Contour Airlines Again?

Josh suggested the idea of coming to see him and Shelby in Madison Wisconsin.  Then, we’d head down to Chicago to the Champions Classic to watch Kentucky play.  Donna had no desire to go to the ball game, so I tried to decide what options I had to get to Madison (besides a 7.5-hour drive).  So, I decided to give Contour Airlines another try.

It turns out that Contour flies to O’Hare from Marion Illinois which is about an hour drive from where I live.  I could then take a bus from O’Hare to Madison.  The cost was much less than a rental car plus I only had to drive an hour instead of over seven.  I felt adventurous so I decided to give it a try.

The Contour app is still terrible.  You cannot get your boarding pass from it; you must use the web version.  So, I ended up just getting my boarding pass printed at the Williamson County Veterans airport (it’s the actual airport name in Marion).   The airport is very nice.  I hadn’t flown out of there in years.  It reminded me very much of the design of the new Barkley Airport here.  I got my boarding pass with no problem and sat down in their very nice waiting area.  Security was easy and quick.  The waiting area to board is nice.  They do take your carry on unless it’s very small since compartment space is at a premium.  We boarded on time and headed out.

We were told that the fly time was fifty-seven minutes.  They were correct on that.  However, we didn’t get to the gate until over 30 minutes later.  Why do you ask?  You sit on the tarmac for a considerable amount of time.  Also, there is a BUS that takes you to the arrival gate.  You pick up your carry on they’ve stowed and restow it on the bus.  The bus takes you to the arrival gate.  You then take a train to the place where the rental cars are (called the MMF or multi-modal facility).   The buses leave at the hour during the day (check the schedule to be sure though).  I knew the next bus left at four, so I hustled to try and catch that one (as opposed to waiting till five).  Turned out I needn’t bothered.  The bus was almost 30 minutes late.  The driver stows your luggage underneath the bus and scans your ticket.  The buses are nice and I had a comfortable ride to Madison.  There are stops at Rockford Illinois, South Beloit Illinois and Janesville Wisconsin.  These stops are strictly to pick up passengers, you don’t have time to get off.  The bus took about 2.5 hours to get to Madison where Josh and Shelby picked me up.

So, a few days later, Shelby dropped me at the Park and Ride and I caught the bus to O’Hare.  On this route, they drop you at whatever terminal you are leaving from.  I took the Blue Line train from O’Hare (the station is at Terminal 2) to my hotel in downtown Chicago.  I then walked a few blocks to my hotel.    When I left Wednesday morning, I took the Blue Line to O’Hare.  I got my printed boarding pass from Contour again.  I headed for my gate.  Turns out that three different commuter airlines share the gate.  When we were going to board, they shouted out your flight.  You line up and then get on the shuttle bus out to your plane.  The flight back to Marion went fine.  I was even able to grab some Krispy Kreme donuts heading out of the Marion.

If you are thinking about trying this, consider the following.

• The Contour App is terrible.  Leave enough time to get your boarding pass at the airport.
• I would be very wary of a tight connection at O’Hare.  You think you have plenty of time when you touchdown, but with the shuttle and the immenseness of O’Hare, you very well may not.
• Buy your bus ticket online before you get there.  You don’t have to pick a specific time; your bus ticket is good for a year.    A roundtrip ticket is a better deal than two one-way tickets.  The website is www.coachusa.com There are several possible bus bays you can be picked up at.  Listen very carefully to the people with the bullhorn, they will tell you where to wait.
• If you are going downtown, use the train.  It’s a lot cheaper (2.50) than any other option.  Plus, you can often get there quicker if the traffic is bad.
• Be listening for your flight at the gate in O'Hare back to Marion.  It's easy to miss if you are not paying attention.

Would I do this again?  Yes, I would.  It’s certainly a viable option to get to Chicago from the Paducah area.

Contour Airlines - The Sequel

 

So, I decided to take another try at flying out of Paducah on Contour Airlines.  The flight ended up being competitive with other airports, so I took a shot at it.  What I did this time was make my reservation via American Airlines.  I could check in for the American flight via their app and for Contour via theirs.

I arrived at the airport and the TSA gate agent said, “Your ID doesn’t match your identity”.  I was wearing my Green Lantern shirt and he said my ID should have said “Hal Jordan”.  We had a good laugh over that.  Little did I know that would be the highlight of my flight out of Paducah.

Everything went fine at the beginning.  We boarded the plane on time and started off.  Unfortunately, there was an announcement that there was an issue, and we were taken back to the terminal at Barkley and had to deplane.  We had to stay in the gate area since the TSA agents were no longer there (since the next flight wasn’t until that afternoon).  We sat there for several hours until someone arrived to pronounce the plane OK.  Most of us were going to miss our connecting flights.  I thought I would have time since my layover was over two and half hours.  I asked the person from Contour if I’d make that.  She shrugged and said “Probably”.    She did tell us all that even though the flight time was listed as two hours, we would get there in one hour and five minutes.

So, we took off finally over two hours late.  We did indeed get there in one hour and five minutes.  Unfortunately, it took almost twenty minutes to get to the gate and start deplaning.   My departing flight to New York was of course in a totally different terminal.  I still would have time to make it if I hurried.  Then, it hit me.  The plane from Paducah had limited overhead bin space.  So, our carryon bags had been tagged and stored on the plane.  It took over fifteen minutes to get those.  So, I missed my connecting flight.

Things did work out OK though.  Fortunately, American has a dedicated support desk in their terminal at Charlotte.  I was able to easily get on the next flight to LaGuardia which left within the hour.  I didn’t get my preferred seat in the aisle, but at least I wasn’t delayed too much.

So, my chance of flying out of Barkley again on Contour?  Pretty low unless it’s a great deal.  I feel the risk of missing my connection is too great unless I have a long layover time (which means sitting in Charlotte for hours potentially).  It is a shame though since when I flew back, I was one of the first to get to arrive at the new Barkley terminal (it had opened the day before).   It’s a very nice facility – you could still smell the “new”.  The old terminal had been there as long as I could remember – at least forty years.  This one is much better.  I don’t know how much I’ll be seeing of it though except possibly to rent a car from Enterprise.

Contour Airlines

I don’t fly a whole lot.  When I do, I’ve generally either driven to Nashville (most of the time) or St. Louis (occasionally) instead of using our local airport – Barkley Regional.  It’s usually much cheaper and much more flexible on times I can fly.  I fly Southwest mostly and there are a good amount of Southwest flights out of both of these airports.  I had planned a trip to Orlando in January.  I ran the costs and it wasn’t going to be quite as good of savings to fly out of Nashville as opposed to Paducah.  Plus, the regional carrier out of Barkley had recently changed.   It was now Contour Airlines. I decided to give it a try.  Keep in mind that my review is based on one trip and “your mileage may vary”.  However, it certainly influenced how I will fly in the future.

First, everyone I dealt with in person at Contour both in Paducah and Charlotte (the routing airport for Paducah now) couldn’t have been nicer.  They were very helpful both to me and with other passengers I saw them dealing with.  Also, each person gets one free checked bag even on the American legs of the trip (Contour has an agreement with American).  However, these were the only good things I can relate.

First, their app is not very good.   For example, it is very difficult to retrieve your boarding pass once you check in for a flight.  I talked to a young lady that was leaving from Paducah with me who had an mobile pass.  She said she was able to screen shot the pass once she checked in.  She couldn’t retrieve it the previous time she checked in so she remembered to screen shot it when she checked in for her return flight.  I could never get the mobile pass to display on my trip down.  I had to print out my boarding passes for each leg of the trip – something I have not done in YEARS!   I even saw some script errors display while trying to use the app. 

Second, Contour states that they have a partnership with American Airlines.  However, when I purchased my ticket via Contour, I could only choose my seats on the Contour legs of my flight. I confirmed with Contour support that I couldn’t choose my seats on the American legs of the trips. I ended up with a middle seat on both American flights. Speaking of which…  Their support leaves something to be desired.  They are hard to get ahold of.  They don’t even answer the phone 24 hours a day.   They are open from 5:30am to 10:30pm.  They have an email address that you can send support requests to.  My first request was answered.  I never heard back on any others. 

Finally, I need to relate how the return flight to Paducah went.  I checked in on the app and saved my boarding pass.  However, I only got a boarding pass for the Contour leg of the trip.  I didn’t get one for the Orlando to Charlotte leg that was on American. I called at 8pm that night and asked for a return call.  I never got it.  I was concerned about it and when I woke up at 2am, I was able to directly chat with American.  While the Contour trip ID didn’t work on their site, I was able to get the American trip ID and call up the boarding pass for the American leg. There was another issue.  It had MR appended to the end of my last name.  I know there are sometimes issues if your name on the boarding pass doesn’t exactly match your ID.  American could not fix the issue since they didn’t originate the ticket.  I called Contour when their support line was supposed to open.  For the next couple of hours, all I got was voice mail.  I got on their Facebook page and mentioned the issue.  They said they were not aware of any such issue.  Mysteriously enough though, I was then able to actually request a callback from Contour support now.  After several hours, they called back.  I explained the issue and asked if there would be issues with this? Their answer? “I hope not”.  That was not reassuring.  I held my breath as I got to the airport and checked my baggage and went through security.  Fortunately, I had no issues.  I got to Barkley to be greeted there by my two favorite girls 😊.

I have decided that unless flights end up being significantly cheaper out of Paducah than Nashville or St Louis, I probably won’t be flying out of there again.  It’s a shame really.  It appears a beautiful new terminal will be opening later this year.  I just don’t want the hassle and lack of support.  I’d be interesting to hear anyone’s experience in flying out of Paducah to see it went for them.