Originally Posted by GoCanes
I agree with the OP. His point is that if he contacted CO and said his schedule changed and he wanted to change the flights, CO would allow him to change it, but would charge him a fee and possibly increased fare if his booking class was unavailable. On the alternate end, if CO wants to change its flight times or cancel flights entirely, the OP is upset that CO does little, if anything, to compensate the OP for the inconvenience. What the OP was trying to get at was that he is Gold on CO, meaning he is a pretty good customer - a pretty good customer who buys Y fares. All he wanted was someone from CO to say - he we messed up, we apologize, we will give your wife a comp upgrade to try to help the situation and ease any burden. So, the OP has a valid point - why does CO think it can do whateve it wants, laugh at him when he offers a solution that will satisfy him as a customer and then expect the OP to continue his business on CO.
I can understand the OP's frustration and would be equally angry if I were in the same situation. But, the fact remains that sometimes, flights have to be cancelled or rescheduled. CO is still far superior to any other US airline with regard to not cancelling flights, mechanicals, etc.
And, I don't think upgrading the OP's wife would be reasonable in this situation. I don't want to lose my upgrade opportunity to someone who called CO and talked some supervisor into upgrading a companion that should not have been upgraded until the airport within two hours of departure. A $50 or $75 cert would have been the appropriate compensation here, if any was due (and I'm not saying compensation was due).