Rule 24 from the contract of carriage:

C) Change in Schedule - When a Passenger’s Ticketed flight is affected because of a Change in Schedule, CO will, at its
election arrange one of the following:

1) Transport the Passenger on its own flights, subject to availability, to the Destination, next Stopover point, or
transfer point shown on its portion of the Ticket, without Stopover in the same class of service, at no additional
cost to the Passenger, provided that a Passenger who paid a Coach fare will only be transported on a flight in First
Class or Business First Class Service subject to seat availability and if such flight will provide an earlier arrival
than CO’s next flight on which coach space is available;
2) Reroute Passengers over the lines of one or more carriers when a Change in Schedule results in the cancellation of
all CO service between two cities;
3) Advise the Passenger that the value of his or her Ticket may be applied toward future travel on Continental within
one year from the date of issue without a change or reissue fee; or
4) Provide a refund in accordance with Rule 27 A) if the Passenger is not transported as provided in C) 1) or 2) above and does not choose to apply the value of his or her Ticket toward future travel as provided in C) 3) above.


I can not be reading this correctly. The way I read it paragraph C says CO has choices 1-4 in event of schedule change. "at its election" would mean that its CO's choice. So they can:

1) take you on their flight when available
2) take you on another carrier if they cancel service
3) issue voucher
4)refund if they did not do 1 or 2 and voucher is rejected by passenger.

Paragraph 4 seems to imply that passenger has a right to reject voucher. Otherwise it would seem that CO can just choose 3 and issue voucher and never even offer refund. Basically take money, change schedule and then give back voucher.

The bigger issue to me seems that their is no right of refund. Again I read at its election to mean that CO can just choose choice 1 and not offer a refund. Choice 1 does not have any requirements so that transportation could occur an hour, a day, a week or 6 months later.

If I am reading this correctly, CO could sell a ticket, eliminate flight for that day, accomodate you 24 hours later, and refuse to issue a refund when you objected. This would all make sense if it said "at the passenger's election", but is says "at its election", with it meaning CO. So what am I doing wrong here?