Long post . . . so you don't waste time reading, basically using a flight I had last night, there were a few complaints I had about CO's One Pass Elite Perks. If that doesn't interest you, you might want to press the back button and read something else.

This is not a "I want compensation" thread. I am actually a big fan of Continental Airlines, but also see it as my responsibility as a valuable customer to provide feedback when things aren't up to my expectations. I've heard many of these complaints before (in some cases I didn't agree with them), but having had this experience (and some others, but most notably this one), I felt compelled to share my thoughts on why Continental's elite program is broken and I hope CO Management can make some of the changes impacted me last night.

Last night, I flew on CO 1162 (ORD to EWR) in an H fare ticket. Not that this matters anymore given the changes to how day of travel upgrades are processed, but I had seq #1 for my flight. Knowing of the potential for severe thunderstorms in the Chicago area, I went to the airport early and asked to standby on one of three earlier flights. Unfortunately, as one of these three flights was cancelled, standby was pretty much out of the question although the representative at the P-club put me on the list. This gets me to my first point which I know has been brought up here before--according to the SkyTeam perks, I am supposed to be entitled to priority standby at the airport--but Continental's systems aren't even able to handle this. Now I understand COInsider has indicated they're working on this and maybe it would resemble a two tier system (where I wouldn't have had priority over those on the cancelled flight, but would have at least had it over those that put themselves on the list the same way I did earlier in the day). I know this project is a long time in coming and I think its rediculous it hasn't received a higher priority than how its happening now. What good are perks for your best customers if they're useless in a time of irregular operations? What I also do not understand is if there's some system problem that's preventing them from implementing this change, what's wrong with a manual work around? Usually only on "Y" tickets, during irregular operations, I've been able to convince a desk represenative to sell me a seat instead of clearing a standby and while not always successful have had this strategy work. Perhaps CO can implement some time of manual work around, at least as a perk for its platinum members.

As noted, there were severe thunderstorms in the ORD area and for standard reasons we couldn't take off (which I am fine with, weather is a fact of live and we're much safer on the ground than taking off in a mess like that). In my case last night, we pushed back from the gate at 7:45, sat on the tarmac until 10:15 and finally were on our way. While this isn't the worst time waiting and the reasons were beyond CO's control, this didn't help my mindset last night. I was sitting in row 5C (it's a 735, so that's the "first class seat of coach." Standard coach service and seat width, but more leg room than the first class seats. Anyhow, it also offers a prime view of first class. Here's what got me--the level of service the FC passengers received when we were sitting on the tarmac compared to the coach passengers. I will say I was lucky and recognized by a flight attendant, so my service was great (and overall this crew did a great job with drinks and stuff when we were on the ground). Why did it bother me that FC received better service? Well they should--that is not what bothered me--it was the stupid Continental upgrade policies (which quite frankly, I used to agree with prior to me thinking about it on this flight). I was travelling on an H fare (approximately $430 one way). In talking to the FA, and looking at the manifest which was displayed on the F galley (they permitted us to use the F bathroom during the ground wait), I oberved that the ENTIRE FC cabin was occupied by coach fare paying gold members (at least no silvers). All of them were on Y (AU) fares (approximately $531 one way). Now I understand CO encourages the purchase of these and that's why the first come first serve elite upgrade perk exists, but in this situation come on. I have 95,000 EQM's for the year and a Company that requires we purchase the "lowest refundable fare," so I buy a LOT of H and Y fares all year (usually Y, but there's these pesky cities where I end up on an H). Forget debating whether my Company's policy makes any sense, I just follow it. Basically my pet peeve is this--with 95,000 EQM's already, I will likely provide CO double the business as these Golds (not 100% but on average). Yet for a stupid $123 difference in fare, I have to sit in coach while they get the free upgrade. How does this make any sense? Over $123 (even if we add this up across 20 flights for the year, we're talking $2,500 at most), my 50,000 extra EQMs (let's say that's 25 round trips in H or Y at $1,000) get Continental an extra $25,000 of business.

So, understanding that CO needs to have some sort of policy in place that does promote these Y-ups because I understand they make sense from a business perspective to them, they also need to consider the better business that others such as myself are bringing them and come up with some sort of compromise to this program. From what I understand, the top tiers in other programs, namely American EXP do not have this similar complaint (at least not to the same extent).

Putting all that aside and a gentlemen in my row that pushed into me getting up to go to the restroom causing me to lose half my drink, the flight was actually very good. I think CO did a very good job in managing everyone's expectations and keeping them comfortable during the long ground hold (and was very good even in the air--asking if people wanted the can, the stupid little things that help make a short flight better).

Anyhow, I am sure I'll get blasted by some for my entitled attitude in this post and others will surely agree with these points, I would like to get your thoughts and will do my best to answer any questions you have. Again, not looking for compensation, just a dialogue that maybe gets noticed to help keep OnePass a good program. Also, for all you experts out there, I worked very hard to research the fare prices and times of my flight to make sure they were not materially misrepresented. They might not be perfect. I searched one way H and Y fares on 9/25/2007 for my #'s and used last nights flight table for the flight times--except for take-off, I estimated that based on arrival time and usual flight time.