CLEHillbilly

I am flying Intl BF this evening and in CLE I had an odd expereince never before encountered there. I was checking in via the elite access check in counters and set my bag to be checked on the scale and started swiping my Plat Elite card to begin checkin. A young individual (non-CO, I think global services) was standing behind the counter next to a familiar CO agent who was attending the customer at the kiosk next to me. As I started the checking the global services gentleman said to me "Please remove your bag tag (From last CO flight 2 days ago) because you do not want two baggage claim tags on yoru luggage", I looked up at him thinking your not serious are you and continued my checkin. After totally checking in he again asked ne to remove the tag. I finally removed it but said to the CO agent and hi9m I have been coming to this airport for 14 years with CO and never once hav e I been asked to remove my claim tag, especially with a BF checkin.

Comments? Am I wrong in thinking he should have removed it? I consider it a smack in the face from CO, this lazy individual just stood there for the 3 minutes as I checked in doing 0 work (except if work is considered asking me to remove a bag tag). Now at an non-hub station I might consider this OK, but at CLE-EWR-IAH I consider this a loss of service.

My 2 cents.
Have a safe Holiday

notsosmart

Uhm, yeah, he could have removed it. But so could you.

FWIW, I don't believe that a B/F ticket entitles you to special treatment from CO contractors. You get the same $hitty treatment as the rest of us, and like it!

CLEHillbilly

Oh I agree on the BF treatment to a certain extent...but his laziness means a downgrade in normal CO GA functions.

CO_Nonrev_elite

While I do agree that this post is not all that much of a big deal in general, I would say that it seems like the majority of us are noticing a degradation of service at checkin with the non Continental employees. I have had 6 flights in the last 2 weeks, and most of them involved the global folks at checkin, and almost every one of the times, I felt like they were rude, or generally disinterested.

I don't need to be pampered, so I just roll with it, but in truth, this is something that Continental should be aware of, as it is certainly a developing trend.

Weatherboy

As a Platinum, you should know better to remove your tags before you get to the airport. I even make sure to remove any stray barcodes from the bags --the last thing I want is my bag to get scanned and shipped someplace other than it belongs.

If a frequent flyer arrived at the BF counter without wearing pants and the agent reminded them to put on some pants, is that really diminished service from the carrier?

This isn't a sign of diminished service from CO ...but rather increased laziness from a passenger.

CO_Nonrev_elite

This isn't a sign of diminished service from CO ...but rather increased laziness from a passenger.
***

I guess I'll bring it down to this question then.

Q: Do you think that bringing in the Global Service folks brings an improvement to Continental's service ? - I certainly don't see it as an improvement, although if I was flying out of EWR instead of IAH, I may feel otherwise as the EWR people are brutal at best

fly co to see the yanks

yes, of course. i couldn't agree more. what amazes me is that the original poster wrote such a detailed thread on such an (dare i say, inconsequential?) event.

as allen iverson would say: "bag tag, bag tag, bag tag? are we talking about a bag tag? a bag tag? a bag tag?"....you get the idea.

guy44134

Just to clarify, I believe the "helpers" behind the counter at CLE are from Huntleigh.

fly co to see the yanks

comments? barely.

are you wrong? clearly.

(ok, let me ask you a question: why does it matter that you checked in at the businessfirst (BF) line? because you paid more the agents are supposed to remove your old bag tags? c'mon. )

fly co to see the yanks

that wasn't the original query. (i've noted many times in the past that service at EWR is pretty lousy.)

the original post lamented that the minion didn't remove the old bag tag in the BF line.

let's not change topics mid-stream.

CO_Nonrev_elite

that wasn't the original query...the original post lamented that the minion didn't remove the old bag tag in the BF line.
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The inference is that in the past had this happened, the CO employees would just have removed it for him, and probably not even comment on it, whereas the new global folks were basically not going to do anything helpful at all.

Ultimately, I do not believe the original poster expects to have them do it for him all the time, but was surprised that the check in person took the time to tell him to do it as opposed to just doing it.

vsevolod4

I'm confused on a number of fronts:

a) This "global services" staff sends chills up my spine ... "global services" is the "non-MP" status that UA gives VIPs and high-rev passengers ... while insisting that 1K is indeed the top tier, but giving preferential treatment to their GSes. Is CO following suit?

b) When one goes to a self-check-in counter, is it not reasonable to assume that one would remove extraneous and potentially confusing identification on one's baggage which, had it remained intact, might have resulted in same package being returned to the previous destination?

c) How does someone who feels his/her time is certainly so precious as to not wish to take the 1.2 seconds it would take an ordinary human being to remove a pre-existing luggage tag find it worth 6 minutes to type a brief diatribe haranguing the CO staff for not removing said tag?

fly co to see the yanks

A-freakin'-men.

but, if you are in the BF line, the peon should remove it for you. and, if (s)he doesn't, you should write a long grievance on flyertalk.

let's think about this, folks. someone didn't have his old tags removed for him in the BF line and felt so aggrieved that (s)he took the time to write about it on flyertalk. that someone should spend a day digging ditches and then (s)he won't complain about flying BF and not having his old bag tags removed.

sushibear

If, for some odd reason, I had not removed my previous bag tag, most CO counter agents would probably say something like "Mr. Sushibear, do you mind if I remove your old tag?" Maybe I had just not gotten around to removing it and wanted to keep it. I shouldn't matter. I would never stand with my hand on my hip, tapping my foot waiting for someone to do it for me. I would do it as soon as I finished the check in process. I don't expect anyone at the airport to be my lackey, but if the guy wasn't doing anything...? I don't see where class of service comes into play at all.

ContinentalFan

I seldom check bags, but when I do, I always make sure that I remove those tags. It just makes sense--I mean, if the CO people (or the other staff) miss the tags, the bags could get lost.