I had a very poor experience with Continental in LAX on Thanksgiving night which ended up with me spending the night on the airport carpet and almost get into a yelling match with an agent over meal vouchers.

I checked in at the E-Service center around 1130pm for the 130am redeye to IAH. I was very pleased to see that EUA had worked as promised and had delivered upgrades for all segments despite my being a NORTHWEST silver.

At the gate, the flight was pretty badly oversold and the agent (Mary) began by offering a $250 voucher for volunteers. She soon upped the ante to $300, followed by $350 and finally $400. At that point I figured that it was worth it, so I handed over one of the "Will You Volunteer" forms after confirming with the other agent (Shelley) that they would rebook me in F on the non-stop to CLE at 630am.

The flight finally left with 13 volunteers needed. A Redcoat (Phil) came over to assist with the rebookings and the hotels. Since I expected to be on the 630am flight and it was already a little past 2am, I told him that I wouldn't need any. He collected names and headed out to call the hotel and get things set up.

Meanwhile, I get to the front of the line and the agent (Kathy) began the process of rebooking me. She suddenly realizes that the 630am to CLE is not operating because of the reduced holiday schedule. She offers to book me on the 920am nonstop, but that was unacceptable because that didn't get to CLE till 5pm and I had to meet someone for lunch. I scrambled through my pocket schedule for other possibilities, but Mary (who had just finished rebooking the other pax) told me that I had better hurry since their shift was up in a few minutes and she intended to leave at that time.

I struggled and came up with a 5am HP flight through PHX arriving in CLE around 2pm. I was told that "It will take too long to rebook you on another airline so you will have to go on Continental". I decided to go on the 705am to IAH and connect to CLE arriving around 430pm. However, this would not allow me to take my scheduled NW connection from CLE, which left exactly 8 mins later. Kathy told me that I could make it "if you run" since I didn't have any checked bags. I declined. The non-stop ERJ at 745pm was oversold to authorization, but Kathy told me that she had managed to book me on it. She printed out my itinerary and I noticed that she had booked me in Y, rather than F, which was what I had given up. When I challenged her about this, Mary intervened and told me that "You paid $200 for this ticket and you expect to fly in First Class? Thats not happening!". That said, she grabbed Kathy and they walked away.

Needless to say, I was furious about this. I called CO reservations at the 800 number and asked them if they could do anything. The agent who answered my call told me that I hadn't been rebooked at all beyond IAH, but she went ahead and booked me through to CLE. The CLE-ATL was booked to authorization though and she couldn't do anything about it.

Around 3am, I called NW Elite services and spoke to Sandra there. She was able to confirm my upgrades into F, but was also unable to confirm me on the CLE-ATL flight.

Around 430am, I headed off to the ticket counters to check in for my flights. The E-Service centers were not online yet, so I dealt with Joe at one of the counters. He printed out my boarding cards, including those for my 8 minute connection at Cleveland. I told him that this was not a legal connection and asked if he could try again to rebook me on the 745pm flight if it had opened up. He replied that "these are Northwest operated flights so you will have to talk to them about that". I pointed out that these were ticketed on CO stock with CO flight numbers, but he just shrugged and asked if there is anything more he could do for me.

I was beginning to crave a cup of coffee by now, so I asked him if I could get a meal voucher. He replied that "when you accepted the compensation we offered to volunteer your seat, you gave up any further claims from us". He then showed me the relevant line on the "Will You Volunteer" form. I asked if he would be willing to do so as a goodwill gesture. He paused a second and replied "I could do that, but I choose not to do so".

I was incensed by this attitude and immediately called NW Elite services again, primarily to get my flight fixed but also to have someone to complain to about this! Tracy was able to book me on the 745pm flight and then connected me with Ms. Jackson at Continental Customer Service who appeared to be pretty high up. She was extremely apologetic and promised that I would receive a written explanation from Continental after they completed their investigation. She also added that she was putting a note in my record to offer me a meal voucher.

At around 640am, I boarded the aircraft and took my assigned seat 5A. A few minutes later, another agent came on board (I couldn't see her name tag) and offered me an envelope. I opened it to find a stack of free drink coupons with expiry dates of 12/31/99. I told her that since I was in First Class the drinks were free anyway and besides the coupons were expired. She just looked sheepish, took them back and walked away.

My IAH connection was pretty tight, but I finally arrived in CLE around 420pm. The agent meeting the flight (Vern) flagged me down on the jetway and apologized for the problems in LA. Evidently, someone had put a note in my record to "offer apologies and extend all possible courtesies".

Epilogue : The 745pm CLE-ATL flight wound up going out with 7 seats open on the ERJ-145. So much for "booked to authorization".