Brief Review of My Continental Express ERJ-145 EWR-YUL

Continental Express 2947
Newark Liberty
Terminal C
Gate 109A
ETD 9:20pm (Pushed at 9:17pm, Took off at 9:50pm)
ETA 11:07pm (Touched down at 10:50pm, at gate by 11:02pm)
Aircraft ERJ-145
Seat 8A/8B

Trip Background:

Once again I was lucky enough to be accompanying my mother on one of her conference trips and this time it would be to Monreal for the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Conference which would take place from September 5th to September 8th. My mother had intended to take Amtrak from Poughkeepsie up to Montreal but then I weighed in my opinion on train rides and also the fact that the ride up would be around 8hr36mn. My mother said we would talk about it later so I got to researching airfares (of course!) on Air Canada, Continental, American, and Delta which all fly from the New York area up north. To my surprise I was finding some rather cheap fares and the best part was on Air Canada were I could fly on a 777-300ER between YUL and YYZ and then down to EWR on the way back. While the trip was approaching fast I started to bug my mother a little more frequently and she agreed with me that we could fly one of the segments of the trip. Happy as a peach about flying again I was hoping for the Air Canada flight on the way back that would involve the 777-300ER but to my disappointment my mother had found out that her conference was on Wednesday (September 5th) in the early morning and she had a class to teach on Tuesday afternoon. I guess it looked like we would be flying there! This narrowed down the options to Air Canada flying out of LGA on Wednesday morning or Continental on Tuesday night. My mother was nervous about flying out in the morning in case of delays or anything so we decided to go with Continental. To my surprise she wanted me to book Air Canada on the way back as well because I had gotten her so hyped up about them that she wanted to try them. Unfortunately the 777-300ER flight had been changed to an A330-300 flight (equally exciting) but I opted for a direct E-190 flight to LGA on Saturday (September 8th) afternoon.

Trip:

My father and I picked up my mother from her office at around 5:15pm and then headed down the thruway and met up with the Garden State which brought us into Newark around 7:08pm just as VS1, an A340-600, was touching down from Heathrow. The night before we had checked in online and I had switched our seats from 16A/16C to 8A/8B. We had also decided that we would just do carry on luggage since we packed light. After my dad had dropped us off at Terminal C my mother and I walked into the terminal and of course bypassed the medium sized line at check in and went straight to security. The line was very small and we were threw within minutes. Our flight would be departing from gate 109A so we walked down the middle concourse of Terminal C and decided to stop and get a bight at Pizzeria Uno. After ordering a chicken ceaser salad and a small pizza I took a seat at the bar which overlooked the apron. I had a decent view of the aircraft departing 4L and enjoyed it for a good hour before we decided to head for the gate for an 8:40pm boarding time. Once at the gate much wasn't happening but our aircraft seemed to be all set to go. At around 8:55pm they called boarding for elite members (I don't understand this since it is such a small plane, why bother!) and then boarding for passengers in rows 18-10 (Again, why bother!). Finally at around 9:04pm rows 9-1 were called and my mother and I got up and stud in the relatively short line and walked down the jetway. We dropped our luggage off at the front of the jetway and a baggage handler disappeared with them through the door to the ramp.

Upon entering the cabin of the ERJ-145 I had forgotten who small and cramped it was when standing up! We were greeted by a very friendly flight attendant, which proved true for the entire flight, and made our way to seats 8A/8B. I sat down in my seat and felt very cramped which was odd because on my last ERJ-145 flight on Delta, only a couple of weeks ago, it seemed quite roomy when I sat down. Perhaps Continental has a smaller seat pitch. The seat seemed rather rigid but legroom was ok. I do love the windows on the ERJ-145 because they are just the right height for me so no stressing of my neck. The plane was all set for push back at 9:17pm and we pushed with what seemed like a full flight. After holding for about 3 minutes we taxied out towards 4L with some stops here and there and finally held in front of Terminal B with a great view of the Qatar A330-200, Virgin Atlantic A340-600, Air India 777-200, Lufthansa A330-300, Singapore A340-500, and the TAP A310 to Porto which had just pushed. At this time our captain came the PA and informed us that we would have a flying time of 1 hour this evening and that we were number 16 in line for take off. Of course the usually groans could be heard throughout the small cabin but I was quite content since we seemed to have stopped next to the rotation point for most aircraft on 4R and I was very much enjoying the thrill of having a 777-200 rotate next to me. Something interesting that I noticed is that I could hear the strobe blinking, something I didn't hear on my last ERJ-145 flight. Something else that I thought was interesting was that our friendly flight attendant came around with pretzels and the Canadian immigration forums during our taxi, that's a first!

After watching plane, after plane, after plane depart we finally made our way to the threshold around 9:45pm and had a gigantic British Airways 777-200 taxi out from in front of us and out onto the runway. I'm glad we sure did hold for a couple of minutes after that beast had rotated. Behind us was the TAP A310 going to Porto. At 9:50pm our captain throttled and we lifted off in front of Terminal B where the Qatar A330-200 had just been pushed. We made our way to the right and out over uptown Manhattan and past the George Washington bridge. We continued to climb and tended to fly right next to the Hudson River. After the fasten seatbelt sign had been turned off our flight attendant came around with a beverage service and I reclined and listened to my Ipod. Our captain came on the PA and apologized for the delay but informed us we would be arriving 20 minutes earlier then scheduled even though we took off 20 minutes late, talk about making up time!

We started our decent around 10:35pm and at 10:50pm we touched down on runway 6R. The first thing I noticed was the amount of Air Transat A310 action, it was insane! We slowly taxied and our flight attendant came on the loud speaker, pleasant as ever and told those few members on the flight who she had hear "clicks" from and could see "clicks" hanging in the aisle to please "click back up" before she came back there and "clicked" them for them, everyone laughed. We taxied into the terminal area and seemed to taxi forever until we came to our gate which was at the end of the trans border area. We parked next to a US Airways E-190 and a Northwest CRJ-200. The door was opened quickly and we were soon walking onto the jetway at 11:03pm. Unfortunately we had to wait a good 8 minutes for our carry on luggage to come up from the ramp but finally it came and we started our endless walk to immigration. I could not help but notice how absolutely beautiful the architecture of the airport is! It is just so moder and gorgeous, I loved it. We finally came into the large immigration hall at 11:20pm and passed through almost immediately. We were out of the airport at 11:35pm and were on our way into the city.

Overall I was again very pleased with my Continental "domestic" experience and I would fly them many more times.

Sorry for the lack of pictures but it was nighttime.

Hope you enjoyed and look out for my next trip report for my Air Canada E-190 flight to LGA on Saturday!

Great Report Gordon, yea I was about to tell of the BA 777-200 departing before you when I Listened to EWR ATC.

So Conti finally added a late evening YUL departure. Back when I was going back and forth between EWR and YUL (2000-2003), CO's last flight out was 530p-ish, while good ol' AC777's 915p departure let me get a full day in at home before flying back to Montreal. The late night departure, though (always sit on the right side ex-EWR), gave the most incredible view of NYC as you climbed up the Hudson River and crossed Manhattan up by Inwood Park. Looking out, you could see the big city with the dark patches of JFK and LGA, and then the lights along the Northern and Southern Shores framing Long Island. Once at cruise on those cold, clear winter nights, you could see as far as the lights of Boston and Providence. The terminal is brand new - late 2003, I believe.