Just need to vent [Rant re: cancelled flights]
 

What can I say - they suck.

Booked flights for a mini-vacation to Miami. Leaving on a Wednesday. I'm off and my wife's a teacher, so I had to book in the evening. Return Sat night and had to book after the end of the Jewish sabbath.

Today Continental chose to cancel both flights and book me on earlier flights that we simply could not make. Called and was able to rebook on flights to Fort Lauderdale, but a major incovenience for us.

Now, if I had a problem with the original itinerary and needed to change it, Continental would have penalized me. But if they have a problem, they can change whatever they want and it's too damn bad. I told this to the agent, his supervisor and her supervisor and requested that since the return trip was booked in Y class, and I can automatically be upgraded as a Gold Elite, it seemed that Continental should automatically upgrade my wife to make up for our not insignificant inconvenience. They did everything but laugh at me. They let me know that they can change and do whatever they want to. They said they were sorry for my inconvenience, but too bad.

This for a Gold Elite booked in Y class. How many of you would run your businesses that way???

My religion would say not to complain about the trivial. They didnt cancel those flights to screw you or inconvenience you

When is the trip? A long time away?
What time did the original flights leave and what times did they want you to fly?

I'm curious, as this makes a big difference.

Booked flights for a mini-vacation to Miami. Leaving on a Wednesday. I'm off and my wife's a teacher, so I had to book in the evening. Return Sat night and had to book after the end of the Jewish sabbath.


I have found that booking flights on the weekend that daylight savings time switches to standard time usually results in an alteration of the flight times or schedules. I suspect that this is what happened to you. I try to stay home if possible on this weekend, since I never know what sort of witches I will run into on my flight ;) .

I highly doubt its this weekend as the so called Weds would have been yesterday and I doubt the OP would have written their Post as they did.

sounds more like Thanksgiving or some Legal Holiday that will keep the Schools closed on a Thurs and Fri.

I agree with the OP. His point is that if he contacted CO and said his schedule changed and he wanted to change the flights, CO would allow him to change it, but would charge him a fee and possibly increased fare if his booking class was unavailable. On the alternate end, if CO wants to change its flight times or cancel flights entirely, the OP is upset that CO does little, if anything, to compensate the OP for the inconvenience. What the OP was trying to get at was that he is Gold on CO, meaning he is a pretty good customer - a pretty good customer who buys Y fares. All he wanted was someone from CO to say - he we messed up, we apologize, we will give your wife a comp upgrade to try to help the situation and ease any burden. So, the OP has a valid point - why does CO think it can do whateve it wants, laugh at him when he offers a solution that will satisfy him as a customer and then expect the OP to continue his business on CO.

To the OP: I would take your business elsewere... maybe they will miss it, maybe they won't... three years ago I was GM on DL. I got very close to requalifying and was forced to cancel a return flight and did not take it till after New Years. DL would not give me gold for 2004. I have not flown DL since. Ironic enough, they have since declared bankruptcy since I took my business elsewhere. I would like to say my loss of business had some effect on DL's future - and if enough people like me took our business elsewhere then maybe we did make a difference...

The grass is always browner.

UA - cancelled a flight in the morning when I had to testify in Chicago. No message, no offer to help find another flight. Then I called India ... no luck there either.

AA - three different trips cancelled this year because of flight cancellations.

US - don't get me started. One word to sum it up: Philadelphia.

etc.

All airlines have problems, even the much-beloved Singapore and Cathay. :D

this is one of my huge problems with the airlines in general. i agree with the OP and i am actually somewhat surprised they did not offer him a comp FC seat for his wife.

why is it that we are completely locked into an a contract, where as the airline can do whatever the F they want while still in the contract and before deptarture. i know if you read the fine print it says so, but who actually says so? the law? i think they just make up sh!t and ride with it.

its almost as if my car lease company sent me a letter saying, your two year lease is now a three year lease and, oh by the way, go F yourself.

if they are going to be super strict on fare and rules, they should have to stick to them as well.

however, you could have easily requested a full refund, which you would have recived.

but again, there is nothing in the "contract" that gives you rights to other flights and fare protection.

my mom once had DL change her FC fll-atl-sfo flight to fll-atl-dfw-slc-sfo (with an RJ involved). she has access to the GDS and knew they did the change months early.

they didnt call her until a week before the flight to inform her. her only option... take it, or take a refund and rebook the fare at 4 times the original because it was less than a week before departure. she got F'd somewhat like you are getting from CO.

This sort of thing happens all the time and, unfortunately, we are at the mercy of the carrier.

We had a situation a while back on a vacation flight traveling with our two (then) young children where CO made an equipment change and completely messed up the seat assignments. We originally had 3 seats on 1 side of the aisle and the aisle seat across, in the front of coach and ended up with 3 different middle seats and a window several rows away from any of the other seats. I called the Elite line and begged someone to put us at least 2 and 2 since my kids were too young to fly without sitting next to a parent, not to mention the whole middle seat thing! I was told that it would have to be dealt with at the airpport. If anyone on this board has ever flown the EWR-PBI route, you will understand how impossible a task it is of asking people to change seats (especially offering a middle seat). It was a disaster and I recall at the time calling Customer Care and writing a letter to complain about the unfairness of the airline being able to just change around the seats so randomly with no regard to what the customer "bargained for".

So while I sympathize with the OP, I just don't think they have a policy or procedure that effectively deals with the predictable result of changing flight times, equipment, etc. because let's face it, a number of people are inevitably inconvenienced but they have reasons for making the changes that from their corporate viewpoint outweigh the inconvenience to their customers.

While I heartily agree with the OP that any airline that cancels flights ought to do the maximum not only to accomodate the passenger but also to convey a sense of sympathy or responsibility, the airline's contractual liability is pretty minimal.

Regarding the disparity between the passenger's obligations in case of a change, versus the airline's obligations, the one substantive difference is that flight cancellations are made because of factors outside the control of the airline (at least that's what they will always tell passengers) and the contract of carriage stipulates that the airline's only responsibility in this case is to make a legitimate effort at accomodation.

And, by the way, if a passenger needs to make a change because of a factor outside of his or her control (such as illness) the airline will accomodate the change at no cost, based on appropriate verification of the illness.

The system is frustrating but the fact is it's pretty amazing it works as well as it does with so many flights flying nearly full, packed so tightly together, allowing virtually no leeway for equipment failure or weather problems.

I do agree, however, that CO's line people could generally be a little nicer about it when these situations occur.

If the OP had a meeting at certain time that made the new flight times unacceptable I'm sure you wouldn't mention your religion. Other posters don't think the OP is being trivial. I wonder if he didn't mention that he was an observant Jew if you would have replied at all.

I wonder if he didn't mention that he was an observant Jew if you would have replied at all.>>

So now the peanut gallery is trying to make it a Jew thing?? Get a clue. Flights get cancelled every now and then, and the airlines do their best to accomodate cancellations. I'm an observant Catholic, who realizes such things happen with airlines, even on a Sunday.

Actually, it sounds like "NJ week" in Florida. The first week in Nov when the schools are closed for teacher's conferences and Veteran's Day, and sometimes Election Day is thrown in there too.

If you're from NJ, go to Disneyworld that week and you just may run into your neighbors ;)

I can understand the OP's frustration and would be equally angry if I were in the same situation. But, the fact remains that sometimes, flights have to be cancelled or rescheduled. CO is still far superior to any other US airline with regard to not cancelling flights, mechanicals, etc.

And, I don't think upgrading the OP's wife would be reasonable in this situation. I don't want to lose my upgrade opportunity to someone who called CO and talked some supervisor into upgrading a companion that should not have been upgraded until the airport within two hours of departure. A $50 or $75 cert would have been the appropriate compensation here, if any was due (and I'm not saying compensation was due).

Actually, yes, the law does say so. Contract law does not require that both parties to the contract have parity of rights and/or obligations under the contract. Contracts can be extremely one sided and still enforceable (assuming, of course, the promises contained within are not illusory, or that the terms are not void as against public policy, amongst other considerations). All contracts allow parties to do is to arrange their affairs and dealings in advance with some degree of certainty. Entering into a Contract (in most common law jurisdictions) requires a "bargain" between the parties. In simplistic terms, you know (or are deemed to know) what you are getting into when you fork over money to an airline in return for their promise of transportation.

The conditions the airline imposes upon such an agreement are readily available to the purchaser prior to purchase. It's up to you whether you choose to actually read the fine print. Additionally, it's up to you whether you evaluate that fine print and allow it to influence your purchasing decision. The airline generally has no legal obligation to provide you, the consumer, with a contract that is primarily to your benefit. As businesses, airlines generally craft contracts that are to their benefit. As a consumer, the only power you have to modify such behavior (so long as the behavior does not involve other illegalities such as deceptive trade practices, fraud, etc.) is by withholding your funds from that business, or by finding another business more willing to accede to your requirements for a suitable contract of carriage.

[Edited to Add:] The airline cannot actually do whatever it wants as regards the agreement. It must abide by the terms of the agreement itself. Or, if the agreement does not actually create a binding obligation on the airline, it would be void for lack of mutuality due to the airline's illusory promise. (e.g., A contract of carriage allowing the airline to refuse to transport you for any reason, without notice, and without providing you a refund, would void the contract due to the illusory nature of the airline's promise).

Granted, there is a difference between contract law and providing good customer service. CO may have been perfectly entitled to act as it did...but did this make good business sense? Likely not.

(Disclaimer - The snippets of contract law lightly touched upon herein are by no means thorough and should not be relied upon in any fashion as providing a complete or even partially complete portrait of how that area of law operates. If you suffer from insomnia and are looking for a surefire cure, may I suggest obtaining a copy of Calamari & Perillo on Contracts. Happy reading).