I was flying back from Frankfurt to Newark the other day with a stopover at Montreal's Trudeau airport. My flight from Frankfurt to Montreal, on an Air Canada 777-300ER, was beautiful. The plane was awesome, the entertainment system and the service were great, and it was a very, very smooth ride, so I even slept for two hours. One of the nicest plane rides I have ever had in my life. Unfortunately, I had to wait for five-and-a-half hours at Trudeau for my connection flight to Newark and I was not allowed to leave the airport, which sucked.
My flight from Montreal to Newark, Continental Express flight CO 2701, was on an Embraer RJ
145. Those are actually very nice planes. During take-off you can really feel the acceleration from your seat. I just love these small planes. On the other hand, turbulence is very nasty on those Embraers as you can feel every slight bump. Still, I was excited to fly the RJ 145. But when I entered the plane and sat down, I just wanted to get up again and run away. I have flown a lot in my life but I have NEVER EVER seen a plane in such a bad condition. It was terrible. There were spots all over the ceiling (some looked like chocolate, some more like puke). It was disgusting. The plane looked like no one had cleaned it in at least half a year. The next moment, the light bulb for the row in front of me came
falling down. When I inspected my window (which I always do), I could hardly look outside. It was unbelievably dirty. And the window looked like someone temporarily installed it and "glued" it in there with silicone. The worst thing, however, was the fact that pieces of the emergency exit broke off and there were cracks in the emergency exit door. For the first time in years I was terrified on board a plane. This was the worst condition of a plane I have every seen. I was surprised that nobody really left the aircraft.
As a frequent flier I am well aware that it doesn't really matter what a plane looks like from the inside, but this plane was an absolute disaster. It was old, dirty and temporarily fixed several times. I also know the RJ145s don't really fly long distances and usually not at a very high altitude, but still I want to sit on a plane that looks like it will make it to my destination. That plane didn't look like it. And like this was not enough, the flight attendant (who was
among the nicest I have every had in my life) told us that the fasten seat belt sign would remain on during the entire flight, since they were expecting severe turbulence. She literally said "It was veeeeeery, veeeeeeery bumpy on our way up here!". Not a very smart thing to say in general, but not smart at all on board this crappy plane. Argh! I was already convinced my puke (out of fear) would also stick to the ceiling when I exit, but it didn't happen. Contrary to the crew's predictions, it turned out to be a very nice flight. No bumps whatsoever. Still, sitting on board this terrible, terrible plane turned this otherwise nice flight into a flying nightmare... My advice: Don't fly Continental Express!!!
Good news for all fans of the United-Continental merger - the U.S. Department of Justice today cleared one of the last obstacles in the way to an on-time merger in early October of this year. The antitrust probe was closed after Continental and United agreed to transfer take-off and landing rights as well as other assets at Newark Liberty Airport to Southwest Airlines, the Justice Department said in a statement
