United Airlines Reviews

We proceeded to the assigned gate to find no one there to assist us or explain to us what would be done. We went to another United gate next to it to try to get help and were told they could not help us, and that we needed to find a customer service counter. There were no live bodies to talk to. And when we complained to the United employees, we were told, that like everywhere else, United had cutbacks in staff and there was nothing that they could do.

The customer service monitors would only show that the flight was canceled, but did not tell us what we needed to do next. We finally found a random United employee at another gate that looked up the next available flight and told us that he would then put us on the standby list (among 80 others). We were not sure why we had to request to be put on a standby list and why United didn't already do this, since they are the ones that canceled the flight. The next available flight with seats to any of the NYC airports, would not be until 6:00 am the next morning. He said for us to go to the next LGA flight gate and wait. We were told at that gate to not get in line and to just sit and wait and they would call us to the counter. That never happened!

We continued this process of going from gate to gate, only to be told that we would not be put on, but to just go to the next LGA flight gate. At each new gate, I would wait in line and talk to the United employee and was told there still were no available seats to any of the NYC airports. Finally, because I continued to ask at each gate, they remarkably found 5 seats on a flight to Newark that would leave at 6:30 pm. This was at around 2:30 pm.

When we asked about our luggage (since it had already gone to LGA), they assured us it would be delivered to our place in Manhattan once we reached our final destination. We could not file a claim on the luggage to have it sent to the Manhattan location, even though we had someone there to receive it, until we landed in Newark.

Now, the real fun begins! We had already lost an entire vacation day in NYC since we did not arrive in Newark until 11:00 pm. (the 6:30 pm. flight got delayed to 7:30 pm.). We filed the luggage claim at Newark Airport and were told that the delivery service ran 24 hours a day and we would have the luggage soon!

We called the 800 number given to us on the luggage claim for another 19 hours! Each time we called, and we called at least 8-10 times, we were assured that the luggage had already left LGA and was en route. We were promised delivery by 3:00 am, then 8:00 am, then by 12:00 noon, then 2:00 pm, then 4:00 pm, but definitely by 6:00 pm! We asked to speak to a supervisor each time and were told that he/she was with someone and would have to call us back within 15-20 minutes. We never received a call back from anyone throughout the entire 19 hours! We were lied to continuously!

We understand that the reason (which was never given to us) for the initial flight cancellation might not have been United's fault, but getting us our luggage could definitely have been handled more professionally by United Airlines!

Also, to add to the problem with locating our luggage, the clerk at Newark that wrote up the claim, wrote one of the numbers wrong and we kept having to re-explain this to the folks that answered the 800 number. And, by the way, we had a terrible time understanding these employees due to the extreme foreign accent! I kept asking for a number to call LGA directly, so that I could confirm that the luggage had actually left the airport. At this point, we were willing to take a taxi and go and get it ourselves. I think the time is only about 30 minute from where we were staying to LGA. They would only give me the 800 number.

I finally called a United Airlines customer service number and demanded a local number to call, which she finally gave me. I called directly to LGA and the person answering the phone was very confused as to how I got the number, but did get me to someone there that did actually look into the problem and called me back. But at this time (around 4:00 pm), there was not much that the guy could do but confirm that it had left there and called the delivery service to confirm that they were running behind and that we would have the luggage by 6:30 pm, at the latest.

We received our luggage at 6:40 pm on 3/16/10, which meant we had to spend over 48 hours in the same clothes and did not have some of our needed medication, which we explained to them numerous times. They would just apologize and say that they understood our frustration.

Due to losing an entire day of our vacation, we were able to reschedule our return flight to a later time so that we would have more time on our final day. This actually went smoothly and we were not charged an extra fee for the flight change. Guess who the original return flight was with? It's Delta, not United! The Delta representatives were very understanding and even lowered our checked luggage fee. We love Delta!

I cant tell you how very disappointed we are with United's customer service and all five of us plan on telling everyone our story! I guess you get what you pay for since United was offering the best rates at that time. I hope that someone will actually read this letter and try to improve on your overall service!

Needless to say, she missed her flight. She was booked on a second flight, which was delayed during a thunderstorm and then switched gates without any audio announcement, only shown on the board. She missed this flight as well. She went to the desk and was booked for a third. Now, I know it was partially her fault about the second flight, but the man who was trying to fix her reservations was very rude and even attempted to blame her for missing the first flight.

When she explained to him that there was just no way, he replied, "Whatever". She spent the night in a hotel, and was booked for a flight this morning. Another storm coming in caused the third flight to be canceled, and she was told that she was being placed on stand-by. At that point, she was so fed up that she booked a flight into Memphis through a different airline company.

We said the room was unacceptable and they agreed to give us a room at the Tropic Cay, so we went there and that room was as bad or worse. We flipped on the lights and cockroaches scattered, again room was beat up and dirty. We canceled he reservation and left. The guy at the front desk said that he didn't blame us and that he would not suggest anyone to stay there. I cannot believe that you even have this hotel available to book rooms through United, if you saw this hotel, I am sure you would never put one of your customers there.

I had 55,000 points remaining, so I booked the Residence Inn in Plantation Florida, the confirmation # is 7693097. I don't have enough points to book through the rest of my vacation until I work this out with you, plus, I should not lose the points that I used to book the Avalon.

5) your prompt attention to all of the above so our family vacation is not completely ruined.

The first two days of our vacation was ruined and it cost me $270.00 plus over 50,000 mileage, plus miles that I want back.

When I approached the gentleman who spoke French, he brushed me off saying he had just gotten there and that I should give him some time to make himself ready. I waited some ten minutes and then approached him again. This time the said Kargbo ** told me the practice of overselling was completely legal, and that if I insisted he would show me the law.

Both men told me to wait, that they were working on a solution. I waited for another 15 minutes and then approached the counter again. Each time I inquired they seemed to get more and more upset. Kargbo ** told me this was a common company practice and that if I was so upset, I should "go for another airline." People were starting to board and I was getting nervous because they were telling other passengers that they would put them on a 5:35 pm flight to Miami or a 1:45 pm flight to West Palm Beach. Having bought our tickets well in advance and my son and daughter being underage, I found these "solutions" completely unacceptable.

When they were finished boarding the people who, by some mysterious means had managed to get a hold of seats, they told us they had 9 free seats (for some 20 other people). As I approached the counter again and insisted that my son and daughter should get precedence because they were underage and flying on their own, the said lady, Blanca **, told the other two men not to "give me anything because I had been complaining too much " I told them I would sue and both the said Blanca ** and Kargbo** told me to "go ahead, sue, do whatever you like, just make sure you don't fly Continental again." Then the gentleman who spoke French began to speak in French with 7 French tourists and they boarded the plane. At the last minute, they called me and said my son and daughter could board. In the end, my son and daughter got to board their flight, but I had to take a lot of abuse and aggravation from these employees. And believe me, I will follow their advice: this is the last time, I or anyone in my family books a flight with Continental.

While my son and I patiently waited for the boarding process to complete, we noticed the passengers had finished boarding. Scanning the plane to see if any seats were available, I noticed that there were several open seats. So, I approached a female flight attendant to point out the empty seats that were available, but she ignored me as if I wasn't talking to her. I persistently tried getting her attention, but she brushed off my attempts to ask to be moved. I quickly realized my efforts were being made in vain.

Soon after, a female gate agent approached me, offering to help us move. She said that the only two seats that were available were in an emergency exit. And since my son was only six years old, he would not be able to sit there. Overhearing us speak, a passenger behind the emergency exit row said he was willing to switch seats with my son, so that he would sit directly behind me in a regular seat. But the same rude flight attendant soon approached us, saying that the row behind the emergency exit that my son was sitting in was also an emergency exit, and that he couldn't sit there either.

I began looking around for new open seats and noticed two empty seats in row 20. I asked the gate attendant if we could sit there, and she said that we could. We sat down in our seats, buckled our seat belts, and had no further conversation with anyone. At this point, the ordeal came to an end and the plane should have been ready for takeoff. From this point on, I am completely troubled by the way Continental Airlines employees handled the situation. Approximately twenty minutes later, a female supervisor asked me to get up and follow her outside the plane.

The lady neither asked me what happened, nor sought to understand the situation from my point of view; she just started threatening me in front of my son saying that she would get us off the plane, because I was being disrespectful to the flight attendant. I tried to explain the situation to her, and that I was in no way being disrespectful. But each time I began explaining myself, she brashly interrupted me and ordered me to get off the plane. I couldn't understand why she was stopping the plane to continue a resolved situation. We were sitting in two empty seats. The problem was resolved. Nevertheless, she refused to hear me out and continued reproaching me. Feeling helpless, I stood there taking her abuse. My son became frightened, seeing his mother being threatened at.

I started to get irritated by the way we were being treated, so I asked for her name and the name of the flight attendant that was being rude. She told me that she would give me her name, but refused to give me the name of the flight attendant, saying she didn't have to give me her name. She told me to get back to my seat and "keep quiet". Fearing we would be forced off the flight, we did as she said. We headed back to the seats we had moved to in row 20, and remained there for about twenty minutes. At this point, the plane was held for another 20 minutes, totaling a 40 minutes delay. As we were sitting, we were asked to get back off the plane again to speak to a male supervisor. He told me I was disturbing the passengers on the plane and continued berating me before allowing me to get back to my seat where I remained for the duration of the flight.

The entire experience left me disturbed for a number of reasons. Firstly, the male and female supervisors who berated me did so only based on what the female flight attendant told them. They took her word for it and neither provided me a chance to hear my side of the story, nor gave me a chance to properly explain myself. Secondly, I was humiliated and shamed in front of a plane full of people and embarrassed before my frightened 6 year old son. Furthermore, the entire flight was delayed approximately 50 minutes because of the fiasco created by the female flight attendant, which caused me and the rest of the passengers considerable inconvenience.

In addition, I have two witnesses who can attest to the events of that day. Iris ** and Arenette ** were present as the events took place. And seeing how poorly I was being treated, they offered their names and contact information if I ever needed anyone to attest to what happened. As a frequent flier with Continental Airlines, flying all over the world for both business and leisure, I have never experienced anything like this in my life. In order to prevent a similar circumstance from recurring in the future for other Continental Airlines customers, and perhaps even for me, an internal investigation into this misconduct is in order. Finding out who the female flight attendant was, why she treated me and my son so poorly, and why she felt it necessary to delay the flight for 50 minutes are important. I am hoping we can resolve this matter in a fair and honest way. Please contact me so that we can appropriately deal with this situation in order to prevent future customers from encountering the same situation I have.

This caused me numerous problems in Italy, my bag was held by United, I didn't have any clothes to change into, and I had to pay a fee to Alitalia to change my ticket from Rome to Bologna, I had to pay a hotel that I didn't use on 01/18/10 in Bologna, I forgot my computer charger in the hotel in Washington, and the person who was waiting for me in Bologna couldn't wait until 01/18/10. I paid a lot of extra taxi and food, so I spent much more money than I ever expected, too. I have receipts for $569.82 and I expect to be reimbursed by United soon as possible. The worst thing was that I missed my immigration appointment in Italy, and I have to go back to Italy again on April, so I will have to buy another ticket.

I wrote two letters to United, but they said they will not reimburse me, they offered me 17,000 miles which is not even enough to get one way ticket. I didn't accept that, anyway they credited those miles to my account. How can you help me with this situation?

On Monday, March 15, 2010, at approximately 3:30 p.m. we arrived at the airport to check in. During the check-in process, we learned that our flight had been cancelled and weren't notified of the cancellations. An employee by the name of James ** assisted us; at the time, he was working reservations. He stated that all flights were cancelled due to the weather (high winds). The flight that we were re-scheduled for happened to be a flight for the next day and over 14 hours long. We were puzzled because we were in an unknown place and knew we had to be at work the next day. We asked since our flight was cancelled if we could be put up in a hotel at the expense of the airline and was blatantly told that under no circumstances would the airline provider put us in a hotel at their expense. We explained to Mr. ** that we had been traveling for two and a half days and just wanted to take baths and showers and rest since we had no flight. He ignored us and refused to assist us any further.

Another customer walked up to the counter to get his ticket and was able to check in going to Cleveland, Ohio. I thought this was very bizarre because Mr. ** had previously told my group that all flights had been cancelled. How was this man able to catch a flight to Cleveland, Ohio if all flights had been cancelled? I went back to the counter and questioned Mr. ** about all flights being cancelled; he then changed his story to all flights going east (New Jersey) had been cancelled, so once again we were being misled.

I asked another reservation clerk if I could speak with the manager, which happened to be Lynn **. I asked Ms. ** why we were inconvenienced and I wanted to know if we could get a hotel and be rerouted. I was told by Ms. ** that they couldn't get us a hotel for the night but she was able to re-route us to Atlanta, Georgia. When we arrived in Atlanta, we once again tried to get Continental Airlines to accommodate us with hotel rooms, but were denied again. I don't know if there is a policy or what your policy is concerning placing ticket holders in hotels that are inconvenienced because of cancellations. If you don't have a policy, then I suggest that one be established for inconvenience of ticket holders.

I was very unhappy with Continental Airlines customer service. I feel that we should be accommodated in some way, monetary or free airline tickets. My co-workers and I were treated rude and inconvenienced because of cancellations. Because of the cancellations, we had to miss an additional day of work without pay. I will never use Continental Airlines or the provider (Priceline.com) that the tickets were purchased through. Delta Airlines was kind enough to accommodate us with hotel rooms and they're not the airline where we purchased our tickets.

I can honestly say this has been the worst accountability of people’s property I have seen in my whole life. I have done a lot of traveling in my life and this was the first time I can remember doing it with Continental and very well be my last. When I got back from Mexico, I contacted the airline and I was told I did not inform them of the missing items within the time deadline. Bad enough! You get your bags late, items are missing but to be told I will not be compensated because I didn’t meet a deadline they were never told you had? This airline is by far the worst I have ever dealt with.

Two days later and a million phone calls to United later: no bag. Instead, I was given a FedEx tracking number. FedEx had no record and informed me that they did not have any record of picking up my bag. I was only transferred overseas to talk to anyone about my bag. I was lied to and treated as a fool. I finally dug deeper and called the airport who pushed me off on FedEx again. Finally, I talked to someone who wanted to help, Sherry in Moline, IL. She found out that FedEx had never picked my bag up and it was sitting in the airport. I am waiting for it to be delivered and waiting to receive a call about my bag refund, in which they have tried to call my secondary phone and not given a number to reply to. I am very frustrated with how I have been treated, and lied to numerous times, and no one can talk to me.

Well, guess what? I called today, March 8th 2010 to rebook my flights, and now they want to charge me a $150 change fee per ticket. Also, since I booked originally with Travelocity, there is an additional $25/ticket fee. I stayed on the phone with customer service for over an hour and they were the rudest most non-caring people I have ever dealt with. Yes, I am talking about Cheryl and her manager Beverly. I even offered to only use two of the tickets and have the additional two tickets I bought cover the rebooking fees. There was absolutely no negotiating with these heinous company.

After pleading my case and stating they told me there would be no additional fees, Cheryl actually hung up on me. Yes, that's right. The business hung up on me while I was trying to explain my situation to them. I know it's not that much money but it's the way in which they handled the situation that angered me. Had they spoken to me nicely and seemed to care about my situation, I probably would have paid the fee and been on my way. But instead, they were pompous and inconsiderate so now I am on a website bashing the company. I will never fly Continental again, neither will anyone in my family and I hope this message also encourages others to boycott this company as well.

We had weighed our bags before at our resort and they were both under 50 but decided it was no big deal and paid the fair. My complaint is that my sister and husband's bags clearly weighed way more than our bags and they didn't get charged anything--not even the $20.00 per bag. They were served by a different customer service rep. He commented that their bags were quite heavy but winked and said go ahead.

When our guy came back, not only did we get the listed charges but he asked for the curbside charges of $4.00 per person--total charges is now $78.00. My sister wasn't charged anything. When I complained to our customer service rep, he said, "Oh, that's not right. I will be right back." He came back and his explanation was that my brother-in-law had tipped the other customer service rep with $30.00 so he didn't charge them anything. What the hell does that mean?

Anyway, when we all cleared security, I asked my brother-in-law about the tipping and he said that he didn't tip anyone. I was so disgusted with how unprofessional this procedure was. I will never fly United Airlines again. Thank you for my submission. I appreciate that I could vent my frustrations somewhere.

Now I understand that I made a mistake and was willing to pay a small exchange for the flight. Even if they ask for $100, that would have been fair because I did make an error. Gouging a person was a treat to them. I suspect that they make many extra dollars per day from innocent mistakes to their joy. This is the first airline where I have had to change tickets and was charged, period. It would be my opinion that you should be cautious with this company when dealing with them. Priceline purchases need to be revivified even if you are under a crunch. What caught my attention was the customer service representative informed me that the same thing happened just a week before and it cost the family $750 each for two ticket changes and smiled like he was doing me a favor. What burns me is the flights had plenty of extra seats. No harm no fouls and I was willing to pay a reasonable fee for the change. Never again will I deal with Continental.

We cannot think of anything, short of clear and present physical danger, that would *ever* justify grabbing a small child one does not know. And I assure you, there was absolutely no reason for this crew member, with whom we had not had any prior contact during the flight, to do this. As mentioned, she did not give any warning or any explanation for what she did. We consider her action a wholly inappropriate physical violation, verging on assault.

We were the very last passengers exiting the plane. (We had used a car seat, and I had some trouble getting it out of the seat belt.) Since we were both carrying various items, we let Maxwell walk under his own power on our way up the aisle. He walked in front of my wife, with her holding his hand. I brought up the rear. As we approached the door, several crew members were standing around putting on coats, gathering their bags, and clearly waiting a bit impatiently for us to leave. We understand; after 14 hours, we were happy to be getting off the plane as well.

When Maxwell saw these several strangers in long black coats standing there--all looking down at him--he hesitated and shrank back toward my wife--perfectly normal behavior for a toddler. With our reassurance, he would have soon continued on his merry way. But that was not to be. Your employee suddenly seized him by placing her hands around his upper arms and lifting quickly; this was by no means a gentle or respectful lift from under the armpits, as a parent would do. In his shock, he jerked and then kicked, trying to break free. She only tightened her grip and proceeded to spin him around 270 degrees, walk a few steps, and drop him on his feet outside the door.

As my wife rushed forward to comfort Max, we expressed to the crew member our shock at what she had just done. I can't recall our exact words, but we both made it clear that we felt it was wrong to grab someone's child like that. Her response was to dismissively wave a hand and walk away from us. We confronted her no further, focusing as any parents would on our screaming son.

After we walked up the jet way, we paused while we thought about waiting for the crew member to emerge from the plane or asking to see a supervisor. We even mentioned this to another crew member who came out. But with a connecting flight to catch and our still shrieking child to contend with, we decided to move on to immigration, baggage claim, customs, baggage re-checking, the train to the next terminal, another security line, diaper changes, and all the other challenges we knew awaited us before and during our flight to Boston.

The economically hardest hit area of AEP's coverage is paying the highest price for their actions. In an area where businesses are trying to keep jobs going, they're being beaten to death with power bills. The individuals in this rural area are not rich--they are elderly, some are farmers, many are unemployed. AEP is gouging the poorest people in their area, because they can't do the same in other states because of regulation.

But as our initial disbelief has passed, and as we have replayed the event in our minds, we have became more and more enraged. There was absolutely no reason for this physical violation. We would not accept such an assault from anyone, in any setting, under any circumstances (except an imminent physical threat). That we are paying customers and frequent international fliers simply adds another level of anger and dismay. Max cried for a long time and took a couple hours to return to his normal self, so we worry this incident will have a lasting impact, causing him to fear airplane flights.

More to the point, although he is small, Max is a person. He has the right to physical sanctity. He should not be violently grabbed by a total stranger and moved around like he is nothing more than a piece of luggage.

I cannot speculate on the motives of your employee. And they are completely irrelevant in any case. Absolutely no one has the right to do what she did. Even if she had done it with the gentlest possible touch--which, let me stress again, she did not--it would have been unacceptable. You simply don't pick up and move a child whom you do not know. In fact, you do not even "touch" a child in any way without first consulting the parents. And even if they give their permission, you approach the child gently and give the child the option of rejecting your contact unless it's absolutely necessary for some reason.

In the news these days, we see many stories where passengers who use even slight physical contact toward flight attendants are charged with criminal assault. The airlines correctly have a very low tolerance for physical action toward their employees. We do not see any reason why tolerance for physical contact of passengers by crew members would be higher.

We did not get the name of the crew member. Her coat covered her name tag, and in the moment I didn't have the presence of mind to ask, especially after she turned her back on us and walked away. The other crew member, the one we spoke to briefly outside the jet way, mentioned a name, Nikki. But in retrospect, we are not sure whether she was giving us the name of the person who grabbed our son or the name of the flight crew supervisor. As mentioned, we had not even seen the offending crew member during the flight. This leads us to believe she was stationed in business or first class and not in economy where we were seated.

In the interest of aiding what we hope will be a thorough investigation and reprimand, I will give you a physical description, because it is all I have: She is an African-American woman, upper middle age, a little portly, and she was wearing dark, thick-rimmed glasses with dark lenses, and a large red scarf atop her overcoat. Several other crew members were standing right there and witnessed the incident.

We sincerely hope that you will treat this matter with the urgency and gravity it deserves. We will look forward to hearing from you about how you plan to address it, both with the crew member in question and with us, your customers.

The question for you are the following:

4) Any suggestion how to file for a complaint with United, so this disgraceful event(s) does happen again?

Hitomi, I would have cancelled/ postponed the trip if I had known in advance the risk of what was waiting for me. I found this series of events not only disgraceful but also hazardous to my health.

He has not seen the bag but indicated there was no claim and offered a $50 voucher on the phone. I told him I wanted a replacement bag since this was beyond repair. He said he would have to see the bag. I went there at 6 pm on 2/23/10. Guess what? Without looking at the bag, he tells Lilian to put notes in the computer so that this guy doesn't get a single dime. I called Continental and spoke to Gloria at 6 pm on 2/23/10. She says, "we are in Texas. We cannot do anything." ( I tried another location DCA) That guy says he has to get approval from IAD. What a scam approved by Continental Airlines. Customers beware; they will just give you a runaround. These are not scratches; the bag is totaled!

The next day Feb 4th, I went to the United web site and logged in to cancel the trip as the weather forecasts were getting worse. I contacted an online assistant, and was told again that because of the situation, I would not be charged cancellation fees. So I cancelled the trip (I have a transcript of the conversation). The following week on Feb. 9th, $150 was deducted from my checking account by United.

I immediately called United customer service and emailed to explain the situation. After two weeks of multiple phone calls and emails to customer service, I was told that I did not qualify for a refund of the cancellation fees because I did not cancel more than 24 hours in advance. The people I talked to on the phone are reservation agents based in the Philippines and India and don't have any authority to correct this and there are no phone numbers for the refunds department. Any ideas on a solution? I think that they will keep ignoring me until I go away. Thanks for your time.

The only luggage that I checked in was a 43kg, huge, black bag. Most of my belongings that the bag contained are listed in the Tracing/Claim Report. As you can see from the Tracing/Claim Report, my bag contained personal belongings for more than $30,000. I have timely provided receipts of payment for all the claimed belongings. Some of the belongings were personal goods which value is impossible to be reasonably translated into any economic value. In the 3 weeks that followed my flight, I had to buy new clothes for business reasons. I have also claimed $2,538 and 905.90 Euro for interim expenses occurred in the 3 weeks after the lost of the baggage.

In fall 2009, I have received from United Airlines Inc. a check for the amount of $1,553.32 as compensation for the loss of my baggage. I found this amount ridiculous. However, I thought it was better not to waste more of my time and I tried to deposit the check, which was returned! In the last months, I tried to contact United by phone, email and fax but no one from United has ever replied. I believe the proposed compensation is incomplete, inadequate and non-proportionate to the occurred damage and my financial loss. Also, the compensation does not take into account that the loss occurred 13 months ago, and the value of the ticket. Also, the reimbursement is still missing for the claimed interim expenses. I hope United will voluntary reconsider the amount of the compensation. Otherwise, kindly provide me any information regarding further redress and recourse mechanisms offered to customers or the contact of your legal department to try to transact a fair compensation before the issue is escalated to a court.

Worse yet, I would not get back home on that same day, but the next day (today), which meant my husband and I will lose a day of work each (and its corresponding salary loss, of course!). Out of humiliation and desperation to get back to work, I paid the asked amount. Paying nearly an additional $1,000 to get on the plane when I am not at fault is not logical nore fair, but rather an abuse and thus I ask that you refund the full amount. Furthermore, we also incurred additional taxi expense ($450 Mexican pesos = $36 US dollars) and lodging; not to mention losing 2 full days of salary (about $2,250 between my husband and me). I understand that sometimes airlines have to make changes, but the agents (both, the one in QRO and the one in Houston) nor I can understand why nobody from Continental ever bothered to call me on my mobile phone (email is not good enough) to let me know of this very significant schedule change. As you can see from the attached purchase confirmation, Continental has my mobile number, which I always carry with me.

From your own on-board Continental magazine (see attached copy of page 84), you can read that the number one recommended helpful travel tip is for the passenger is to provide the airline with reliable contact information. Quote: "We strongly recommend providing your mobile phone as your primary contact when making your reservation". From the attached purchase confirmation you can clearly see that Continental does have my mobile number. Why then, didn't anybody from Continental have the courtesy to call me live and confirm that I was aware of the schedule change?

Attached is the receipt for the extra amount I was forced to pay to get on the plane ($956.80), please refund the full amount to my American Express card. Also, attached are the receipts for the 2 extra taxis I had to take. Please refund via a check in the amount of $36 US dollars ($450 Mexican pesos divided by $12.50 pesos/US dollar).

I trust that you value my business and your reputation and that you will reimburse the unfair additional charge of $956.80 to my American Express credit card before the payment becomes due (January 28th). Please also send the check for the extra taxis (receipts attached) within the next 2 weeks. Looking forward to a satisfactory and fast resolution of this very disruptive experience with Continental Airlines.

I called my bank. They were able to recover my money for the unnecessary fees. I called my credit card company, Discover Card, who told me I needed to type everything I told her about my "incident" and fax it to the department that handles issues with airline companies. The lady tells me this after 30 minutes of being on the phone with her. At the end of the day, I was still frustrated. At least my bank was able to recover some lost funds.

So, I explained to the drink cart attendants that I was not feeling well, nauseated, dizzy, weak, etc. and that I would like four cups of water, because those water cups are so tiny, the service is so slow, and I just thought water would really be the only thing these people could provide me with that would be helpful. Both attendants repeated my order back to me, and neither of them proceeded to hand me any beverage whatsoever. I asked one of them again, and he said, "Ma'am, in a minute. " I didn't really understand why he couldn't just give me one glass then.

Nobody ever came back to me. I watched the other drink cart attendant then walk down to the front of the economy class section with trays of extra water to distribute to the customers up there. She did this twice. After she was done distributing the second tray, I flagged her down and asked for the water I had requested about an hour ago. She snapped at me and asked why I didn't flag her down sooner, asked me to repeat my order, and then went into a tirade about how she couldn't possibly accommodate such a ridiculous request, and if I had a medical problem, I should have been prepared for it and I should have brought my own water (even though I explained that I have no chronic medical problem). She stormed off and came back about fifteen minutes later, slammed two cups of water down on the tray in front of me, and said, "That's the last water we have left on this plane. What are you gonna do about it now?"

So, already being scared about what could possibly be happening in my body, and having explained my distress to the attendant, and having been scolded by the attendant, I started crying because I couldn't seriously believe that this woman who gets paid to be there and take care of customers was mocking me after I had just told her I was weak, dizzy, nauseous, and I was visibly upset about just that, to begin with. All I had asked for was some extra water. Which I had just watched her distribute to other passengers who hadn't even specifically requested it.

I then had the task of re-telling my experience in an e-mail to the Continental Airlines customer complaint website. I told them what happened (with more detail, which only makes the story worse), and requested that my reward miles be credited back to my account. I received this e-mail back:

Thank you for including Continental in your recent travel plans. We appreciate the time you took to let us know about your experience. I am really sorry to know that you were not feeling good during the flight and did not feel good after the flight. I was also disappointed to know that our flight attendants did not accommodate to your needs. Please know that we only have certain amount of water available during in-flight and I absolutely understand that there are circumstances beyond control which may come about and regret this was handled in the matter you described.

Ms. A., we take all the complaints very seriously and I have detailed your concerns in a report which has been communicated to the appropriate senior management. Although our response is brief, please know that I have to respectfully decline your request for compensation, as travel was taken and refund is not warranted for the level of service described. Given the opportunity to welcome you aboard once again, I am confident you will experience the outstanding service and operational reliability we traditionally provide.

So, I responded back to Hemlata's e-mail as follows: I do understand that limited water is available in-flight. I perhaps should have clarified that immediately prior to the incident, I watched the same attendant handing out trays of the "leftover" water supply to the passengers in the lower-number rows. Unfortunately, because I hadn't specified a seating preference for this flight, your system seated me in the last row. There was absolutely plenty of water available before I flagged her down, she just ignored or more likely forgot my order.

I sincerely regret learning that simply taking a customer from point A to B is considered adequate service, even if your employee has worsened a distressed passenger's experience. I really hope that you never have to understand why your comment about me "not feeling good" is a gross understatement. I'm so disappointed that this is the way my reward miles were spent. Thank you for illustrating Continental's service and service recovery standards. I will be sure to only fly with you again if its the absolute cheapest flight I can find.

I received this response from Hemlata this morning: Thank you for contacting us once again. We realize you were disappointed when you did not receive the response that you felt was appropriate. I assure you that your concerns have not gone unnoticed. Unfortunately, we do not guarantee any seat assignment, and regret the handling of this situation as you described. Thank you for your continued patronage to Continental Airlines and we look forward to winning back your trust on a future flight soon.

I'm horrified that this is the response I received from management, although it does speak volumes about the kind of example that is set for front-line employees at Continental. Customers aren't real people, is really the message I'm taking home here.

I am extremely disappointed with the services provided by United Airlines. I demand a written reply to this complaint for my reference to this complaint. I made a reservation with United Airlines on October 25, 2009, Confirmation No. **. Round trip first class ticket from LAX to New Delhi, India. It was confirmed by your agents at United Airlines more than twice that my ticket is first class and my Mileage Plus Account No. ** was charged 160,000 points.

My travel from LAX to Vancouver was supposedly on a First Class ticket, the seat was less than an economy in size and comfort. There was one toilet for 66 passengers that includes 4 first class passengers on the plane. A pre-packaged box of little snack was served on three hours international flight. That was a completely misleading first class I ever traveled. I hope you know what kind of services does Star Alliance airlines and other international airlines offer in the world on international flights. No first class lounge service was given to me at both LAX and Vancouver Airport because your agent at United Airlines lacks the customer care and courtesy.

This is very important for you to know. As I checked in at New Delhi Airport, I was told by Lufthansa agent that I have first class ticket from New Delhi to Frankfurt and my ticket is business class from Frankfurt to LAX. I was just shocked by this news. The Lufthansa agent said they can not do anything about it as the ticket was written by United Airlines. The only remedy was to contact United Airlines. At 2AM on November 13, I searched for a payphone and called United Airlines. I was on hold for over 26 minutes and no agent spoke to me. I spent RS160.00 on phone call. I had to go because there was the final call for security and immigration check for passengers taking the flight LH761 from New Delhi to Frankfurt. I was told by a Lufthansa agent at Frankfurt that this is not the first time United Airlines has done what they did to me. They often do that on rewards tickets like this.

I do not need to explain you why I wanted first class ticket for 11-hour flight from Frankfurt to LAX. You charged me for first class ticket and sneaked in a business class ticket on Frankfurt to LAX sector. I demand a full investigation on this matter. I want copy of the notes made by reservation agent at United who told me it was a first class reservation all through my itinerary. Thank you.

First, I was told that to change the ticket would cost $150.00 plus $330.00 for a change in fare. After explaining to them my situation to no avail, I went ahead and purchased the ticket. When I received my itinerary by email, I realized that the return date was not change and had me returning January 28, 2010. I do not have vacation days and my job does not allow me to take almost a whole month in personal time off or that many days in bereavement leave.

I called back United Airline and I was told that changing my return date would cost me another $150.00 for changing date and approximately $400.00 in change of fare. With the original ticket that I’d purchase for $232.00 the whole trip would cost me $1262.20. I decided to check other airlines and found a much better deal with American Airline using old mileage that I have accumulated when I used to fly with them. Within approximately two hours I called United Airlines to cancel the reservation and obtain my refund. I was told that they could not issue me any refund. All they would do is issue me a travel voucher for the change in fare minus the $150.00 for the ticket exchange.

I am a premier executive in the United Mileage plus program and had never heard of this. My understanding was that if you purchase a ticket from an airline and then find a better fare with another airline or even if you change your mind, you would receive your money back in cash or credit card credit as long as you cancel within the 24-hour time limit. I am now stock with a travel voucher that is only good for one year and not knowing if I’ll be using it within the one-year time limit.

A warning to everyone who purchased a ticket on United Airline and wants to cancel the reservation at time: don’t ever mention the word change because it is an automatic charge of $150.00 with no refund. I emailed United Airline customer relations complaining about my problem and never heard back from them. From the $348.00 that they charge me for the ticket that I cancel within two hours later, they refused to refund my money and issue me a travel voucher for $248.00. They are charging me $150.00 fee for the transaction with no change to my original itinerary.

Finally, 2 hours later, the flight left. Then what happens? Engine trouble on the flight out of Houston and another huge delay. And better yet, no first class seats available, after I had already paid. Not that anyone offered to refund the money, you just expect to be able to do whatever you want with no repercussion. Well, let me tell you what I am going to do. I want a full refund of my airfare, including the 1st class upgrade fee. I am contacting my credit card companies today. If you refuse a full refund, I will be contacting the news, the BBB and the Attorney Generals of both Kansas and Missouri to see what they can do about this.

I produced a copy of the email received from Continental Air attn. Ms. Lisa with the confirmation number with all the flight numbers, depart and arrive times, even the meals, etc. The agent sent me to the Continental Reservation desk at GRU and the nice lady explained that the airline miles were never applied and the ticket was cancelled due to "non-payment". I asked how could this happen and was told that someone forgot to apply the mileage. By this time, the flight is beginning to board and we not only don't have a ticket but are not through security or immigration yet. I asked what my options were and was sold a ticket at top price of $1829.00 but could not get seating with my Lisa. Fortunately, we boarded the plane in time and a kind gentleman traded seats with me so we could fly together and the sick feeling I had subsided and we had a great vacation from that point on.

On return to my home after vacation, I contacted Continental again to find out how this could have happened and after an hour plus on the phone with an agent and supervisor, again it was brought up that someone did not apply my mileage that I booked the flight with originally on the phone. We checked that I had sufficient mileage in the account. The supervisor told me that I should always check back because the agents are very busy and sometimes even though they do their job right, things can happen. It is my duty to be sure I have a written copy of my eTicket? Although this is great insight for future flights, I feel that I booked 3 separate flights that were carefully booked in advance to ensure seating with my daughter and no attempt in any way was made to inform me of any problems.

I have a Chase Continental Card on my file. If there was any doubt, that could have been used or notify me at the very least of any problem. I feel that the error was in part on Continental and having to pay $1829.00 was outrageous for a ticket I could have purchased for $865.00 if I elected to not use my mileage. I am asking that you please consider this and request some compensation to offset the difference. I will soon be planning the same trip one more time this year and would like to use Continental Air which I have found to have not only excellent service but one of the most modern fleets in the industry according to Squawk Box on TV.

They apologize and offered to forward my emails to a higher authority; the next email offered me a $50 credit on our next trip, I responded that I was planning on never using Continental services again.

The last response was to submit to me a $50 coupon with a limited expiration date. Of course, I dismissed it. I hope a lawsuit is set up soon as their virtual non-response could not continue forever. Lost pieces had to be replaced, the cost could have been greater if other items were kept in the luggage, like laptop, camera, wee console and other small electronics. The inconvenience, disappointment and lost of trust are the major price paid, but whether the loss is big or small, it's a violation and plain theft allowed by Continental.

Had the gate agents in Lexington known the rules, I could have gone home to get my actual passport. I live less than five minutes from the airport and had plenty of time to make my flight. I called the customer service department to complain and was told, "Too bad. You should have known the rules." If the gate agents and the TSA agents don't know the rules, how is the average traveler supposed to know the rules? They told me I could fly with a passport card and I believed them. You cannot fly with a passport card outside of the US.

She gave no explanation because she did not have one to begin with. She did say that the airline canceled the flight on September 25, 2009 (3 months after the purchase and 3 months before the flight date), but did not notify me of such event. I also explained to the agent that the change would put me late at FLL for my flight to South America and the fact that I am disabled would further aggravate my situation at FLL. I even asked her if I could be placed on an available first class seat to facilitate my exit from the aircraft at FLL. She asked her supervisor to deny the request, but she did, however, directed me to call 1-800-WE-CARE-2 (yeah, right) a toll free number set up by the airline to handle customers concerns and complaints (as if they care). I did however call the number where an employee with the worst of attitudes answered the phone. I, at some point, asked him if perhaps it was a good idea for me to hang up the phone.

After explaining to him what had happened, he proceeded to offer to assist me with transportation from terminal no. 1 to terminal no. 4 at FLL. He said an electric car was going to be waiting for me at the gate to transport me. He also said for me to check with a customer service agent at Houston, which I did only to find that the agent initially refused to check the system to verify the request which she finally did given my insistence with an attitude similar if not worse than that of the gentleman I spoke with on the phone the day before. The interesting thing is that I was the only customer in line. She did, however, confirmed the request (thank God!).

Upon my arrival at FLL and after exiting the aircraft, I started looking left-right-up and down to see if there was a Continental Airlines employee waiting for me to direct me to the electric car as promised, but lo and behold, there was no one waiting. I then proceeded to walk to the nearest counter where a third and final Continental employee told me that the service that her airline offered to me was not available at FLL, even though I asked her to check the validity of my claim with my confirmation number which she did not do.

This mail needs to be taken with utmost importance. If ignored, this will be escalated.

I had booked my return ticket on Continental Airlines from Newark to Los Angeles. I tried to check in online on 22nd of December night, and many times during the day on 23rd of December. To my surprise, all the seats were booked. I called the contact center, and they mentioned that I would get my seat at the airport.

I walked into the baggage claim area and checked in my baggage, which has my medicines for the trip and other valuable gift items that I carried for my brother. The baggage was checked at approximately 3:30pm on 23rd of December. You can verify the time in your systems, if you wish. My security screening was done immediately, and I was at the gate at 4pm (an hour before my departure).

I was on for a shock when they said I don't have a seat and the flight is overbooked. I had been waiting to see my brother for 2 years now, and I would not get a 4-day weekend for at least next one year. I was waiting at the gate for 90 minutes, hoping for a seat on a confirmed flight. They denied a seat and offered a compensation of $250, refund, and a return ticket. The other option was to roll over to next flights.

I was put on standby for the next flight at 6:30pm. No luck, as this was full as well. Then I rolled on to the 7:45pm flight. No seats again. I moved to customer service. There were at least 70 people waiting to speak to the service representatives, and there were only two of them to handle this crowd. As I understand, most of them were here for grievances. It was eternal. Finally, my chance came at 9pm (a 5-hour wait at the airport).

2. Just compensation and return on my baggage that went by the 5pm flight by noon tomorrow, as I have some medicines in the bag.

I was offered the flight for the next morning at 6:40am to LA. I asked for a hotel stay and compensation, which they denied and were rude enough to ask if I care for this ticket or there were other passengers who can take my seat. The entire episode was frustrating and totally unacceptable. I incurred in all $200 for the taxis to and fro the airport. My time has immense value, which I lost. I could not meet my brother on the day I planned. I spent anxious moments at the airport, knowing that it would be impossible to meet him over such a long weekend, in case I miss this weekend.

I would need a suitable compensation for this mess created by Continental. A suitable compensation would be to pay for the taxis, my time, hotel denial for the night, the agony of waiting and uncertainty, possibly a return ticket to LA from Newark for later dates. One final note, I have been a member of Emirates Skywards for the last 4 years, and Continental needs to learn a lot from them on customer service."

It is now Jan. 6, 2010 and still no update from United. Repeated calls to them result in the same script read over and over again. I made one breakthrough and I found out that on Dec. 29, 2009, my bag did in fact make it to ORD (Chicago) but on a different flight number--flight number 609. Since then, my bag has gone missing. I have asked United staff to contact O'Hare airport via phone rather than their internal system, which obviously is not working--only for them to tell me that O'Hare is busy and has not gotten back to the lost baggage department and calling will not help.

Now, missing bags are common, but in certain circumstances, missing baggage can be critical. The lack of caring on United's part has really left us in the mercy of a help desk in India, who obviously are lying through their teeth until you actually talk to a supervisor. And even then, it's a 50/50 chance that he is going to care. After eight days, thus far, they have finally told me to fill out a compensation form, and I asked why. They told me that they have given up looking but will continue to trace the bag (whatever that means).

After waiting in a line for an hour, I was treated rudely by a United employee who insisted I was in the wrong line and would have had to wait at the end of another line for an additional hour and a half. Then she yelled at me that all of the other people were in the same situation as me and forced me at the back of the other line. As a result, I was told we were to be stranded in Dallas for two additional nights/days before getting me to anywhere in the northeast. They could not even find me a flight back to Denver. Well, that was an unacceptable solution for me as I had no supplies with for my 2 year old (he was being dropped off) and could not wait in a hotel for that long with him in tow.

My only option at that point was to rent a car and drive. I drove for 11 hours that day and another 4 hours to Nashville where I found another Southwest flight that got me into Baltimore the next day. Upon which, I spent the night at a relative's house and drove to Philadelphia another 3 hours. This episode cost me an additional $977.53 for the Southwest airfare, hotel, car rental, gas and basic supplies for my 2 year old. This is on top of the United flight expense for two tickets of which we had to forfeit the leg getting to Philadelphia.

This has stranded me and my 2 1/2 year old son in Dallas and costing me a ridiculous sum of unanticipated money when it was easily avoidable by United is unacceptable.

When we arrived at the airport initially to fly out, our flight had been changed without prior notice and then this was subsequently delayed giving us less than an hour in Washington to get the connecting flight to La Guardia. We finally received our bags on Christmas eve more than 24 hours after they had been lost! On our return flight, we went via Chicago o'hare, the first flight was delayed by 30 minutes. We got to Chicago, however still on time and boarded our flight to return to London Heathrow 3rd January 2010 6pm. The plane then sat at the gate for 40 minutes due to another flight behind us not moving. This meant that we landed in the UK at 9.10am instead of 7.55am. On this particular flight, the inflight entertainment was not working, so we had to sit and endure 8 hours of complete boredom.

On our arrival to the UK, we found that once again United Airlines have lost our baggage and that then it is still in Chicago. Advised baggage would be delivered within 24 hours. We are still waiting. We have tried and tried over and over again to contact united, the UK number only has an answerphone service, and despite leaving numerous messages we have not received a callback. I called the US number instead to be told that one bag is now at Heathrow Airport and the other is in Chicago! I was then informed that it was a big airport.

I asked for a number or email address to complain to and was then told it does not exist, and that it was not United's policy to give me any contact numbers. This call ended rather abruptly with me in tears. Please, please, please, please can someone help me with some form of contact number or email address or something to complain to? I am desperate and at the end of my tether with United Airlines, it is the worst travel experience that I have ever encountered in the whole time that I have traveled.

Then, we had to get him up the slippery steps into the plane, which took four people assisting him. There was a Jetway to exit the plane in Raleigh, which was completely dry. Why wasn't a Jetway available in Washington, where they had had almost two feet of snow? Why wasn't the path to the plane cleared and salted? Why did we have to walk through slush on a sheet of ice to board the plane? This situation was dangerous for a fragile person and completely unacceptable for handicap treatment.

On June 19, 2009, I received a letter from United stating that they were not able to assume liability for the claim due to the inordinate amount of time that elapsed and an investigation was not possible at that point. They also stated that they did not receive written notification 45 days from the date of lost correspondence. From then we have been going back and forth with letters on this claim; without resolution. I've asked them what I was supposed to notify them of in 45 days. They stated the claim was under review so I waited they time they told me to wait for them to review the claim. Then I get a letter stating I waited too long. This is totally frustrating and I cannot get anyone from United to call me to discuss this issue. I’m just asking them to honor their commitment to reimburse me for my expenses as they said they would. The items totaled $591.00, including reimbursement for the $15 baggage handling fee.

Late in the evening of the 24th, I called and was informed that my bag had arrived in Winnipeg at 1:49pm the 24th and that it would be delivered to me as soon as possible. As of now, the afternoon of the 27th and after 3 days of being told my bag was in Winnipeg and was going to be delivered to me and that I would get a call with the information on when and how my bag was going to be delivered, I have not received one phone call and on the last call I made, I was informed that they don't know where my bag is.

The total that I was purchasing the ticket for was $401.80 (tax incl.) My bank informed me that the transaction was successfully submitted to Continental Airlines and deducted from my available balance. So I contacted Continental Airlines and all my actual hard time started. So far, I owe my bank the amount of $401.80 and my confirmation was not confirmed because supposedly they were unable to process my card (unable to charge the card, because the authorization was denied as stated by Continental.

I am very disappointed and I really feel frustrated with this poor customer service provided to me. Another thing was that I recontacted my bank and they informed me that after the first successful transaction, Continental had tried 4 attempts to charge my credit card for the same amount of $401.80. This one has been refused from my bank as I have a credit limit protection.

Damage resulting was $401.80 owed to bank. The representative of Continental Airlines Customer Care stated that there was nothing they could do about it, Also, I was told to contact my bank and deal with them. I had no choice but to contact my bank and have them dispute the charges to Continental. Then I had to contact Continental and ask them to charge my credit card now that I had disputed the charges and the available balance was back. Everything was submitted and they just told me that now my confirmation number was approved and confirmed?

Today, I was just waiting for the day of my departure to Santo Domingo with my wife. I have no options than to have to fly through Continental with this customer concern and bad experience that Continental provided to me. Continental Airlines is now a bad airline with just the poor customer service and personnel that they hired for their crew team. I would not recommend anyone to fly through Continental unless they go to their office and sit on their computer and book their own flight and charge their own credit card, while the Continental representative stands watching what you're doing.

I contacted Continental Airlines and all my actual hard time started. So far I owe my bank the amount of $401.80 and my confirmation is not confirmed because supposedly they were unable to process my card and unable to charge the card because the authorization was denied (stated by Continental). I am very disappointed and I really feel frustrated with this poor customer service provided to me. Another thing is that I recontacted my bank and they informed me that after the first successful transaction, Continental had tried 4 attempts to charge my credit card for the same amount of $401.80. This one has been refused from my bank as I have a credit limit protection.

Within seconds, I was held down and stripped down to my undergarments and consequently left with a lot of bruising and scratches. At this stage, I began hyperventilating and asked for a brown bag to help my breathing. A female with short blonde hair who I may add could be introduced to a bar of soap and water decided that I was suicidal. When I asked her qualifications and name, she just jeered and laughed amongst the rest of her staff. They asked me if I was intoxicated and I volunteered that I had actually had 2 glasses of wine and if they checked their CCTV, they could verify that as I had arrived from Cork at 21:55 the previous night.

One female hit the back of my head and instructed me not to get stroppy. After what seemed an eternity, my luggage was returned from the aircraft where I can only describe them as vultures on a carcass, they found the rest of my medication. They ransacked both my suitcases, broke a framed family portrait and when I was finally allowed to be released to the police, I checked my personal belongings and realized certain items were missing. The police doctor examined and confirmed I was fit and capable to fly and confirmation was received from my doctor that the medication was, in fact, my own. They offered to send me out the next day with all these scratches and bruises which I had sustained by them.

The brutal and horrifying interrogation and the physical and emotional battery is something I cannot get to grips with. It was traumatic, demoralizing and I was completely violated by 5 women who are ill-equipped and ill-trained to be representing such a large company. I hope you will investigate this occurrence as promptly as possible. I have been in the hospitality business myself for the last 18 years and we certainly do not treat our clients in this manner. My attorney has instructed me to get in touch with the Media and various consumer protection offices here and across the Atlantic.

Thank you for your time and may I take this opportunity to wish you a joyous Christmas.

I told her this was unacceptable and she said she found another flight at an earlier time. I suggested that if she couldn't find a direct flight, a connecting flight would be fine - she then she said she had a different flight that was leaving later - I was unhappy with her responses and when I asked her to book her, she placed me on hold and then came back to say the flight and seat had been arranged. When I asked for the time and the flight number, she had already hung up on me.

I was supposed to complete a survey on the experience, but the agent disconnected me so I was unable to provide any feedback. Obviously they don't take their customer service seriously and only want to receive positive feedback.

We arrived at Continental to find out they gave up our premium seats (I have gold status and booked many months in advance). They refused to move the people that were now in our seats, and tried to put us all in middle seats. They would not assist my mom to her seat, would not take on our carry on with over $1,500 in meds that if lost, we would not have coverage to replace, a CPAP, laptop, and $20K in jewelry plus other vital items. I asked the flight attendants if they would put one of their roller boards in the belly and they told me I needed to show up on time.

One flight attendant discussed our situation in a negative manner with a passenger. My mother did not get her diabetic meal. My father who was clearly sick, coughing, choking and urinary incontinent had to sit in a middle seat. He had an "accident" and I did not have my bag which had extra underwear, powder, etc. His dignity was lost. I thought we had pain killers in my mother’s purse, we did not and she had to suffer for 8 hours without it (remember her arm was broken). The flight attendants were rude, completely uncooperative and put the customer last. I have put 1/2 the airfare in dispute with my credit card, that’s approximately $900. I loved Continental. Domestic is wonderful International is awful.

An 80 year old woman had to suffer in pain because a flight attendant would not allow us to take on our bag which had medications. She told me I had a minute to take out what I needed; I asked for a bag she would not give me one. We were forced to check the bag with vital meds, insulin, computer, CPAP, and over $20K in jewelry. My mother worried about my 83 year old father trapped in a middle seat far from rest room and her jewelry and meds. It was awful. Getting back the $900 might be fine but it’s certainly no consolation. I took them to the Pyramids of Giza, and Athens to name a few places and the first thing they spoke about was our mistreatment on the flight home; very sad.

Some of the customer service people were so rude. Agent Sandy from Continental was very rude in responding to customer's complain about deceptive information on the website. This person is lack of basic courtesy. I wish I can have the record of our conversation and send that to her boss to get her fired on the spot. Sandy, if you have some trouble living your life, don't release that on Continental customers. You are lack of the work ethics. Sorry for all the other Sandy's in Continental customer service because when I asked for her work ID, this rude woman hung the phone on me. Shame on you!

They separated me and my 6 years old child with assigned seating, even though I specifically had been told we would be seated together. When I asked if we could sit together, no crew member helped. I had to rely on the kindness of strangers to get us seated together for the 5-hour flight.

I filed a complaint, and the lady told me it would take 30 days to contact me in regards to this "mistake." Wait a minute. I thought Continental saw no wrongdoing. Why would you call it a mistake? I told the lady "Well, it will take me 1 minute to call the FAA, 2 minutes to contact the media, and 3 minutes to contact a lawyer." And what do you know, I got a call 4 hours later? Hmmm. It sounds fishy to me! To top it off, there was no compensation for the minor fee. There was nothing!

As we got closer to checking in, one of the employees (employee #1) separated the line into 3 groups, which were groups of flight times - 5:45, 6:30, and 7:30. We fell in the first group. As we were serviced, employee #2 asked where my daughter's travel info was. I proceeded and responded that she had to retrieve it from the computer, because I had purchased the ticket online on Travelocity and that I had spoken to a Continental Airline representative by phone and that I was given a code to retrieve my daughter's flight information. She did not bother looking the information up. She proceeded on asking my sister to weigh the luggage.

Employee #2 immediately got upset when my sister's luggage went past 50 lbs. She proceeded to say that we had to purchase a Continental bag and that she had to pay an additional $65. As this occurred, my sister and I turned to look at each other and I asked if she really had an additional $65 to purchase the bag. I guess this annoyed employee #2 even more, and she made a comment to employee #1 that we were not ready because I did not have my daughter's travel information (Mind you, she did not bother looking it up.) and that my sister's bag went past 50 lbs.

By this time, I was very upset, because she kept repeating that we were not ready and I kept telling her to look up my daughter's information up. She refused to do that. They refused to solve the problem and continued to repeat among their selves that we were not going to travel. Due to the circumstances back, I could afford to miss the flight. They didn't care, threw us to the side, and refused to attend to us for 5 hours. And they put a stop, so we would not reserve another flight by phone.

My daughter was hungry, and all I had was orange juice while we waited to go past security to get my daughter something real to eat. It really hurts me that my daughter had to suffer because of these 3 disgusting females. All this drama was uncalled for and unnecessary. After about 5 and half hours, we were attended by a nice gentleman who had the courage to ask about the current situation and proceeded in helping us. He resolved our problem that only took him 10 minutes to resolve. Thanks to him, our problem got resolved.

I would like for these 3 employees to be investigated and punished for their outrageous behavior. PS: In returning to the Unites States, they proceeded to putting a stop on our flight coming back from Honduras on August 25, 2009.

I called back later in the day to verify that my information was taken and spoke with Angela ** (Houston). She assured me that the report was filed and closed. She proceeded to give me a new ID which she also closed during this call. My experience with her was a little more pleasant than with Ms. **, but not by much. I was informed about the loss of 25 Customer Care agents, which has caused a delay in responding to service failures. Again, from a dissatisfied consumer's point of view, this is irrelevant.

I just wanted to share my Continental experience. All in all, it is still hard to believe that given consumer choices and the state of the economy that such poor customer service exists in this market.

Aug 15, 29, SAT-IAH (CO 178) - No problems

Aug 15, 29, IAH-CUN (CO 1464) - The flight arrived as scheduled at 3:30 pm. However, my bag did not. Tracer ** was opened. Cancun baggage agents entered my bag claim number and advised me that my bag was not scanned into the system, no telling where it may be. My bag was finally delivered to Tulum 9 hrs later. Everything was explained to me about baggage tracing. But I had to practically beg for an amenity kit. Airport personnel seemed a little "bothered" by the fact that the upstairs offices were closed and they had to find the key and then had to search for an amenity kit. It almost seems that this simple act was a bother to them.

Aug 21, 29, CUN-IAH (CO465) - No problems

Aug 21, 29, IAH-SAT (CO1779) - The nightmare begins. The flight was delayed over 4 hrs. First, we were told due to weather, then to crew rest. It was complete chaos. Gate agents had no idea what was going on. We had no reassurance - kept being told to sit and wait. Gate agents appeared to be "winging it". Gate agents told pax to go to other gates for flights to SAT and see if able to board stand-by. Pax were told they were bringing "carts" (snacks/drinks) to the gate. The carts never came! Flight CO1779 eventually cancelled around 1: p.m., even though flights had already resumed.

Hell broke loose! Gate agents were clueless. I kept being told to go to different gates to wait list for other flights to SAT (which were also delayed). Once I got to the different gates, those gate agents were most unhelpful. I was told I should have gone to the airport Customer Service Centers for resolution, and not directly to the gate. Keep in mind, I know I was not the only pax affected by this. But all pax were told the same thing - to go to the "new gates" and standby for the next flight. Everyone appeared to be passing the buck and no one wanted to take ownership of the situation.

The rudeness of the gate agents during this chaotic/stressful situation was quite blatant. I would think that airport personnel have received better customer service training on how to deal with this type of situation seeing as how it is becoming more frequent these days with delays/cancellations and overbookings. This was not an isolated incident. Each time I connect through IAH, I notice that CO employees are not the most helpful. Most IAH employees I have encountered seem to take their job as more of a "chore".

Not once was I offered a coupon for even a bag of chips or something to drink. I was at wits' end. I went back to one of the Customer Service Centers and then it happened, Ana ** (Team Leader). What a blessing! She never faltered or was "short" with any of the customers. When I got up to the counter, of course, she was already aware of the situation and worked ever so diligently to seek resolution to the problems. The same time she took with other pax, she took with me. She finally got me a confirmed seat on one of the last flights to SAT on an aircraft that was going to leave (CO245). Of course, I made it to SAT after midnight, but again my bag did not.

I checked with the two young ladies who were working as baggage agents (Lisa ** and ANA **) in the baggage claim area that night and again my bag was not scanned into the system. I was informed that my bag should arrive on next flight from IAH-SAT, which would be around 1: a.m. My bag did arrive and I do understand the delay given the situation with flights from IAH on 8/21. Lisa and Ana handled this situation very professionally and courteously, true professionals.

I know I do not travel enough to truly be of any significant value to Continental, but this experience is making me reevaluate my choice of airlines. Continental has always been my choice of carrier for travel to family and friends in Mexico and Central America, but after the extreme poor leadership and lack of concern for pax comfort at IAH, I will think twice. Funny thing is, my travel companion flew AA from CUN to DFW and encountered delays as well, but upon speaking about our experiences, he stated that yes, it was chaotic as well at DFW, but AA personnel handled it efficiently and professionally (I am only taking his word for his experience).

The only positive and professional personnel I encountered during this trip were Ana **, Lisa **, and Ana **. Please pass my sincere appreciation to them and afford these ladies the recognition they so well deserve. I would kindly appreciate a response from Continental. Ana **, Lisa **, and Ana ** cannot do it alone, but again what a blessing to have dealt with them. It was the proverbial finding "a needle in a haystack", but these 3 service professionals alone cannot remedy the comedy of errors that I encountered on this trip. Thank you.

I also made a call to American Airlines service center on Aug. 25th night to re-confirm my reservation. I got the same answer again - the reservation is good. But when I went to Chicago airport on Aug. 26th, I got a totally different answer from the tickets counter. They told me my reservation was not valid and I had to purchase another ticket for today, which was around $400. I called UA service center right away. I got an answer from the rep, "the reservation is good," I did not need to pay anything. If the staff in the tickets counter has any problem, they could contact the service center. After I made the call, I went back to the tickets counter. The staff there insisted I had to pay the tickets, and refused to talk to the service center. So later on, I was forced to purchase the ticket with my credit card.

For these kinds of things, I was totally confused by UA's 2 different departments. As a customer, I think I was treated unfairly, and I did nothing wrong, and because of some misunderstanding between UA's 2 different departments, I had to pay extra money for my trip. It is totally wrong. I think I will never be a customer of this airline. I wish they will lose more and more customers. I will keep telling all the people I know about this.

I insisted that I did not check my bag at the gate or at the check-in counter and therefore, their baggage claim policy does not stand. United saw no way to reimburse me for my lost expenses, but instead offered some mileage to be posted to my account. The small amount of mileage in no way equaled my monetary loss.

Two hours after that, 8PM, Continental representatives relaid to passengers that they will be boarding the same malfunctioning, smoking plane at a later time - 10:15PM. Upon inquiring about different Continental flights back to Newark, I was told by Continental representatives that I needed to pay an additional amount of $80 in order to get a connecting flight to Houston, TX and then finally to Newark, NJ. The absurdity of paying more money to get to my final destination due to the poor lack of judgement by Continental, as well as the major safety concern, led me, as a passenger, to choose a different aircraft carrier. I spent $414 for flight home from Las Vegas when our entire package deal at the Paris hotel and flight was $387, and an entire day's wage for lost time at work.

We finally took off about 2:10PM (San Francisco time). We had been in the air for about 30 to 40 minutes and we were still being blasted by freezing air so I, along with many others, asked if they were going to moderate the temperature. I was told that they were trying and shortly after that, the temperature became much, more comfortable for about 15 minutes and then the cold breezes began again. Many of us were complaining as it was unbearably cold. For almost all of the 4-hour flight, everyone was doing everything to try and keep warm. Some of us even went to stand in the galley next to the heating grids! It was too cold to sleep or to be comfortable at all.

I am a senior American citizen, and I requested them to help me out, since I had no desire to run about too much, since I am an asthmatic patient. We were quite a few travelling back to Newark, NJ. And for me, it was a first experience, since I am a frequent Delta flier. The cost of the cooker was Rs.400, a negligible amount; but one cannot get the same quality here in the US. I would appreciate you to look into this matter. If possible, post me a 4-liter cooker at my US residence!

Here is the story. After leaving security in Indianapolis, I went to the gate for my flight with my 10-month-old son. I found that the flight was delayed. I went to the counter at the gate to ask when the flight would arrive in Newark, as I had a connecting flight. The woman at the counter told me my flight would arrive at 5:35PM, and since my connecting flight was at 6:00PM, I shouldn't have any issues. And there weren't any other flight that she could put me on. I asked if the arriving gate and my connecting flight's gate were close together. She told me that they were across the airport and I would just have to book it to make my connecting flight.

I went to the nearest restaurant to get a bite to eat and feed my son while we waited. When done with our snacks, we went to the gate to check on the flight. To our surprise, it was leaving earlier than the stated time; and they were about to board the plane. I thought it was great, as it would help me get to my connecting flight. I was concerned that there wasn't an announcement made, but since I was at the gate and ready to board the plane, I dismissed it.

After gate-checking my stroller and car seat, I started to board the plane. Upon boarding the plane, the flight attendant informed me in a very gruff manner that I could not sit in my assigned seat and I would have to sit in seat 19A. When going to the back of the plane with my son, my carry-on and the diaper bag in tow, I had a nice passenger help me by holding my son until I got settled. When I got to seat 19A, there was a passenger already in the seat. I wanted to go tell the flight attendant; however, there were still people boarding the plane.

When there was a clearing, I walked up to the flight attendant and let her know that there was a passenger in seat 19A and I asked if there was another seat that she would like me to utilize. She curtly asked if the person in the seat won't move. Personally, I thought asking this passenger to move was the flight attendant's duty, not mine. She brushed me to the side and walked back to ask the passenger to move. He kindly did, I got situated, and I retrieved my son from the nice lady who was holding him.

The flight itself was pretty uneventful, until it was about time to land. I started to put my son on my shoulder to fasten my seat belt (as he fell asleep during the flight), and in the midst of it, the flight attendant snatched him up. I put on my seat belt, and she dropped him in my arms. I did not appreciate her grabbing my son in that manner.

Upon arriving in Newark, we exited the plane onto the tarmac. I retrieved the car seat from being gate-checked, and I strapped my son in. I was going to open the stroller to put the car seat and the carry-on luggage in it, but the one person around the gate-checked items yelled out, "No! No! Stairs or bus!" and pointed to the stairs that led to the concourse or the bus that took you to other concourses. I was struggling to get my son in the car seat, the stroller, the diaper bag, and my carry-on onto the bus that I was led to and told would take me to concourse C.

There were many other people on the bus from my flight going to concourse C, including the flight attendant. We arrived at a destination, and I was told we had to board another bus to go to concourse C. The flight attendant rudely snapped at me, "Why didn't you get on the other bus?!" I told her that I was told to get on this bus and it would take me to concourse C. I transferred all my items to the other bus and was transported to concourse C. After unloading my items from the bus, I noticed that there was an elevator and I could finally open the stroller and put everything in it.

Unfortunately, upon opening the stroller, I found there was a wheel missing. I was very upset by this point. I lugged all of my stuff into the elevator that took me up to gate level. By the time I arrived at gate level and unloaded all my stuff, I was in tears. A nice security lady came up to me and said, "No cry, no cry!" She asked me what was wrong. I told her the story, and she, along with the other three airport or airline employees there, told me that I should file a complaint and that my stroller would be replaced.

She calmed me down and called for an electronic cart to take me to my gate, which had a customer service desk right next to it. She told me to go to customer service right away and then go to my gate. The electronic cart driver took me to customer service, but at the opposite end of concourse C from my gate. I complained at the counter, and I was told that I needed to go to baggage to complain. I explained that I had a connecting flight, and she told me that I would have to complain at my final destination. I asked if she would call for an electronic cart, as I only had three wheels on the stroller and my gate was across the airport.

I waited 10 to 15 minutes for the electronic cart and decided to try to use the three-wheeled stroller to get to my gate, as I didn't want to miss my flight. Upon using the stroller, the third wheel came off, making it a two-wheeled stroller. Trying to lift the stroller and all of our contents all the way to the gate was exhausting. Along the way, two nice flight attendants asked what happened; and I told them the story. They said that I should have no problem getting a replacement once I complained at my final destination. The gentleman helped pull the stroller the remaining distance to my gate.

At the gate, I found that my flight was delayed two hours. I met a kind gentleman, who helped reattach the third wheel and fix the side of the missing wheel so that the third wheel wouldn't come off again. After feeding my son and watching another flight board, we were told that the gate changed for the Pittsburgh flight. I was so upset, as I was exhausted from carrying the stroller all over Newarks concourse C. But luckily, it was only one gate away and customer service was located next door. I decided to visit customer service again, as I had plenty of time before my flight was going to leave. I encountered a very rude woman behind the desk who just kept repeating "Baggage! Baggage!" I told her I had a connecting flight, and she told me "Baggage!" I left and went back to my gate.

I met a few nice people who were heading for Norfolk, VA while I was waiting at the gate. The information on the board was only for the Pittsburgh flight, and they were a little nervous about being at the correct gate, so they went up to the counter to ask if they were indeed in the correct area. The lady was very curt to them and then made a very snooty announcement about gate 103 being for Norfolk as well as Pittsburgh. We were all in awe about how rude she was. A little while later, we were informed that the flight to Pittsburgh was canceled and that we should seek other options. I called the 800 number for Continental, as I was exhausted, to try to get another flight to Pittsburgh rather than having to lug all our belongings back to customer service. I was informed that I would have to speak with customer service at the airport.

Once I was at the counter in customer service, I was treated very badly while trying to make other arrangements to get to Pittsburgh that evening. I was traveling to Pittsburgh for a funeral early Monday morning. I was informed that the next flight available was 10:30AM the following day and that flight was full. I said that I was going to a funeral and I couldn't reschedule and that I needed to be in Pittsburgh that evening.

I asked if they would please check other airlines. I was told that there was absolutely nothing available and I would have to wait until the following morning. I asked about flights back to Indianapolis, as I was fed up and just wanted to get out of Newark. I was told that there were no flights to Indianapolis until the following day as well. I asked if they would put me up in a hotel, as I wasn't staying overnight in an airport with my 10-month-old, and I was informed that no accommodations are provided when the circumstances are due to weather.

I was expected to miss my grandfather's funeral and stay the night in Newark airport overnight with my 10-month-old. I was fuming. I asked if I could cancel that leg of my flight and be refunded for it, and I would rent a car. She wasn't able to do anything about the flight, but she gave me a phone number to call if I did indeed not use that leg of my flight. Instead of driving the 7 hours from Indianapolis to Pittsburgh, I thought it would be easier to fly. I ended up having to drive 6 hours from Newark to Pittsburgh, so my time and energy was wasted by trying to fly with Continental. I could have saved time and money by driving and not flying, but normally, flying is a breeze. So, I decided to book a flight. Next time, I will know better, when the airline is Continental.

Upon leaving Pittsburgh, I had wonderful flights, met wonderful people, and every Continental employee was more than helpful. I was told by everyone whom I met that I would receive a replacement stroller or I would be compensated for it. When arriving in Cleveland for my connecting flight, I was told by the gentleman with the gate-checked items that I was missing a wheel. I explained that it happened in Newark. When arriving in Newark, they tried to hide the missing wheel from me.

At my final destination, Indianapolis (as I never made it to the Pittsburgh airport on the first part of my travels), I went to Baggage to complain. The gentleman told me that he could give me a travel voucher. I said that a travel voucher wasn't good enough, as at this point, I was never traveling with Continental ever again. I asked to speak with a supervisor, but that person had already left for the day. He gave me a phone number to call (the same number I was given to call about the refund) and said that they should be able to help me.

When I called the number, the woman on the phone was very condescending. I was told that I would have to return to the airport. When I explained that I tried to complain at the airport and I was given this number to call, she told me that I was misinformed. I asked to speak with a supervisor, and she explained that she was a supervisor. She did enter the information for a refund of the leg of the trip that was canceled, after first accusing me of missing my flight. Then, she transferred me to Baggage. When speaking with baggage over the phone, they weren't helpful either. They were nicer to me, but they told me that I would have to return to the airport. When I told them that the airport told me to call this number, he told me to try a different airport. I am still trying to resolve this issue.

In Texas, I then had to wait 2 more flights until they were able to get us on a flight to Seattle. I never got home until 1:00 a.m. which translates into a 21-hour day of pure hell. Oh, and I originally was supposed to arrive home 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time. I had to get up and go to work the next day. Through all of this, Continental employees were all miserable and not at all willing to help.

Now, let's talk about my most recent flight which took place 7/23/09. My flight was delayed out of Seattle to Newark because of what Continental said was weather problems on the east coast. Fifteen minutes later, they actually decided to tell the truth and said it was because of mechanical problems. Okay, so the flight was about an hour late taking off but they assured me that my connecting flight out of Newark was delayed as well and I would be able to make it.

Guess what, though it was delayed, I got to the gate 10 minutes too late. I went to Customer Service and the only solution they had was to get me on a flight from Newark to Scranton the next evening at 5:30 p.m. Please keep in mind that it is 9:30 p.m. and they are now telling me they cannot get me out on another flight until 20 hours later! I asked for a hotel voucher or reimbursement so that I can rent a car and they would not provide me with either. When I told them I would never fly Continental again, the person's response was, "That's okay, we'll all be out of business soon." What great employees Continental has! Needless to say, I was so pissed off I rented a car, one way, and drove 2 1/2 hours to Scranton - cost, $191 one way for 24 hours. Thanks, Continental.

Now, let's visit what happened on my return flight. It was scheduled to leave Scranton on Aug. 10, 2009, at 3:55 p.m. The flight was delayed. I ended up missing my connecting flight in Newark, was put on the following flight that was to take off for Seattle at 7:15 p.m. We boarded almost on time but then spent 3 hours on the runway, no drinks, no food, no movie, little to no air and a staff with a ** attitude.

Have I learned my lesson? Oh, and once again, I was supposed to arrive home at 9:30 p.m. but instead got home at 2:00 a.m. only to have to get up for work at 5:30. Maybe with the attitude I had after only 3 1/2 hours sleep I should have applied for a job at Continental. I would have fit in perfectly!

I have called and talked to them, and I have been hung up on by 2 different people. When it was WaMu, my daughter put $300.00 and got a secured credit card, for which I found out she was paying 19.9% interest on her own money! When Chase took over, they do not have secured credit cards. So, she wanted to know what happened to her $300.00. She opened her account under WaMu. We have talked to 14 different people since July 10.2009, and we have been hung up on several times. They claimed they put it into her savings account on 2/8/09, but she does not have a savings account. We seem to be getting the runaround, and they keep blaming it on WaMu. I told her to ask for a copy of the application for the credit card she has with Chase. Of course, there is none!

I have my mortgage and a 2nd with them, and my payments have gone up over $500.00 a month. I am receiving Social Security Disability, and my income is not going to increase in the future. As soon as my daughter has her $300.00 back from them, we are closing all accounts and closing all credit cards. They are the rudest and uncaring people I have ever had to deal with. I guess they don't get the saying "What goes around, comes around." I thought it was against the law for them to charge 71.81% APR!

I have a stiff neck from it, runny nose, and was miserable for all of but 15 minutes of my flight. I had a jacket on, but trying to read and turn pages was a joke. Also, we did not even have a movie to watch to get our minds on something else. They said it would be "The Soloist". Never once did they apologize. Note, I could not put my seat in the upright position either, and I have arthritis in my back causing pain from not sitting in upright position. Worst flight I ever had and if you want more information in regards to this complaint, please respond. United flight 769 from Chicago to San Francisco at 09:44am on August 10, 2009. Unpleasant in Pleasanton.

We have tried relentlessly to work with Continental PetSafe to resolve this situation; however, we are basically being ignored. I have already reported this to USDOT, USDA and PETA. I have also been trying to obtain legal advice to help us try to hold Continental Airlines accountable. Our pet flew from Myrtle Beach S.C. to Honolulu, HI on May 30th. Any assistance your agency can lend will be sincerely appreciated. Thank you in advance.

When we got on the plane, they served cow; in other words, cheese burgers with a piece of chocolate and dry salad, which did not even look fresh. I asked the hostess if she had anything vegetarian other than the salad and "leaves," even a piece of bread or cheese. She said no. In today's health-conscious society, I was surprised that during booking, there was no notice or warning that the light snack (The cheese burgers to me were a meal.) would be non-veg. I was hurt and disappointed.

It was an early morning flight, and the restaurants and food places were still closed at the airport. So we did not even have a chance to purchase at our own added expense. We asked for chips, peanuts, or even pretzels. The hostess said there wasn't anything else and not enough food; it's a full flight. I felt like Continental generalizes their customer base and their customer service compared to JetBlue, Southwest, or even Swiss/Virgin Air that treat with so much respect. I wish they stop going cheap and just charge a few extra dollars if they need to and not lose their dignity and respect.

The next day, my brother was coming on the same flight EWR to STT. He told me the hostess in their plane had some bad attitude. They seemed miserable in life. They were sitting in the last seats near the attendants and bathrooms. The person sitting next to his seat pushed a button for assistance from the hostess. The hostess (who was African-American) came, and he handed her an empty cup to throw out. Her response to him was "You called me over for this little thing," and he walked away with an attitude. Now I know it's stupid to call a hostess for something like that. But come on, for her to make that statement and give that attitude? It reflects on Continental in a derogatory way!

Also, when the drinks were being served, being in the last seat, they were served last. (Naturally, they move from front to back when serving.) These guys were really thirsty. When their turn came, he asked for a water. She filled him a cup. As she was serving the person next to him, my brother finished his water and said "I'll take a soda and another water" to the Hispanic lady. Her attitude and response was "I just gave you a water; you want another one?" Since when did water become so expensive? And what is she losing; she works paycheck to paycheck for an airline. I don't see how it is coming out of her pocket.

Miserable employees/staff equals miserable customer service. On another note, the recent Continental crash upstate New York was only making $23,000/year who was overworked and underpaid. That's roughly $14 an hour for a airplane pilot. I think school bus drivers make that much nowadays. And with what education? Other than driving children to schools, who wish to get an education!

Continental had booked my mother on the flight 2 days later anyway, despite my mother getting out of Newark by car. They informed her that she had to call within 24 hours of that flight to cancel it or else her return trip would be canceled. My mother called the following day, 36 hours before the flight, to cancel. Continental had already canceled her return trip and they wanted to charge her a fee for re-establishing her return trip! On top of that, they would not reimburse her for the flight she never took from Newark to Avoca ($300). We'd rather spend more money on another airline rather than fly Continental again!

Finally, the airline came up with the bright idea of putting us on a bus. We bought airline tickets and ended up riding a bus to New York. We were supposed to arrive at La Guardia around 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday. We ended our bus trip about 4:00 a.m. on Thursday. I had planned to spend about $5.00 on the bus and subway to get downtown, and instead, I had to take a taxi down to the tip of Manhattan. Through all our discomfort and expense, Continental offered no apology or compensation, not even a 10% discount on a future flight. When I called to complain, the agent was very sarcastic. It is obvious, Continental does not value its customers.

Well, I had been in touch with the travel site with whom we made the reservations for and they told me that the change fee would cost $150 a ticket! That's about 60% of the ticket cost. This is really my problem with United. However, when I took the time to call United and explained the whole situation (extremely politely might I add). I asked to speak with a supervisor after the first person couldn't really do much, and I have to say I felt Helen, the supervisor, was quite rude with me. I was disgusted to tell you the truth. I thought the airlines were trying to maintain their customers in these times, but United just proved me the opposite. I felt like they took my money and ran.

I reported the missing items and filed a pilferage report. I also forwarded all the original receipts, flight information, and forms required by United to their claim department. I have phoned, written letters, faxed, and phoned again for the last 5 months with no compensation. No one at United can be bothered to help us. As well, my husband has limited mobility and requires the use of a wheelchair in the airports (we requested a wheelchair when we booked our tickets). The staff were rude and incompetent and in one case he never even got the wheelchair and had to make his own way, with difficulty, to the plane.

The hotel would let her stay on my credit card, which I called the information out over the phone, but no cash for food. The next morning, she boarded the morning flight for Houston, Texas. This was Saturday April 18, 2009 in the morning. She was supposed to leave for Midland, TX and that flight was canceled. The next fight was 09:40 for Midland, Texas and arrives about 11:00 Saturday night. I left Hobbs, NM which is over 100 miles. After I got there, they canceled the flight so I had to drive back to Hobbs, NM. She had to spend Saturday night in the Houston, TX airport. They said they could get her on a flight to The Lubbock, TX airport that should arrive about 11:00 Sunday morning.

I drove to Hobbs, NM to the Lubbock, TX airport about 130 miles. She arrived at the Lubbock, TX airport about 11:00 Sunday 04/19/2009. The airlines sent her baggage to Midland, TX. Then we had to drive the 130 miles back and another 100 or so to pick up the luggage and then return to Hobbs, NM. I had also purchased the insurance to so-called prevent this from happening. I also was on the phone three hours or so with Expedia, no luck! I feel the airlines owe me not only for the price of the ticket, but for gas and inconvenience. Also, no food or drinks was served on either flight.

Total $613.80

She arrived in Washington as scheduled and called me right before she was boarding again. My daughter told me that she got taken to a room where people worked on computers, personnel that escort handicapped passengers to the planes. The kids had to sit on a chair. There was no snacks, only drinks and the TV was not working due to the fact that the only two DVDs they had were broken!

Then she told me that the situation scared her. The personnel was speaking in their own language (she thinks it was Indian) and she accidentally wet her pants. She cried and was very scared. I told her to go to see a personnel over there and ask for a change of clothes. She had money on her. She is 10 years old. That never happened before. She is very independent. If that happened, it must have been a real bad service! She told me she got asked to go to the bathroom and wash her pants and underwear in the sink and dry it under the hand-dryer. She had a 9-hour flight in front of her with urine-smelling pants. That is very discriminating! She felt horrible.

A stewardess called me and said that the next plane will go out in 3 hours, so I had to call Germany and tell my parents to turn around (they went early to the airport, because it is 200 miles away). So, back to the room that was no fun for the kids. Scared they were sitting there, not really knowing what was going on. Next plane, the same procedure, the electronics in that plane were acting up this time, so they started and landed due to upset customers.

The kids got told to sit on the same seat, but the stewards were busy so a passenger came and just told the two girls to get up and take another seat. They replied that they were told to sit there. No one came to solve the problem. The kids got scared by the lady and moved away and told the steward who reseated them. Why had the kids take care of that? Was there nobody taking care of this issue?

My parents had to turn around again, not to mention the time and gas they wasted.The 3rd time she was told the pilots said that they couldn't fly no more because they had too many hours. Can anybody understand how a child feels in that situation? It is hard enough for an adult not to get irritated and scared by this! My daughter called me crying at 1:30 a.m. on the 5th. That was 2:30 a.m. in DC. I thought my child was almost in Frankfurt, I didn't believe it! I asked immediately for a steward to talk to. I then had a man on the phone who tried to get me off with the excuse, he have to take care of the other customers now, He said shortly that I don't need to worry, my daughter will be taken care of and fly out on the 5th at 4:30 p.m. I could not believe this. I begged him to stay on the phone and to answer my questions. He was very nerved.

I asked him where she was going to stay at night and he said everybody stays in the hotel but she will be in the room she was waiting on earlier and they will build her a bed, well a little cot. He told me, that there are female stewardesses in the room. The kids will watch movies and be entertained and taken care of and there is another child also staying there in the room. I begged him to find out if I can get a flight from United to come over there and comfort my child since she is stuck in DC for 24 hours. He said that is not possible. My daughter then got on the phone and told me he lied. There are only 2 men in the room, no female; TV is still not working, and the men talked in their own language and the other child has been picked up, because she was a local. I verified that with her parents. They did pick her up. I asked him to get back on the phone and told him the facts and he got very unfriendly. I told him that I am not satisfied and I won't be okay with this treatment and that I paid $1000 for a flight and want to receive the right service. He told me then that there are other customers who paid $8000 for the same flight and if I want to complain I can do that on the website! Unbelievable!

I told him then that my daughter has a restless legs syndrome and that she complained about pain in her legs and need her medication. She was so scared and confused also, that she said she felt like she had to throw up. My daughter had not received any food since she left the house in the morning. She had slept on the first plane and missed the food. By 2:30 in the morning, that left her without food for almost 20 hours!

I told him this and that she had pain and felt bad. He said that she was acting fine towards him but if I would believe she is sick then he calls a medic, but he can't get the medication out of the suitcases because the suitcase is in a secured area. That is the worst service I ever had. I told him to get a medic. The medic called me and was very friendly. He calmed my daughter down. He made sure a female was in the room and that my daughter finally had something to eat. He also made it possible that she received her medication and told me that my daughter received a voucher for breakfast and that someone will take her in the morning to have breakfast.

In the morning, my daughter called me and told me that someone took her to Wendy's to have chicken nuggets and French fries for breakfast. I think I don't need to mention how I feel about that kind of breakfast for my child while other adult passengers received breakfast, real breakfast at a hotel! The flight to Germany was pleasant for her and she said she was taken care of in a nice way, which I think was arranged by a very nice lady working in DC named Mrs. Shawn **. My parents had to take Monday off to pick her up and make the trip to the airport for the third time!

I worked as a Public & Investor Relations in Germany for a big Company that is part of Axel Springer AG, producing all the newspapers and magazines in Germany. I used to be responsible for VIP Customer treatment and know what Customer service really means. We advertise those kind of mistakes usually, if there is no customer appreciation involved. I am still in good contact with my company and they have never heard of that kind of service and if this won't be settled I will report this.

Being offered a 150-dollar voucher for this in unacceptable. My daughter had a nightmare of a flight and I am not willing to be okay with this. I already contacted the News. I feel very misunderstood and treated wrong with the little negotiation United offers. Kiana still is horrified about the trip, being already scared of the flight back on the 2nd of August with delay in Chicago. I told my parents to take her to a psychologist to write this story down and to try to make her feel better and to understand this situation as a one-time experience.

I am writing this one last time to you to consider your offer again and to be able to view this situation out of the sight of a 10-year old and as a parent. This was one big nightmare!

Hopefully United will consider to send Kiana home on a direct flight to Nashville (I am flexible with the days +2days) and to reimburse us for the trouble we had with a reasonable offer. A $150 voucher is by far not negotiable. Hopefully this unfriendly flight personnel will be released from duty. I want her and me to be able to enjoy flying and receive the right customer service. I know that everyone who got children will share my opinion about this experience.

It does not make sense. Why couldn’t they have scheduled this flight with Gulfstream in reverse, with early morning arrivals into Treasure Cay and late afternoon departures from Treasure Cay, like in the past years? They are not being customer friendly. I'm sending this to you since our group flight is paid to Continental Airlines and you are responsible of our customer satisfaction. We have used Continental flights to Treasure Cay, Bahamas in previous years. What can they do to change our flight for us and make us happy?

I called Continental Customer Service too for alternative routes only got "these things happen, you will have to be patient". Turns out that this flight (366) has a .4% on time record. Seems that the crew was in Houston, and the plane was in San Antonio because of "rain" in Houston. Yep. So we waited for the plane to be flown from San Antonio to Houston, to Seattle so we could board. Flight landed at IAH in the last gate in terminal E for a long, very long hike to baggage claim in terminal C. For about $3K in tickets, got about 25 cents of service.

There was no announcement to passengers until I confronted the staff person at the counter to at least update passengers to what is going on. The excuse that was given for delays was "due to the bad weather condition." No body bought that. In July 1st, the entire Northeast had a wonderful and clear weather condition. The plane was supposed to come pick us up from Pittsburgh.

Because your agency caused the problems, we expect you to work with us to obtain a satisfactory resolution. Specifically, we expect you to: provide me with first class round-trip tickets on a domestic flight. From my experience, this situation was a dramatic letdown from the superlative service that we usually receive from Continental Airlines. In fact, I have always been loyal to your firm because of the exemplary treatment we have received from you and your attentive staff. We suggest that you coach the night shift crew in proper customer relations. His behavior does not reflect positively on Continental Airlines.

Early in the morning on July 5, 2009, the day before their flight (BWI to San Francisco), I went online to try and print their boarding passes, but I could not. When I called United Airlines to ask the representative what happened and why, he told me that my parents ticket was fine and there was no problem at all. He said to just go to the airport on July 6, 2009, and someone would help me. This morning we arrived and the United Airlines employees there told us that the ticket was revoked.

The employees told us that we had to purchase a new set of tickets. The original, total cost for the roundtrip tickets was $558.40 (for two). The new tickets cost $379.60 for one so it would cost $759.20 plus tax for both of my parents. I find it unacceptable that we would be required to purchase more expensive tickets. Also, our tickets were already paid for in March and should not have been cancelled. We called our credit card company and they said they never asked United Airlines to cancel our old purchase and didn't know why United Airlines did that, since the old purchase had been paid for.

I really want to know what is going on and why United Airlines didn't send me an email or call me to let me know the flight has been cancelled and why when I called, the United Airlines representative told me our schedule was still fine. Our tickets were already paid for a long time ago and therefore they should not have been canceled. I need United Airlines to give me an explanation and a full monetary refund.

I booked the tickets using my Chase card. Imagine my surprise when checking in that I would be charged $15.00 per bag. The check-in agent stated that this waiver of the fee was only for Continental Chase customers. Then I boarded that 737-800 to Houston for my layover and found that there was barely enough leg room for my 6-year-old, let alone my wife and me.

Fast forward to the end of my trip; after arriving home, my wife found a note from Continental, stating that for security purposes, my bag had been inspected. Looking through my bag, I have found that a rebate form for a cellular phone my wife bought on vacation is missing as well as my speaker for my iPod. God forbid, if I had put my iPod or my Playstation Portable or even my son's Nintendo DS in the bag. Now, the airline is giving me the run-around stating that because of the misunderstanding, they are willing to reimburse my $60.00 baggage fees in "Continental Bucks" for use on a future trip on Continental Airlines. I politely declined, stating that I would never fly Continental again. They then gave me the number to their baggage department, who said that they are only responsible for clothing and toiletries, and that they don't go through the baggage anyhow, that is TSA's job. I am so frustrated and will never fly Continental Airlines again!

The cost of the tickets (the flight was uncomfortable and stuffy on the airplane), then there is the $60.00 baggage fees that I paid to have someone rummage through my baggage and steal my personal possessions, which came to be (after the value of the rebate form) $75.00.

I hope this case will be resolved as soon as possible. The luggage contains my personal belongings as I am a seaman, working aboard a cruise ship. It may not contain much expensive items, but it has incurred inconvenience to me during my shipboard duty. I hope to hear from your side as soon as possible at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much for your kind attention to this matter. Total loss of 1 piece luggage.

No additional help was added; all cancelled flights' passengers were directed to one line which was more than 600 people and took more than 4 hours to reschedule. My father is 81 years old, and he does not need to stand in a line for 4 hours for anything, let alone because this airline is too stupid and greedy to bring in adequate staff. I am furious. I promise that neither I or anyone in my family will ever use United Airlines again for any flight at any time ever.

Trip was Boston to Chicago and making the computer reservation was okay, until I did the baggage check in. One piece of luggage, $20.00 extra!? And if you did it in advance via computer, you got $5 off ($15.00). Okay, I will get the $5 off. Filled in the info needed and guess what, error came up saying that I misspelled the State part of the address. No matter how I spelled or abbreviated it, error came up. I was not at fault, it was the computer’s. The staff at Logan did try to make up for that problem by seating me in the "exit row".

Little did I realize that if I wanted to sit there, it would have been an extra $39.00 for their economy plus seating. I was the only one in that row. This is nickel and dimeing everyone for that extra buck.

Kidding with the person next to me," Next thing you know, we will have to pay for a cushioned seat row end up seating on bleachers. I will not fly United again. Passengers are the financial gravy for airlines. They make the most with cargo. I used to work for one of the airlines. This is what we were told. If they are testing us to see what we will tolerate, we need to know this. Good Luck all.

My return flight was interesting. I had row 32 on a 757, far back of the plane. The seat rows were so compacted, it made one regret not spending the extra money for a normal seat further toward the front of the coach section. Kidding with the person next to me, "Next thing you know, we will have to pay for a cushioned seat row end up seating on bleachers." I will not Fly United again. Passengers are the financial gravy for airlines. They make the most with cargo. I used to work for one of the airlines. This is what we were told if they are testing us to see what we will tolerate. We need to know this. Good luck, all.

When I personally called Continental's baggage department, they were rude and they completely held me responsible for tracking down the luggage by calling San Francisco to contact Japan Airlines. After my verbal confrontation with the agent who refused to let me speak to a manager, the agent threatened to have her corporate lawyer contact me. Anyway, the luggage did not arrive in Manila until three weeks after my wife arrived back in El Paso.

When my wife left Manila, she arrived late in Houston again, missing her connecting flight to El Paso by four hours this time. My wife and I communicated by phone several times as she was with my son. I called Continental and Continental's customer service told me that she would probably not depart Houston leaving for El Paso until Monday, which meant that my wife and my two-and-a-half-year old son would be stranded in Bush International airport for approximately six days.

I asked the agent if they were going to have them stay in a hotel, which is only reasonable, seeing as to how none of this delay was their fault. Continental's customer service replied, "No, we don't do that." I replied that when American Airlines caused me to miss a connecting flight once, they put me in a hotel. Continental agent replied, "We are not American Airlines."

After repeated phone calls to customer service to find out the status of my wife and son, they finally told me about three hours later that they were able to put my wife and son on a flight to El Paso the same day. According to my wife, whom I have no reason to disbelieve, the ticket agent tried to coax my wife into giving up my two-and-a-half-year old son's seat and having her to hold my son in her lap.

My wife promptly told him "no," because we paid for two adult tickets. My son was charged the same fare as an adult because he is over the age of two. It was the most horrible experience I have ever personally experienced by an airline. Most of the customer service agents had no remorse whatsoever! I will never use my credit card or any other financial resource to purchase anything from Continental again!

After waiting in line for 1-1/2 hours, I was told that they would not give me a taxi voucher. There was no other option for me to take to get to Jacksonville and then back home. So, I had to book a flight for the next day to go home. I had to stay at the airport because some people were given hotel vouchers and others were not, including me. Also, they would not even give out food vouchers. I have called united and they said they would compensate me with a $100 voucher. My tickets cost me $400 and that was with me buying them months ago. We bought these tickets with our tax return and obviously do not have that kind of money lying around to buy them again. They did not care. I told them that if we don't see my stepdaughter over the summer, then we won’t get to see her until Christmas. They don't care. I want everyone to know what a horrible experience I, as well as many others that night, had. I want United to learn that bad customer service leads to a loss in business. Thank you very much for taking your time to read my story!

I know that if the take off had continued and we had reached enough speed, the TIT would have gone below red line or we could have had an engine failure and been struggling at V1 to reach V2. Gate agents Brandon and Ana helped get folks onto other flights in a logical manner. I saw that some were mad that they didn't get immediate flights on to Houston. But for me, I was glad to be sitting in that chair instead of being in some burning wreckage at the end of runway seven. As a commercial pilot, with multiple engine, sea plane ratings, an instrument instructor, ground instructor and an A&P rating, I want to say thanks to the crew of flight 2797!

I took the loaner, happy to have a seat for the 2.25 hour drive to CT. It's midnight, we're burnt out, that works. The loaner seat was wrapped (sealed) in plastic. That would suggest it was cleaned, right? Yeah, if the company was competent. But this is UAL. The next morning, I noticed that in addition to being a little sticky (I wiped some down with baby wipes the night before), it smelled on closer inspection. Like vomit. I took the cover off, wiped it with clorox wipes, etc. It was filthy and yes, had vomit. Had they hosed it off, maybe? Sure, they might have hosed it off. Certainly no more than that. This is not a minor issue, this is a bio hazard. Thanks for exposing my 2 years old to that, UAL. Never again in my life will I fly UAL.

Of course, by then we had missed the connecting flight. Moreover, the people that took the second flight to Newark somehow got there and caught their connection. We got to Newark right after 10pm, I believe (it's been 2 years, excuse my blurry memory). We had our 5 week-old son Liam with us to see his grandparents for the first time. We stood in line at the Continental service desk for about 45 minutes, then their crew closed the desk for the night. Yep, they did not even stay open for us after what we'd been through. They said we would need to wait to get re-booked until the next day.

We were all advised to retrieve our luggage (which was not easily found and distributed by them) and come back in the morning. At about 1am we finally found a person from Continental that had meal tickets (only McDonald's was still open that late) and he said their (free) hotel (which they use for these kinds of things) was booked out and we were out of luck getting in. We could drive into town and pay for our own hotel and try to get reimbursed later on, if we wanted to, but there was no guarantee that the reimbursement would happen. Just in case there is any question, we did not have that kind of extra money at that point.

So, we were stranded at the airport with our 5 week-old among billions of germs with no place to go or nowhere to sleep. I just wanted to cry! My pants had been peed and pooped on, Liam had run out of diapers, and our luggage was not there yet either. A Continental employee told us they had booked a flight for us going to Amsterdam the next afternoon (which was the later flight, I suppose they did not care about our small baby being at the airport even longer) which would then go to Frankfurt after a 5 1/2-hour layover. We finally got our luggage. The airport was far from everything, so we paid a taxi $60 to find us a drugstore selling some diapers.

We went to Continental's hotel, as advised, to camp out and hope for someone to leave in the morning so we could get their room. It eventually happened. That afternoon, we finally made it onto our connection flight to Amsterdam. Luckily, we had arranged for my parents to come pick us all up in Amsterdam, as it was faster to drive there and pick us up than to wait for the layover and to then pick us up from Frankfurt. Before we left Newark, I had made sure to let Continental know of our plans and to make sure our luggage was not being sent all the way to Frankfurt.

When we got to Amsterdam, our luggage was not on the conveyor belt. We stood in line to make sure it was not being sent to Frankfurt. They said okay, checked the computer and said it was not on the list to be sent to Frankfurt, but that it was obviously lost. We had to file a report and go on our way. No, it does not end here. We got home (well, to my parents' house in Germany, I mean) and I called the airline the next day. The luggage was sure to be sent that day (so I was told in Amsterdam).

Now, Continental said they were not responsible. Another airline that would transport it to our nearest airport (once it was found) would handle it. I called them. No, it wasn't them either. I called Amsterdam and Frankfurt airport. Nope, none of them knew. After about 30 phone calls I finally found someone helpful (a US customer rep for Continental) who said the luggage was located in (you guessed it) Frankfurt and would be flown to Duesseldorf Aiport (closest by the house) where a truck driver would pick it up and deliver it within the next 24 hours.

When we returned back to Houston, I was sure to write a complaint letter.

The results: Two $50 coupons to get off our next tickets with Continental (which I will obviously never use to fly again) and about $100 reimbursement for clothing. This was the single, most terrible, outrageous customer service experience of my life. Not the bad weather, we understand that happens. But how the airline responded was incredibly unsatisfactory.

On the ground, fire trucks were all over us but no news. Nothing was reported during that time. About a month before that, there was a Continental crash in Colorado skidded off the runway! Continental Airline is somehow bad in these recent years. So many accidents related to mechanical issue of the aircraft. My family of 4 with 2 kids, 7 and 10, were separated completely. We struggled to have my wife seated with my 2 kids and I was seated all the way down to near end of the aircraft. We booked a few months before the flight and that's how they treated us. I felt bad during the scary landing without my kids and wife next to me.

When the Continental Airlines people carried my son onto the airplane, they were banging his feet and arms and had no regard for how they were handling him. Upon boarding, the flight crew treated us so bad. We kept informing them before landing to please make sure that the ground crew was there to get my son off the airplane. They kept telling us that they will take care of it at landing. Before we were about to land, the crew came around to check everyone's seat. They came to my son, went to check, and then stopped and said "whatever", and walked on. Upon landing, there was no one there to get my son. We were the last ones off the plane. We waited approximately 45 minutes before the people came, and the crew were ** because they couldn't get off until we were off (we were an inconvenience to them). To top it off, they lost my daughter's luggage, and when we were travelling to the States, they lost my son's walking frame.

They have caused tremendous anxiety to me and my family and I will certainly not recommend Continental Airlines to anyone with a disability.

In this recession, those of us who do have some kind of money to pay for a ticket deserve topnotch customer service. We don't deserve people who aren't compassionate. I'm not a freaking crook and I don't go around scamming people. I just want to be treated with dignity and respect. I didn't deserve such rude behavior from the three people I talked to on the phone tonight. Very disturbing. I may not be able to put a dent into their airline, but I will spread the word for others to not fly with Continental. I will not fly with them either. I will drive my car before I fly on that plane again. I suggest you do the same or read the fine lines and ask a lot of questions.

I wonder what it would have cost her to let me know that I'd be incurring extra charges if I cancelled my flight. Nothing! Not a dime! Guess this is how they make their money! They ** you and take your money! My husband is deployed and fighting for their freedom and this is how you repay your military. Thanks a lot!

I'm sorry, but I really do not recommend Continental Airlines. I knew it would have been better to go with JetBlue or Southwest. Screw you, Continental Airlines. You are a great disgrace in the world. Please disappear already.

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 but to purchase the ticket, which was twice the cost of 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, I would have 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 an unfair and deceiving act to make a consumer pay more than the average cost. I feel that the original charge should be charged, not the additional $789.50.

12:30PM: I have already checked in for a flight to Newark, NJ from Atlanta, GA. The flight is supposed to depart at 3:30PM and arrive at 6PM at the latest and should have time to for a connecting flight to New Delhi, India. 3:30PM: Still in Atlanta, GA at the airport and Continental announced that the flight will be late and will not leave until 5:30. So I went to ask a Continental rep if I would be fine for the connecting flight. She said, "Oh sure, no problem. You will have plenty of time to catch your connecting flight." I sat back down and had no worries.

5:30PM: We began boarding and took off at about 6:20PM. Now I am worried about the connecting flight. 8:20PM: We landed and I got my family (wife and 11-month-old), along with my sister and her two kids (5 years old plus 7 months 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).

8:40PM at the Continental counter asking about the connecting flight: Total ** called us up, looked at our tickets and then yelled, "All the people connecting to New Delhi come up?" About 10 people, not including us, came up. The ** said, "The plane has departed and the next flight out is tomorrow night, same time. We can issue you new boarding passes." That's all. All these people were looking at him in silence - several Indians and White Americans. I looked around and said, "Where do you house people?" He stated, "The cost of hotels is out of pocket. All we can do is tell you where you can get discounted hotels at a $60/day rate."

Now I have a problem because 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 wouldn't be an inconvenience for my family and the kids. This is funny. The reps gave us a 1-800 number to call customer service and it is 1-800-WeCare2 (after this trip, they should change it to 1-800-JustPay). The next day, we arrived at the gate 3 hours early as per international travel rules.

7:30PM: There were many mothers with kids traveling without their spouse. Now the rule, or possibly common courtesy, is that all disabled people should board first; then parents with small children; then first, business and finally, coach. Not here. The lady calling out ticket numbers began by calling first 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.

I have been watching this for about 7-8 minutes and all of a sudden, I said, "Ma'am, you may want to get this under control by allowing the parents with strollers, then back to front so your area isn't as crowded." She stated they don't speak my language? I am shocked because this ignorant ** isn't speaking Gaelic, Farsi, Arabic, etc. where it would be a minority language. It is freaking English and 85% of the people appeared educated and spoke English. I lost it and made it 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. **, supervisor) to ticket takers at the gate. Now I wonder if the CEO is any better because ultimately, he is responsible for poor talent and a poorly run company.

Needless to say, I was royally ticked because I knew that the experience would be an exercise in terror. And I was correct: consistently delayed flights, cancelled flights, broken plane(?), lost luggage and beastly airline personnel (both ways). Though thoroughly disgusted with UAL in every respect, I managed to maintain my composure right up until the moment, on the last leg of our journey back to Colorado from London, the UAL gate agent took to downright abusing an elderly woman for no apparent reason.

I was sitting near the counter at the gate along with my ever-patient husband and a great many frazzled, exhausted, and stranded UAL passengers. Having listened to the gate attendant bark orders and rude remarks at the would-have-been passengers for more than an hour, I lost my nerve entirely when the man began to berate an old lady for stepping over the line(?) in order to ask a question. When she politely suggested that he need not treat her so rudely, he labeled her a security risk(?) and screamed at her (yes, screamed) that he would call security if she didn't shut up and sit down. Then I lost it.

I told the ** in no uncertain terms that he was, in fact, a ** and should rather call security on himself. Moreover, I made it perfectly clear that his attitude for the past hour had been intolerable and that the people he had been barking at were human beings who, at a minimum, deserved simple basic respect. I don't remember quite what else I said to him, but I could see the man fuming and turning over in his petty mind the prospect of calling security on me instead. Perhaps he thought better of it as the passengers seated around me appeared to have my back on the issue. In the end, he shut up, I shut up, and people began exchanging contact information.

After many hostile glances in my direction, which I returned in equal measure, we finally boarded an airplane. In the future, United is on my ** list (pardon the French). I'm done. I vow never again to to fly with United and, henceforth, will only utilize international airlines that are in no way affiliated with domestic airline companies. The airline industry has become an abomination and I refuse to further enable its lunacy.

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 days 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, 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 hotel on our own.) Well, we are home now and have been told we only are entitled to $125 per person, period. That's a total of $500.

I went to Expedia 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 losses.

So on the 4th I arrived 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 the 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 hung 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.

The next morning, we got up at 0500H to try to get a standby from UAL, but no luck. Finally, we got a flight at 1108H to Wash/Dulles. When we arrived, our flight to RDU had been gone for around 30 minutes. UAL was overbooked on the next flight in mid afternoon, so we had to wait until 1735H in Wash/Dulles to get a flight to RDU. These things seem like nothing to someone who isn't going through this but if you have a mother dying, our two daughters having to give up time from their duties to drive to Raleigh and have to spend the night so they could wait for their parents to take them home, to us it becomes a big thing and it was very expensive for a family that just doesn't have extra money.

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.

Now coming back on Friday at noon, they said no flights available until TUESDAY and no money to help for a HOTEL. I needed to get on the phone and have a friend drive down to help her. We got her on a flight Saturday at 5:47am with a 2 ½ year old. This is only half of what happened… I will be taking legal action against the airline as my family are partners in a very large law firm.

The United Airlines representative charged us an additional fee for excessive baggage without even seeing the baggage and threatened us by saying if we didn't pay it, the baggage will be removed from the aircraft. We were being honest. Had we said nothing, it wouldn't be an issue, but to bluntly charge us $131 for bags whose contents were valued at less than $50 is outrageous. It was our understanding paying the excessive baggage fee initially in Manila, Philippines was for the entire flight, however, the United Airlines representative said only from Manila to Hong Kong. But the baggage tag/receipt from Manila listed our complete itinerary (i.e., MNL-HKG PR 0300, HKG-ORD UA 0896 and ORD-BWI UA 1236).

The irony of the whole matter is the United representative in Hong Kong not ever saw the baggage and assessed us the outrageous fee with an I don't care personality. Pay it or leave it attitude. We believe and feel we were unjustly taken advantage of by United Airlines and this particular representative. We've contacted the reimbursement department and were recently notified via phone that we would not receive a refund. We have not received an official letter from United Airlines acknowledging this matter.

Here is what happened: On December 18, 2008, I had a flight from Greensboro [GSO], NC to Grand Rapids, MI (GRR) with a flight change at O'Hare, Chicago (ORD). The flight leaving GSO was late because the staff in Chicago didn't get the plane ready in time to leave ORD to come to GSO. Therefore, I arrived too late at ORD to catch the flight to GRR, the last one of the day. Weather was turning bad. The United ORD customer service people told me the first seat I may be able to get from ORD to GRR would be the 20th. I was supposed to hang around ORD for two days!

They did not offer to give me a hotel voucher, just a so called "coupon" where I could get a hotel room for $60.00. I later found out that the airport has cots available for stranded customers but was not offered this. Because I had no intention of staying at ORD for two days, missing the family get-together in Michigan, I found a rip-off one way, one-day car rental from Alamo, for $300, from ORD to GRR (150 miles).

Now it was midnight and the weather was bad. Mind you, the flight from ORD left on time to GRR... weather had not been an issue. The issue was their STAFFING problems, causing me to leave too late from GSO to catch my connection to GRR. I ended up staying at a motel somewhere outside of Chicago for another $70 (both expenses unplanned, of course) because I felt it was unsafe to keep driving and too cold outside to park. Eventually, I made it to my destination, $400 poorer. Trip home: again, the flight from GRR to ORD was delayed due to United's STAFFING problems. The pilot announced that the plane was late because the crew in Chicago didn't show up to fuel the planes! They said it was TOO COLD! Therefore, we were late leaving GRR.

When I arrived in ORD, I found my return flight to GSO was coded as "closed". I found a security guard at the gate and asked him what this meant. He said the plane hadn't left but it was closed. I told him I was late due to the fuelers not showing up! I asked if I could still get on the flight since it hadn't left. He said, “Go to the door and knock and see if anyone is in the hallway (the trailer thing that connects the airline gate to the plane).” No one was at the desk; no one answered my knock at the door. I tried the door and it was open! I later found that this is a breach of security of a restricted area. I opened the door, and called out. No one answered.

Well, being in a frame of mind to get home on time, seeing that the plane was still there and the last one going out to GSO and my being scheduled to work the next day, I took my chances and opened the door. I called out... no one answered. I walked to the plane where I encountered a man and a stewardess outside the waiting plane. The man saw me and screamed at me, asking what was I doing? I told him the door was unlocked and this was my flight. He screamed that this wasn't true... the door wasn't unlocked. I beg to differ. He grabbed my boarding pass out of my hand and stomped off, ordering me to wait there. The stewardess was kind to me in the meantime. I told her about the flight being late from GRR due to Chicago's staff not coming to work to fuel the plane due to the cold. COME ON! I have lived in MICHIGAN most of my life and understand cold weather. People adapt!

The guy that grabbed my boarding pass came back and rudely barked at me to board the plane. He did not give me back my ticket. The stewardess asked him if he wanted me to get on the plane. He replied that he would have had to file an incident report and would have gotten in trouble for a breach of security so was going to let me on. I was thankful to get on. He never did give me back my boarding pass and when I arrived at GSO, my luggage was missing. They did deliver it to my house in the wee morning hours.

I tried to contact United Customer Services myself. My husband, as I said earlier, got hung up on when he called to complain about the need to rent an expensive car and a hotel room due to their staffing problems. I fared no better. Several emails to and from United have resulted in nothing more than their unwillingness to be responsible for the damages and stress that they cost me due to their staffing problems and poor staff behavior. They offered me their $25 certificate off of a future flight, which is a joke because I will never pay another dime to fly on United. We must pay them, provide them more business, to redeem their offer of good faith. Is this crazy, or what? The best they would do was go up to $75.00. Again, I told them to keep it.

I eventually got assurance that the cost ($55.00 approx.) of the segment of my flight between ORD and GRR would be refunded to my VISA. I never did get a response to my request about who to report the breach of security I encountered to. I was told the staff was acting that way to protect me! When I told them that was a joke and again demanded who to contact to report this, I was eventually told this staff would be dealt with but their staff issues were confidential. When I told them that two round trip tickets (first class and hotel expenses) would be considered fair compensation for what I felt I suffered financially and stress wise, I was told there was no way I would get this.

I eventually wrote to the TSA complaint about the breach of security issue. They got right on it and asked for details. I am still awaiting the final outcome but at least feel that I have had some satisfaction in one small way. By the way, Travelocity also got involved, supposedly, but all I get is automated emails from them and no response/resolution. I just recently flew to Mexico on Delta and it was a 180 degree difference. Smooth, friendly, no $15.00 bag check fee. Never again, UNITED. I think we need to file a class action law suit. Any lawyers out there willing to go for it?

I did not find this out until two weeks later when I tried to get reimbursed from my employer. I called and complained to their customer service, but it was hard to understand because they spoke with a thick Indian accent. They said they couldn't do anything for me. I paid $93 unknowingly for a seat that I did not want, and I have spent hours and the company's hours trying to figure it out.

When I tried to fly out on my scheduled flight, I was first met with "We don't know if or when your flight will depart due to equipment breakdown in Washington, DC", followed by "If the equipment does arrive, we don't know if or when it will depart due to the snowstorm in Chicago, and if or when your connecting flight will leave". I asked if I could rebook, and was told they would NOT rebook me on another airline because I used frequent flyer miles, and the next flight they could get me home on would arrive at 10:30 PM, Christmas Eve.

I am a Labor and Delivery RN, and was scheduled to work from 6 AM to 6:30 PM on Christmas Eve, so it was imperative I get home on the 23rd. I was able to rebook on Southwest Airlines at a personal cost of $410. An email complaint to United's customer service netted me a $25 goodwill certificate. A complaint through the BBB netted me a refund of half of my FF miles, neither of which does me any good, since I had used my last 25,000 miles to purchase the ticket. I would have to fly 12,500 miles on United to have enough miles for another ticket.

Today, we received an automated phone message that our itinerary had been changed again. I did not receive any notice in my e-mail and they have both mine and my husband’s e-mail to notify in the case of a change to the itinerary. I checked online to see the new schedule. Now, they have us departing GEG at 4:55pm arriving in Sea-Tac (SEA) at 6:11pm, departing SEA at 7:08pm and arriving at LAX at 9:45pm; departing LAX at 10:45pm and arriving at MCO at 6:03am on April 30th. It is now going to take us 25 and 1/2 hours to cross the US.

I called United Airlines and they told me that the flight we were originally booked to fly out of DEN on was an American Airlines flight. It was listed, and I printed it out as United 1295. United said we would have to pay to change the itinerary to get back on the original flight going out of DEN since it is now an American Airlines flight. It is going to cost $75.00 each. 9 x 75 = $675.00. They offered a couple other itineraries out of Spokane leaving at either 6:00am or at 9:30am. This means we either drive all night long with children and an elderly lady who is on heart medication, or we leave the day before and pay for several motel rooms, which is going to be equally costly.

The other option was to fly out of Billings, MT which would cost us an additional $75.00 per person for the difference in the cost of the fare and $75 per person for changing our itinerary. To compensate us, they would give each passenger a $100 voucher to use towards travel in the US at a later date. We could not use it towards this particular trip to Florida. These are foreign exchange high school students whose parents live in various countries. Their visas expire in June, and they have to return to their home countries. They are going home within three to four weeks after the trip to Orlando. They will not have an opportunity to use the vouchers. I explained this to the agent I was dealing with on the phone.

I asked if they could pay for our hotel if we drove to Spokane the day before. They could not. It was take the vouchers good for a later travel or nothing. I and my husband are not frequent flyers. We were unable to use vouchers given to us for giving up our seats in the past due to all the restrictions they place on those vouchers. I have collected the money from the children’s parents. I have paid for the flights and budgeted exactly what we need to take these children on this vacation.

I cannot ask their parents to send me more money because the airlines is changing our itinerary. I cannot tell them it is now going to cost more than we originally agreed on because we have to pay for changes to the flight itinerary or pay for hotels we did not plan on. I cannot drive all night and stay awake or keep the children up all night. They are teenagers. It is not like they can lay down in a car and get comfortable to sleep through the night. We all know how comfortable the seats in the airplanes are.

This is so unfair to these children and their families. I have no way to come up with the extra money for the changes, but if I do not, I am facing international lawsuits from the children’s parents. This is crazy. Now, I have to ask if I could even get it straightened out and afford the changes they are purposing. How many more times between now and April 29th are they going to change our scheduled itinerary and how many more times are they going to try and charge us.

I thought this is ridiculous. The funny thing was, the traveler made two return changes according to United's record. The second change was made 4 days after the first, and it was charged to the traveler's own credit card. So I asked them, "If you guys can charge any penalties on the original card, then why didn't the 2nd reservations rep ask for a new credit card?" It must have been then carelessness of the first reservation rep. They did not know what to say. Then the rep from United's customer relations department just suggested me to dispute this charge from my bank, Chase Bank, which I did afterwards.

I waited over a month and didn't hear any update. I had to call and follow up myself to the bank. They told me United was able to provide a receipt with card number, traveler's name and approval code. So they just went ahead to close the case. I was surprised. Not only they did not protect its clients, but also they didn't notify me about this. Of course, they had an approval code.

The airlines has my credit card information! I didn't know what else to do, so I had to turn back to United again. The customer relations rep transferred me to their accounting/refund department to discuss this. The lady from accounting department said if I can provide another credit card, then they can remove the charge from my original credit card. I told her I think this was some mistake that their reservation rep made, to charge my card without checking with me, then United should be the one who bears this charge. She didn't think they did anything wrong and if I could not provide another card, then she wouldn't help me.

Therefore, I went back to customer relations to ask if they can provide me a company policy which states that if they have a customer's credit card then they can charge it. The rep said they wouldn't be able to provide it and could only forward my case to the superior to review. I was so tired to call and explain to different people and no one is taking any responsibility. Please help.

Recently, I had the displeasure to fly on United Airlines with my two year old daughter. According to the FAA, young children are recommended to be in a 5 point harness while on board any aircraft if you have purchased them a seat (which I did, full price). So having read this, I planned to take my child's car seat, her diaper bag and her stroller (which I gate checked). I didn't take anything unnecessary, just the barest minimum of what was needed to travel with a two year old. As a mother traveling with a small child, this was quite a bit to carry and was very cumbersome (two hands are needed to push a stroller, but I also had to carry the car seat).

As I went through security, I was informed by the TSA agent that her father could walk us to our gate to help carry this. But in order to do so, I would have to get a pass from the airline I was traveling with. When I asked the man at United Airlines Customer Care about this, he was very rude and told me in his snottiest voice that they don't do that for any family that needs assistance, only people who are disabled? I asked if anyone from United could assist me and was told, "that is not our job." When I told the TSA agent what United had told me, he shook his head and said the other airlines give out passes to family members all the time.

I kissed my husband goodbye and went through security, which turned into a twenty minute process. The TSA agents felt so bad for us that they offered to help us to our gate (the same happened on our return flight. I received more help getting to our gate from TSA than I did my own airline). After we finally made it to our gate, I thought our problems were over. Ha! While gate checking the stroller, I asked about pre-boarding (so that I could install the car seat before being in everyone's way). But instead of answering my question, the gate agent told me that, "You will board whenever your section is called." In other words, he blew me off and didn't even bother to explain to me that United's policy is to never pre-board families with children or parents with car seats.

I found out that info from the gate agent while boarding for our return flight. Instead of being allowed to install the car seat and buckle in my child in relative peace while first class was boarding, I got to carry the car seat above my head (while carrying my child and her diaper bag) because it was too wide to fit down the isle of the plane. It would've bumped into the heads of the people already seated. Then hold up everyone trying to get past me to their seats, while I frantically tried to install the car seat and at the same time, tried to make sure my daughter was safely out of everyone's way. Other passengers offered more help than the crew in both getting on and off the airplane.

Please understand I was not asking for anything out of the ordinary. Only for United's employees to do their job. Both of our tickets were bought full price. I did not bring excess baggage. In fact, her diaper bag fit underneath the seat in front of us. I was asking for a bit of common sense and perhaps a smidgen of humanity. The sad part is that because United did not do their job (the job I paid them to do), other passengers and the TSA agents had to step in and do it.

I am not writing this to complain (okay, maybe a little), but to warn anyone considering travel with children about United's bad policies. I know other airlines are far more considerate of their passengers and actually offer assistance, as well as pre-board people with small children to prevent situations such as mine from happening. If I can keep anyone from having the same experience that I did, I will. DO NOT FLY UNITED IF YOU ARE FLYING WITH CHILDREN, unless you like being treated like crap!

If that were not enough, I arrived at the ticket counter, only to be informed both flights were cancelled as stated above. I'm angry at the fact that I had driven a long way to be there in time. I'm also angry at the fact that I was not informed of the fact. I had to rebook myself on a later flight, at a higher rate, for the exact same booking.

The information was never stored in the computer; this information was all given to me by a ticket agent named Katherine. I am a Creole. This woman spoke and treated me as though I was mud on her shoe. I was in shock. I have never experienced in my life the level of rudeness displayed by an individual in customer service, ever. I immediately left the counter, and put in a call to the home office. I spoke with someone named Hans. I was told by this person that my ticket was free. I asked him to repeat himself three times. He reiterated that because I was a protected customer, due to both flights being cancelled, my ticket was free.

I went back to the counter, explained this to Katherine, and yet again to a second agent named George. Katherine totally ignored my presence altogether. I then asked to speak to a supervisor. To my surprise, Katherine was the supervisor. I was being charged an entirely different yet higher fee for the same flight that was cancelled without my knowledge. Yet, Hans repeatedly explained to me that my ticket would be free. Now dealing with George, who knows nothing, he asked me to call the home office again. This call was made within 15 minutes of my first call to the home office. I received Hans once again. He retracted his statement and pretended not to remember the previous conversation regarding the free ticket.

I was charged a ticket fee of $35. I inquired at this point to the ticket agent, George, what and why there was a ticket fee. He explained it was for the ticket paper. I went back to the agent, Katherine, to have the fee waived due to all of these problems. She completely ignored me once again, taking care of others right in front of me who clearly were in line after me. A nice gentleman said to her, "She is next." She again ignored my presence. I watched patiently while she addressed the Caucasian race with "Good Morning", "Sir", and "Ma'am". I watched her waive a fee for a gentleman right in front of me.

She abruptly acknowledged my presence for an entire moment to signal the word "No". "You need to pay the fee and the new ticket price." My father is ill, so I did. I had no options facing me. I walked away humiliated, and almost missed the 7 am flight because of the rudeness from the security check. I was a special search for some apparent reason. I also had to pay a $15 fee for one bag check to and from my destination.

They got me on a flight the next morning, then told me I could choose between $575 or a free round-trip flight. The rep told me that taking the $575 would be smarter, so I did. He then said United would put me up in a hotel room and pay for transportation there. I live with my family and wanted to go home, so I asked for transportation money instead. The representative calculated how much a cab fare would cost to my town, and came up with $25 each way. He then gave me two $25 vouchers: one for the way there, one for the way back to the airport. I have no idea how much cabs cost, so I believed what I was told and accepted the vouchers.

When I arrived home, the cab fare was $80. I was beyond mad. I am a college student who is very low on money; I cannot afford to pay for OTHER PEOPLE'S MISTAKES. I had to take a cab to the airport the next morning, which cost about $80 again. I talked to several people at the airport, and all they told me was basically, since I had accepted the vouchers, there was nothing they could do about it. They also told me that since the economy is so bad, they can only give out $25 vouchers, and that I could call customer service but they would just tell me the same thing. How on earth is a hotel room and transportation equal to two $25 vouchers? When I got to LAX, I had to get another cab, since the person who was going to pick me up the night before had to work now. All these cab rides cost me around $250.

Once again, I am a college student who has very little money. So basically, United screwed me over. I was unable to fly out on Sunday night. I missed school on Monday. I could not take my medication, and now I have to see a doctor to try and somehow fix this. I had to pay $250 in extra cab fares. I didn't have my clothing, medication, and other things I needed that were in my luggage which was on the plane; I was faced with several rude employees; and I wasted hours of my time waiting at the airport. I will never fly United again, and hope those of you reading this will choose a different airline as well. Thank you.