Thanks to Jim for the government address.
Does anyone know who should be contacted at CO?

In other words, nothing happened, except you got your blood pressure up, and now you're in the market for something free. (By the way, it was not by an act of God that you made the flight, it was by an act of Continental)

This is the most asinine and insensitive comment I have seen on this message board.

When CO changes plane timings to decrease connection time to 30 minutes, they better deliver on the promise of having a transport available for a disabled person who needs extra time. Defaulting on it more than once is not good business. If he only made the connection due to weather forcing a delay in the connecting flight, then it is indeed an act of God even by CO's own definitions since they refuse to make any restitution for such delays. So, in short, you have said anything correct or useful in this post but shown your complete insensitivity.

If you are seriously telling us that putting him in that situation is somehow made irrelevant by him not missing the connection for coincidental events, you ought to keep away from that CO drive-thru brain-wash machine. If CO is not taken to task for this, it will be only a matter of time, before some will indeed miss a connection creating a huge problem for them for no fault of their own.

Stop with the "I feel your pain" nonsense. The fact is, that the connecting flight knew he was on the ground and headed to the gate. Just because some $8 an hour cart driver was a little tardy, is no reason to threaten a lawsuit, or ask for freebees. The guy made his flight in the ordinary course of business, and just because it didnt happen in the smooth manner he wanted it, is no reason to get into a lather over it. I bet the cart got him there faster than some of the walking passengers got there.

People miss connections all the time through no fault of their own. I could see an ADA claim if the airline didn't provide a wheelchair or cart to those who needed them. But they DO provide these services, albeit in an untimely fashion. I would agree that they were discriminating against you if they did everything else in a timely manner. However, based on my experiences, they don't. I think that you got the same service as everyone else.

FYI, chasbondy...
I am not looking for anything free, I have never said anything about a suit. I am looking to speak to someone at CO who can help me know what to do if the situation arises again. I am a successful businessman and have no need in taking money which I don't need nor deserve.


[This message has been edited by DSK (edited Dec 11, 2003).]

Agree 100%. Every person with a (non-developmental) disability has a responsibility to be reasonably smart, and consider what might happen if things get a little messed up.

CO was in complete compliance with 14 CFR Part 382, and any complaint is really more of a customer service issue than a (good lord) civil rights issue.

Suggesting that this is an issue of discrimination or civil rights is simply insulting to those who actually have legitimate claims.

As anyone whi flies CO knows, connecting flights don't always wait for people to come in. On the contrary, CO is more strict than many other airlines in closing the gate. There have been several threads on this here.


Since the original poster asked for neither, don't you feel stupid adressing him that way? On the other hand, using whatever means necessary to make CO get off their cavalier attitude about the disabled especially when they have adjusted flight times appears reasonable. Looks like the original poster just wanted to ensur ethat CO realized the problem they are creating and get them to take such requests seriously next time.

There ought to be a limit to apologists.

So if one was smart and booked to allow plenty of time for connections and CO changed the schedules, I suppose it is one's responsibility to be smart again and cancel/change the flight than get CO to do what they have agreed to do.

The difference between apologists and normal human beings is that the latter look for what the airline can do for them.

Well, yeah. CO will rebook for you, no problem. Hell, I have no mobility issues, and wouldn't have been comfortable with 30 minutes. People with certain disabilities have to be even more thoughtful about their plans, and prepare for spending additional time and effort - it's just a fact of life.

You can try to take us down this rabbit hole, but you know as well as anyone that topics like "35 minute connection - will I make it?" are pretty common on every forum on FlyerTalk. Simply because it's a "legal" connection, does not make it a smart one.

No doubt, CO should have had the cart there, although I'm more understanding of it not being there on the early-arriving flight. But DSK seems to have the right perspective, particularly when compared to those respondents on this thread who (literally) want to make a Federal case out of this.

Your characterization of CO as having a "cavalier attitude" about the disabled is a fairly heavy charge that should be based in fact. Using the same standard, I could make the same claim that AA has a "cavalier attitude" toward the disabled, as well.

And if I were to read a similar incident at AA, I would encourage people to do their best to get AA to behave as well. If I was involved in an incident that made me unhappy, I would try hard to make the airline (any of them) realize the folly of their ways.

You see, that is the difference between bend-over apologists who treat an airline as a religious cult and good consumers who look to get the best service.

This isn't a CO vs. AA issue (as you have made it) although this is yet another example of CO's uncaring attitude towards its customers. While you may very well see similar incidences at other airlines, some of us after zillion miles of travel have realized CO is much more arrogant than others in their behavior towards customers.

Good analysis, mi amigo.

CO has had a grand total of 17 DOT disability complaints this year through October.

HP: 3
AA: 31
ATA: 7
DL: 42
NW: 24
WN: 11
UA: 36
US: 22

I'm sure I'll get another gratutious insult as a response, rather than a fact-based answer, but what evidence do you have that CO has a "cavalier" attitude toward the disabled?

Not only does 17 complaints out of 28,000,000 passengers seem absolutely low, it also is undoubtedly low in relative terms, particularly compared to DL, ATA, NW, UA and US, who all had higher disability complaints per passenger than CO.

Without obfuscating, is there any empirical way to justify your argumentative statement?

You are still missing the point.

1. The statistics do not imply there were only 17 incidences. Only so many bothered to file a complaint.

2. This is not a relative issue between airlines. A "cavalier" attitude cannot be justified in any airline. As such, if another airline has a more "cavalier" attitude then it should be taken to ask for it and as I said, I would egg anyone flying any airline to take the airline to task if they reported such an incidence on any board. I don't recall anyone posting such a thing on any other board and so I haven't. To repeat again, this is not a CO vs. other airlines issue.

3. To say CO should be let off the hook because there are more complaints against other airlines, like I said, wholly misses the point.

If you get off the "circling the wagon" attitude for posts about CO, you just might empathize with the original poster to demand that the airline do better in such cases.

Just out of curiousty, does anyone know who these transporters work for. My understand when my mother had to use these personel was that they were employeed by the airport not the particular airline.

If this is the case how do we know who dropped the ball in these particular cases. It could be that these cart drivers are do as they please even if Continental agents continue to call them to the gate.

I am not trying to take either side in this but just want to know who these people work for, so does anyone know???