Do not fly with Continental airlines when you go hunting!!!!!!!!

Do not fly with Continental airlines when you go hunting!!!!!!!!

We got raped like never before with these guys. For one, they only allow 2 luggage even with no carry on, some airlines allow 3. They charged us 80$ for each additional bag, we had 3 each extra. they charged overwheight 25$ for 2 bags, 50 for the other bags. Heres the killer,I never had a problem with small amounts of dry ice, but these aholes wanted 30$ per cooler extra. I told the ##### to bring the coolers back out and i threw the stuff in the garbage. In the past they always asked how much we had and never fussed as long as it was under so many pounds.
So the grand total after telling her we will take out the dry ice??? $560.00 extra, one way. It would have been 710$ with the Ice.
Next time its frontier or Midwest... they treat us much better. When i bitched the broad said "this is how we stay in business sir" I said... " no this is how you lose on it, i will never fly your airline again, and will tell everyone else"
I flew last year with frontier and didnt pay over $100 extra

RE: Do not fly with Continental airlines when you go hunting!!!!!!!!

You might check with the other airlines about the dry ice thing. I tried to mail some dry ice USPS last year and got my package quarentined. The other airlines may be the same now. Also with the price of fuel sky rocketing the other airlines are getting spendy too. Also know if you get too lippy with a clerk you will find yourself OFF the flight list and stuck in the airport. Ever since 9-11 flying is a pain in the ass and I refuse to do it if driving is even the remotest of options.

Mike

RE: Do not fly with Continental airlines when you go hunting!!!!!!!!

I have flown 4 hunting trips since 9-11, continental sucks, Just my advice. They are not all the same.

RE: Do not fly with Continental airlines when you go hunting!!!!!!!!

We flew to New Mexico this past weekend and the gal at the Delta desk asked how much dry ice we had in the cooler. (we had none.) I had always thought that you couldn't fly with it but she said it depended on how much. ???? Never had heard that before be I guess I never asked, just listened to other people's experiences. I thought I was going to get hammered as my cooler and gun case were overweight but they didn't say a word.

RE: Do not fly with Continental airlines when you go hunting!!!!!!!!

i have flown continental a few times. Twice to alaska. on my return trip from alaska they tried to charge me for being overwieght on my bags by 4 pounds! I made the girl wait until i opened my bag and rumaged until i found two heavy shirts and shuffled a few things to my fiances' bag ( she had a few pounds to spare) I slipped both of the shirts on and made here recheck the weight. and smiled when the weight came in one pound under! She was steaming! she got pissed off and wanted me to open my coolers with my fish in them. I told her no problem. She snapped "you cant fly with dry ice" before I could get the lid unsealed. I smiled and said "I know, that is why packed them with these (while pulling out a re-freezable gel packs) and I told her I didnt know dry ice could fly". What a wench. I talked with two other guys on the flight they said thanks for warming her up for us! they were behind me in the ticket line.

similar situation: when we were getting our boarding passes going up to canada. (Pre-9/11). The lady asked us why we were going in small talk we told her bear hunting. man you couldnt have slapped her and made her change moods any quicker. she made some nasty comments and we got treated like bastard rats the whole trip!! we saw her talking to one of the stewardess on the ramp and looking toward us. I think the heifer put in a bad word for us because we were going hunting. the stewardess skipped over us during the drink distribution! man I was ticked.We got them back though. on our return trip i had taken a large black bear and didnt have time to freeze the hide. he was taken late the last day out we had to leave. so we packed him with the other previoulsly frozen bears in the same box to keep him cool and off we went. When the box came out of the baggage belt in houston they were waiting on us. The box had leaked and was a bloddy mess. someone had put plastic bags around it and put it in a plastic tote. the sticker was not legible. the only way they had to identify it was to wait and see who grabbed it i guess. The lady starts raising hell saying we are going to pay for the dissinfecting of the plane's cargo hold etc. All the while my buddy was carting luggage to the truck sitting out front.the bloody box was the first one to go to the truck. I walked over to the counter to talk to the lady and my wife and my buddy were waiting on me out front. i told her we will straighten it out, she wanted our boarding passes. I said they are in my carry on bag my buddy just took to the truck let me go retrieve them, i'll be right back.....................................you got it.............
we laughed all the way to the taxidermy shop. i felt like that was restitution.
havent flown with them since(Air Canada by the way).

RE: Do not fly with Continental airlines when you go hunting!!!!!!!!

we all need to take care to not offend nonhunters by bloody stories or bloody bags in airports or it will be: no game no way.. this has already happened with visible antlers showing outside of packaging: extra fee due to broken antlers and damaged luggage.. bloody fish adn bloody meat damages other travelers luggage, they dont benefit much from that experience.

Here is what we do: pack all guns together, so as not to waste one of your allowable luggage items. then pack each bag to 50 pounds for domestic (70 for international travel). pack optics into carry on, and max the size of your two carryons, one personal item and one carryon. once there, take out the extra softside duffel bag and make them carryable or rollable.. plan on shipping back or paying one over for successful trophy hunt.

There is no consistency between airlines rules or even within airline rule interpretations.

Used to be we could check two at the curb, then two at the counter, and everything was easy... those days are over.
Now it seems we are forced to packing HUGE bags to the max, and who wins with that?

RE: Do not fly with Continental airlines when you go hunting!!!!!!!!

jameister,

I agree with you on the image we potray as sportsmen. we did everything we could to seal our packages. was just one of those things we didnt expect either. however i dont feel bad about it one bit for the airline. for the people waiting to get there luggage now is a different story.

in my situation I packed all my clothes and my fiance's in one bag. then she checked two coolers and i check my bag and one cooler. makes sense. I am not paying to go all that way and not bring fish or game home.
it depends on the situation with the packing people pack differently and no two trips are the same. bottom line these airlines will stick it to you every chance they get. when traveling with firearms they must be in a hard lockable case of there own. cant just throw them in your bag especially to Canada. who trusts carriers to bring home that trophy of a lifetime? may get lost and sit on a dock for a week even with tracking numbers...... still no security. Try shipping excess clothes and gear home via a low cost slower solution (UPS) and pack up game carefully more logical approach.

RE: Do not fly with Continental airlines when you go hunting!!!!!!!!

A $20 to the skycap is probablly the best way to get an extra bag or more weight through w/o the extra charge.

RE: Do not fly with Continental airlines when you go hunting!!!!!!!!

One trick we learned on our fishing trip to Alaska in July. Going up we each had one carry on and two check in bags, the maximum allowed. On the return flight, we each had two 50 pound boxes of frozen fish. We took our original check in bags to UPS and mailed them home. So what if our dirty underwear and waders etc.arrived 10 days later? Our fish went with us and no extra charge! I think we each only spent about $30 to mail our non-perishable stuff home. A lot cheaper than what the Airlines charge.

Steve

RE: Do not fly with Continental airlines when you go hunting!!!!!!!!

eel,

who did you fish with up there in AK. Did you do a self guided trip? did you fish the kenai?


Brock

RE: Do not fly with Continental airlines when you go hunting!!!!!!!!

Brock, we fished the Kenai and the Kasilof with a guide. It was a package deal with lodging and fishing.

We were there the third week of July. The Reds (sockeyes) were in thick! Something like 94,000 reds came into the Kenai the week before we arrived. The F@G raised the limit to 6 reds per day (from 3).
We only fished for Kings one morning and caught a 60,a 48 and a 24 pounder.
Our Halibut trip was cancelled due to rough weather. But that was ok because we had a ball with the reds.
It was the third time that I have been up there with the same guide.
Have you been up there? Allthough crowded at times, it's the best fishing in the world.

Steve