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Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines • Bereavement • Canines • Delays • Luggage • Minors • Overbooking • Rudeness • Treatment of asthmatics

It's beyond sad to see how severely service has deteriorated at major carriers. How is it that jetBlue, Southwest and the other low-fare carriers can offer such friendly, even enthusiastic, service while the likes of Continental snarl and snap at their customers?

Southwest says its secret is that it hires friendly people. Maybe a few of the high-cost, low-service carriers should take a lesson from this.

A few of the more recent complaints ...

Ibrahim of Garden Grove, CA October 6, 2008

Ibrahim of Garden Grove CA (10/06/08)
bought tickets online form cheap tickets. for my son who is 8 years old and was charged 280.49- ticket. at the date of flight at the check in booth, i was informed that i needed to pay 75 each way-for unaccompanied minor (he travels with Southwest airlines all time with no fee). We went ahead and paid the fee.

For circumstances beyond my control, i was late to make the return flight so i called to rescheduled to a later flight. I was told that i needed to pay a penalty of 174 and that there were no way to have a flight the same day. I was rescheduled to the next day at 1210 pm. The next day, i went to the check in the lady at the check in booth checked in my son to a yet different flight at 220 pm. I went to the gate anyway and continental airlines was checking standby travelers and holding back original passengers ( i guess to make more money.

150.00 for unaccompanied minor fee which i was not aware of.  the double standard on continental airlines part in which they charged me 174 dollars for rescheduling my trip and yet bumping me over to make space for standby passengers ( my son along with more than six other passengers were bumped over). the tripling of my parking fee at Los Angelos airport. The inconvenience of having to stay two extra hours at Los Angeles Airport so that Continental airlines can make more money by prioritizing standby passengers

Donald of Reynoldsburg, OH October 2, 2008

Donald of Reynoldsburg OH (10/02/08)
I recently took a trip to Las Vegas using Continental Airlines and was initially going to stay for 5 days. The day [we] were supposed to leave, I had a change of heart and called in to see how much it would cost to delay our tickets by a few days. After speaking with a rep there for roughly 30 minutes, he came back on and said it would be around 355.00 dollars total for all the fees and the change in the airfare. It came out to about 178.99 per ticket. It seemed reasonable so I went ahead and let him take down my credit card information. I asked several times, and he assured me that the price was correct.

I came back on the new flight, and checked out my credit card statement, only to discover that along with the 2 charges of 178.99, there was a total of 250.00 in additional charges. Obviously there had been an error, so I called in to talk to their customer service line. The first person I spoke with was sympathetic to the situation, but had no ability to refund any of the charges, so he referred me to a manger. She had a negative attitude towards me from the start, told me that the charges were valid fees, and blamed me for not knowing the policy of Continental Airlines.

I was shocked, and told her that of all people, her employees should know exactly what those policies are. I had asked him several times, yet he still misquoted the charges by 250 dollars! She said that that was not possible and I must have misheard what he said since I was in Las Vegas and it was probably loud where I was (not every place in Las Vegas is blaring with sound 24/7). She continued to place the blame on my end and offered a gift certificate to help get me off her hands. The conversation went on for about 20 minutes or so, and she put me on hold to talk to one of the other agents. I waited for about 30 minutes while she did her work, and I fully expected her to come back on and say no refund was being issued to me. I was angry at this point and ready to really rip into her.

To my surprise though, she let me know that the charges were going to be refunded, but also said I should have read up better on the flight cancellation policies of the airlines. She still wanted me to accept part of the blame for something that was completely their fault. She offered a halfhearted apology and let me know that the refund would credit in 7-10 business days. All in all it was a rather unpleasant experience. After dealing with this airline, I will more than likely look elsewhere when I book my next flight.

Julio of Madison, WI October 2, 2008

Julio of Madison WI (10/02/08)
I am outrage at how can a company keeps on raising the price on a service given to us as a passenger in which they, as a company, have no hands on at all (Is it a dog or cat? how cute!, Is all that comes out of their mouth) and no one that has the authority has even check on this policy or try to even consider reevaluating it. I'm paying for my carrying on dog more than I'm paying for my own round trip ticket. It's fee is more than a child under two, which a child requires more attention and it's more annoying than my carry on dog which is stuck underneath a seat(sorry moms and dads) and no one knows that is even there during the whole flight until I take him out to leave the plane.

I'm not allowed to bring another carry on because my dog counts as a carry on even though he is paying for him self ( you know what I mean). So as people are allowed two carry on' I'm only allowed one. Policies and rules have changed regarding baggage, carry on and other types of mandatory post 911 safeties, which I see as a good thing. But this policy which is charging more for a carry on in which a company has no contact with, no type of interaction, as a rule it seems it wants it out of site of everyone else on flight and it' changes it's policy on my personal carry on rules because it counts my paying carry on as one of my personal carry on.

If my pet was going through cargo and they were handling it all the way. I would pay them any kind of fee they would come up with, but can you see my outrage. THEY ARE NOT DOING TO HELP ME OR MY PET FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE AS A PAYING PASSENGERS, BUT CHANGING AND TWEAKING THE RULES FOR EVERYONE ELSE AROUND US. This is how I feel.

it went fom 60 each way to 125 in three or four years

Dana of Jupiter, FL September 22, 2008

Dana of Jupiter FL (09/22/08)
I purchased a round trip airline ticket from Continental Airlines for @ 300. The trip was from West Palm Beach to L.A. with a change of planes in Houston, TX. I was set to fly early Monday, 9/15. Hurricane Ike hit the Houston area on Friday night, 9/12. On Saturday, 9/13, Continental turned their reservation phone lines off rather than assisting customers. I called their number all weekend long and the message said We can not take your call at this time Click and it hung up.

The continental.com website was not much better. It offered me to change my flight, a 6hr. flight, to a new flight which was a 36 HOUR FLIGHT. That was not an option for me. On Sunday, 9/14, their phones were still turned off. The website showed that the flight from West Palm Beach to Houston was still scheduled, but the connection to Los Angeles was cancelled. On Monday morning as I was set to fly, I still could not get thru to continental. This was a business flight for me. Thus I had no option other than to book a flight with another airline to L.A. thru another city. On Friday, 9/19, I was set to return to West Palm Beach. I phoned continental the day before to confirm my flight. During my 48 miute phone cal to them, they told me that I could not use my return flight ticket. They stated that this was a round trip ticket I purchased. Because I did not use the first leg of the trip ticket, this was no longer a valid round trip ticket. They said the original flight from PBI to LAX went as scheduled. I had no means to verify this.

I was advised that my return trip ticket was not valid because I was changing my return flight to a one-way flight. To do this, I had to pay a 100 change fee to change the ticket from a round trip ticket to a one-way ticket, plus the change of fare was 129 additional for a one-way flight. This was the exact flight that I purchased my original ticket on. This was the flight I was scheduled to return on. And now I have to re-purchase my ticket with a change fee to ride on the same plane.

Erika of Bellevue, WA September 21, 2008

Erika of Bellevue WA (09/21/08)
I was scheduled and confirmed to fly home from Belize City through Houston to Seattle on 9/15/08. As there was a hurricane limiting travel through the Houston area at the time I was extra vigilant in making sure my return flights were confirmed. I had a place to stay in Belize for free, so an additional day would not have been an issue. Continental confirmed both of my return flights both online AND via a call to customer service with no delays. The departure from Belize City (flight 1652) was an hour late - not the end of the world by any means, but left us going through customs a tight haul.

Upon arrival to Houston we literally RAN through the airport, customs, baggage claim and re-check in record time. We made it to the designated gate for flight 467 to Seattle only to se the reader board switching from Seattle to Sacramento. We were instructed to visit the nearest customer service desk along with the 100+ other passengers that were now stranded in a city with no available hotels and no services in or outside of the airport as there was marshal law and a city wide curfew issued for hurricane Ike. The 'customer service' representative we spoke with told us the soonest flight to Seattle was 24 hours later and she could not guarantee us a seat on that flight. There was however a flight leaving within an hour to Portland but she could not offer us the first class seats we had paid for - we could address the cost difference directly with Continental once we got home. We were told our luggage would be in Seattle by 9am the next morning (can get my luggage to Seattle but can't get me there?).

We opted for the Portland flight with a three hour drive and a 150.00 rental car. Today when I called Continental 'Customer Service' I was not only told that I get to eat the cost of the rental car, but I also get to eat the cost of the first class tickets I paid for but never got to use. What recourse do I have to ask Continental to give me what I paid for? Sorry none, suffer, thanks for doing business with us, be sure to look us up next time you want a vacation ruined! Where do I file a complaint?

150 for a rental car - 1200 upgrade cost

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