Embarrassed by CO
 

I flew EWR-SFO yesterday afternoon and two elderly women (75+) were seated next to me.

They had been denied boarding the day before, on a connecting flight from Quebec. The flight had been overbooked, and apparently CO had not been able to locate volunteers.

CO had denied them boarding against their will, but had only offered them a hotel and a couple of cheap meal vouchers as compensation. (Small amounts, such as $7 for breakfast).
I asked if they were not given a travel vouchers, such as $200-$400 for future travel. They answered no.

They were denied boarding against their will, but the CO agent had told them to sign documents that stated they had volunteered (so they could get a hotel).

The story stinks, because it leaves an impression that CO picked the elderly women because they would put up the least resistance. Then did not offer them the compensation they deserved.

If a CO representative wants to follow up on this, I am happy to provide you with their seat assignments. Just PM me.

As they were sharing their $5 snack box, they told me that they had never had a problem with their preferred airline - UA. They did not know the details of the merger, because they told me that UA probably was taking over CO in order to fix this terrible airline. :)

Unacceptable by any standards! Absolutely Unacceptable! Give me a PM and I will give you my Corporate Contact's #...even Volunteers get Travel Certs, the Agent most likely pocketed them for their own ill gotten use...

It's stuff like this that angers me when employees abuse the rules.

What a sad way to abuse elderly people. :td: to the agent.

Quebec is farmed out to nasty contractors it seems...

Certainly not the Continental that I know. Maybe the current administration had better pick up "From Worst to First" and reacquaint themselves with customer service.

My understanding of the OP is the VDB/IDB was handled at EWR, not at YQB.

As far as the people at YQB, I fly EWR-YQB sometimes four times a month. Like every other airline at YQB, all operations are handled by the local airport authority, Aéroport International Jean-Lesage de Québec.

I have always found them to be wonderfully helpful and charming One time I arrived too late for a delayed flight (whose departure was then subsequently moved up) and they went well above the call of duty to get me on the plane.

I don't doubt that they answered no. I believe they thought they were treated unfairly. I question whether they really were.

I work for an elderly person (79 years old), and regularly interact with other elderly people. They don't always realize what they have, or what they were told. They may have been given a travel voucher, but didn't understand what they were given.

My boss, who is infinite platinum and 1 million miler, doesn't always understand what GAs or PClub staff tell him. He comes back to the office telling me something that I know not to be true and have to go into co.com to find proof that he's wrong.

That's why I think these women didn't understand what they were given. If I'm wrong, CO needs to find the person who shorted them.

Outrageous!!!
 

I am really outraged.

Is there not a law stating clearly how much must the volunteers be compensate?

This is a good point. I can only imagine my grandma going through this. She would have no idea what was given to her. However, the women described by the op sounded like they had at least some airline experience on UA.

Also, if the OP got their seat numbers, it means he likely asked the ladies to see the vouchers they were given.
If it does indeed turn out that they were shorted, someone has some 'xplaining to do.

I think YYZ is too - maybe CO better get better control over its contractor staff, as we have plenty of threads from folks who were treated poorly by contractors in other countries as well.

Contractor at YQB is not nasty in the least...plus I think all of this happened at EWR, not YQB.

No law. The only law regarding airline passengers is the very narrow Passengers Bill of Rights..

Here is the text...for any of you who might have ever read an omnibus bill, this is one both refreshing and troubling in its brevity...

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.213:

They were denied boarding in Quebec... but I do not know which city in Quebec. I assumed they meant Quebec City, but it might have been Montreal.

CO can do some shady things sometimes.

I've seen CO IDB people because they want to remain chintzy on the VDB comp.

I've also seen CO try to weasel out of comp when in an DB situation when they had a couple who wanted to fly together and needed only 1 VDB.

I did think of this possibility... So I asked several times if they were sure they did not get a travel certificate, or if they were promised something to arrive by mail. They insisted they had only gotten hotel and meal vouchers.

It was my impression that they were fully aware of what was going on (apart from the details of the merger).

But there was more to it than vouchers. They were asked to sign a document that said they had volunteered, which they did not.