Originally Posted by
CO Insider
Hi
craz, I'm sorry to hear about this. There's a valid explanation for everything that happened, as unfortunate as it may be.
First of all, you weren't able to check in online. This actually had to do your routing. As I've
mentioned in the past, our online check-in works for our most common international itinerary scenarios, but it doesn't handle every transit/destination country combination, including U.S. to Hungary. That's the reason you weren't able to get your boarding passes at continental.com this time, and a couple months back.
At the airport, the challenge was that you were checking in at the kiosk at the exact same time we were releasing held seat assignments for everyone who hadn't checked in. You started your check-in transaction 2 minutes before our check-in cut-off, however, by the time you were able to see your itinerary we had released your seat assignment (because the cut-off had passed) and the kiosk gave you a new one. To make matters worse, when you attempted to get your original seat back, we were in the process of giving it to another customer at the gate, which would explain why we couldn't get it back for you at the kiosk.
I'm sorry this didn't work out for you.
Thanks for the explanation. What I still dont understand is we (me and the co employee who swiped his Card) saw 32J & 32K as white meaning available also we tried for 33D as 33 D & E was white and the kiosk wouldnt let Us get any seat other than 41C. Im sure had I been able to get 33D that 33E would have gone empty and I would have flown, as row 33 would not have been a problem during the turbluence. By the time I was able to get to the GA all that was left was Middle seats, and as you know I felt Id rather not fly then fly in 41C
also is there a way to inform the CSRs about those Countries that will not allow OLCI be it flying to them or from them?
Scott a couple of pts and questions
1stly my May trip was EWR-CDG-VIE & BUD-CDG-EWR I was able and indeed had no problem doing OLCI if I remember as I wasnt flying into BUD, did the train VIE-BUD. The problem with my Nay trip was my Special Meal wasnt ordered for me, this time it was but teh seatw as the problem.
2ndly, OK say its was exact timing that when my Plat card was swiped is when the seats were released. I hear that what I dont understand is why did the System give me 41C with a person already in 41B when 33D was available and no one was as yet in 33E. Why put a Plat in the back when a much better seat was available? If it all was Gate control I dont believe the GA was able to assign both 32J & K and 33 D & E at the exact same time, so while the GA was taking care of the 32 shouldnt the computer have reassigned me to row 33, or any aisle that might have been available in the Blue seats?
also what can be done about the Terrible way that CO handles Retrived bags! Hate to say it but it reminded me of what USAir had happen in PHL, BA in LHR with the T5, and yep Jet Blue 2/14 at JFK. Only since it wasnt on the same scale it gets swiped away, except for those of Us that had to endure it.