This past Sunday, roberton_gf got stranded in Newark overnight because of a massive (7-hour) delay for her flight to EWR. And Continental gave her no help finding a hotel room -- they just told her to go find the hotel directory near baggage claim and start calling places.

I was surprised by that. Since the delay was caused by air traffic and weather, CO obviously won't pay for the room. But whenever I've been stranded overnight and CO didn't have to pay for my room, they've still always provided some help in finding a hotel for the night -- typically giving me a number I could call to get a discounted hotel room near the airport (not always as good a discount as I could get myself by going on-line, but still pretty good).

What does CO typically do in these situations? Did roberton_gf get unusually bad service? Or is it just that I've always gotten unusually good service?

This isn't that big a deal -- after making about ten phone calls, roberton_gf found a hotel that had rooms available (and though she definitely overpaid, the room rate wasn't ridiculous). I'm just curious.

CO is well-known for not covering hotels.

One would have thought that they would have at least helped your gf.

Blame it on EWR?

Sometimes you have to consider the agent's work load, at the moment. Perhaps they were busy rebooking misconnections, taking delayed baggage reports or working a flight, checking in customers.

Who knows maybe that slip of paper with a local hotel availablity phone number was out of stock and the best place to find a nearby hotel was the wall of phone numbers.

It happened to me several times. My advice is to use your phone to book a hotel ASAP. A big weather delay could wipe out all available rooms and you could end up sleeping at the airport. Don�t wait in line and hope CO will help you to find a hotel.

First, it is not CO job to provide you a hotel room b/c of ATC or WX delays. CO has zero control over these 2 issues. I would say that if the agent has time they can give you a list of hotels that would offer a discount rate.

That is assuming they have time to do so. At the end of the day it is the passenger's problem. NOT CO. I'm sure all of the "elite" folks will cry and whine if they were not giving a hotel during an atc/wx delay. Like SFO said, sometimes they just don't have time to get to it.

At IAH I have been given a list of hotels and info that is supposed to get you a preferred rate. You still have to get yourself a room, but at least it's better that the OP's experience at EWR.

If I'm at my origin city and know I'm going to miss a connection and be stranded, I hit the internet and phone to make sure I have something lined up. hilton.com on my PDA has helped me many times.

There was a fair share of people camping out in EWR when I passed through there 2:15 Monday morning because of the weather delays.

Sounds like bad process then. Maybe CO should have a distressed traveller profile in the computer, so they can print these out on demand. If they run out of pre-printed ones, print some more.

I hope you are not a CO employee. If you are, I'm guessing you must be EWR based where many things seem to be the "passenger's problem. NOT CO."

Channa's suggestion is a good one. It would not take five seconds for the agent meeting a "seven-hour delayed" flight to announce that though CO is not responsible for hotel accommodations for connecting passengers "distressed passenger" information is available at the desk or ticket counter.

In the really bad-news scenario which I have faced a number of times (extreme weather problems) the agent could also suggest that because area hotels are booked full there would likely be no "distressed passenger" rooms and the best procedure would be to head directly to the hotel phone bank. Frequent travelers will probably have their own preferred ways of dealing with the situation like those mentioned above.

I'm starting to suspect that he/she might be a CO employee.

The bolded part is false. The weather is not within CO's control, but the delay is. It just doesn't make economic sense for CO to plan for these types of delays.

ATC is an entirely different matter, especially at EWR. Have you ever found yourself broadside of the line of planes waiting to take off at about 6:00 in the evening? 90% belong to CO.

Don't kid yourself that these delays are not "within CO's control." They are; it's just that the contract of carriage excuses Continental's failure to perform its end of the contract under these (all to frequent) circumstances. Even so, the "it sucks to be you" message given by many agents in this circumstance is not appropriate.

Considering the upcoming alliance with UA, I wonder if CO is going to improve in this area. I'm jumping ship to CO mostly next year, but despite UA's many problems one of the things they do better is handling hotels for irrops.

When I was 1P (mid-level but top alliance-level, unlike mid-level CO) I occasionally got hotel assistance for WX, at least guidance and info on distressed traveler rates and on 1 occasion a hotel free, and definitely for MX.

For higher levels, it's UA's official policy to give free hotel for WX for its own 1K and GS members on any itinerary, and for any *G (remember that's only a 50K level on most *A airlines) on an international itinerary including for domestic legs. UA's profile (search the UA forum) for irrops amenities includes verbiage about how the later (any *G on int'l itin) is a *A policy that is standardized across the alliance. There are some weasel words that let them get out of it, but agents usually know the policy and are ok about it.

I would think CO would have to start following the *A policy for WX on int'l itins, and may be strongly encouraged to follow UA's policy for top-level elites, given the closeness of the proposed alliance/joint venture.

That said, I'm not expecting much for my first winter irrops in EWR on my January CO trips...

Does your employer (CO?) allow you to be late because of weather or traffic dozens of times per year? If not, do you have any more control over weather and traffic than CO?

If the answer to the first question is yes, then you've got an amazingly understanding employer. If the answer to the 2nd question is yes, then why in Your name are you wasting time on FT?

Well I had a completely different experience last time I got delayed in EWR, overnight. Went to the P-club and the agents said "go to the bar, and have a double. We'll find you a hotel room. We can't pay for it, but we'll get you the distressed passenger rate." 10 minutes later, summoned to the front desk, slip of paper with the confirmation number in hand. Didn't even finish 1/4 of my drink.

EWR should be better prepared for customers arriving on delayed flights. Yes there should be pre-printed lists of local area hotel phone numbers available for handing out.

I know that at SFO we have a pre-printed form that is available for customers needing a hotel room. This form is made available to us by a company that works for the area hotels.

The problem might be that once this company runs out of rooms, your only solution is to call the hotels directly and that might be why the customer was directed to the hotel wall board. Maybe EWR is not in the program that SFO has access to, as it is only available in select cities.