Continental Airlines Nightmare Continues

by Erik Olsen on

Not that gadlingers out there give a flying Fernando, but I figured I’d post an update to this Continental Airlines absurdity, as the saga continues. Our delay here in St. John’s Newfoundland has just been extended to almost five hours. Why? Apparently the folks at Continental forgot to tell the crew that the plane was to leave at 11. The crew were told by the powers that be in Newark that the flight would not leave until 1p.

In other words, someone at Continental screwed up big time, letting everyone here believe that the flight was leaving at 11, while the crew was back at their hotel sleeping peacefully in the understanding that they wouldn’t have to be a the airport until 12:45. And so everyone that has been patiently sitting here waiting for the crew to arrive just learned that they will be here for another two hours. The worst part is that most of the folks have connecting flights and so all have to go back out to the ticketing area to get rebooked. The photo here is of the angry hordes who are demanding to know who screwed up. One lady literally screamed at the staff and slamed her hand on the desk. A bit uncool, but that’s how we all feel. I’m quite sure if someone started distributing AK-47s, there would be an armed revolt.

What a joke.

So here’s the lowdown: Continental CANCELED our flight yesterday, sending us back to St. John’s with nothing so much as a wave. OK, they waved. They sent us back to a fully-booked city with no help to find a hotel, no shuttle into the town. Then this morning, we arrived and learned that the 9am flight was delayed until 11 because the crew needed to arrive…a crew that SHOULD have been here yesterday. But worse, the crew was here, in their hotel, but they’d been told by Continental that they didn’t have to be at the airport until 12:45. So here a hundred or so people sit, waiting for another two hours for these folks to get their sh*t together, and many if not most of them also now have to go back out through security to get rebooked. Man, I can’t WAIT to be done with this nonsense and incompetence.

Escape from Newfoundland

by Erik Olsen on


Well, it’s just about 9am here in St. John’s Newfoundland and my flight is supposed to leave in 4 minutes. After our flight was canceled yesterday and we were left hanging, left to completely fend for ourselves in a heavily over-booked city, I figured the folks at Continental would do everything they could to get a crew here and get folks out on time the following day. I was wrong. The plane is now delayed for at least two hours.

And sadly, St. John’s is one of those airports where there is nary a Starbucks, and so all there is to do is sit and wait. Well, OK, there is a Tim Hortons here, a Canadian chain that is kind of like a Dunkin Donuts, but the coffee is thin bellywash, hardly strong enough to pep up a fly. So in the meantime I’m sitting here reading Tom Wolfe’s latest opus, I Am Charlotte Simmons (quite good by the way) and wondering when this travel nightmare is going to end. (I look a bit haggard, eh? Vacationing is hard work.) Funny thing is, people here in Newfoundland are so nice that I’ve already had three people come up to talk to me. One of them was a lady who works in the security line. Have you ever heard of the security folks being chatty? Only in Canada.

Anyway, I’ve got some good Newfoundland stories to tell and pictures, perhaps even video to show of what a fascinating and lovely place this is. But I want to get back to start cranking this stuff out. In the meantime, I wait. And wait. And wait.

Space Walks 4U

by Erik Olsen on

We’ve blogged about the rather mind-blowing new opportunities for the super-rich to go on rockets into space. You might remember the magnate Denis Tito and his adventures as the world’s first space tourist. These trips are ridiculously costly, of course. It will cost you some $15 million for the pleasure of getting hurled into space. Of course to folks like Bill Gates, that’s pocket change, he spends that on DVDs each year. But it has always seemed to me that just going int space isn’t enough. Sure you go up there, the view is great, but you’re stuck inside the cramped rocket and you’re just kind of…there.

OK, OK, if I got the chance to do this I’d go in a heartbeat. Don’t be mistaken. BUT, take a look at this. Turns out that the same company that has been offering these space trips is soon to be offering space walks, too. Yes, for $20 million, Space Adventures will get you a ride to the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. But for an extra $15 million, you can go on a 90-minute spacewalk. Now THAT is what it means to go int space.

Can you even imagine what it would be lie to dangle outside the space station, the entire blue orb of the Earth spinning below you? My heart is in my throat just thinking about it. Of course, it all comes down to two things: a) will any of us get rich enough to afford to do this or b) will it ever get cheap enough. Al I can say is I hope both come true, but at the very least that b) happens in my lifetime.

Stuck in Newfoundland: Thanks, Continental

by Erik Olsen on


Well, despite my best efforts to get off “the Rock” as this big island of Newfoundland is called, I am still stuck here. Not that I was desperate to leave, mind you. It has been a wonderful vacation, and I stand by my position that we Americans are indeed vacation-deprived. If it was a voluntary matter, I’d stay here for another few weeks, continue exploring the fascinating nooks and inlets of this brutally wonderful place. But I do have a real job to get back to, and today Continental Airlines decided that they were going to be as unhelpful as possible in helping me get home.

I arrived this morning to the airport at St. John’s only to discover over the PA system that our flight had been canceled. The weather, we were told by a woman’s stentorian voice (if such a thing is possible, which I assure you it is), was so bad in Newark that the flight would not be able to leave. Hmm.

“OK, so how else can you get me home?” I inquired of the cloyingly friendly woman behind the counter.

“I’m afraid you have to stay here until Monday,” she informed me.

“Monday?! Impossible. Is there a flight tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“Why am I not on it?”

“Well, the computer determined which flights people were put on.”

“And I drew the short straw?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“So if I’m stuck here for two days. Are you paying for a rental car? Are you paying for a hotel?”

“I’m afraid that’s not our policy.” she said and smiled the most annoyingly apologetic rictus I’ve ever seen.

Well, after pitching a fit that I won’t recount here verbatim, I managed to get us on a flight tomorrow, but Continental was about as unhelpful as any company I’ve ever experienced in working to get us home and helping us figure out what to do in St. John’s for another night. Turns out hotels and B&Bs in town are completely booked and it took more than two hours to find a place to stay for another night. Continental did NOTHING to help us find a place, nor are they offering to pick up the cost of the room or the $25 cost of a cab. Is this the way all airlines who have cancellations treat their customers?

Maybe it’s just me and I’ve had a very fortunate time over the years traveling, but this has been one of the worst experiences with an airline I can remember having. Here I am stuck at my own expense to the tune of about $400 and all Continental offered was a lousy smile. Thanks, Continental.

Stag Invasion!

by Neil Woodburn on

We’ve posted a few times already about the dangerous one-two knock-out punch of stag parties and cheap airfare in Europe.

Here’s another article, this time from Rick Steves’ website, bemoaning the traveling circus of “Stag Tourism” where planes full of drunken Brits descend on cheap destinations in Eastern Europe for a weekend of debauchery and hedonism.

Airfare from London can be as cheap as the price of a few beers in a local pub if booked far enough in advance. And the cost of alcohol in places like Prague is laughable compared to the UK. Such party efficiencies spell doom for stag party destinations as easyJet and other budget airlines disgorge waves of inebriated barbarians who leave in their wake damaged hotel rooms, trashed bars, and puddles of vomit.

I’ve seen it and it’s not a pretty sight.