kyushuman

I know the airlines are poor now, so I'm not expecting much, but as a NW Plat, when something goes terribly wrong, I can call the Customer Care line and usually be credited with 10,000 miles or get an ECV for a hundred or two.
Here's what happened, in a "Top Ten" format:
I flew MSP-EWR-HKG and return last week.
The outbound flight 12/26 was excellent, one of the best Int'l J flights I've ever taken; the return was probably the worst. Catering, Inflight Service, IFE/Hardware, Arrivals, and Baggage Issues. Here are the highlights:
1) 2 FAs sick, so they were short help, meaning meals took more than 2-3hours to complete in BF.
2) I'd planned on buying 2 bottles of alcohol and a watch that I'd seen and even tried on, on my outbound flight in duty-free, but on the return flight, since I hadn't wanted to carry them while on my trip. Duty Free was not available on this fated flight 98, because one of the FAs who was out was the Inflight Manager, who "had the key".
3) No ice after first hour of flight, all gone, so warm juice and drinks for snack and breakfast.
4) EASILY the worst piece of food I've ever had on an airplane, a piece of beef that took about 15 seconds to cut and at least 2-3 minutes to chew enough to swallow the first bite. I'm not exaggerating. (everyone in my row ate one bite and left the rest, except this apparently strong-jawed woman next to me!)
5) My headset constantly shorted out, one ear then the other. Tried other headsets, but it was the seat. No empty seats to move to in J.
6) IFE was still December's movies and music, even though it was January 2. IFE guide was, of course, January, so we didn't know what was playing.
7) Ran out of US Customs and Immigration arrival cards, I didn't get one.
8) Arrival in EWR was worse than even the old DTW NWA Int'l terminal! Stunning amount of craziness. At least a 40-minute wait to exit the baggage area, then re-check bag.
9) My bag came out almost last on the belt from the packed 777, tagged "Elite Access". Upon arrival in MSP, the bag was lost. No apology, just a "Wow, you came all the way from HKG." I got it 18 hours after arrival.
10) And, to top it all off: I called the "We Care" line, not expecting the world. Here's what I got:
"Well sir, you know this is not how things are supposed to work here at Continental. We'll get information to the appropriate areas. We are really sorry about what happened. Thank you for calling. We hope you fly CO again. Goodbye."
So, I did get an apology. But that's it.
It was a paid (albeit in Z) Int'l BF ticket, and I'm NW Plat, so Skyteam Elite Plus. I expected more. Should I have?
Can the CO folks tell me what, based on their experiences, I should have asked for? I didn't want to be specific, because at NWA they generally offer something and I'm happy with whatever it is, it's just a way to say they appreciate my business. I'm inclined to email this to CO, so they can see it in writing.

To be honest, I felt CO didn't live up to their end of the bargain of selling me a Premium Cabin ticket, since my experience was pretty much a failure from start to finish. Or is this "compensation" thing more of a NW thing and CO doesn't do it?
Thanks for your help!

coplatua1k

You need to cut and paste this to CO, ASAP. I'd send an old fashioned letter with a stamp. I truly believe CO will respond with a token of good will.

mikeef

I agree. While there are a lot of things in here that are unfortunate, none really qualifies as earth shattering.

Having said that, I get the impression that CO really does care about its customers experiences, particularly one who is actually paying to be up front internationally, so it's worth a note to customer service. My guess is you will get something.

Mike

Babu

I think you have a legitimate beef. However, before sending the paper letter, I would take out number 7 & 8, as they seem petty/ not in the airlines control.

BumpMe!

Ha!
Beef!
Very cute.

The snail-mail route seems like the most appropriate course, form my meandering experience.
I will concur with the OP about NWA's customer relations dishing our "we're sorry" in the form of TCVs/ECVs more easily than CO or DL.

mot29

Not directly related, but a comment on DL's changed (at least in this case customer service response). I got stuck in the MSY "snow" on Christmas day problem, rebooked to Dec. 26, and then the Comair melt down. I got back to California a day late, but to BUR instead of ONT and flew AA from DFW-BUR.

I wrote a reasoned explanation of the problems to DL asking for reimbursement of my car rental charge to get back to ONT. I also pointed out that they knew I was a ST Elite Plus, NW Platinum and that should have been reason to provide good service to try to win more of my business. I got a response yesterday, not acknowledging blame but admitting that things hadn't been handled very well. DL is sending me a transportation voucher for $75 and reimbursing the car rental. More than I asked for, better than miles, I think. DL seems to want my business.
tom

cigarman

I personally think you are way over sensitive. The vast majority of things are not in CO's control.
Your bag came out last... Yeah, well deal with it. CO has one flight a day to HKG. Do you really expect them to have a full time staff there to load bags? Or do you think they contract it out?
The food took 2 hours... SO? It's a 16 1/2 hour flight! Big whoop. Are you telling me it cut down your sleep time to only 14 hours!
The beef was bad. Now here we have a shock. Bad airline food. Wow, that is a stunner! I bet CO should have raised the cow themselves to ensure quality, right? That explains why I never eat on planes anymore...
The inflight movie is last month's. Gee you think the change of the new year, the holiday, and the fact they don't make the movies in Asia, have anything to do with that? Oh yeah, sure. They should owe you money because the complimentary movies weren't identified. Like you can't figure them out? Please...
Ran out of customs cards! GASP. HOW DARE THEY! I bet the sick two flight attendants are hoarding them and building a giant house out of them in Newark! It must be a plot by the black helicopters to get you. I suppose the fact that they are at ever immagration counter when you arrive is not useful. And you certainly weren't delayed one second by this... SINCE YOU COULD HAVE FILLED OUT OUT WHILE YOU WERE WAITNG ALL THAT TIME FOR YOUR LUGGAGE! Since you said it was almost the last out! And you did have 40 minutes in line to walk up to the counter get a form, go wait in line and fill it out. Yes, I think CO owes you $7,398,295.26!
Wow, a fourty minute wait to clear customs. Clearly that is CO's fault too. They should have arranged a limo, some body guards, and had at least a congrssman meet you, and escort you through customs. I mean you did pay for a discounted BF seat.
And my favorite. You couldn't buy duty free. You know they are obligated under the Warsaw pact, the geneva convention and the Santa Claus admendemt to always sell what you want, when you want it, and NEVER run out of anything either. You know I think it was because you couldn't buy that watch, that the 40 minute wait seemed sooo long.

You have three legitimate complaints that will be ignored in all the whining.
1) Ice ran out
2) Lost bag after connection
3) Intertainment system broken.

I have gotten FF miles for non function IFE system when there were no seats to swap to. The bag loss has rules, and the ice is a minor FF mile generator. I would say CO owes you perhaps 5000 miles tops.

venk

Cigarman, what did Larry feed on your last lunch? Just curious.

Curiously enough, it was a paid BF light HKG-EWR several years on CO that they shunted me off to NWA HKG-JFK in their tired business class and left me stranded at JFK despite all kinds of promises was the last straw in driving me off of CO.

Yes, @$%@ happens in all airlines but if an airline expects a premium for its premium class and expects you to put up with all kinds of crap in the rest of their program, then it would be reasonable to hold them to a higher standard. This experience is not what CO marketing would have you believe. A rare occurrence? Maybe. But then restitution is part of customer service.

cigarman

Reasonable compensation. But when somebody throws in all that stupid stuff, it makes the beliveability of the true issues hard to belive. Venk, I always stand up for us when I think we are right, and I stand up for CO when it isn't their fault.

Phileas Fogg

Try Air France. One biz class flight from CDG to ATL on a AF777.

1) no food - Paris catering strike
2) no alcohol - Paris catering strike
3) no movie or music - system burned out on takeoff
4) no seat lights - burned out on a previous flight and never replaced.
5) no seat power - they couldn't get it to work
6) couldn't move seats since biz was filled.
7) AF attendants couldn't have cared less

Any miles? Sacre bleu! No!

8) The guy next to me had a terrible cold and horrible cold breath. Not the fault of AF, but it topped off a wonderful flight!

coplatua1k

Cigarman,

We do NOT 'expect' the above mentioned things to happen when we fly CO. They set the bar they need to live up to it. One problem OK, two problems maybe but this was just a mess. Most of which fall onto CO's shoulders. I defend CO up and down but in this instance they failed to live up to "reliable" to say the least.

kyushuman

I think YOU are the one who was oversensitive with this. My question was, should this have some sort of compensation? I didn't say I died from this. But had I paid $800 for a Y seat, I could even complain. But if CO is selling discounted J seats, then does that mean I should get crap J service?


What is the point of "Elite Access" tags? I am not the one who decided they would advertise that you get Elite service if you buy a J ticket. I am not asking for it be first. But not last.
There were 2 full meals and a snack, so it was probably 5 hours of meal services.
Good for you. But I would hope that something I'm served in J could be edible. I've eaten plenty of Y meals that were MUCH better.
That's not my problem, it's CO's. I don't care which month, but they DO publish a guide. It's not too much for them to get it right.
The next time you fly Int'l, let me know who gets their bag before they need to use the immigration card.
I didn't ask for a million dollars, I asked if I should be asking for some compensation. Your reading skills are either poor, or you're oversensitive, or you're Gordon Bethune.
The wait was because CO didn't have enough staff to re-check bags. So it is their problem.
Duty free is part of normal inflight services, and it wasn't available. Not a big deal, but part of a poor Inflight experience.

Thanks for the "help". I think CO would be happy to have you as a customer. Maybe you are a fan of US and Comair after their holiday disruptions too?

DrBeeper

Was this flight in early October of 2003? If so, I was on this flight. I had light in my seat, but I didn't bring any reading materials since I brought my laptop. And, the power didn't work in my seat. I asked for a partial refund or additional mileage. AF did nothing.

But at least the FA was cute.

venk

I have no reason to not believe any of those items even if some may think they are trivial and par for the course but excusing inedible food in BF as not CO's fault because airline food sucks in general? That isn't standing up for the expectations of a premium passengers but being a bit of an apologist for CO.

In the big picture, it is indeed an airline's fault to not provide a premium experience for their customers. It could be one huge thing or it could be a large number of small things. Some of them could be beyond the control of the airline and some within. So I wouldn't blame the OP for collecting all the items that didn't work right (large or small).

The only question is whether the overall expectation of the customer was more than what can be reasonably expected from an airline and for the amount of marketing that CO does for its BF (which is why it tries to get a premium and justifies its other policies in the FF program), I don't believe so at least in this case.

But like I said, @#%$ happens in any airline and the next best thing the airline could do is make the customer happy for not living up to its "hype" for the overall experience.

PresRDC

I would agree, but some of the issues other than those you highlighted are CO's fault, mainly the lack of U.S. Immigration forms (they are loaded on the plane and are under CO's control) and the quality of meal. I would probably not complain about the meal quality, but that is somethign CO can control and that is their responsibility.