Plato90s

I normally don't fly CO, being more of an AA flyer, but experiences like tonight's won't make me a fan.

So I'm schedule to be on CO3206, BOS-EWR, connecting to a flight to Vegas.

First, the departure was delayed due to late arrival of the aircraft and at least 1 member of the ground crew came up to the cockpit to speak with the pilots. Shortly after a takeoff - we had to turn back due to a mechanical problem with the "control surface". This was the first time in more than 300k miles of air travel where the FA's instructed me to brace upon landing. Fortunately, it was a bumpy but safe landing. Whew...

Since I couldn't possibly make the connection and had no desire to overnight at EWR, I went home after rebookng. Despite all my efforts, couldn't talk the ground staff into giving me a different itin or carrier.

Something about the name tickled my memory so I look it up. Oops - Colgan was the operator for the fatal crash of CO3407. And hey - that was a Dash-8 Q400 as well.

Fingers crossed that my rescheduled flight tomorrow morning goes safely....

Now - for the FT part of the story. I'm out about ~$150 cash for cab, hotel night, and the $$ it'll cost to redo my Hertz rental. Is CO generally good about fair compensation when there's a mechanical issue? Are these the kind of issues which the web site form can get a response on, or should I take the time to actually call?