Originally Posted by nrlopso

This morning I brought my sister-in-law to MSY to fly back home to TGU. We bought her a ticket as a gift and used my miles to pay for it. Because I used my miles to purchase her ticket, my status as a Presidential Platinum is inferred upon her. The line at Check In was huge and I was glad we could just jump into the Elite line. When it was our turn we walked up to the counter and I handed my sister-in-law's passport to the agent. After entering her name into the system, the agent said "I need the elite card". I handed her my Pres Platinum card and she looked at it and said "what is this"? She told me just because I am an elite that doesn't help anyone else. I explained to her that when I buy a ticket with my miles it gives my status to the ticket holder. In fact, my sister-in-law still had the priority tags from her trip her. The agent actually started yelling at me for explaining the rules to her. I then told her that it was a mute point since the ticket was an international first class. She then walked away and told me she didn't have time for this. At the same time, another agent actually stood on top of the counter and made an announcement to the crowd that if they didn't like the service they were getting they should call Continental to complain so that they could get some more help. I was told to go to the end of the line. Although I am an elite and bought a first class reward ticket, I had to go to the back of a long line. I'm tired of these kinds of things. I'm not looking for anything special and I certainly don't expect CO employees to kiss my butt, but a little customer service would be nice. I walked away from there thinking that was the worst experience I've ever had from any type of organization. Am I wrong on any of this? As I was driving from the airport, I started thinking about it and I got really mad so I called the Pres Plat Elite line and asked them if I could make a complaint. Hopefully Continental doesn't repeat these mistakes.