Also, not all car seats are FAA approved. People bring and check them so that they can use them in a car on arrival. As to why the airlines don’t have approved seats available for children on paid tickets I have no clue.

You noted “The airline was correct to suggest Sykes deal with the refund while he was still at the airport.”

However, that’s not what the airline said. The customer flew from Detroit to Houston – and only THEN was it discovered, by an alert porter, that the charge was in error. Continental didn’t say “deal with it while you were still at the airport”; he “was told that the situation needed to be resolved before the flight occurred”–in other words, his only recourse was gone before the error was discovered.

And of course, once you get involved, they fall all over themselves to distance themselves from what their own representatives told the passenger. It should be clear by now that even Continental, which used to stand above the crowd, kind of like a midget among pygmies, is subject to the same kind of short-sighted money-grubbing fee myopia that has spread like a virus through the entire Plestiocene airline management ranks.

Whoa!! That’s quite a statement. I’ll agree it’s not a right, but I SURE wouldn’t call flying these days a “priviledge”. It’s more like a “grit-your-teeth and get thru it” experience that you have to subject yourself to in order to get to your vacation.

Probably why I’m gonna take the “Auto-Train” to Florida in Feb.

Of course, that’s a somewhat topic off from the one Chris E wrote about here. Just setting that aside.

Anyway, what LeeAnne commented is also a dilemma. While I also agree with Chris’ suggestion to deal with the issue on the spot, not everyone has that so-called luxury when one needs to board ASAP.

And yeah, I don’t understand either why the Continental folks wouldn’t just resolve the issue there and then without Chris’ intervention. Especially when they themselves seemingly acknowledged it.

Sigh.

Sigh……

I feel your pain. Believe me. It’s sad. And I too wish Christopher would do something about it. I asked him to. But he has made his position clear: that all comments are welcome, no matter how moronic, off-topic, offensive, and utterly unreadable. I have since determined that it’s best just to ignore her. We thinking humans who speak normal English really can have intelligent conversations. We have to just zap over the ones that are filled with meaningless drivel.

This comments thread has become quite diverted from the original article. The fact is that the original article had nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not someone should check a carseat or bring it onboard. Neither did have anything to do with buying tickets for children, or if parents shouldn’t even bring children on flights (and as a parent, I find that suggestion to be offensive). It’s definitely not about TSA no-fly lists, or whether air travel is a right or a priviledge.

It’s about the simple fact that Continental broke its own stated policy and charged a passenger improperly for something that should have been checked for free. And when the passenger rightfully asked for his money back, they actually had the audacity to say NO – for the incomprehensible reason that he hadn’t been able to strong-arm the agent who initially improperly charged him, not to charge him! The twisted logic there defies explanation.

Once again, Christopher managed to ride in on his white horse and get the airline to own up to its mistake and make it right. Thank goodness we have him. But the fact that they wouldn’t do it the first time the customer asked is bad enough. Shame on them for even making that argument to begin with!

We do enjoy the entertainment value. But we feed badly for poor Mr. Elliott, whose otherwise intelligent comments forum is rendered pretty much useless by your non-English, non-sensical, non-topical non-comments.

And frankly, the fact that you are American makes this whole situation even scarier.

Trust me, you are not going to get anything but “otherwise.” Normal human logic does not appear to be among her skillsets.

My kid grew out of his baby car seat when he was 9 months old. Maybe Baby Sykes was a big kid too, maybe that’s Dad Sykes checked the car seat? Whatever the reason, it doesn’t change anything about the first issue here: Continental incorrectly charging money for the car seat and refusing a completely legitimate claim for a refund. Personally, I’m an easily pissed-off customer and an episode like this would put Continental on my personal no-fly list for a loooong time.

Take a quick refesher course in basic English and grammar (punctuation is your friend) before you try making an argument, logical or otherwise, on any subject. Otherwise you sound like, well, like the Barbie you no doubtedly are.