Need some advice on how to handle this situation, I was on a paid first class ticket (return leg) from SJD-->EWR traveling with my wife and 4 others all in F my seat was 1E wife was 1F, went to check in yesterday and it said needed to be done at the airport and I no longer had 1E all other 5 passengers were fine.

Turns out a Captain requested the seat and I got bumped since First was oversold. I know this happens but i was livid nonetheless, I assumed it was the air marshall that took my seat until I got on and realized it was one of the flight crew, im unsure if he was actually working our flight or just needed a lift because he never left the seat and never entered the cockpit according to my wife and the other 4 passengers in my party.

Now what really burned me up was the so called "compensation" i was being offered, I really hope it was a problem with my spanish speaking skills. Here is the conversation.

CO Rep: We are sorry but your seat is no longer available, it was needed for one of the flight crew, as compensation we are going to give you a $500 voucher for a future CO flight.

Me: ok but my ticket was over $1500.00 so assuming $750 for each leg your giving me $500 back and moving me to coach?

CO Rep: Yes

Me: How is this compensation? I can buy a coach ticket one way for $214 right now.

CO Rep: Yes but you can use this $500 voucher on any future flight.

Me: You don't undrestand what I am saying, you are taking my PAID first class seat, moving me to coach and overcharging me by $36

CO Rep: No No sir we are giving you $500.

This went on and on for a good 10 minutes before i started raisning my voice for a manager at which point i was told today was the managers day off. After another 10 minutes of arguing I was told that i had 2 choices, accept the offer or find another airline to accomodate me.

The supervisor said the only other thing i can do is offer 2 upgrades to first class on another flight, ok great now we are getting somewhere, I ask will these be a segment upgrade? or a flight upgrade? he says flight. Ok great, and i can use these on international flights? yes, he says. I say ok now i just need to workout my little problem about the $500 "credit" he goes in the back room comes out and hands me a $500 voucher. I say ok but where are my upgrades? he says oh i dont have those you need to call the 800 number. I was like WHAT?!?! Is this a joke? short version of the story is I ended up getting nothing but a $500 voucher and a promise of some upgrades that a supervisor in mexico promised me.

Sorry for the rant but i needed to vent.

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles -- you may want to consider PM'ing Scott (CO Insider) and ask that he look into the situation.

At the very least, CO should have offered to take volunteers (not sure if they did or not from your post...but it sounds like they did not) and only then moved to the downgrade step.

And in the downgrade step an option that should have been offered is accommodation on another airline (again I don't know if this would have fit your schedule but it should have at least been on the table).

Finally, you can try calling into 1800-WE-CARE-2 but I suspect you'll be given the standard script and written off as those agents seem to have a hard time understanding at times CO can be fallible.

PS> If you're a fan of satire you may want to check out this Onion Article

First of all, you were not IDB-d, you were involuntary downgraded.

The voucher compensation that CO had offered at the gate is in addition to the involuntary refund, which you would now need to apply for.

From CO's Contract of Carriage (http://www.continental.com/web/en-US.../contract.aspx):

I would be curious to hear CO Insider's inside info on this flight:

- Were there any upgraders that could have been downgraded first?
- Were there any lower statused pax who could have been downgraded first?
- Did they just go with this guy, because that was the seat that was taken?

Definitely a case for CO Insider.

Kicking customers who have purchased expensive first class tickets in the family jewels is a really poor way of doing business.

i love the onion, and that's generally how it seems to work when asking for a manager!

Wow, "legal" poaching of FC.

It's stuff/promises like this when I ALWAYS ask that it be documented in my PNR and that I be given a copy.

They did offer to take volunteers but i suspect because of the "compensation" being offered that everyone else turned it down as well. My party had half the F cabin so our volunteer list was pretty small to begin with but they did offer.

They never offered to accommodate me on another flight, when i started to get heated they did give me the option of "finding someone else to fly home" on my own.

The onion is great, thanks for the link i needed a good laugh

I did specifically ask to have that put in writing when he didnt produce the upgrades and he said we have no way of doing that. He then told me he put a note on my reservation which i asked to see and was told I was not allowed behind the counter.

I would love to hear his info on this flight as well. What i am most interested in is if they actually made any notes regarding these promises or just yessed me to get me out of there.

Would this be the difference between F and a full Y, or F and the cheapest coach seat available at time of booking? Seems like you could get screwed over pretty easy...

Trust me I feel for you and support your fight BUT...
What was the Y or H fare for Y? You purchased F but perhaps the difference between F and Y is much less than F and the $214 (probably discounted fare that you found.)

You show that you are elite. Call the elite line.

I would guess that the answers to all three of your questions is yes.

The tipoff is that you were seated in 1E and that seat was needed for a flight crew member. This means that the flight attendant's jumpseat was broken and they were required to use 1E, as their jumpseat.

My experience was that Continental is pretty darn stingy when one is involuntarily downgraded from First. Mrs. Westtexas and I were flying MEX to IAH a couple of days before Christmas in 2005, plane went mechanical, situation goes south. I was on a D fare, which everyone insisted was not a first class fare but instead a coach fare I had upgrade by paying $45 extra. I pointed out that it was clearly listed as international business class, and eventually lost the argument because I just got tired of fighting with people who would not read their own fare schedule.

They eventually gave me $45 per seat. When I emailed LK's office, he put me in touch with someone who tried very hard to be helpful. She did give me additional compensation, but kept repeating the line that I had upgraded a coach ticket even after I sent in docs showing I had bought a ticket with a fare basis of D. I also sent in web print outs of what it would have cost to buy a coach ticket going out and a first ticket coming in. Even with the additional compensation, I got less than that fare difference. Worse yet, nobody admitted what class of ticket I had actually purchased in spite of printed evidence.

Obviously a different situation than the OP, because a plane went mechanical. But still, when the compensation offered is _less_ than the fare difference I would have paid even after a couple of months of hassle... well, good luck. Let us know how it turns out.