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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 ...

Joseph of Venice, CA October 22, 2006

Joseph of Venice CA (10/22/06)
I was on a flight coming home on Continental. The stewardess, Ms. Gillian Soden, was handing out pillows and blankets to some of the other passengers. Since the fasten your seatbelt sign was lit, i pushed the call button and asked her if she wouldn't mind giving me a tissue or a napkin since i have terrible allergies that are exacerbated by the cabin air. Ms. Soden sneered at me and said she had more important duties to attend to and walked off. She reeked of alcohol and kept alternating between using a British and American accent. British on the loudspeaker, but then American in person which was very strange.

So I consulted with my girlfriend and we were both at a loss to explain what I did wrong to offend the stewardess. I still needed a tissue for my dripping nose, so I started to go back to the bathroom. Because I have 50% loss of hearing in both ears, I read lips and cannot hear someone if my back is towards them (especially in an airplane). Apparently Ms. Soden had been yelling at me to take my seat. I didn't hear her since my back was to her. The bathroom was locked and when I turned around I noticed her yelling as I returned to my seat and could read her lips. Since she wouldn't stop yelling, I told her she was being a pain in the ass and that I was going to report her when we landed.

She had other ideas. She called airport security and told them I had disrupted the plane by physically threatening her and called her an ass face (both claims are false). Both my girlfriend and I were escorted off the plane and had to file police reports. I now have an FBI record through Ms. Soden's gross misuse of authority and airport security.

Since that was the last flight, my girlfriend and I had to stay an extra night at our destination which the airline did not pay for. We both missed the next day of work. When I called to complain, the Continental complaint supervisor Mr. John Jackson seemed exasperated with me from the start and wouldn't allow me to relate to him my side of the story or my purpose for calling. He then lectured me, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use the call button to call a stewardess! Call buttons are only to be used in LIFE THREATENING circumstances. Stewardesses are not waitresses and if they hand out pillows and blankets it's because they're being nice. This whole incident was caused by you since everyone knows you NEVER push the 'call button'

I, myself, have never known that it was faux pax to push a call button. Nor do I think it is common knowledge, if it is in fact the case that call buttons are only to be used in life-threatening emergencies. I actually spoke to a retired Air Marshall for the FAA about this bogus claim and the Marshall supported my claim saying that he had never heard such nonsense in all his life.

It seems Mr. Jackson's main purpose for lecturing me was to dissuade me from seeking compensations, though I had never once mentioned anything of the sort. He continued to be rude, so I asked him for his supervisor's name to which he replied, There is no one above me, I'm the highest you can go! I replied that I did not like his condescending tone of voice and that I wished to speak to his supervisor. He continued to lie and said that there was no one with which I could speak to in order to discuss the way in which he handled my phone call. He then hung up on me. Continental is a disgrace.

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