i returned from a trip to vegas this morning and found an email from CO thanking me for being a gold elite, explaining how important my business was and appolgizing for the situation on my iah to las flight. upon arriing to the gate, the flight had been delayed about 3 hours, due to late aircraft. it actually left about 2.5 hours late, and did not affect my trip in the slightest.

i felt that was a very nice gesture from CO. ive been far worse delayed on CO and never received anything in the past.

Certainly a nice gesture but isn't 500 miles derisory?

My thoughts exactly.

I wonder what triggers them to do that on their own without the customer contacting them to complain. Were you flying on a high fare?

In January, I on a flight that was delayed almost 3 hours because of first, a computer malfunction (they wouldn't boot up) and then a bizarre de-icing incident. Plus, the plane was late pulling to the gate (I still don't understand that one... first flight of the day and the plane was parked there overnight and it's late to the gate). We were stuck on a JJ approx 2 hours, 50 minutes. Received no type of apology....

Anyway... just curious what causes them to be proactive like that.

While the gesture is certainly appreciated, 500 miles does not have much of an impact with me.

Remember all of the marketing speech that was thrown our way when CO was rolling out the e-service machines? One of the things that I distinctly remember was that the machine (and the database behind them) would be used to track your travel and provide different opportunities for things like complimentary PC passes in light of a previously delayed or cancelled flight. However, I certainly never saw anything close to that implemented.

they could have given me 5k miles. that still doesnt mean much, but for a company that had 10's of thouands of people traveling last friday, it is surprising to me that i was welcomed to my office with an email appologizing for something i didnt even complain about.

puddy, i was on a Z fare, although they mentioned nothing of that, rather my gold status instead. my brother was flying with me but forgot to add his op number, so i have no way of comparing.

I've gotten nothing recently from Continental, despite I could find much to complain about... (I don't though). The nicest thing I ever got was a 777 model airplane when they first came online with CO, cause I called to tell thgem how much I loved the new plane...

On a more recent note I have called to "voice my concern" over little minor issues like the Elite Desk agent telling me on 73G that 10C has a recline, when it really didn't. Hey if you're going to tell me something from the Elite Desk know what you're talking about.

Also my Amtrak ticket was not in the Amtrak System... I had to like pull teeth for them to offer to reimburse me for my out of pocket expense...

And the fact the Elite Desk doesn't even know how the EUA and Mileage upgrades work...

What have I gotten? No letter saying "thanks for letting us know we'll work on it" NOTHING...

Anyways... I guess thats what happens when you're a Plati who buys generally competitive fares...


-Vincent