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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 ...

Abelardo of Coral Gables, FL April 17, 2009

Abelardo of Coral Gables FL (04/17/09)
I will like to dispute to obtain a refund due a overpriced and unfair charge for the following reason(s): I made a flight reservation days prior to the departure date (8/15/2008) online. On the night of 8/14/2008 I personally called Continental Airlines in order to obtain my e-ticket (this reservation was done on line) and the customer service representative from the Continental Airlines informed me I did not have a Reservation in file with their Airline for 8/15/2008- this previous reservation was for 379.50. I had made this reservation online with my Capital One Credit Card.

Due to the fact that the customer service representative did not find this reservation I was forced to make another reservation with my American Express Credit Card in the amount of 789.50! I had no choice than to purchase the ticket which was twice in cost than the original one, due to their system not finding my reservation. I did use the ticket of 789.50 to travel, however if they would of research and find the reservation I had previously made and less costly to me I would of used it instead. After all they (Continental Airlines) did also charge my Capital One Credit Card Account with the original charge (the one their system did not find).

I believe this is a unfair and deceived act to make a consumer pay more than the average cost. I fell the original charge should be charged not the additional 789.50.
789.50 charge towards my pocket was physically and emotionally stress.

Bobby of Alpharetta, GA April 17, 2009

Bobby of Alpharetta GA (04/17/09)
I have never seen such a display of incompetence from ticketing behind a Continental counter to those permitting boarding. To top it off, I don't expect perfection but rudeness is controllable and several members of Continental were outright rude. I feel horrible when I hear people getting laid off or companies going defunct, unless it is due to corporate greed, but I will admit, if I ever hear about Continental going under and thousands of people getting laid, I will say, it is well deserved. So this is how my trip went and I have only had a one way experience thusfar and I am not looking forward to getting on another crappy Continental flight.

A timeline of events for an International flight. 12:30 pm Have already checked in for a flight to Newark, NJ from Atlanta, GA. Flight is suppose to depart at 3:30 pm and arrive at 6 pm, at the latest, and should have time to for a connecting flight to New Delhi, India. 3:30 pm Still in Atlanta, GA, at the airport and Continental annouces that the flight will be late and will not leave until 5:30. So I go ask a Continental rep if I would be fine for the connecting flight. She says, oh sure, no problem. You will have plenty of time to catch your connecting flight.? I sit back down and have no worries. 5:30 pm We begin boarding and take off at about 6:20 pm. Now I am worried about the connecting flight. 8:20 pm We land and I get my family (wife and 11 month old), along with my sister and her two kids (5 year old plus 7 month old) off quick, the other passengers were nice about letting people with connecting flights off first (notice how in general people are nice and concerned).

8:40 pm At the Continental counter asking about the connecting flight. calls us up and looks at our tickets and then yells: all the people connecting to New Delhi come up.? About 10 people, not including us, come up. The ahole says the plane has departed and the next flight out is tomorrow night same time, we can issue you new boarding passes, thats all. All these people are looking at him in silence, several Indians and White Americans. I look around and say, were do you house people and he states the cost of hotels in out of pocket and all we can do is tell you where you can get discounted hotels at a 60/ day rate. - Now I have a problem b/c this is the fault of poor information from a Continental rep in Atlanta. Had she provided up to date information about connecting flights, I would have stayed in ATL and would have caught another flight the following day, this way it wouldnt be an inconvenience for my family and the kids.

This is funny the reps give us a 1-800 number to call customer service and it is 1-800- wecare 2 (after this trip they should change it to, 1-800- justpay) Next day we arrive at the gate 3 hrs early, as per international travel rules. 7:30 pm there are many mothers with kids travelling w/out their spouse. Now the rule, or possibly common courtesy, is that all disabled people should board first, then parents with small children, then 1st, business, and finally coach. - Not here. The lady calling out ticket numbers begins by calling 1st class, business class and then back to front. All of a sudden you have a chaotic situation where people are crowding the floor, this was worse than traders bidding on a trading floor of a stock exchange.

 So I have been watching this for about 7-8 minutes and all of a sudden I see I say, maam, you may want to get this under control by allowing the parents with strollers then back to front so your area isnt as crowded. She states they dont speak my language. I am shocked b/c this ignorant isnt speaking gaelic, parsy, arabic, etc where is would be a minority language. It is english and 85% of the people appeared educated and spoke english. I lose it and make he seem truly ignorant in front of a crowd (but she did end up listening to me).

At the end of the day, I noticed the company was full of ignorant and incompetent people in various positions, from customer service (Ms. Jackson Superviser) to ticket takers at the gate. Now, I wonder is the CEO is any better, b/c ultimately, he is responsible for poor talent and a poorly run company. Cost me over 1k for hotels, clothing, food, sending an additional suitcase.

Cindy of Coeur D Alene,, ID April 11, 2009

Cindy of Coeur D Alene, ID (04/11/09)
April 4, 2009 my family was returning from Spring Break in Cancun. We were going from Cancun to Houston, Houston, to Seattle and Seattle to Spokane. Our flight out of Cancun was delayed by about 20 minutes. I spoke to the flight attendants about going through customs and my worry that we won't make our connection, I was told there would be someone in the terminal to help us. There was a continental employee waiting with a wheelchair for someone else, but no-one for us. I spoke to her and she said we had time to make our connection and if necessary they would hold our flight.

We rushed through customs and immigration and were just about to recheck our bags when my kid noticed on one of the screens our flight had taken off. We were 10 minutes late. We went to the ticketing window instead of rechecking our bags and waited with over 10 other families that were in the same boat as us. The ticket agent was very apologetic and friendly. She told us that normally they should have held the plane but it took off full so they must have sold our seats. She gave us a 1 night voucher for motel and some food vouchers and told us even though at this time she could only get us to our final destination 4 day's later on Wednesday 4-8 we would have to come into the airport every day to get new vouchers. At that time she also assured us that we would be compensated for the trouble.

The motel Continental put us up in was a dive there were some good 'ol boys drinking beer and having a BBQ in the back of a pick-up in the parking lot right below our window. The next morning before sunrise my husband went back to the airport to see if there was really no other way for us to get home. He spent over an hour with two Continental agents discussing splitting my family up and traveling 2 and 2, they discussed flying us into Canada and us renting a car and driving home. They went round and round trying to find a way for us to get home. None of these ideas would work for various reasons so we decided to make ourselves as comfortable as we could until we could leave Houston.

Before my husband left that day he was assured by both agents he was working with that while Continental would not reimburse with cash for any out of pocket expenses they would compensate us with about 250 worth of flight vouchers per day per person. Oh and by the way we the airline couldn't give us any more motel vouchers because the motels they used were full but we were offered to stay in some sort of lounge at the airport for 3 days with our kids and all our luggage. (We found a hotle on our own.) Well we are home now and have been told we only are entitled to 125.00 per person, period. That's a total of 500

Continental says they are only going to compensate us 500. Their was no weather difficulty that day. The only reason we could not go home sooner is because all the flights had been oversold. We spent 313.03 on renting a car. 232.76 at Target for some long pants and sweaters, all we had in our suitcases were shorts and swimsuits. 318.18 for a hotel for 3 nights. That's 863.97 and it does not take into consideration food and entertainment, 80 for 4 extra days of boarding my dog, my husband is a commissioned salesperson and he missed 3 days of work, I missed work, the kids missed 3 days of school, I missed an appt that I had to pay for, my daughter missed an orthodontist appt. We were completely at the Mercy of the Airlines and they simply don't care. I understand if the airlines can't be held responsible for weather problems. But our situation had nothing to do with weather it had to do with the Airlines greed in overbooking their flights.

Joe of Daly City, CA April 7, 2009

Joe of Daly City CA (04/07/09)
On March 2nd 2009 I was supposed to fly back to San Francisco from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic via New York. few hours before I received a message that flight got canceled and I am now confirmed on the next flight. The problem was that the next flight was scheduled to departure on the 4th of March. Yes, I had to stay tow more days in Punta Cana. The reason why flight got canceled is weather conditions in New York, however I went ahead and out of curiosity checked all departures from all three NY airports and discovered that Continental (and Delta) are the ones who mostly canceled their flights.

Other companies actually set out a good number of flights the same morning. Afternoon and especially the next day, most of the flights left with some delays but Continental simply cancels and doesn't even try to send places to their destinations. If you travel abroad especially to Latin America, you are very limited to available outbound flights as they depend if the flight being send from US. I went to Expedia and and reviewed all flights departing on the 2nd from Punta Cana and found out that there are flights Delta 542 and 1075 that skip NY and fly via Chicago to San Francisco.

Knowing that Delta and Continental are partners, I called and asked to put me on that flight. And while they had seats available both on 2nd and 3rd, they refused to accommodate me (due to fare class differences). I didn't want to spend 800 for the one way flight as it would cost me less to stay two more days in Punta Cana at the resort.

Even after losing a small job on the 4th, it was almost equal in loses. So on the 4th I arrive at the airport and (this is funny, ironic and sad) I am asked to fly on Delta (Yes) flight as they overbooked my Continental flight to NY. See the irony? When I asked them to put me on that same flight two days ago, they refused even though they are partners, but when they needed my help, putting me on Delta flights wasn't an issue at all. I totally get the weather can be unpredictable and airlines shouldn't be held responsible for every situation, but this was different: all other airlines tried to send flights on schedule, only Continental (and Delta) simply cancel them.

And apparently Delta is a partner when they need it but independent company when you need it. I sent two emails and yet to get any response. Today I called and explained the situation and got some standard policy explanation about weather bla-bla-blah and that my tickets couldn't be switched to Delta due to fare difference... I forgot to mention, I have their elite status and still it didn't help. So I asked a higher level manager to call which resulted in a fairly rude/ignorant phone call from another rep which (another funny thing) refused to identify herself and hanged up on me. I know they can't hang up on you so she expected me to disconnect. I didn't and finally I was rewarded 125 certificate ha-ha. I am not going to give up on them until I get my 800 back.

Gary of Simi Valley, CA April 1, 2009

Gary of Simi Valley CA (04/01/09)
My flight from Managua, Nicaragua to Houston International Airport was late. My connecting flight (also on Continental Airlines) to Los Angeles was scheduled to leave at 5:50 pm. I arrived at the gate at exactly 5:50 pm and despite the plane still loading luggage, I was not allowed to board the aircraft because they had already re-sold my first class ticket to someone else.

A Continental Airlines service agent response was to offer me a coach seat on the next available flight. That next flight was delayed 35 minutes because they were slow to load luggage. To add insult to injury, someone had rifled through my luggage in Houston and left my Blackberry recharger cable hanging out. I don't put anything valuable in my luggage so there were no financial losses there.

Overall, I was 3.5 hours late (all due to Continental) and feel ripped off after paying for first class and getting coach. I also feel violated by Continental baggage handlers. This is my second bad experience with Continental Airlines this year so I will use other carriers from this point on.

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