Earlier today I was on CO 34 from AUS to IAH. This was the first leg of my travel to Buenos Aires. I was traveling on a full fare business first ticket.

I have a standard wheel bag carry on which I have traveled with on many Continental flights. It has always fit in the overhead no problem. I am not one of these people that crams an oversize bag into the overhead bin.

When I went to board the plane, the gate agent was tagging every bag in front of us. They were *not gate checking*, they were putting full check-in tags on them to the final destination. Since I was in first class they said my bag would be fine and to go ahead and board.

Upon reaching the aircraft entrance the flight attendant said I was not allowed to board with the bag. I explained I was in first class and the gate agent said it would be ok. The flight attendant said absolutely not.

I had planned on carrying this bag on board because it had sensitive computer equipment. It is a large part of the reason that I bought a fully paid business first ticket. I went back up the gateway and discussed w/ the gate agent about being re-accommodated on a later flight to Houston. Nothing was available. After much debate, I eventually talked her into just checking my bag to Houston instead of my final destination (Buenos Aires). This was a less than ideal solution, but better than checking it to Buenos Aires. Something which was not an option as I've had many problems with items "disappearing" from checked baggage to BA.

Finally I boarded the flight and took my seat in 1E. I then opened the overhead bin to see if there was room for my computer bag. Upon opening it I come to find that it was *COMPLETELY EMPTY*. I talked to the flight attendant who said that no rolling bags would fit there anyway (this is a 737-500 w/ a smaller sized rolling bag that I'd put on board the same aircraft many times in the past). After some protest, she said fine go get your bag, but it had already been taken down below.

While this has no effect on me as a gold elite it seems they wanted to force people to check their bags to get the extra fee. I've never encountered this and have only seen them gate check bags. It is my theory that this must be a new Continental policy. The gate agents and the crew seemed thoroughly exhausted as they had a ton of passengers complaining.

The ironic part is that I am all for limiting the size of oversize bags and charging people who try to get a bag too large as a carry on. However, I am a five-year gold elite paying full fare business first w/ a bag that I know fits in the overhead and I got caught in this crazy net.

I would issue this as a word of caution. And if any of my equipment got damaged, I will be really irate. I thin Continental needs to be aware of this and in my experience this is the most effective forum for that, so here I post this notice.

At a minimum this policy was enforced in an extremely poor manner.