10 days exploring New York City and Brooklyn with Kristina before she heads off to NYU. This trip also reaffirmed my conviction to never fly Continental Airlines again. My Continental flight 649 departed from SFO and arrived at Newark without a problem, however once I got off the plane a couple minutes past midnight, it turns out that Continental also had several other flights arriving from places like Texas and Connecticut at the same time and there was apparently one person operating the luggage transfer equipment. After being told by the representative to wait at one carousel, a moment later he would make another announcment saying out luggage is going to be placed on another one. There was almost a synchronized group of close to a hundred people shuffling from one part of the baggage claim area to the next. This happened several times before I finally managed to get my suitcase after waiting for over an hour. From the comments of the Continental rep, this happens every night because there's not enough people working the evening/late arrival shift. On my return flight, we sat at the gate for 15 minutes waiting for late passengers, although, that is a nice thing to do, it's inappropriate to hold up a full plane for two people. After finally closing the cabin doors, we moved a couple dozen feet from the departure gate and the plane just sat there for almost 20 minutes without moving. Because the doors were closed, we not allowed to use our cell phones or other electronic equipment. We finally moved a few more feet, and remained on the ground for another 20 minutes before we approached the takeoff area, all without explaination as to why our takeoff has been delayed for over an hour. It later turns out that it was weather related, but it would have caused a lot less fustration if the Contential pilots made such an announcement. Not all of us passengers are sheep, and don't treat everyone as one.
*Pictures with a yellow border includes a caption.
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