Ok, here is the story: My friend purchased some tickets from CO.O.L. a couple of months ago, and called this weekend to confirm his flights for later this week. Well, after spending 2.5 hours on the phone with CO, it was discovered that CO had somehow deleted his reservation, and so they put him on a new flight. However, this time, he leaves almost four hours earlier than originally scheduled, all so he can spend that time in CLE.

The person that he spoke with on the phone told him to call (800)WECARE2 to file any sort of complaint, etc. He tried that, and he was given the number for CO.O.L.

CO.O.L. simply told him that they had no control over issuing any sort of compensation.

Who should he call? I can try calling the elite line for him, though I am not so sure that would do anything other than annoy the folks at the Elite desk. (He's trying to get elite status, but isn't quite there yet.)

Best case scenario for him would be to get an upgrade for all of this hassle... What do you think his chances are?

Thanks for all of your input!

If his trip's been changed because the itinerary he booked way back when has changed, compensation chances are zero. You have to expect when you book a trip months in advance that flight numbers, layover/conx times, departure times, etc. may change somewhat.

If his originally booked itinerary is still being operated, but he can't get on it again because it's now booked solid, then I'd say he's being inconvenienced and might have a shot at some Positive Space Upgrade coupons, though probably not in time for this flight. He should write a polite letter to Customer Care and gently suggest as much.

I would write to CO Customer Service and see if they do anything about it. Even if it's COOL's fault, they're Continental's agency for on-line tickets and CO might want to make the customer happy.

BTW, I have had several problems with COOL; sort of like this, but not as bad. Mileage bonuses or not, I won't use them for booking my flights.

I've given up using COOL (they've renamed themselves Continental Online) because they really are a separate agency with partially connected computer systems. I discovered this (as have others who have reported this exact problem) when I made a reservation online, paid Continetal directly (to use a TCV), then had COOL cancel the reservation for non-payment.

Somehow I've never had this happen with NW when I've done the same thing but I suspect it's just luck.

BearX220,
What are Positive Space Upgrade coupons on CO? What are their terms?

from your post:
might have a shot at some Positive Space Upgrade coupons,

I think that Continental should post a disclaimer that e-service online is not operated by continental, but by Expedia.

A couple of months ago I booked a flight, and requested the paper ticket option. After a couple of weeks the tickets hadn't arrived. I called a couple of times, talked to a couple of people, and got as many different stories as to what I should do, or how they would handle it.

I called CO customer service, they said that there wasn't anything they could do, and connected me to CO Reservations, who also said that there wasn't anything they could do except call the toll free number for e-service online. I asked to talk with a supervisor, who started to tell me to get lost, when she noticed that I was an Infinite Platinum, and therefore apparently worthy of some attention.

After being put on hold for some time while they contacted e-service online, I was told and it was noted in my reservation record (I had a copy printed on a later visit to the Presidents Club) that they would "blacklist" the original ticket and set up a e-ticket replacement. I was told by the supervisor that she would make a note to check later to verify that e-service had corrected the problem. The next week I received by mail a paper ticket for the original reservation, issued and postmarked the day after my phone call to Continental.

I thought everything was settled until I was billed for both the original and replacement tickets! e-service instructed me to dispute the duplicate charge with my credit card company.

About 2 weeks later I received by Fed-Ex not one, but two additional duplicate tickets for the identical itinerary.!!! Same flights, same confirmation #, same seat assignments, the only difference was the two latest tickets were listing a different fare class and a fare paid as more then double the original booking.

This is only the second time I have purchased a ticket online through Continental, the first time, about a year and a half ago, my reservation was screwed up when I used OnePass millage to upgrade the return half of the flight, which required that the reservation record be split, and somehow the outbound half of the ticket was canceled.

I think that I'll wait a loooooooooooong time before I try e-service again.

I keep plugging away with them. I've had fine luck with e-tickets through them. The one time I had a significant problem was when I had to change my return flight. Despite the fact it was a full-fare ticket, the hassle I had to go through was amazing (on hold for 5 minutes to talk to someone, on hold 10 more minutes transferring to someone else, and on hold 15 more minutes while she figured out how to change it).

And to boot, they changed the ticket for the wrong day. Fortunately the CO counter agent was nice enough to fix it when I showed up at the airport. She did indicate to me that "this sort of thing happens all the time with them". Oh well.

I've since amended my procedure to only buy through COOL when I'm 95% sure I won't have to change the ticket.

I've bought a handful of tickets through the Web site and never had a problem. My last purchased, I noticed, took about 10 days to post to my credit card -- I thought I had lucked out! I will add, though, that I've never tried to change a ticket.

Now that I think about it, I had a PHX-IAH-DAL RT in which I purchased a PHX-IAH RT and a IAH-DAL RT separately, one through COOL and one through Travelocity (fare changed, don't ya know). I'm pretty sure the IAH-DAL segments done on COOL, but they were issued on paper tickets, for some unknown reason (before that, I hadn't had a paper ticket in years). I showed up at PHX without them (assuming I had been on an E-ticket, as usual).

At first, the HP agents said I'd have to buy a walk-up fare and then send in my other paper tix afterwards to get a refund. Then they called Houston and fixed it so boarding passes would we waiting for me when I got to IAH.

So maybe I did have a problem after all, but they fixed it without incident.

TravelLover, the reason you probably haven't had problems on NW is that their system is compatible with or actually is Expedia, whereas CO's is not.

I agree never use c.o.o.l. I have my own horror story about how i found out they were seperate. It's not worth repeating. However, I Have a question that maybe Old Gold or someone might know. I had read about e-ticket bonuses (not to be confused with the buying on line bonus) of 50%. I discovered that i Apparently became eligible when i became gold. Question 1) can anyone confirm that this is when you are eligible? Is this an unwritten perminant benefit or just temporary? Question 2) Do you get the bonus when you book with C.O.O.L? I have been scared to book on line for fear of losing it. Thanks, for any info.

Well, for all of its faults, COOL/E-Service occasionally makes the kind of mistakes that I like.

I purchased a paper ticket last weekend on-line. After the website indicated that the ticket had issued, I called CO to upgrade the round-trip using miles. The next day, when the website told me to call in because of a problem, I discovered that the ticket had not issued. The COOL representative knew exactly what to do, and said she would downgrade me, issue the paper ticket, and then upgrade me again. I called CO later in the day, and was told that everything had been done as promised, and that my seats assignments were still in place.

Several days later the ticket arrived in the mail. Despite the fact that no miles have been deducted from my account for this ticket (I had planned to present upgrades at checkin if they remembered to ask), the ticket was issued in "F" class.

I'm willing to put up with a lot so long as they continue to make occasional "mistakes" like that.

Cigarman In the past CO reservations agents have been able to offer the 50% e-ticket bonus mileage to encourage e-tickets over paper tickets. The last time I booked a flight over the phone with CO I was told that was no longer being offered. When I booked my LAST ticket the bonus was 1000 miles for an e-ticket, 500 miles for a paper ticket, not worth the trouble.

Old Gold, I can report that i "became eligible" for the bonus on may the 8th (CO one pass e-mail to a question i had) i have recieved it on all 14 segments flown since then. I am to recieve it again on my trip (mco-ewr-dca,bwi-cle-mco) one week from today. I hope your not getting ripped off. The only reason i could think of is that i do live in the south, maybe we are slower to learn and need more training???

They are mean to me,and JAWs too, Cigarman, ever since I got ultimate plutonium status I don't get any of the special offers or bonuses that most of you folks get! I guess I just have to live with a 96% upgrade rate and only 125% bonus miles. Oh by the way, I'm farther south then you, Tucson is close to the Southern border.

Regarding the 50% e-ticket bonus when buying from CO reservations, I had it happen to me by surprise last June on an IAH-NRT flight. I noticed it on my statement, did not know what it was, and decided to keep my mouth shut rather than ask about it :-) I learned later on one of the forums what it was for.

I'm booked on IAH-NRT again next week, and I asked about the bonus when I ticketed a few weeks ago, and was told that I'd get it for this flight too. I don't know if it relates to elite status or not (I'm Gold), but it's a much better bonus than the 1000 mile eService Online bonus, especially for the long runs.