Continental Airlines

I had some bad experience while flying on continental and when I called their customer relations a representative raised his voice at me for no reason. I called back to speak with another person and again didn’t get filling they actually care to hear about their customer service problems. Responce I’ve got “what do you want from us, we brought you from A to B”.

I fly Continental out of necessity and wish another airline flew the route I use. They are truly the worst airline I have had the misfortune of flying.

I used Continental to fly to Jamaica for my honeymoon in December and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. To make a long story short, our flight was delayed getting into Houston by almost 4 hours and so we missed the one and only flight to Jamaica that day. And then instead of being sympathetic or even trying to make amends, they’ve just given me the run around every time I’ve tried to talk with them. The best that they’ve done was offer me two $25 travel vouchers (instead of the $382 I asked for as a reimbursement for the paid-for hotel in Jamaica) and told me that there is no one else to talk to. And then to add insult to injury, they lost our baggage on the way back! When we finally got it back, some of our items were broken (which they also refuse to replace or pay for). Needless to say, this was my first and last time flying Continental.

I guess complainers like to take advantage of every opportunity…Get real…flying is no longer a pleasant experience due to many issues, many beyond the airlines’ control, i.e, security issues, overcrowded airports, weather, inadequate air control systems, executives in their private jets getting the same take-off privileges as 200 passenger jets…not to mention the measures airlines have had to implement to avoid bankruptcy…They are providing a service, not a coddling experience as some of us seem to expect…and the crews will usually (a few exceptions in every business) be nice if you are nice. These days it pays to buy travel insurance because airlines are only responsible for getting you to your destination safely, not necessarily on time (again because of many factors beyond their control). I have had unpleasant experiences (mostly due to personnel in airports who like to flaunt their authority or who are tired and tuning out), but if you lighten up and stop expecting to be treated like VIP’s on a coach ticket, you might live a little longer. I am a retired teacher who loves to travel and have never worked for airlines or airports, but Continental is by far the best of the lot on a statistical basis, with American also OK overall…Granted there are times when things could have been handled better, but it seems unfair for infrequent travelers to blast one company based on one or two ordeals in today’s imperfect travel environment.

Contnental’s Contract of Carriage has moved to:

http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/content/contract.aspx

Continental is the best carrier in the US market. I have read alot of complaints and some seem valid but most seem to have expectations attached to them that are unreasonable. I have flown with continental for well over a decade. They are now and have been for a while my preferred carrier. They have done everything reasonable to accommodate my needs. However, I have had my issues with them as recently as last year. While at JFK our flight was experiencing mechanical problems and we were shifted to three different gates for five long hours we ran from one side of the airport to the other. We finally took off 6.5 hours late and granted it was a royal pain in the #$#$#$, we arrived safe and sound and they fed us generously at JFK. I believe they gave us two 25.00 vouchers. The drinks were free on the flight and they were very apologetic. I mean come on things happen but they made up for it. There was another airline that had mechanical problems and they only gave their passengers 12.00 vouchers. I shared my second voucher with this older lady that had her grandkids.

Under any, and I mean ANY circunstance no company like continental or other airline have the right to excuse the way their treat their customes, no matter how unpleasant some external instances turn air traveling expericence, what does companies have to remember is their also selling SERVICE, and even if we could consider that continental is less of the problems we need to force them to treat us like what we are PAYING CUSTOMERS!!!, competitive admosphere is not only about prices, Is about customer experience, theres a lot of lower price airlines and sometimes I wish I could say that I rather to buy on big company like continental because of the way the make us feel valuable customers, unless rutes there not any other reason to use their flighs, not even because they trought us a couple of peanuts and soda.

They make you loose money an they just appologize ??? and al what you get is a 25 voucher?? when you lost a day time=money and some other things

I was booked on flight 467y gate c-34 departing Houstan at 8:55 pm boarding at 8:20 pm for Seattle, WA. I arrived at the gate and asked the continental rep if I needed to check in and if this was the right gate, she said yes it was the right gate and no I didn’t need to check in as I had a seat assignment. I waited and waited and when I finally got nervous I went to the continental counter to see what was going on.

They said the gate was changed and the plane had already left. They were fairly rude and very unhelpful, they booked me and another lady who happened to be in tears on the next flight. the next day. They offered us no compensation or any offer to put us up in a hotel room. They did NOT announce the gate change and if the did so it was prior to us arriving, which was withing the time the ticket says we needed to. The departure screen said the flight was on schedule and there were people at the gate. we had no reason to assume anything was wrong.

The counter people were very condescending and left us alone in a strange city without any help.

My confirmation number was B22K1F my one pass # is DN406321 The lady who was also stranded is Chena Joseph and her Confirmation number is BSBJHJ

I also had no luggage as it was sent on to Seattle without me, they also did not call out our names or make any effort what so ever to see to our needs. I was worried about the luggage and when I called Seattle was also spoken to very rudely and told there was nothing they could do to safeguard my luggage other than pick it up if it was left unclaimed.

I belong to a single males travel group consisting of 41 members who travel together to exotic locations, 8 of which are elite members traveling 25,000 miles or more per year and 33 who are one pass members who travel 1 to 3 times per year. We stick together and will all change airlines once our miles are used up and never travel Continental again if at all possible.

If this problem is not resolved I will forward letters from all members with motorized signatures canceling all accounts including Continental Visa’s to the appropriate Continental executives. They in turn will follow up with their own letters of support for myself as a member of our group who has been seriously mistreated.

I was told today there will be no compensation, I will complain loudly and forever, This error by your airline cost me more than the ticket price.

Sincerly
David B Bonnette

David, Sounds like our experience on Christmas Eve. Due to anyone failing to inform us the 4 hour delay was pushed up and the plane was leaving we didn’t arrive to our Christmas destination until 11:30pm on Christmas. Not to mention we had to drive an hour to get there since we had to fly in to a surrounding airport (which I had to suggest to an agent). We were at the airport 8 hours Christmas Eve. This is the short version. never again Continental. we didn’t even get a simple sorry, but we were simply blown off and not one person offered any type of help!

On December 20, 2008, at 12:13 PM, I received notification from Continental Airlines, that my flight CO529, confirmation AGHMGV, due to leave Denver International Airport (DIA) at 6:25 PM for Newark International Airport, had been canceled. I was due to fly with my wife and son, to join our three daughters who had flown earlier, to New Jersey to spend Christmas with family. I was told that there were no flights until December 23. I immediately purchased three one way tickets on Frontier Airlines, at a cost of $1,705.50 for the three of us. While we were in flight to New Jersey, at approximately 7:00 PM, Continental called my phone to tell me that flight CO 529 was reinstated and it would leave around 10:30 PM on December 20, 2008. Of course I did not recieve that message until I landed in Newark, and that was too late to be of any use to us and it was past the scheduled departure time of the canceled flight.

Tonight, January 21, 2009, I called Continental airlines, to get them to pay for my Frontier tickets, and they refused, but did offer to refund the unused portion of my original ticket, which should amount to about $538.50, which leaves me out $1,167.00 for this event which was 100% the fault of Continental. Obviously someone was very hasty in canceling the flight in the first place. I hope that you can help me get Continental to pay for their error.

Ironically, my Frontier flight was right behind Continental Airlines flight 1404, which crashed and burned right in front of us at DIA. So I was not the only one to get burned by Continental Airlines that night.

Hi Chris,
Many thanks for the Continental contacts, it all worked out like a charm, they got back to me within 15 minutes of my e.mail and an hour later they contacted me again to advise they had located my lost scroll. Can’t beat that!
Cheers! To you and Martin Hand (of CTA)
All best,
John

Continental Airlines recently lost a bag of mine filled with irreplaceable possessions. This bag was a carry-on bag –not a checked bag, a carry-on –and was moved without my knowledge or permission from the overhead bin. No one has seen the bag since.

This took place on my way to Rhode Island to attend the graduation ceremonies for members of the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women. The First Lady, Mrs. Bush, was scheduled to be there and so, due to the nature of the events, I had packed some good clothes and jewelry and decided to take everything in one carry-on. A flight attendant helped me place my suitcase in the overhead bin a few rows away from my seat
as the bin above me was taken.

After the plane was taxiing down the runway, I was informed that the Continental staff had moved my bag — supposedly to the lower storage area of the plane. In order to find out whose bag it was, the Continental staff had gone into my suitcase and, from my purse, they got my return ticket and my name! Yet they did not have enough sense to at least give me my purse or to see if I needed anything (such as my medication) or wanted
anything (such as my jewelry) from the bag. Although they knew from my ticket that I had a connecting flight in New Jersey, they still didn’t gate check my bag, which would have allowed me to retrieve it upon exiting the plane at Newark to make my connection to Providence. Instead, they told me that they had checked it all the way through to Providence and handed me a handwritten number. Unsurprisingly, the bag vanished, along with my jewelry.
 
This is the most bizarre action I’ve ever known an airline to take with respect to a passenger’s carry-on luggage, and may well be the most egregious case of airline carelessness you have heard.

Still, it doesn’t stop here. Now Continental is claiming no responsibility and has retained Fulbright and Jaworski to fight me. They asked for receipts of all items over $100, which I told them I did not have, so –per their request and suggestion —  I supplied them with credit card statements and personal letters from the store managers who have records of my purchases. I believed that Continental had agreed to honor this information, but absolutely nothing came of it.
 
They took entirely unnecessary, unapproved, unilateral action over which I had no control and which directly resulted in the loss of my property.  There was nothing I could have done to have prevent this, and now they choose to pay exorbitant legal fees rather than compensate me for the loss they caused.

heather; firstly common sense would tell or a travel agencyor a close friend would tell you never travel with valuables;ALSO YOU NEVER PLACE YOUR PURSE IN AN OVERHEAD BIN; Nor do i believe any flight attendant would open your purse. Your jewlery is hardly going to impress the former first lady; now a large donation to her husbands library might; try forming an organization help Heather;

We’ve had good experiences with CO, and up until our most recent flights in Sept., everything was fine. Good flightcrews, friendly, professional staff, both on the ground and in the air, so no problems at all. On our recent flights to Florida through EWR, where it was raining when we landed, somehow the contents of our suitcase got completely watersoaked, although the suitcase was undamaged and appeared not to have been unlocked by the TSA. Didn’t discover this until we arrived at our hotel an hour later, and I called CO to report the problem. Lady I spoke to said to just have our clothes laundered/cleaned and submit the receipts to CO on their website claim form, which we did when we arrived home. After waiting five weeks with no response from CO, I called the CO baggage line to find out what had happened to my claim. Was told the claim was denied as we didn’t return to the airport to show the baggage agents the clothing. I didn’t accept that answer, as we had appointments the evening we arrived and for several days later, so I emailed Larry K’s executive assistant the next day (I had spoken with her a few years earlier to praise CO…and it’s not the lady mentioned in the column above of CO contacts), and she called me the next day to say the claim had in fact been approved much earlier and a check was on the way. Don’t know why I was told it was denied, when it wasn’t. Check arrived this week in full payment and some OnePass miles had been added to my wife’s and my accounts, even prior to my calling and email.
So we’re pleased with CO’s (delayed) response and the outcome, and will fly with them again. Clean planes, good crews, and SOME food even in coach, makes sense for us.

Terrible experience- I rang in the new year in the airport after my flight from montreal to newark was delayed 5 times for a total of 10 hours. CO blamed it on weather in newark, but 3 other newark flights went out while we were still sitting there. We were given a $9 meal voucher after all but one food shop were already closed. The one restaurant still open was closing and the kitchen was already closed. They would not honor the voucher for drinks. Our gate was moved 5 times and at one point we had to wait online and get new boarding passes (the flight was apparently cancelled but no one actually said that outloud)! (Not to mention this was after being frisked 3 times by the FAA due to the hightened security. No carry on’s allowed- my brother had to check his backpack and carry around his laptop in his hand!) All this for a 1 hour flight! Contacted customer service and they aren’t interested in compensating us at all. Too bad I had $150 tickets in the city for the night that were never used! ugh. so frustrating.