Well, while most of the posts are negative here, I'll give a thumbs up to my experience.

My cousin and wife are flying IAH-EWR-HKG on bulk "U" fare from a consolidator. They were supposed to fly out Sunday morning.

Just 10 minutes ago, I called the regular international line (they're not elites anymore, and I don't want to abuse the system). First call didn't go through probably due to high call volume out of Houston - a SBC problem, not CO. Hit redial, and in one minute was connected to a rep in SLC after punching "5" for international. No prolonged wait or anything.

Got the date they've wanted Wed 9/28 - same flight same everything. Changed within 45 seconds. I logged back on continental.com, and new flight is reflected and I chose new seats for them. Email confirmation also came through within 3 minutes.

Whole process took 5 minutes, everything went as smoothly as humanly and electronically possible.