Quick-need your opinion on flying option

[hellokitty1]

Need to book a flight to Newark for an August wedding and bringing DD along who will be almost 16 months then. The flight is 1.5 hours and there are flights on Continental and American Airlines. They are both the same price. I'm thinking of getting DD her own seat but that could change.

Just debating which airline I should book since both are the same price and times are fairly similar. Here were my random thoughts.

A 9-11 scenario might be less likely on Continental than American Airlines. Continental has a 737 (big) on the way there but an Embraer (small) coming back. American is an Embraer both ways.

Has anyone had experiecne with both or have a preference regarding child-friendliness?

I have until tonight at 11:59pm to get a sale price so time is of the essence. Thanks.

[Momof3Labs]

Have you compared the price of the seat for your daughter? Some airlines charge half price and some do not - that may sway you one way or another.

[momma_boo]

OMG, Vivian! You definitely have to get in touch with me. I only live like 30 minutes away from Newark Airport. I'm assuming you're not just flying up for one day, right?

I've only had one experience with Continental and it was not very good. Haven't flown American w/ Sarah before. We flew Cont. from Newark to Tucson in January. DH's mom got all 3 of us tickets using her frequent flier miles, which perhaps relegated us to the lowest class of passenger. She made the reservation, got confirmations and everything. DH called and changed our seats so that we would be in the back of the plane (his own personal preference in case we needed to walk around w/ her, we would be able to use the galley space). We get to the airport and go to check in... they have DH sitting in the front and us in the middle of the plane. The lady took care of it for us. We get on the plane. Lo and behold, two of the seats are taken. Those folks got annoyed - it did end up getting worked out after they moved people around for like 5 minutes. While everyone is glaring at us for holding things up, while DH is blowing a gasket, I'm holding on to DD and the roundabout in the aisle. So fun!

We made a mental note to double check the return flight, but of course forgot to do anything until the night before! Operator tells me she can't do anything, I'll have to get the gate agent to take care of it. Oh, the best part is, she tells me that we DO NOT HAVE SEATS!!!! Ok, get to the airport early the next day. Check-in curbside, get our boarding passes - 3 of us are in separate seats. He tells us the gate agent can only fix it, but they don't come until an hour before the flight. We go to the gate. DH charms an agent (using Sarah) and tells her our predicament. She says she will find the agent working our flight and have her fix it. Once the agent came, she did some shuffling (b/c they were calling passengers and asking them to move) and got us seats together. It was just nuts, though, just having to worry about it.

The way they explained it was that if you get an e-ticket, they can move you around or something. That was our experience with them. Needless to say, we will be pretty reluctant to fly with them again. Sorry that was so long-winded.

I'm curious about your statement that a 9-11 scenario is less likely on Continental vs American.

[stella]

have flown both with children - both were just fine - and most of our flights are on the small jets (the embraers).

It matters not - choose by time and # of seats available! Fill flights are no fun!

[Melanie]

I don't like American. I haven't since 1998 when I flew on them and they seemed really incompetent. The short of it is everything here routes through texas despite we were going nowhere near there, then we got to our destination airport, descended into a pure whiteness, then started to ascend b/c the pilot decided he couldn't land in the fog/clouds/whatever, landed at another airport a couple of hours away, refueled, decided to FLY BACK to our destination airport to see if the weather cleared up (I'm thinking at this point, "Why not pick up the FREAKING PHONE and ask them?"), descend again, decide it's not safe, ascend again and fly us to YET ANOTHER airport. By this time it's 2 am. We get off the plane, nothing is open in airport as far as shops or places to eat, people have screaming exchausted children, they can't get anyone's luggage off the plane b/c there's no crew at this time, they can't get people into hotels b/c supposedly the entire Chicago area is booked. Then around 6 am another flight crew shows up with a more modern plane for us to take back to our destination, which has, of course, cleared up by then. The topping on the cake was the pilot actually REFERRING to the plane we were on OVER THE LOUDSPEAKER as "vintage." Did we get anything for our trouble? Uh..no.

The flight home we were stuck in Dallas again while they put a big fan on the wheels to cool the brakes down.

I do appreciate their caution, but the things they did seemed rather moronic to me.

No continental experience, though.


(edited b/c I should reread before I post)

[C99]

I haven't flown Continental with kids, but my parents have and they seem fine. My sister flew Continental up to see me last summer when she was 14 and they handled the unaccompanied minors very well. I have flown American w/ Nate a lot and they are fine -- not great, not terrible, although the smaller planes do not have changing tables in the bathrooms.

[egoldber]

Personally, I think all the major airlines are pretty similar unless you happen to be a frequent flier with them. I have flown Continental into Newark (no baby at the time though) and it was fine.

One poster brought up an excellent point about checking your seat assignments. The rules on when and how seats are assigned are incredibly arcane. My DH is a top tier frequent flier with United and we STILL often struggle with the seat assignment dance to get seats in the same row. Often we have been forced to do it ourselves and trade seats with other passengers. Since DH is a frequent flier, he can usually get himself an attractive seat (like an aisle seat in the front of the plane) and most folks will trade for a seat like that. But practically anyone and everyone is eager to trade seats to get away from a baby on an airplane.

I think that within 48 hours of your flight, the telephone customer service folks are no longer able to change your seat assignment. After that, you can try with the ticket agent when you check your bag, but usually only the gate agent is able to actually make those kinds of changes.

And an unfortunate truth is that you are NOT guaranteed a seat on the flight you buy a ticket for. Airlines oversell their flights as a standard business practice, since they know there is a precentage of folks that no-show every flight. Its very frustrating, but one reason why it is SO important to arrive early for your flight!

HTH,

[Marisa6826]

Esther are we neighbours? I'm about 30-40 minutes from Newark too!

-m