Service............but not with a smile (Continental Airlines)

Member Name: powerball

Product:	Continental Airlines
Date:	11/09/09 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Comfortable, safe flight

Disadvantages: Very unfriendly

We flew Continental Airlines, Manchester to Newark, in August this year. It was just a one way flight since we were sailing home from New York.
We checked in on line 24 hours before the flight and were relieved to get 4 seats next to each other. One of our party was our 2 year old son who was flying for the first time and whilst we might have enjoyed the break, we didn't think our fellow passengers would appreciate having to sit next to him for 8 hours! However, we could not print out our boarding passes - the reason they gave was that it was because we only had one way tickets.
There were queues at the Continental check in desk at Manchester Airport, but there were plenty of staff on hand, and we were quickly taken care of by an employee, who had his own unique style of asking the usual security questions, which was a welcome change, and then despite our economy class tickets, whooshed us into the far shorter Business Class queue. This, however, did not really speed things up, since the computers were down and all checking in was being done by hand.
Our 2 year old was doing extremely well during this 20 minute wait, but obviously was now getting a little impatient since he could see all sorts of exciting airport things which he wanted to explore.
Although slow, everything was going to plan at the check in desk until I lifted our last suitcase onto the scales. We had a 23kg allowance per person and I knew we were under this. However, I hadn't realised that no individual piece of luggage was allowed to exceed this 23 kg limit. Although I had tried to pack all the heavier items in the smaller suitcases, this final case weighed 25kgs. The lady on the desk, who, to put it politely, was not particularly friendly or welcoming told me there would be an excess baggage charge of $80. I was not prepared to pay this, so despite the growing queue behind us, the case was opened up, a few items transfered to one of our other cases, but she had already sent three of our cases down the belt, so having managed to get the case down to 24kg, she agreed to waive the surcharge.
There was no problem regarding carrying of the buggy to the aircraft. A special tag was issued, it was taken off us as we boarded the aircraft and returned to us as we disembarked.
The flight boarded at the scheduled time. We were disappointed that it was just a 757. We had been hoping for a larger aircraft with at least a couple of aisles, in order to take my son for a short walk if he got restless. The flight however, was by no means full, and we did actually have a spare seat between the 4 of us.
There was a slight delay, but nothing too major and I think we took off just 10 minutes late.
There was plenty of leg room on the plane. Pillows, blankets and headphones were provided and personal TV screens, with touchscreen games. There was plenty of entertainment available............if you were a Harry Potter fan. Pretty much every movie was Harry Potter. Not my scene I'm afraid. There didn't seem to be any dedicated children's channel either. The best we could find for my son was The Simpsons.............not ideal in our opinion, although he seemed to find it all pretty hilarious, even without wearing the headphones.
The service on the plane was certainly not given with a smile. Frosty would be the best description. Soft drinks and tepid tea and coffee were complimentary. As airline food goes, the offerings were not bad. A beef and a chiken dish, some salad, a typically stale airline bread roll and a rather nice apple and cinammon cake. A turkey roll was served towards the end of the flight and was quite tasty, along with a packet of crisps.
The flight arrived on time. Shortly before landing, one of the cabin crew came down the plane handing out toy flying wings for the children to wear. Even in this task, not even a smile was cracked and this was actually the first acknowledgement that was given to our son by the crew. We were well prepared with hand luggage packed full of toys, books, stickers and our little boy was an absolute star and behaved brilliantly on his first flight...................but not even a packet of crayons or picture of a plane supplied by Continental. That's poor.
The flight took off on time, it landed on time, was reasonably comfortable and most importantly, we all arrived safely. Should we ask for anymore?
In my opinion, on a long haul flight, yes we should.

Summary: Long haul with no frills