Getting There:

I’ve become a big fan of Continental and have thrown them (or one of their partners) all of my business this year. This has earned me Gold Elite status, which among other things doubles all of my actual miles flown. And at $388 total for a non-stop flight to Frankfurt (on the way back there was a plane change in Amsterdam) Continental once again came through for me.

Work was busy this week and I rapped things up at 5:00pm on Thursday. My flight was scheduled to leave at 7:20pm from Newark and getting there during the evening rush from Wall Street is daunting. A car service would be comfortable but could easily get stuck crossing the Holland Tunnel to Jersey. The Air Train from Penn Station would be a sure thing, but at that hour we’d be packed in like sardines. The Path Station from the World Trade Center has been out of service since Sept. 11, 2001 (but thank God is re-opening on November 23, 2003), so that’s not an option.

Merlin has turned me on to www.flyertalk.com a website that covers everything you could possibly want to know about commercial flying and everything associated thereto. I culled this gem from that web-site: Coach USA started up their bus service from Lower Manhattan, but nobody uses it. It makes one pickup in Chinatown and another pickup on Church and Barclay. Then it speeds through the bus lane along Church Street, passing all the snarled traffic and shooting right through the Holland Tunnel on its way to Newark. The bus picked me up promptly at 5:15 and whisked me and 2 other passengers to the airport. For schedule info, this is their website: www.coachusa.com

My flight was out of Terminal C, and the other passengers got off at A and B. I entered the terminal at 6:05 and went downstairs to check-in. My Elite status allowed me to go to my own counter, where I was informed that International check-in was 2 flights up and all the way down the hall. I went up, not in too much of a hurry and handed my ticket to the check-in agent at 6:15. She said “cutting it a little close, aren’t we?” I didn’t realize there was a 1 hour cut-off even if you weren’t checking luggage. I just got in under the wire for my 7:20pm flight.

Passing through security was also a breeze. Newark is one of Continental’s main hubs and they now allow their Elite customers to go to the front of the security line, much to the chagrin of the “non” Elite customers. I went into the President’s Club to kill time and have a couple of drinks. Just as my first margarita was poured, they announced that the flight was boarding. I stayed and had two more, then walked towards the gate. They were still calling the back rows, but once again, my Elite card let me board immediately, which can be a real plus if you have a big bag to put in the overhead bin.

The flight was completely full, but I has an aisle seat on a 2-3-2 configured 767-400, a very roomy plane. I chose my seat after consulting www.seatguru.com and was able to secure a seat with an extra 2 inches of legroom. There’s a personal monitor at every seat where I played a few games of chess before the meal service, after which I was able to doze off and catch about 4 hours of sleep. Not bad considering the flight is only 7 hours. And even though it took off 45 minutes late because of runway traffic in Newark and we were put into a 40 minute holding pattern before landing in Frankfurt, we arrived at the gate @ 9:30am Frankfurt time, only 15 minutes off schedule.

They just looked at my passport when clearing immigration and I passed the baggage carousel and went into the main terminal looking for the Avis counter. Welcome to Germany!

They look at US passports now? At Frankfurt I used to just hold mine up as I walked by the booths. I never stopped and the customs guys would just give a little low-down heil-Hitler motion to indicated that I could pass!