Where to send in a complaint?
 

Hi,

First time posting in this forum, I'm normally in the Virgin Atlantic forum....

Last week attempted to take my first ever Continental flight down from EWR to MSY. Arrived 2 hours before departure to be told there was no seats for me and my colleague. Put on standy and told to approach the desk at the gate an hour before departure, so we trundled off to the Presidents lounge (Gotta love AmEx for this as the terminal was very busy). An hour before arrives and we go down and they are asking for volunteers:-

$300 CO Travel voucher
Hotel overnight
Std dinner and breakfast ($10 & $8)

We needed to get there as we had to register for our company conference. No volunteers come forward at all - it appears that the plane was full of our employees from across the globe. So we along with 5 others get denied boarding - even though we had turned up 2 hours before - CO apparantly go on seat reseravations alone.

So we are now left to face our palne goign without us - now the sheer bad service from the CO staff begins. We don't want the travel vouchers as 2 of us are from the Uk and only fly Virgin Atlantic, the others are from Scandinavia where the vouchers would be worthless. I found staff very unhelpful and had to stand there and explain to them why we didn't want the vouchers and how much they had inconveniced us as we will now get to our destination 20 hours late. When we asked if we could get cash instead, first it was a no, then it was based on our fare paid for the segment, it went on and on - several managers were called down who were unhelpful because they had had to walk down from their office and they were about to go home. So after 2.5 hours of negotation they come up with a figure of $200 each in cash and the hotel and the meals. Now not to sound arrogant or snobbish, where can you eat nicely for $10 at EWR airport? And I am sorry but I do not go from 2 previous nights at the Waldorf Astoria to the Howard Johnson. I asked if they could give us the $90 each they would have to pay for the hotel rooms back, as my AmEx Insurance would cover £600 each for rooms and food, they declined. Very disappointed with CO, we are handed 2 cheques (Checks!) for $200 each to take back upstairs to have cashed, go upstairs and then spend another hour explaining what these cheques are for as they don't know what to do with them. Finally a supervisor arrives who does know what to do with them - but tells us that they don't have $400 available to give to us and to come back tomorrow - another rude CO employee who didn't care that CO had inconvenienced us so much. So off down to the luggage belts to collect our luggage that has not been put on the plane - go down there and nowehere to be seen - go to the counter and are told that its too late now and they have no idea where our bags are. By now I am promising never ever to fly CO again - only reason I had utilised them is because they are a partner of VS.

Now is it worth writing to CO to tell them how badly I was treated by the airline and its staff, are they likely to do anything?

Is there an email address I can send them correspondence to?

Thanks,
Richard

Wow - that is very poor service indeed.
I am sorry for your troubles.

I am not a CO flyer anymore (now I know why), so I am not a good person to give address information.

I do know there is an 800 # here in the U.S. (1-800-WE-CARE-2), however, your story is quite complicated and you will want to include copies of all receipts, etc. so i think writing is the best way to go.

If I may offer some advice - when you write the letter, I would try and emphasize the facts as much as possible and (I know this is not easy) try as hard as possible to refrain from too much emotion. Also, any employee names ahould be included. Yes, I do think there should be some emotional tone to your letter, yet I highly recommend it come across as secondary to the facts.

CO handled this very poorly I think.

Best of Luck.

Here's the address:

[email protected]

I've found them to be very reasonable and generally responsive when sending emails. Others have had less success. However, since you've already accepted some compensation, I wouldn't expect much more than a pat on the head.

Why were you 20 hours late, BTW? I would think that there were multiple options that would get you in much sooner than that.

I'm curious as well. The rules state that they must put you on the next available CO flight. However, if another carrier can get you there more quickly and has seats available, they must provide that upon request.

Just a word of advice when sending any e-mail to CO: do not include any attachments, as their security screen will not allow the reception of attachments.
Best of luck to you!
meb

Indeed, I thought that true involuntary denied boarding was a very expensive thing for the airlines and required significant compensation? As well as (like other have mentioned) finding you space on any other airline's flight.

Steve

Hi,

Because we had 15,000 employees all making there way down to MSY in one go. That was there next available flight as such - we tried lots of other airlines down there bust just couldn't get the conenctions t that time of night.

Thanks for you help anyway!

Richard

Continental's unwritten rule is that if you don't know what protection the Contract of Carriage provides, then it don't apply to you. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

I suggest that in addition to writing to CO, you should file a complaint with Aviation Consumer Protection Division of the US Department of Transportation.


p.s. You been http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starsmilie.gif enhanced, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starsmilie.gif baby!

(edited for enhancement)




[This message has been edited by snake (edited 07-27-2003).]

Richard-

It sounds like CO refused to put you on their nonstops at about 9 and 11 AM, or either of two connecting flights at about 6 AM. Also, it sounds like they refused to put you on the competition's connecting flights to MSY at 5:30, 6 and 7:30 AM.

I would definitely mention that in your letter - it's far more significant than the quality of the EWR hotel.

* If the substitute transportation is scheduled to get you to your destination more than two hours later (four hours internationally), or if the airline does not make any substitute travel arrangements for you, the compensation doubles (200% of your fare, $400 maximum).

They gave us all a document that contained the above and some of the other text which we didn't have to sign if we didn't want to.

I questioned them on the above statement about it being doubled up to $400 and they said that was only for international travel. Sounds like I go treated very badly by the airline.

Richard, dude, I do believe you were treated badly, and in violation of US law. Either they lied to you or didn't know how to do their job, either way it sucks.

For this reason it's important to file a complaint with the DOT. The airlines are supposed to report denied boardings to the government, and I'll bet my NonePass miles that you guys weren't on the “Report of Passengers Denied Confirmed Space” report.

p.s. If you go to the bottom of the page in the link above there is a list that includes the mailing address of Mr. Jeffery Smisek, the General Counsel of Continental Airlines.

[This message has been edited by snake (edited 07-27-2003).]

They ALWAYS try to talk people into taking the voucher and signing things they should not sign. I have seen it numerous times at EWR that passengers were given false infotrmation as to what their rights were etc.. The worst case was a flight to CUN where they told people they just were out of luck either sign and take the $ 300 voucher or get $100 in cash AND NO HOTEL!

------------------
Viele Grüße

Oliver

I'm getting deja vu - they tried that one on too - that if we took the cash we were on our own - not that I took up their offer of a night at the Howard Johnson and some $10 dinner; The Sheraton and a proper dinner courtesy of AmEx was taken instead.

Stupid question now, but are CO aware of FT - is it worth mentioning in my e-mail?

It seems as if we really did get a rough deal....

Thanks,
Richard

No, I do not thing you were treated "special" in ANY WAY.
I have seen al lot more BS going on with customers than what you discribed!

I somehow feel that you actually got very far, compared to what I have witnessed.
So writing to CO will not do you any good since it seems to be their policy that "if you do not know your rights you do not deserve them!"
I would go to the DOT as was pointed out earlier!

That is just the way they do business, but hey that way they have more cash in their hands then others....... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

------------------
Viele Grüße

Oliver

Richard....

It's quite pathetic when employees in a major CO hub resort to pressure tactics and power-moves in order to resolve a problem that they created.

I have found that employees at EWR are among the most rude and poorly trained on CO procedures in the entire system (i.e. among other things, CO makes US-Canada passengers check in at the international desk. I was told that Canadian destinations weren't elligible for upgrades, because it was an international destination. This after my 30th upgraded flight out of EWR to YYZ. This being rudely told by a check in agent).

CO staff are generally great to deal with, from the first contact at the airport, to the last contact on the plane.

The DOT needs to hear about treatment like this. Unfortunately, while CO will likely help you out in terms of compensation, or even an apology, I fear that the brutish treatment of passengers at EWR will remain undaunted.