Hartmann

Ahhh, I get what you are saying now. My apologies, I thought you were implying that all of the different websites have access to different inventory. On your point, I completely agree, CO is now pretty much exactly like the other guys in the business, especially in coach.

Where did I say that I am mad that they are taking the meals off? I actually said the opposite, I see the paid meals as a good thing. I just don't think it will lower ticket costs. Smisek is about the bottom line. He'll keep ticket prices where they're at and try to squeeze some extra revenue out of the meals. Not having a free meal on Continental isn't going to keep me from flying them.

?? No, their prices are cheaper due to fuel hedging (that's expired now though right?), point-to-point operations, and a single aircraft type (cheaper maintenance). If you're suggesting that Continental will lower ticket prices due to this change, I won't hold my breath. On the same point, Southwest has been fairly expensive for a lot of domestic stuff where they compete with Continental. I was actually surprised to see Houston-Los Angeles at $400.

Unless it's over six hours, I doubt they'll continue free meals in coach, even to Guatemala City. I can also see them getting rid of the dinner options on the Houston-Lima flight for coach passengers.

I'm not disagreeing with your point about the food being built into the ticket prices, I was just pointing out that people shouldn't expect prices to go down because the food is no longer free. Continental just sees this as another possible way to generate revenue. The same with the charging of non-elites for exit row seats. However, I still do not see your point with the low cost websites. The only way their prices are "cheaper" than what you'll find on airline websites is if they bundle with a hotel or cruise package, or at the peril of the customer, sell tickets between two airlines who do not have alliance or ticketing ties. All of the big airlines, except for Southwest, share their inventory with the different travel websites. Meaning, the price you find for IAH-ORD on Orbitz should be exact with the different airlines. Where the difference comes in is where IAH-ORD is on Continental and the return is ORD-ATL on Delta and ATL-IAH on Continental. The different websites take the cheapest available one-way fares from each carrier and build the itinerary. The issue is occurs when your O'Hare to Atlanta flight is late and you end up missing Atlanta-IAH. In some cases, Delta has no knowledge of the through flight on Continental and will tell passengers that they are not responsible. Continental will say that it was your fault for missing the flight since they cannot see the Delta flight and they'll put you on STBY until you clear. Of course, there are ways around this, you just have to know what is going on. The other time that you'll see the cheap website's prices actually lower than continental.com is when you are on an international itinerary and there is an issue with calculating the fuel surcharges and taxes. This usually happens when you're connecting through a U.S. airport to somewhere in Latin America.

We are quite lucky in Houston as far as flight times are concerned. East coast flights to Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, etc. which are blocked at 5-6 hours can easily turn into 7 hours depending on traffic, headwinds, etc.

But I doubt ticket prices will drop by removing the cost of the food from it. A $400 ticket with "free" food will still be $400 after the food is gone. Not really sure what Priceline, Orbitz, and Cheaptickets have to do with food though...

While I agree when I am originating somewhere, there are times when I am going from D.C. to San Francisco and have maybe 45 minutes between flights and having the free (yet, not so tasty) food is a plus. It's not a deal breaker for me and I'll continue to fly Continental.

Another idea would be something similar to what United does, giving free meals to people buy full fare Y/B tickets. I think they came to this conclusion by looking at what was thrown away (yes, they went through all of the trash) and polling customers. They've posted on their Twitter feed that food wasn't a differentiator for a majority of their customers.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6913828.html Continental is doing away with meals at mealtime on all domestic and Latin America flights under 6 hours. There will be a buy-on-board option in coach. Meals will remain free in First Class. I guess Continental did not see the free meals as a real differentiator anymore and wanted to stay competitive.

I have my doubts that Continental will actually be granted EWR-HND. Instead, I think we'll see GUM-HND granted to Continental, HNL-HND granted to Hawaiian Airlines, one route granted to Delta, and probably something from the west coast granted to United. I just do not see the DOT granting three slots to the Star Alliance.

As an update, Continental has applied to fly Newark to Haneda and Guam to Haneda: http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/apps/vendors/default.aspx?i=http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml%3Fc%3D85779%26p%3Dirol-newsArticle%26ID%3D1391563 I am guessing the Guam flights will be on a 767-400 Mike (specific to the Micronesia fleet) and a few 737-800s. For the EWR-HND flight I do not know where they are going to move the planes from. It will be interesting to see this unfold.

Thanks!

Yep, the green one is the one I was looking at. Any idea who rents out the Western Electric building?

I drove through downtown over the weekend and noticed the View Lofts on Commerce and N Chenevert (near Irma's). It appears that construction has been halted. Does anyone know the story? I have looked on Swamplot for info but have not found anything. There is another business type loft a little further west on Commerce and Jackson. Anyone have a name for those? I saw a sign for Big Ten Studios and looking at the webpage they are permanently closed and were only renting the space.

The bigger news here is the fact that Tokyo Haneda will be an option for non-stop flights from the U.S. Until now HND has been a domestic only airport that is right near the heart of Tokyo. With this news Haneda becomes a better option than Narita which is a good sixty miles from downtown Tokyo.

I had no idea... I haven't visited since 2002.

The Slavic community was large in the Heights and surrounding areas. Czechs and Poles came via Galveston and there are still a number of places, like Fitzgerald's, that were started by them. Mraz Dancehall on 34th Street is another Czech establishment.

We're at Rose Garden fairly often. Rose is usually there (she lives across the street) and there is a brisket buffet setup. They only serve beer but you can bring your own liquor. Puebla Bakery needs no introduction and is absolutely fantastic.

Check out http://houstonspotters.net/ for information on spotting at Houston airports. (I'm not affiliated with the website)