1500 miles sounds reasonable, though a little on the low side (for an 8+ hour transatlantic flight), for inoperable in-flight entertainment. I would generally expect more compensation for a broken seat, but it sounds like your seat may not have been all that broken.

Feel free to respond to CO, thanking them for the gesture on the IFE comp, but that you are severely disappointed that they didn't take seriously your problem with the seat, and that you are considering taking your business elsewhere, even if it means making connections. And that a stronger gesture might encourage you to give CO a try again.

But if the $2k you paid for each ticket was round-trip, I don't think they'll miss you all that much, I can't imagine CO generates that much in profits from these deep-deep-discount BF fare sales. Consider they could cram 7 rows of 6 of coach in the front zone of the 757 -- that's 42 seats, or 2.6x as many seats as BF. Given that Europe fares are in the ~$1000 range this time of year, the "breakeven" on the BF seat (excluding impact of higher level of service) would be $2600 r/t, so you got a great deal.

How were you impacted by your seatmate's non-operational in-flight entertainment?

My seatmate was my business partner. He wanted to fly lufthansa first, but I convinced him otherwise. I still have not stopped getting crap about that one

D'oh! But I can't imagine how much more cr@p you'd have to take if he found out that YOU got the miles for HIS IFE problem!

1500 miles is a bit light for no working IFE on a paid BF ticket, no matter what the price of the ticket was. IFE is a significant part of what you pay for when buying a BF ticket, IMO - entertainment on a nine hour flight is important. Also, comfort is the most important reason for buying a BF ticket and your footrest did not function properly.

I would think something like 5000 would be more reasonable, but I've never had to request this sort of compensation before. Just my two cents.

I think this should no be detected by the customer, but should be seen during hte normal maintanance on the gorund (even during claening).

On LH a broken IFE in paid C is worht between 10 and 20K miles... tkae the seat issue on top and oyu get about 400Euro in Cash .. =500 US$


But I guess on CO you are expeting far less .

Flew on the EWR to Berlin flight today--Jeff Smisek (president of Continental Airlines and a member of the Board of Directors. He is responsible for sales and marketing, human resources and labor relations, technology, corporate communications, global real estate and security, federal affairs, and international, state and civic affairs. He reports to the chief executive officer) was in 4A and his travel companion was in 4B.

Jeff's travel companion's tray table fell apart on the plane and actually landed in the middle of the aisle. That happened while the flight attendant was dealing with the woman in 4F who had her tray table break off the hinge. 4F also had a broken footrest.

This stuff should have all been caught well before today's flight...

Strange thing is no one tried to compensate the woman in 4F.

The conceirge also failed to meet the flight--the EWR concierge was supposed to contact the TXL concierge to have a boarding pass ready for me for my connecting flight.

I made a comment to Jeff about the concierge service (or lack thereof), but he just shrugged it off. Not impressive

and, btw, my ticket was $5k, which are the ones they are making money on.

Yeah we were in seats 3 a & b. I am gonna write back and try again to get more miles. I would be happy with 5k miles.

they give you ten of fifteen bucks??????

Fair??? That is an INSULT.

at a penny a mile that's $15!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And you have to ask if its fair??

They should have responded with a polite apology and stressed that this was atypical and they looked foward to doing better in the future.


OR the above and a meaningful goodwill gesture.

I think a paltry, insulting goodwill gesture is WORSE Than NO goodwill gesture.
I'm serious about this. And it is a "goodwill gesture". You are not entitled to "compensation".

If you ask me what is "fair", I would say a $200 Voucher for future travel for EACH seat.

i.e. a 10% credit for future travel.

You got less Than 1%!

that's just bad... you should write Jeff and remind him that you were on the flight and ask him to deal with this....

Just called CO Cust Care. After much battle with a low level rep, i got transfered to an upper level rep. She understood my concerns and handled everything very professionally. In the end, I ended up getting a 200 dollar voucher for each seat. I am very happy with this result and def will continue to keep my business with continental!

Sounds like a win-win, for you and CO! ^

So, I see you have noticed what I have been observing over the past few years: the service in BusinessFirst--in fact the overall experience--is rapidly fading. The drive for service, which I recall from the mid/late 90's, is dissipating too.

I took my first flight on AA today--I'll report back this weekend. I will be platinum on AA by the end of the week. I am digging into this airline a little more. I see great potential for AA.

I tend to approach this compensation thing a little differently. I just don't like getting it. A number of years ago, I called that WE-CARE-2 number; the rep seemed concerned about giving me miles and saying sorry a lot. Neither was impressive. I switched to writing to the DOT, which seemed to have a different result: I got a call from Mr. Bethune's office.

When I have a problem, this is what I want:

1. Acknowledge that I am telling you I have a problem;
2. Understand what I am telling you;
3. Investigate what I told you;
4. If what I said is accurate, fix it, and don't let it happen again.

I can fix customer service problems very easily: switch companies. I've done it before and it works.

If I am given an honest, reasonable answer, I am happy. I can calibrate my expectations. If I am given inaccurate information, that causes problems, because my expectations aren't set properly. Right now, I have come to terms with the fact that BusinessFirst is now an inferior, overpriced product that doesn't deliver on the level of customer service that it advertises. I am fine with that. I know what to expect from BusinessFirst. I have moved further down on the demand curve: to me, BusinessFirst is now worth about $2 � 2.5k--the price of a "sleeper" seat. I basically put it up against MaxJet. When I need them, the EQM's count for something too.

I have come to terms with the fact that the customer service at Continental has slipped. I think (I hope I am right) that after a few quarters of profitability, Continental management will turn its attention to the issues within the company that have allowed the product to age gracelessly! I think it's a generous act on the part of frequent flyers to point out where the cracks are forming. Continental is probably still the best network carrier, but its formula for success is an open book, which others can try to emulate or even surpass!

1500 miles per seat? Seems a little low to me but I doubt you'll do much better without spending a lot of time and enrgy arguing with them which ends up diminishing the return on whatever additional compensation you could negotiate.

Excellent post.

I would add that CO's strategy of managing its bottom line by withholding substantial investments in its product is already creating a situation in which it is offering a product that is lagging behind the competition.

Did you see Joe Sharkey's story in the NY Times yesterday about the improvements to comfort & technology U.S. airlines are making to their product? It was an interesting piece, and especially so because CO was the only major carrier (along with US) that was not mentioned at all.