b-squared21

I need some advice—thanks in advance to all who respond. On February 22, 2009, my wife and I were flying on Continental from Ontario, CA to Baltimore. My wife had purchased 2 round trip first class seats using 200,000 NWA World Perks miles. Our outbound flight from BWI to ONT went fine; on the return there was a problem. Our flight from Ontario to Houston to catch our connection was 40 minutes late. When we landed, we had 15 minutes before our next departure, and, of course, a long hike to our connecting gate. There were no carts available for transport. We arrived at our gate 5 minutes prior to departure. At that time an unsympathetic gate agent informed us that, “...your seats have been given away, and you have to take any available seat in coach.” When I complained, she basically said, “That’s how it has to be (citing the ‘10-minute rule’).” I said that I would take the later flight to Baltimore if I could keep the seats in first. She indicated the flight was full. I believe that statement was untrue. We accepted our fate and sat in coach (15 more minutes elapsed before the plane actually departed), but we later realized that we should have tried to claim our seats when we boarded the aircraft. We had been fooled and suckered in by the phony authority of the gate agent. The bottom line is that two other people got to sit in first on our nickel, while we were crammed in middle seats in the back. Both my wife and I are pretty angry about it, and have sworn off Continental. My questions are: 1. What should we have done when we boarded the plane? And, 2: What are our options with Continental now? We feel cheated by being denied a product we had paid for, and we believe that Continental owes us something if only a rebate of my wife’s FF miles.