Can anyone tell me: how much leg room is there on the flight from Houston to Bonaire? Is it worth it to spring for First Class seating?

(Not that I'm planning the next trip quite yet, but...)

Susan, it's the same as any other coach seat on any carrier unless you have premium coach seats. If you can afford to, spring for the first class or use miles to upgrade!

Thanks, Rosanne!

We just did the red eye on Continental. All the seats were quite comfortable. Leg room was good

31 inch seat pitch in Coach, 38 inch in First.

A handy site when selecting seats is:

www.seatguru.com

We're going First, but it is just because economy wasn't available on FF miles. (Also, I knew my sweetheart would appreciate it). Of course, what passes for First on this flight is like that on domestic flights, and doesn't remotely compare to Business class to Asia or Europe.

I'm most concerned for my husband - 6'3" and big-boned. Though I like First Class quite a bit, too...

Susan -

If you are thinking about first class on the Continental flight, you might check with them carefully.

I just went through their Website and arbitrarily picked a departure date of 07.07.06 and return of 07.15.06 and asked for a quote in first class. The response was: "There are no First/BusinessFirst/International Business Class seats available on CO1898 in the Houston, TX (IAH - Intercontinental) to Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles (BON) market."

Perhaps this was just for these particular dates, but I am sure others will be interested in what you learn.

Charles Poteet
Dallas

Charles,

I expect that 1st class is booked out for those dates. That is what the seating chart shows.

Yup - I checked for dates later in the year, and found some first class seats for those dates.

They are limited though (just 12 total) so they probably sell out fairly early.

Susan -

Thank you passing along that intelligence.

Just as Gary speculated, the result I got must have been specific to the days I picked.

The language on the Continental website did seem a bit misleading, however. I would have thought it would have qualified that first class service was sold out for those dates, rather than saying first class service was not available in the IAH-BON market. That sounds pretty definitive.

Regardless, I am glad you found first class available for your dates and I hope it works to your satisfaction.

Charles Poteet
Dallas

Hey, thanks Gary for the seatguru website. I had opted for poor seats without knowing on our red eye flight out of Houston on Continental. Seats that don't recline. I'm now in good seats a little further back, but they recline. Great web site.

I have another question: I booked the flights, but couldn't get seat assignments for the Bonaire-Boston return leg. That has me a bit concerned.

So - those of you who've flown Continental: is this SOP, and you only can get seats for the outbound leg ahead of time? Or am I on standby and don't know it?

In my confirmation it did say I had to talk to the desk agent for seat assignments for the return leg. I've just always been able to get seat assignments both ways with AJ so this has me worried.

They are working on a solution. A lot of folks have tried to book their return seat assignment once they were on island and have not been successful using the internet. Monday, I have an appointment to find out some more partiulars and will bring up the issue of on line seat assignments.

Ah, so at least I'm not the only one! Knowing that that is pretty standard is a relief.