Continental and Newark

[Gigi]

We are trying to nail down airfare for our December trip - those darn prices haven't moved in 2 months! One option is flying Continental with a connection through Newark. I have only flown through EWR once and it was a mess. I am wondering if we should just pay a bit more and connect through CLT where there is less of a chance of a snowstorm hitting there.

[Steve S]

We went trough Newark on Continental last March with no issues.

[jimg20]

It's probably a coin toss. EWR has one of the biggest problems with delays and USAir has one of the worst records also. Early morning flights in and out of EWR have a higher percentage of success.

JIM

[SusanNJ]

I am not sure if this will help or not, but EWR is one of Continental's main hubs (besides Houston), so if there are any flight delays, etc. Continental is usually the first airline to take off.

[lawmom]

I would strongly advise against Newark, as a general rule. There has not been a time that I have not encountered serious delays or other genearl bafoonery here. Endless go-arounds because the runways are filled.... It's not good. Not good at all. As a matter of fact, I will not ever fly in or out of there again. My husband is a pilot and he tells me this is actually the norm for Newark....

[Captain Jack]

Sounds like its a roll of the dice. seven come eleven for me.

[samholtz]

oh this is just great. i have a flight booked out of Cleveland (continental) and our connecting flight is Newark. they have changed our times and dates on us as well; just this morning i just received a new time change. this makes the third time. we were originally due to leave Sunday and they changed our flight by 4 hours putting us on st Thomas around 6:00; we needed to be on the island before 3:00. so they moved us to Saturday with no seats and said were fine. hummmm; i have been nervous since.

[Gromit]

I have one single rule when flying in winter: Avoid any aiport above the Mason Dixon line.

IOW all my connections are ALWAYS SOUTH. I never ever ever fly thru Chicago or NY or Philly.

If I have to pay a little extra so be it. But my chances of a major weather issue slowing me down is lessened to a degree.

That being said however, the lovely hub system that is in place for the airlines to be "more efficient" (channeling the bulk of passengers through certain cities and branching out from there like spokes in a wheel) can be impacted heavily by weather events in another part of the country. So the plane you are taking from ATL could be coming from Chicago or somewhere else thus resulting in delay.

We've traveled in December every year for the past four years and I continue to stick with my "head south only" rule with good results (knock on wood).

I also schedule the earliest flight possible. If you're first to go then you minimize issues with flights stacking up as weather events develop and impact air traffic throughout the day.