GVA

Here is a copy of an email I sent to Continental Customer Care (I have taken away details relating to myself and flight). Hopefully nobody else will end up on an agent like this.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you in reference to a flight I was booked on on XXXX XX February 2008, CO 2XXX from XXXXX to Newark then traveling on to XXXX on COXX. Reference of the booking is XXXXX. This was a First class fare to XXX.

At the boarding gate the agent made an announcement that they were looking for volunteers. Having some flexible travel plans and seeing that the gate agent was having a hard time finding passengers willing to give up their ticket I proceeded to the counter.

The agent originally offered me $200 ECV, I told her that the amount was quite low and that $350 ECV would be a deal maker. She agreed to that amount (before the flight left). Additionally, I stated I would prefer to travel on Continental metal even if it involved staying an extra night in XXXX at my own expenses. She agreed to that.

She had me fill in a form which was printed on US Airways paper during boarding (it was printed on US paper due to multi-use boarding gates). On that form was a compensation sum, written down as $350.

She took that form and kept it. Once boarding was complete and the flight pushed back, she called me up and ripped the form in front of me. Saying that it was US Airways and was not valid. She gave me a form with Continental Airlines headings and parallely printed out a voucher for $200 giving me no choice to accept or refuse. She then gave me a boarding pass for Northwest Airlines flights which according to her would arrive earlier. This also went against our agreement and unfortunately would provide me with a sub-par product compared to what Continental would have provided me.

Staying around the counter, I overheard one of the agents speaking to another and mentioning that another passenger who had been denied boarding was offered $300 by the other agent.

The agent who dealt with me visibly seemed pleased at how she "got me" as she made it quite audible.

To make things worse, she tried to rebook my ticket in Economy class on Northwest (even trying to give me a middle seat), spellt my name wrong on the voucher (reference XXXXXX) and more importantly was dishonest in how she proceeded.

As you can tell by my thorough details, I am extremely disappointed in the whole situation. I was trying to help out your airline in avoiding having to deny somebody boarding (much more costly than the voucher I received or should have received). In return I was treated with disrespect and dishonesty.

I am a Skyteam Elite Plus member on KLM, who flies in excess of 100K miles a year, often quite a sizeable amount of that on Continental Airlines. Following my experience at XXXXX Airport, I intend on flying every airline but Continental unless you can resolve this situation with honor.

I trust that you will be able to do so as in the past I have received excellent service from all your employees who seem truly dedicated to making the airline one of the best.

Best Regards & Thank you for your assistance in resolving this matter,

XXXX.

fly co to see the yanks

i've negotiated many things with agents (flights, upgrades, etc.) but i have never negotiated price. i am surprised the GA would negotiation on price with you. i also wonder what customer care will say.

channa

Deny fault, like they usually do?


In this case, I would give CO Customer Care an opportunity to respond, though I doubt you'll be satisfied with their initial response.

Insist your compensation was supposed to be $350, and if you don't like the response from Customer Care, either escalate with CO Insider, or with the DOT (file a formal complaint).

A deal is a deal, and rogue agents like this need to be tracked down and disciplined.

GVA

What I didn't mention in the letter and is not clear to FTers here but probably clear to Continental is that where it happened is a small outstation (6 flights a day) where the handling is all outsourced.

I've never had any problems with proper CO agents who have even done the opposite once (I accepted 300, but the agent came back with 400 as she had had to offer that to one passenger). I was surprised by that and found it extremely honest and showed the true colors of CO and the agent.

I trust that CO monitors their WE-CARE email and FT to be proactive enough to sort this situation out without me having to escalate the matter.

CO 1E

I would not expect much out of 1-800-WE-Care.

femaleflightlead

I would be interested to hear the outcome. I had a similar experience last year.

fly co to see the yanks

i would be careful with contacting scott with one-off issues. scott is great when it comes to fixing problems that would impact a lot of people (i.e., glitches on CO.O.L, elite priority with standby, etc.). i think if we start substituting scott for customer care we could overwhelm scott. just a thought....(i know it's tempting to contact scott because he is so much better than customer care.)

chasbondy

I'm betting the balance of the deal will get paid. A deal is a deal. Your mistake was taking the $200. It would have taken armed security to drag me out of there before I'd leave with the $200

channa

I see (and agree with) your point. Though a lot of these one-off issues are things the Customer Care organization should be able to fix. Once they fix the underlying problem (Customer Care), Scott will have to do less cleanup on one-off issues. Though I'm not sure CO views Customer Care as the problem that it is.

I agree, though, run it through the channels first and see what happens. But then what would you do if you don't get appropriate resolution? Would you recommend going straight to DOT, or letting Scott have a crack at it?

channa

Agreed. I would have escalated on the spot, which might have had direct impact on getting the agent in trouble.

chasbondy

>>>>The agent who dealt with me visibly seemed pleased at how she "got me" as she made it quite audible>>>

Normally, I'd say BS to that, but I witnessed it. On Dec 23rd, a flight was delayed several hours and a passenger got a bit tipsy in the bar, but was of no trouble. The boarding agent decided not to let the guy board, and when he protested, she actually said to the guy "I'm going to make your Christmas quite Merry", and called security. The problem I had with it, was as the cops were escorting the man to the parking lot, he called the gate agent a "butch homo or lesbo?", and when her supervisor finally came to the gate, the gate agent used the sexual slur as part of the reason for removing him, in addition to the tipsiness. Plus it was highly pathetic to have the whole conversation go on in public. And no, it was not on Continental-- it was the morons on Southwest.

sfogate

Is there a reason why you did not ask to speak to a supervisor?

I have no idea what this agent was thinking and why they would even care about "getting" you, especially a contract agent.

CO 1E

The balance may, indeed, get paid, but the question is whether Customer Care will accept responsibility without additional prodding by the OP or intervention by CO Insider.

burghboys

The first thing I would have did was asked for a supervisor. The supervisor is the only one that can raise the amount of a tc above 300. Not sure why the contract agent was playing lets make a deal. Where did this Usair paperwork come from? I would find out who the GM is for that station and write to them instead of Scott. Just my two cents.

Renard

CO has many strengths...this is certainly not one of them...you might as well tell your issue to a wall. Wait...telling the wall is better than telling 1-8000-we-don't-care as you'd just be more angry after the attitude you'll likely receive from calling.

I'd say that this would be highly unlikely. In fact, I'm not as optimistic that he'll get the promised amount even after pushing it...I hope I'm wrong.