for my flight to be called.
When I arrived at the designated gate, 17, I realized that the flight was totally packed. People were everywhere and, unfortunately, it appeared that I would be sitting in front and behind children, and it didn’t help that they were already crying and fighting with each other.
After first class, business class, onepass members, and the last few rows were called, it was finally my turn. The B777-200ER was a small bird and it was comparable to the KA bird parked next to it.
I boarded the flight, found my seat, and annoyingly someone had decided to put their luggage where I was supposed to put it. After around 10 minutes of working things out with the FA, that person finally had the good sense to come and take his luggage. He was sitting around 5 rows back, too!
Our flight left on time, and I was on my way to JFK. The FA’s then began handing out free headphones, but they appeared not to be headphones but clip-ons. The person next to me seemed unsatisfied with those clip-ons, and I am glad that I bought my audio-technica ATH-ES7 headphones with me.
Shortly afterwards they began the lunch service. It was a choice of either fish or beef with rice, and I chose the beef. It was ok, edible but not the best. I finished it and tried to watch CSI. I knew that this was going to happen, and sure enough the kicking began in a steady beat as the children behind me began fighting over a Gameboy again.
I plugged in my headphones to my iPod, and just reclined to the maximum and just laid there and relaxed. This kept me occupied for a few hours but I was unable to sleep because of the leg space and because it was only around 1 PM. Also, when a FA collected a cup of water from the person in front of me, she spilled some on my leg! She didn’t even notice. Luckily it was not something else that would leave a stain.
For the next 6 hours, I tried to keep myself entertained with the IFE system and The Giver, a book that I had been wanting to read for a long time. I finished The Giver and I had watched every movie twice, and so I was glad that dinner was coming around.
Dinner was a choice between noodles and once again, beef and rice. Since I already had the beef and rice I decided on the noodles; this seemed to be a mistake, however: the noodles were dried and tasted like rice. I stuffed myself with the butter roll that came with it.
90 minutes left in my flight, the FA’s began handing out a small snack (ice-cream and a sandwich), and the sandwich seemed to have the same beef as the one in the rice before. Nonetheless, I devoured it as I didn’t eat too much of my noodles.
Overall, this was a pretty decent experience with CO. I gave them a rating:
Food: 7/10 Service: 9/10 (Those FA’s on CO were pretty nice! Point off for the water incident.) Seat: 7/10 (Leg space is a bit limited and the recline needs a lot of force to get it moving). Overall: 23/30
Is my trip report too detailed or not detailed enough?
STT757 From United States of America, joined Mar 2000, 16260 posts, RR: 52 Reply 1, posted (6 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 6940 times:
Quoting Elite (Thread starter): Our flight left on time, and I was on my way to JFK.
Christao17 From Thailand, joined Apr 2005, 890 posts, RR: 9 Reply 4, posted (6 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 6770 times:
Elite,
Congratulations on your first trip report and welcome. It was nice to read about a flight and routing that I haven't read about before and I hope this won't be your first and last report! Keep writing!
As for suggestions, you'll find that everyone has their own style of writing reports and their own opinions about what constitutes a good report. Some people want to know the technical stuff like routing, aircraft registration number, etc. Others want to know about the service, descriptions of the food, seat, ambiance, etc. Others like a lot of detail, and still others prefer brevity.
Personally, I'd encourage you to try to capture a bit more detail. In my mind, the best reports are the ones that make me feel like I'm travelling along with the author.
A few of the a.netters who I think write great reports: BRAVO7E7, RoseFlyer, Beowulf, Carfield, Lufthansa747, Horus, Thai747, and ThaiboynMexico. Check out their reports and you'll have a chance to see some really good writing.
Of course, I like my reports, too. But that's because I write them!
Salvation From United States of America, joined Jun 2001, 174 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (6 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 6731 times:
i admire you for flying coach on such a long flight...then again, you likely did not have any options from what I read.
Nice to hear of good CO Coach Service.
Did you have a return flight you could write about?
JpetekYXMD80 From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 4242 posts, RR: 29 Reply 6, posted (6 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 6718 times:
Quoting Elite (Thread starter): The B777-200ER was a small bird and it was comparable to the KA bird parked next to it.
The 777 small?
Quoting Elite (Thread starter):
Is my trip report too detailed or not detailed enough?
I'd rather have it be a bit brief than read about tampon absorbancy.
Star_world From Ireland, joined Jun 2001, 1234 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (6 years 10 months 3 weeks 6 days ago) and read 6179 times:
Quoting Elite (Thread starter):
After first class, business class, onepass members, and the last few rows were called, it was finally my turn. The B777-200ER was a small bird and it was comparable to the KA bird parked next to it.
CO doesn't have separate first and business class cabins, it has a single BusinessFirst cabin and then economy.
Quoting Elite (Thread starter): I boarded the flight, found my seat, and annoyingly someone had decided to put their luggage where I was supposed to put it. After around 10 minutes of working things out with the FA, that person finally had the good sense to come and take his luggage. He was sitting around 5 rows back, too!
I'm always amazed when I hear people complaining about this. The overhead bin that happens to be over where you're sitting isn't "your" space - the entire area is shared between everyone in the cabin. If someone is sitting 5 rows back and they can only get their bag into the space that's over your seat, then they are completely within their rights to do that. If you arrive after them and the space is gone, tough luck! It's a different story when people do things like putting their bag in the very front overhead bin when they're sitting at the back of the plane out of laziness, but otherwise people just have to use whatever space is available.
Christao17 From Thailand, joined Apr 2005, 890 posts, RR: 9 Reply 8, posted (6 years 10 months 3 weeks 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 6009 times:
Quoting Star_world (Reply 7): The overhead bin that happens to be over where you're sitting isn't "your" space - the entire area is shared between everyone in the cabin. If someone is sitting 5 rows back and they can only get their bag into the space that's over your seat, then they are completely within their rights to do that.
Yeah, if they can only get their bag into the space that's over their seat, that's one thing. But I share the OP's frustration with people who drop their bags off close to the front and then continue back to their seat.
They may be within their "rights" (Where are those rights proscribed, by the way? Not in the Bill of Carriage.) but it is inconsiderate. And it messes up the boarding process:
If the bins over my seat are full and I have to go further back (say, five rows back to where Mr. Inconsiderate is sitting) to store my bag, I'll have to work my way back upstream against the tide of passengers. This causes a disruption in the flow of boarding passengers.
And then when we arrive, I have to work against the tide of deplaning passengers to retrieve my bag.
Having rights is one thing. Consideration in exercising those rights, however, is a mark of civility and respect for others.
Star_world From Ireland, joined Jun 2001, 1234 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (6 years 10 months 3 weeks 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 5713 times:
Quoting Christao17 (Reply 8):
Yeah, if they can only get their bag into the space that's over their seat, that's one thing. But I share the OP's frustration with people who drop their bags off close to the front and then continue back to their seat.
They may be within their "rights" (Where are those rights proscribed, by the way? Not in the Bill of Carriage.) but it is inconsiderate. And it messes up the boarding process:
If the bins over my seat are full and I have to go further back (say, five rows back to where Mr. Inconsiderate is sitting) to store my bag, I'll have to work my way back upstream against the tide of passengers. This causes a disruption in the flow of boarding passengers.
We're saying the same thing - of course it's wrong if someone just decides that they can't be bothered carrying their bag back to the row they're sitting at, but on a busy flight where that's the only space they can find then there's nothing wrong with them putting their bag in someone else's row.
Elite From Hong Kong, joined Jun 2006, 2760 posts, RR: 10 Reply 10, posted (6 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 5454 times:
Sorry for the mistakes! I just wrote a brief description of the flight and I did not go into details. As you can see, I am not yet familiar with CO. Clearly doing this partially on memory is not that great of a choice; hopefully the return trip (EWR-HKG) will be better.
As for the baggage-holder compartment, I understand that they can come up to use the space, but it's just that their bring-on luggage has already occupied the one on top of them, the one on top of my seat, and it appears 1 more compartment down at the back. Ah well, business next time will solve the problem
Delta732FF From United States of America, joined May 2005, 228 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (6 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 4896 times:
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From Hong Kong, joined Jun 2006, 2760 posts, 
. Also, this is the first time that I am writing a trip report, and to such a large audience. I usually just write trip reports for a personal reference, not to display on a major site, so please be kind! Comments on how this trip report is would be greatly appreciated. 
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From Thailand, joined Apr 2005, 890 posts, 
From Ireland, joined Jun 2001, 1234 posts, 
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