Joys of Colgan Air - CO3206 returns to BOS
 

I normally don't fly CO, being more of an AA flyer, but experiences like tonight's won't make me a fan.

So I'm schedule to be on CO3206, BOS-EWR, connecting to a flight to Vegas.

First, the departure was delayed due to late arrival of the aircraft and at least 1 member of the ground crew came up to the cockpit to speak with the pilots. Shortly after a takeoff - we had to turn back due to a mechanical problem with the "control surface". This was the first time in more than 300k miles of air travel where the FA's instructed me to brace upon landing. Fortunately, it was a bumpy but safe landing. Whew...

Since I couldn't possibly make the connection and had no desire to overnight at EWR, I went home after rebookng. Despite all my efforts, couldn't talk the ground staff into giving me a different itin or carrier.

Something about the name tickled my memory so I look it up. Oops - Colgan was the operator for the fatal crash of CO3407. And hey - that was a Dash-8 Q400 as well.

Fingers crossed that my rescheduled flight tomorrow morning goes safely....

Now - for the FT part of the story. I'm out about ~$150 cash for cab, hotel night, and the $$ it'll cost to redo my Hertz rental. Is CO generally good about fair compensation when there's a mechanical issue? Are these the kind of issues which the web site form can get a response on, or should I take the time to actually call?

It sounds like they were going to give you something at EWR for the overnight and rebook you accordingly. If that is the guess then you decided to not take their compensation and thus will most likely not recover. as to the hotel, typical, even with non-refundable reservations you can get them refunded by explaining the situation. one aspect of this I dont understand is the cab expense?

I'm guessing Plato90s took a cab between the airport and home.

Write a letter to CO's Customer Service Center. Attach copies of any receipts that are relevant (cab, hotel no-show charge, Hertz), explain what happened, and what you'd like them to do. I've had very good success in a few similar situations getting either a refund on a portion of the ticket, or an electronic certificate for that amount toward a future flight.

Sorry you had a rotten experience on this trip. Hope the rest of the trip goes much more smoothly.

There was no other routing or airline they could have put you on?

$150 for a cab? Did you take a cab from Philadelphia to EWR? :eek:

Sorry to hear about your inconvenience. It must have been frustrating.

The oft-repeated lesson herein, regardless of the airline - but especially on a commuter feeder with a reputation for lousy ontime service into a hub known for disrupted schedules - is to avoid last-flight of the day connections wherever possible. (Especially on Saturdays when reduced schedules may be in effect).

Even under the best of circumstances your apparent itinerary seems risky with just a 38 minute connection at EWR. Given the propensity for short-in flights to EWR to face delays, that's a window without breathing room.

A quick look at the schedule out of Boston indicates that there aren't any post-6 p.m. options on alternate carriers that would have gotten you to Vegas last night except a single JetBlue flight. Hope you made it safely today.

See below:

Right. But was there something with space on another carrier? If so, perhaps the OP could've tried with res, or the more effective, just go to the other carrier and have them take over the CO ticket.

A lot of carriers have stopped accepting paper tickets and now require the "control" of the ticket to be pushed to them, thus requiring an agent. Regardless of disruption to plans, but especially being mechanical, you should have been offered routing on any OA with a participating agreement.

Hopefully with the merger, the new United will deal with these issues in a more efficient and customer friendly manner...

(and hopefully they'll deep-6 Colgan)

That's correct. But CO has a habit of not doing the right thing in IRROPS, it's been posted in other threads that you may have better success working the IRROP the other way. Go find a carrier with space, walk to that counter, have them call CO to release the ticket, and take it over.

One can hope, but Colgan currently flies for both CO and UA.

Yes, but the COlganization as a percentage of regional operations is much smaller at UA than at CO. COlgan has very few routes on UA, whereas on CO, they're all over.

Also, it seems that COlgan serves larger cities on CO, whereas on UA you typically only see COlgan into much smaller locations, so unless you're based there, you are less likely to encounter them.

I'm two degrees of separation from a handful of people on said Buffalo flight, but that was tragic bad luck. The worst most people will experience with Colgan is terrible delays. ExpertFlyer.com for example gives on-time statistics. I don't know anyone who has ever booked Colgan after asking me to look up these stats for them.

Colgan is not Continental. Colgan is not Continental. Colgan is not Continental.

Anyone who falls for the paint job, and the Continental ticketing, is being played for a fool. The only effective response is to recognize and boycott Colgan. JetBlue for example flies actual jets into many of these same locations.

I'm sorry to hear about your misfortune, and hope today's flight goes better.

To answer some questions...

No other routing they were willing to rebook me for that night, since CO had no more flights to Vegas I could catch. The gate agents were rebooking all the passengers even before the plane made it back to the gate and I was already booked on the morning flight of EWR-LAS. But another carrier? I got a major "no".

As for as EWR transit - I made it, no problem, on Sun even though the BOS-EWR was once again delayed on departure and the scheduled transfer time was <35 minutes. I travel light - carryon only.

$150 is combined cab, hotel, car rental additional expense.

Thanks fro the suggestion - I'll collect the receipts when I get back and fire off a 2nd message if CO doesn't respond.