Unlike my previous trip to Las Vegas, I had a slightly more direct trip to Nevada. Originally, I was booked on the last flight of the night (CO1534) for which my upgrade had cleared 48 hours out. Having checked on the inventory evening before and the day of to estimate my likelihood of scoring a bump. (As the last flight of the night with no hope of connecting as well, it would have been rather inconvenient, but a substantial travel voucher could have made up for it.) Both Co1534 and the proceeding flight, CO885, were rather empty. For the earlier flight, first class was booked at 17 with a capacity of 24.
Once my train got to New Jersey, I called Continental and same-day confirmed changed to CO885. Overall, my call time consisted of entering my OnePass number into my phone, telling the agent what I wanted, and waiting about 30 seconds for my United-ticketed flight to be re-ticketed on Continental stock on the new flight. In contrast to the 45 minutes I spent with my last Las Vegas-related SDC, I was pleased.
My upgrade cleared to seat 6A.
Our predeparture snack consisted of a drink and prepackaged almonds
The vegetarian dinner choice was cheese lasagna with an optional mushroom soup (which I passed on).
The desert was an apple-topped cake.
On my DEN-SJC flight operated by United, the salt and pepper came in two small plastic pouches in a black United paper sheath. While the Tulip is supposed to be endangered, it evidently lives on in the first class cabin of Continental’s planes (at least for the time being).