Same Day change from Alex on Co.com:

https://www.continental.com/web/en-U...htNotAvailable

From the FT CO FAQ:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/10993890-post55.html

LOL, I think I would rather pay a cheap hotel in IAH if I miss my conection, than do CO a favor and stand by to the earlier departure. I actually bought it that way, because the first morning flight out of LAX was full in the fare bucket I needed. It is a beautiful mileage run way under 0.04 cents/mile, plus a great trip to Latin America.

Hopefully, I will not miss my conection, but if I do, I will definitely find something to do at IAH. And I will book a hotel that can be cancelled before 6pm just in case.

Thank you all for your advice.

If I get nervous about making a connection,, I ask the gate agent at the departure city to call or send an email to the arrival city, and have one of those electric carts waiting when I arrive

Ah yes, I've read this book: The Fifty Yard Dash to the E Concourse by Will E. Makeit and Betty Will!

I routinely do a West Coast (SAN, SFO) to East Coast via IAH with about an hour layover without problem. The only time I had a problem was switching from an ERJ (Term B) to mainline jet when the ERJ arrived late. However, I managed to get an upgrade to FC on the next flight so overall, no harm done.

Well FTers, I happened!!!
Went to LAX airport just to find CO 1594 of today, May 10 was delayed by half an hour. If you remember, my connection was 30 minutes to CO 888 to PTY. Well, the reason was that incoming flight and crew from EWR was not legal to fly until 10 am, as they had arrived at almost 01:00 am on that same day, some 5 hours delayed, as plane came from Europe to EWR also late and then EWR to LAX late. Well, I lost my connecting flight, as I went to the PTY gate (E6) just to find the plane had left. Then, an agent told me I had been rebooked to LIM on the non stop, so I decided to run to the other (E17) and found out, it had just left also. Well, went to the Continental help desk to get rebooked to some other flight, and the agent told me how had I lost my flight, if I had a full 12 minutes to get to my PTY, and that included getting off a full flight from LAX (takes at least 5-10 minutes as my seat was 24F), walking from concurse C (gate C17) to E6, and then walking to E17. Well, she told me I was lucky she wasn't going to charge me for the change and that I was not entitled to any hotel or food vouchers. Way to go Continental!!!!!!!

Of course, I didn't say anything, and after she finished, I just showed her my American Airlines Executive Platinum Card, told her I wanted to switch some business to the new United (Continental + United) and that I appreciated everything she did for me, but that next trip to Colombia from the US was going to be with American, as they know how to treat a person that flies more than 100,000 thousand miles a year.

I booked on my own dime the Crowne Plaza (as some of you suggested) and here I am, with one less night at LIM and stuck in Houston for 24 hours. Well, better enjoy this city, as from now on, I am going back to DFW and MIA for my Southamerica connections.

Continental Flight 1594
Status: Arrived Gate 19 Minutes Late
Delayed: "Mandatory Crew Rest"

This is, of course, nonsense; you would never be charged a change fee when you missed a connection. Some agents are more pleasant and knowledgable than others. I would assume that's the case on AA, as well.


I don't really think that's fair, for a couple of reasons:
1 - You booked a connection you knew was risky, and you got burned. It happens. You could have SDC'd to the 8:00 flight, as someone suggested, with no problem. I don't know when your flight was first listed as delayed, but if they knew the crew wouldn't be legal until too late, they should have updated the status as soon as they knew it (if they didn't, shame on them, and if they did, shame on you for not changing flights at that time).
2 - You can't really throw it in CO's face that AA knows how to treat its top tier elites. You acknowledge that you have no status on CO, so why would you expect them to treat you like AA treats ExPlats? You could have likely status matched before the flight (you stated earlier that you were aiming for status on CO, and that's exactly what the status matches are for). If you had matched to Plat, you would have even been able to do the SDC for free.

Well said.:-:

I was a sinnnnneeeerrr... was nice trying to get to know the new United, but it isn't for me. When I leave MIA, I can start thinking in airlines other than AA and AAdvantage. Hope everything goes well with the merger. For me, I am back at AAdvantage forum, as I know back and forth how everything wworks there.

I will not use my status match now, as that is for when you get relocated to a new city that happens to be another airline hub, so will keep being a mere Onepass normal customer.

good for you! I am sure you have made the correct decision for you.

yes, that status match is a precious once-in-a-lifetime thingy. So, better save it for when you need it the most (if you might indeed skip over to "The New UNICON" airlines.