It was hard to find the checkin desk at T4, it wa sn't clearly sign posted, and you have to use the machines to check in, then see security and then drop your bags.
Travelex kept me waiting for ages, counting their wads of money, so i got impatient and interrupted the girl counting it, she was a bit off with me at the beginning, clearly she did n't like being interrupted.
Security was a breeze, and I was quickly through to the t4 shopping area, whcih I think is kind of poor, I do prefer the T3 shops.
I headed to the SkyTeam lounge to meet a supplier who was flying to Canada, with Continental, but I forgot there was an upper level, so we missed each other.
The food choice was limited, but of a good standard, and the whole lounge had a very nice and modern feel to it.
I decided to leave the lounge with an hour to go before the flight to check out a few shops on the way to the gate, getting in the check in line around 45 minutes before the flight was due to leave.
They were patting down everyone and going through the luggage. While i was eing checked the guys were saying they needed to tell the security checker to stop sending people for the pat down, as they had reached their 51%, so my thinking is that this process will shortly stop again, as it did after the liquid scares.
Boarding was called a few moments late, and I was quickly on board and settling into my seat. The Service manager came round and intorduced himself to everyone, and handed out the amenity kit, which was quite well stocked. I do prefer the SA blue drawstring bagsm as they are great for storing chargers etc in my laptop bag. I could do with some more of these, due to the juge amount of cbles, headphones, chargers I now appear to travel with.
The flight time was 8hrs and 40 minutes, which the pilot said was the fastest he had ever been given for this route. We did actually push back on time, and take off in a normal time period, whcih was good.
The service was prety good, the seat when fully reclined was OK, but it was difficult to get some sleep, the IFE choice was fairly large, but nothing really grabbed me. The screen was a touchscreen and was a good size and quite a crisp display.
The food was presented on round plates, with metal cutlery and looked good, although tasted average. What continental were good at were actually serving some aspects at your seat, via a 'normal' looking trolley.
So with the appetisers and desert, you were able to see what they had and how much you wanted to choose.
We landed around 30 minutes early, and found the immigration hall to be packed, so they walked us through to another hall, where the lines were moving slowly.
My connection was 2 hours away, and I was held in the line for an hour, we appeared to have been moved to the slowest half of the airport, and i was probably in the slowest line.
The bag was waiting for me on the belt, and yet another queue to clear customs. the bag drop was easy to locate, and then it was a bit of a trek to the C concourse.
I made it with probably 10 minutes to spare, had the flight not arrived early, I probably would have missed my connection.
Overall, a pretty good flight, but the last time I flew Continental I was in Economy, and I've seen it many times when the friendly service you get in the big seat is often not repeated further back.
I have a slightly longer layover on the way back, so it maximises my chances of getting home should there be any delays at DFW.
Mark
