Non favorite airlines

I now remember why I dislike flying Continental. [Follow up to "you have got to be kidding"].

A few of the more minor annoyances include:
1. The seats are narrow.
2. There are always youngsters kicking the back of my seat.
3. Too many families with odd bags and not enough travellers with experience maximizing space in the overheads.

I should point out that the staff - particularly at the airport - was nicer than I remember. Not as perky as Southwest but patient and polite - aka professional. The only issue I saw was the calculation of overhead space for the trip. I was on a full flight so they simply assumed that everyone in the first 10 rows with large bags would have to check those bags through to the final destination and pick them up at baggage claim. At least they don't charge for that (yet). I was one of those but after waiting for them to print a baggage tag and then taking the bag to the end of the jet way, it turned out that there was plenty of space left. A bunch of us brought now tagged bags onboard.

But the biggie this trip was the father teaching his grade school aged child how to ignore the rules. She was watching a video on her nano when the announcement came to turn off all electronics. She of course ignored that announcement. She glowered when the staff directly asked her to turn it off for take off. Then dad shows her that if she had just flipped it over in her hand as they came by, no one would have noticed it was on and she could then just keep watching. Same kid had her cell phone on the whole way and was texting during landing.

I don't care how silly the rule seems, or how much you know about electronics and interference, or how many nanos it takes to mess with ground control radio chatter. The parent should not be teaching the child how to ignore the rules. Of course, this is not a problem which is unique to this airline but for some reason I have always had some story of inconsiderate people whenever I have to deal with a continental flight.

Oh the joys of flying.

-SML