Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers? - Consumerist Comments

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

nightshadowon — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:54:35 EDT

Kudos to the pilot and the flight attendents. Remember, the pilot has already taken a 30% pay cut, has no pension plan or retirement benefits, and his CEO only makes $20m per year.

nightshadowon

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

synergy — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:00:04 EDT

I'm thinking that the crew would get in trouble because it might technically be an admission of guilt should anyone feel they were emotionally scarred over this incident and sue.

synergy

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

masterdave — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 01:33:38 EDT

when getting free pizza on a plane is outlawed, only the terrorists will have free pizza on a plane. :(

There are two things that can happen here:

Continental can get my business forever by instituting this sort of thing as a policy to 'take care' of people on a fucked up flight. They can acknowledge this and say they liked the initiative by the pilot and would like the idea to continue if there's a similar delay or situation.

Continental can say "omg the pilot totally shouldn't have done that, it's against policy, don't expect anything, not even more free peanuts!@!!!!" and do something stupid like reprimand the pilot or flight attendants or whatever, and lose my business forever.

$200 for pizza for a bunch of pissed off flyers is probably chump change compared to the thousands of dollars in unhappy customers in general.

masterdave

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

TexasScout — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 23:23:35 EDT

The very same thing happened to me on a Continental flight from Corpus Christi TX to Denver. Bad weather forced us to land in Shreveport LA (yes that's right) and sit on the tarmac for 4 hours. The pilot had Domino's Pizza and drinks brought in at his own expense.

TexasScout

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

belch — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:51:50 EDT

That seems pretty common at JetBlue. I've heard of them getting pizza for delayed or diverted flights many times.

belch

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

Hawk07 — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:50:35 EDT

Anytime a plane is on the ground for more than an hour, the plane should open the galley and give free drinks for all.

The problem though is I don't know of too many planes that would carry enough beer and liquor to keep the masses happy.

Hawk07

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

lucky_you — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 14:44:42 EDT

If you get anchovies, the terrorists win.

lucky_you

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

TangDrinker — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:05:39 EDT

If the "remote air strip" was in SouthEastern Ct - it was probably Groton New London, which is a hop, skip, and jump from a zillion pizza places. It is basically one runway in the middle of a bunch of old houses. It would have taken all of 10 minutes to clear security - or the pizza delivery driver could have just heaved the boxes over the chain linked fence. That airport is one where the person who waves the plane in on the tarmac is the same person who gets your luggage out and processes your tickets when you get back on the plane to go home to civilization.

TangDrinker

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

formergr — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 08:27:47 EDT

I'm not understanding the TSA concerns-- you are completely allowed to bring food past security, it's just liquids that aren't allowed. TSA might ask to open each pizza box to peak inside and run it through the x-ray, but it's still allowed.

formergr

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

yg17 — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:52:54 EDT

@Chicago7: It was a MA to NJ flight, 47 minutes it said, so chances are good that it was a commuter jet that might only have 50 passengers or so.

Its a real shame the guy's job is on the line though. Finally, someone in the commercial aviation industry does something to help out the consumer and they risk their job.

yg17

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

jrford8 — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 23:20:10 EDT

Of course Continental is going to frown upon delivering pizzas to passengers suffering through long delays. Kind of sets a dangerous, and expensive, precedent don't you think?

Airlines already take it for granted that they can waste hours upon hours of their customers' time. Imagine if passengers received some sort of compensation every time an airline wasted over four hours of their time.

jrford8

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

ShadowFalls — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 23:13:41 EDT

I think it is a matter of the thought that counts. The fact that they mentioned that they might get in trouble for providing good customer service is a bit scary though.

ShadowFalls

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

TPK — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 22:50:18 EDT

@weave: So yeah, just make sure we post the story about the terminated crew as well. Maybe they should be transferred to a Customer Service MANAGEMENT position!

TPK

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

Chicago7 — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 22:00:55 EDT

Is 10 pizzas enough for the whole plane?

/Not if I'm on it, it isn't, even if there's only 10 passengers!

Chicago7

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

markedward — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:49:25 EDT

The fact at the pilot had paid for ten pizzas with his/her own money is amazing. I rarely meet people who would be willing to keep a crowd of complete strangers happy as generously as that, even if it is part of the job to keep the customer happy.

markedward

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

vr4z06gt — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:24:18 EDT

@raybury: thats exactly my point, so unless they re-screened the passengers coming off the plane, they could have essentially gotten weapons beyond the security area where they are free to roam the country without inspection, while I realize its a long shot, im sure the anal people at the TSA wouldn't be to thrilled about it.

vr4z06gt

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

Auntie M. — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:35:31 EDT

In the video that was posted earlier where the Delta flight was on the ground for about seven hours, one of the flight attendants making announcements says that people were suggesting he get them pizzas and he was willing to do that if the plane was able to get back to the gate but he was being told it could delay the aircraft.

My friend's son is a flight attendant. Having heard his stories, the last thing a flight crew wants to do is have to deal with a plane full of angry passengers for a long time. I'm sure they are happy to do anything that will make the time easier on all of them.

Auntie M.

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

Hawk07 — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:35:29 EDT

If the pilot ordered pizza, he must have known it was going to be a while. (assuming they weren't already cooked)

Hawk07

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

mantari — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:24:10 EDT

^ Or FARK, even. [slaps forehead]

mantari

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

mantari — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:23:49 EDT

If this was Metafilter, I'd bring out the [Hero] tag.

mantari

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

Coder4Life — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:21:19 EDT

They could of i suppose.. But yeah kind of sounds like bullshit..

Maybe trying to get good P.R... Usually peopel bitch about bad service, rarely about good...

But yeah how did they get around the TSA, and how did they get the pizza out on the runway..

Coder4Life

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

weave — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:20:35 EDT

Next week on Consumerist, news about how a Continental pilot received a suspension and a few crew members fired for unauthorized food delivery, after Continental image drones viewed the story on Consumerist the night before. :(

weave

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

qitaana — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:14:43 EDT

Raybury,

Is your implication that they'd only notice 2 of 12, or that they'd seize 2 of them as "evidence"?

qitaana

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

raybury — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:39:03 EDT

Am I bad for thinking, "to get ten pizzas past TSA, order 12 pizzas"?

raybury

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

skyyguy — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:19:58 EDT

If they landed at a "remote airstrip" there was no TSA. They just had someone at the FBO take care of it. Private aviation gets stuff catered all the time. Kudos for the crew in taking care of the passengers.

skyyguy

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

rosy501 — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:08:37 EDT

Finally, something positive from all the nightmare "stuck on the tarmac for hours" stories! I hope the flight attendants don't actually get into trouble with Continental. If anything, they should be commended for thinking of the passengers' best interest (though I think we all know how slim the odds are for that).

This is so nice, it actually makes me want to fly Continental.

rosy501

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

Sudonum — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:04:41 EDT

If this is true, what does it say about the morale and mindset of Continental employees that they would go above and beyond like this? I'm skeptical, but that's why I fly them every chance I get. No "shit in the aisle" flights yet!

Sudonum

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

tedyc03 — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:01:40 EDT

The TSA is probably only worried about things in the pizzas that could hurt an airplane...and who says that the TSA even works at this airstrip? They might have landed somewhere private that doesn't have a TSA checkpoint.

tedyc03

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

CreativeLinks — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:29:09 EDT

Well done Continental. And good job Carey--so often we only post or spread news about bad service, it is nice to see you take the extra minute to share a story about good service!

CreativeLinks

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

vr4z06gt — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:18:32 EDT

thats pretty sweet, I wonder how they cleared it past security. I wouldn't worry about continental, I would worry about the TSA coming down on them

vr4z06gt

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

missdona — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:14:48 EDT

They could have ordered the pizza from an in-terminal pizza place.

Improbable, but possible.

missdona

Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?

PTWhipplebang — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:09:33 EDT

This is exactly the type of story that deserves the "Above and Beyond" heading. Well done, flight crew!

PTWhipplebang