Traveling to Paris this fall from KC. Continental has the best fares. Has anyone flown them overseas? How was the experience? Does someone have a good airline recommendation? This is our first flight overseas and I get pretty restless after about 3 hours on a plane. Looking for a good recommedation for comfortable seats, some room, decent entertainment on the flight etc. Thanks!

CO's 767/777 products to Europe is not too bad.

Good things:

- Very new planes with the new-style Boeing interior (curved ceilings, large overhead bins)

- Personal video screens, 9 channels of video, 20 audio, games. [Run in a 2.5-hr loop, not on-demand, however.]

Not good things:

- No free booze, no amenities kits, no printed menu, no nothing

Neutral things:

- Legroom in coach is 31" (777) or 32" (767). Nothing to write home about.

- Food is edible. On par with US airlines, worse than European ones.

Other points:

EWR is an okay hub for connecting from KC; but MCI-EWR is a long 2:40 flight on a regional jet.

CO sees its international flights as very important. The chance of your flight being cancelled is ZERO, and mechanical problems (if it happens) will be addressed very quickly at EWR.

Lastly, CO has two daily EWR-CDG flights. The earlier pair (CO57/56) are always on 777; but the later pair (CO55/54) are sometimes 767, sometimes 757. <b>Stay away from the 757</b> if possible, as the &quot;good things&quot; I listed do not apply.

I also don't know if frequent flyer miles are important to you or not. Keep in mind that CO is in the Skyteam alliance, and you can deposit your miles in Northwest or Delta's FF programs, in addition to CO.

If you get restless on a flight, fly on an international airline. U.S. airlines keep the Fasten seat belt sign on for pretty much the entire flight--especially if it is a night flight.

I was happy with AA from MCI to Paris, but that was before they added more seats back in to coach.

Keith

Hi jbjayhawk. I've done the same trip from MCI to CDG many times. In coach, I like the 777's on both Delta and Air France - I find the food a little better and seats slightly larger on Air France. TIP: Delta/Air France connections through CVG (Cincy)are more convenient versus ATL.

Wally: I've flown transatlantic on UA and AA a whole bunch of times, and they never kept the fasten seat belts light on the whole time.

Ed

I asked a flight attendant for Continental if it was true that they kept the fasten seat belt sign on all time time when they crossed the Atlantic. His response was, if it is a night flight, that is usually the case but if it is a day flight, they will turn it off if it is a smooth flight. I asked this question back on July 5, 2005.

If you haven't flown on a U.S. airline since 9-11, there have been a lot of changes--including $5 for a (plastic) glass of wine.

Well, when I said I flew transatlantic on UA and AA a bunch of times, that includes a trip to Frankfurt on UA just last month, and a trip to Brussels on AA in July, 2005. So my experience is quite recent. And on those two airlines, at least, the seat belt light WAS turned off for most of the night flight.

I don't care about charges for wine; I never drink alcohol on airplanes anyway.

Ed