mad as H.

As long time Contnental Frequent Flyer customers we are seriously considering not flying with Continental ever again because of a recent experience with the airline, its policies and personnel. We have contacted customer service about this, with no reply; I will be forwarding this email to the President of Continental in hopes of some response, and we have posted this experience on numerous Travel Feedback sites (with numerous replies from fellow travelers berating Continental's actions and policies) because we feel that this kind of action needs to be widely publicized to bring about airline policy change. We know that Continental is not the only airline that oversells seats but their handling of the situation was less than safisfactory.

I purchased a coach fare E-ticket on January 15, 2005 for a trip from Newark NJ
to Shannon Ireland. Our trip was scheduled for April 22 with family members coming
from Newark NJ, JFK,
Boston and Denver; all meeting in the Shannon airport the next morning. I requested
seats at the time of booking but was unable to book them online. I then immediately called a Continental agent and was told that they were not booking seats for that flight but would do so if I called back within one month of the April 22 departure date.

I marked it on the calendar and called back exactly on that date. At that time I was again told that they were not assigning seats yet and to keep checking, which I did almost daily. They finally said they would assign seats 1 week before the flight, then they said 2 days before, then we should get to the airport 3 hours early; all along this set off alarms in our heads, but at this point all other flights were booked and I was stuck believing Continental would come through.

The afternoon of April 22 we arrived at Newark airport 4 HOURS early, went through the check-in line, checked our luggage, and were told that they would not assign seats until we got to the gate. Again we expressed concern but were told, that there would be no problem. We got to the gate and since we were now 3 hours early, there were no agents at the gate who would help us. The agents at the gate for other flights were unable to do anything. Others for our flight started to gather and although we kept waiting to get in line there was no one to get in line for, so we sat, read and waited.

We noticed another couple standing infront of the empty gate and realized that although we had been sitting for over an hour there were now 2 people in front of us. We went and stood with them. The flight check-in staff arrived 45 minutes before flight departure so I stood
there (very unhappily) for about 1 and one-half hours. It quickly became clear thatthe flight to Shannon was oversold by 8 (!) seats.

We had paid full price for our tickets and were never told that there was a possibility that we would not have seats. Although a $400 flight credit was offered for folks to give up their seats, only one person accepted. I have been on many domestic flights that were oversold and my experience that the flilght credit offer is usually increased when volunteers are not forthcoming (we asked the attendants if they could do this, they said they had no athourity to do so and rudely said speaking with a supervisor would not help. As a result of posting this experience on numerous Travel Chat sites I have discovered
that on other Great Britain, Continental's offer was been raised to $800, but the gate agent was firm to quote company policy that the offer was a maximum of $400.
The stupid part of that policy is that the offer of compensation to the eight of
us without tickets was $500. Why the agent couldn't at least raise the offer to $500 was totally baffling.

When we asked to speak to a supervisor, we were told that wouldnt help and when I questioned how they could take our money and not have a seat for us, I was told that the fine print said that we were sold a reservation not a seat. I have been on domestic flights that were over sold, but having to wait another 2 hours for a domestic flight, does not have the same consequences as delaying a trip another whole DAY for an overseas flights (car reservations lost, hotel deposits, etc.)

Realizing that there was a good chance we would not be in Shannon the next morning,
and our 4 children in our group already enroute, we asked if we could leave a
message for them (the car was rented in my name, on my credit card,etc., I had
made all of the reservations, knew where we were going, the
routes, etc. and we had naively made no contingency plans for the possibility that
we would be involuntarily bumped from the flight. Continental told us they had no
way of making long-distance phone calls or even contacting the gate in Shannon! Again, I have learned that others in this situation were offered calling cards but the gate agents at Newark made no such offer.

The end of the story is that I did not get a seat on the plane, my family had to improvise and waste vacation time in Ireland dealing with my absence. I was offered a hotel indowntown Newark, but since I live 30 miles from the airport I chose to return home. Continental paid for my taxi home but I had to pay for a taxi back to the airport the next day from my home in NJ and the beginning
of a long planned family excursion to the homeland was completely spoiled.

I will summarize my complaints with Continental as follows:

1. It seems that the plane was oversold when I was issued a ticket (there was alarge CIE tour onboard and naturally no-one on a tour would give up a seat and leave their tour. Continental should inform its customers if that is the case and let them decide whether to take
a chance on that day or perhaps book another flight. I could just as easily gonethe day before and met everyone else on Saturday morning. I feel deceived and manipulated unfairly by your airline. None of your agents (in at least six calls over the three months preceding the flight) was honest with me regarding the seating situation.

2. Given that overbooking is your economic choice on how to maximize your revenue,you should realize that $400 on a once a day flight where people have made irreversible
reservations in Europe is inadequate compensation to offer. You obviously have a policy that is inconsistent given my $800 example.

3. You need to train your agents to be more helpful and cognizant of the serious consequences of being involuntarily bumped from a once a day international flight as opposed to a every two hour domestic flight situation.

I doubt this letter will make an impact. Your airline
customer service has gone downhill in the last two years and I will no longer be loyal to Continental as in the past. I will not hesitate to spread my experience
to others- it is only when numerous customers stop using Continental that a real
message can be sent. Consider me the canary in the mine.

richard

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

This belongs in the Continental Forum. I am moving it there.

--richard, moderator

Bonehead

Horrible experience. Sorry that it happened.

Two comments:

1) Whenever I can't get an assigned seat on a flight I make alternate arrangements, as the flight is likely oversold;

2) The GAs at EWR will not help you, as they are the worst bunch in the entire CO system (as I have stated numerous times on this board).

mad as H.

Where had I posted this too? can't remember. Also, where do I look for responses to my post? Do I just scroll to find my last post or is there a place I can click on my name and all response come up? Can't figure out this board yet. Thanks for help. Ironically 20 minutes after I posted we got our first call from customer service.......no help........just said they would try to update their agent guidelines........thanks a lot........didn't help with my lost deposits, family worry, etc.

J.Edward

mad as H., FWIW I enjoyed reading your post - not because I like to see peoples hard planned vacations thrown awry - but that you listed your complaints in a logical, well thought-out manner. IMHO, you stated your expiations, thought process and clearly outlined what you thought was acceptable compensation for your trouble. I would encourage you to allow CO a response from their exec management team as they do hold a good record of listening to customers, and more importantly, implementation change. Either way, thank you for sharing your experience, welcome to FT! and be sure to let us know what happens!

PS. Did the agent offer to rebook you on another flight?

UpgradeMe

[quote[Continental should inform its customers if that is the case and let them decide whether to take a chance on that day or perhaps book another flight.[/quote]

But did you ask if your flight was oversold before buying a ticket?

Gnopps

Sounds like you indeed had a bad travelday. I don't agree with you that the airline should have to inform that your flight is overbooked if you don not ask. I hope you get a good reply from Continental. What surprised me is that you were only offered $500 for IDB with such a long delay!

vincom

Bad situations happen with every airlines, although I like to think they happen less at Continental. I hope everything works out for you. 500 IDB seems a bit on the cheap side.

Good Luck

-Vincent

entropy

if they were interesting in being helpful, they should have sent you to LGW and connected you into SNN on a UK carrier.

mbreuer

You might want to read up on the CO Contract of Carriage (pdf available on co.com)...

To sum up - they offer a max of $400 cash for IDB. They also have to get you on the next flight with seats - any class, any airline... etc. Compensation varies with how quickly they can get you to your destination.

Derrico

I think that is very true. Sometimes at Newark I forget why I focus all of my travel on CO. Almost all of my (few) bad experiances with CO have been at EWR.

I wonder why this is the case. New Yorkers can be a bit brusque, but after you chat for more than a minute I usually find them to be extremely helpful and nice. The Newark CO ground staff however is actually often times unpleasant, and sometimes outright rude. They do not seem to have a customer service mindset IMO. Is this due to poor management in EWR, or benefits issues? Are the staff not paid well by local standards?

Interesting.

BenjaminNYC

Whatever. You were on an oversold flight and you got VDB. Really no big deal. Happens all the time on every airline. Every airline oversells seats.

If you're such a "frequest flyer" as you say, why didn't it occur to you that the flight was likely oversold?

Sounds to me like you're really upset that you didn't get more $$ from CO.

channa

Sometimes your rebooking options are a function of persistance and creativity. Some agents are better than others, and sometimes you have to push them to look for things. But in this case, that SNN flight leaves pretty late. Schedule-wise, there's really not much out there other than mabye EWR-CO-BHX-BE-SNN.

However, I have also encountered EWR CO agents being rigid with bump compensation. On a recent EWR-SJU, I took the bump for $300, but they needed 4 more. A family of 4 was thinking about it but turned it down. Had they gone up to $400 or $500, they would've taken it for sure. Instead, CO IDBed a different family of 4, who were understandably upset.

otralot

I am a bit unclear here if you wer involuntarily bumped you are, I hink, entitled to at least $600 and in cash if you so choose. Also, al deliberate efforts to rebook you should have been undertaken. I think you could have negotiated more and should have stood your ground. Of course a supervisior is available they are always available and since you weren't going anywhere you could have wiated for one.

I find the fact that GA's arrived only 45 minutes before an Int'l departure quite strange since you have to be on board 30 minutes before.

Co rolled the dice the 8 people wouldn't show up. Usaully, in my experience, CO gets it close to right and I think they bump fewer then other airlines I have flown. However, when they lose the roll of the dice theyshould be more gracious!!

You can also complain to the the federal government if it turns out you were in fact imporperly comepensated

RamAir

CO customer service lines are the shortest at EWR becaue instead of helping you, the CSRs JUST SAY NO!!!!!!
In IAH, the agents really try to help you out. I would rather wait 5 minutes for somebody who tries a little than no wait for a RUDE NO!!!
SR