I addressed it to Customer Service, if you can call it that. I wouldn’t. Nothing of my experience with Continental seems to indicate that you have any concept of how to treat your customers, or what the concept of service actually entails. I have travelled an average of more than 100000 miles a year for the past few years and as such, I have expectations. Continental has managed to fall below every single one of them.

Shall we start with the on board service? I have never encountered a group of more disenchanted, bored, arrogant, insensitive, rude and less cutomer friendly staff as I have on your airline. The staff fling food at you, never, ever make the effort of eye contact or a smile, and seem to be under the impression that they are doing you a favour. You are not, but as a paying customer, I guess my opinion doesn’t matter. And I’m not “buddy”. I have never invited you over to my place for a beer, slapped you on the back or watched football with you and cheered the same team. Till I do all of the above, I’m “Mr. Chatterjee” to you. If you can’t pronounce that, or if you couldn’t be bothered finding out what my name is, a polite “sir” will work just as well. If you’re name tag has a first name, I’ll take that as an invitation to address you that way. Failing that, I will use an “Excuse me, sir/ma’am”. Till I agree to our mutual chumminess, please spare me the fake “buddy”, delivered with complete indifference and distaste at the fact that you actually have to work and talk to a pesky customer.

An answer of “You’re probably sitting on it” is not the correct answer to the question “I don’t seem to have received headphones. Could I have a set?”. The correct answer, surprise!, is “Of course!”. And an attendant who spends the entire flight eating cheese plates behind drawn curtains and then walks up and down the aisle with his tie tied on his head, Rambo style, does not inspire confidence in your customers who are supposed to look to him for instructions in case of emergencies. Seriously, you guys are running a business here? And the habit of putting your finger up, as if talking to a disobedient child who seems to be interrupting the grown-up muttered conversation you seem to be having with yourself, for any request? Are you kidding me???? I don’t need to take that from any self-aggrandizing air waitress.

We mourn for the time when travelling by air required a sense of occasion, an effort…Track suits suffice for now for a majority of the travellers, sadly…But would it kill your staff to clean up, to not come out as if they fell out of bed, to actually comb their hair and look…professional?

The food? I’ve taken the effort of taking pictures of the exquisitely awful food you sever on board, complete with the coagulated fat, the burnt pasta and the definitely unappetizing plastic shards. My pregnant wife was left without a meal for more than 7 hours, and I had to endure her wrath. Plan better – this is your bread and butter. Lactose free does not mean vegetarian (with milk included). That cheese sandwich looks as attractive as a used prophylactic. A blank look by the staff does not inspire confidence, and if you do not offer a service, it’s better to admit it than try and bully your way through the situation. A simple apology would have sufficed.

Your ground staff at Newark epitomize the prejudice most people have of American airports – rude, loud, completely indifferent to the needs of your clients, every request met with a martyred sigh. American service is usually fantastic, helped by the promise of tips, I can only presume. Remove that promise, and you’re left with a bunch of people who have the service capabilities of a surly teenagers on probation who have had their Xboxes, cigarettes and beer confiscated. I’ll leave a tip there if it helps better your performance. Failing that option, get them trained! Tips: eye contact, smiling, addressing the client directly : good! Indifference, boredom, loud exasperated sighs: bad. See a pattern? Bring in a few people from the Asian airlines- they could teach you wonders.

Of course, it would also help that you get your reps trained on the more complicated issues. As an international airline flying to Europe, you should know that you are under European jurisdiction (esp since I bought my ticket there and my flight originated there). Pretending you aren’t doesn’t make it go away. That’s another story that I shall take up with the Consumer Protection Agency back home. The bills will be coming shortly.

So, what’s one lonely and upset client to do? I don’t really care what you do with this feedback. I will never choose to fly your airline again – if I have to because someone else has so decided, I shall do so while holding my nose and sighing loudly. What I will also do is publicize. You know that social media that everyone talks about, and which most corporate dinosaurs are dying to manipulate and abuse? I’m a citizen there, with a far flung and widespread net. I shall make myself and my opinions heard there. This letter shall be publicized, and I’ll make it humorous … Throw in a few anecdotes, a couple of expletives and it gets funnier… people like that, and forward emails like that. A request to further post this to their own profiles, a quick blog and an email to choice friends and colleagues (esp those in the travel industry) will ensure that this experience lives on long after this trip. Some basic calculations: Sent to 500 friends (500). 60% forward or post to their profiles (to humour me), each with an average of 200 contacts (200 + (300*200) = 60,200 people will see that in one week. And that’s just one degree of separation. If it gets transmitted further, whoopee!

Hard to make companies understand their lack of respect for my hard-earned money, and the easiest way is through your wallet. Every potential customer out there who laughs at this email will always remember this review of Continental. I am happy to let you know that I already have converts!

If you’re interested: Continental flights ARN-ZRH-EWR on 12 May, EWR-ARN 20 May.

Have a wonderful day!

Regards

Neil

P.S. Please, please ask your pilots and staff to stop referring to each other in superlatives. I’ll decide if the people are “fantastic” and “the best flying the skies” or “can turn water into wine”. You trying to tell me is just annoying.

I also retain the right to publish any correspondence (if any) sent to me by Continental, either in full or part.

cc:
Jeffery Smisek
Chairman, President and CEO

Jim Compton
Executive Vice President and CMO

Mark Moran
Executive Vice President and COO

Zane Rowe
Executive Vice President and CFO

Ron Anderson-Lehman
Senior Vice President and CIO

Mark Bergsrud
Senior Vice President — Marketing Programs and Distribution

Mike Bonds
Senior Vice President — Human Resources and Labor Relations

Mark Erwin
Senior Vice President — Corporate Development and Alliances

Nene Foxhall
Senior Vice President — Communications and Government Affairs

Dave Hilfman
Senior Vice President — Worldwide Sales

Bill Meehan
Senior Vice President — Airport Services

Anne Munoz
Director, Customer Care

Scott O’Leary
Managing director, Customer Experience

Martin Hand
Staff VP – Reservations, Customer Care

Zeo Higgins
Executive Office

In late Feb, my grandfather died, and, of course, this was right in the middle of a Northeastern Blizzard.

We managed to find an inexpensive flight to Newark from RDU. We booked the flight, seats and all, and the price was good for booking only a couple of days in advance of traveling. It was NOT a beareavement rate.

I try to check in online, and get nowhere, they say I have no seats. Call customer service, and I swear she was laughing at me when she told me she couldn’t help me, that I’d have to go to the airport to get this straightened out. Needless to say I wasn’t happy. Later that evening, I checked again, and see that they had us booked on a flight that Sunday (our original flight was Saturday at 6am), but no cancellation of the original flight. I reluctantly call Continental again, and am told “this is in case the flight is cancelled.” I ask if it was cancelled, they say no, and, since I had been keeping track of the weather, which had finally moved away from the Northeast, I was certain I’d get on the flight.

Boy was I wrong.

I get to RDU at 4am. It’s a mob scene at the Continental terminal. Keep in mind that there had been no flights into EWR for a couple of days. It takes an hour to work the line, and I get to the check in desk. She looks and checks us, and our bags in, then says “You’ll get your seat at the gate.”

Swell.

Get to the gate and its mobbed. I’m about 6th in line. All this time I hear a Continental pilot say to the desk agent “You have to bump someone, we have to get to Newark.” The gate agent says to him “You tell them. We’re all ready 30 seats short.”

What???

I get to the front of the line. I ask the agent the likelyhood of getting on the flight. He laughs. I then ask if he can get my checked bag off the flight. If I can’t get on this flight, then I have to drive. (Keep in mind, the first flight available now was Sunday EVENING, not convenient for a funeral). He was quite helpful…..

Then the supervisor gets there. He gets on the PA and explains that they need volunteers because Continental, for whatever reason, decided that they should change plane types for the first flight back to Newark to a plane smaller than was originally scheduled. What kind of sense does THIS make??

So the Super gets to the desk, because someone in first class is having problems. The desk agent says that it should be 10 minutes before my bags are available to me. The super says to him “Nothing comes off that plane, it has to leave on time.” I looked at the super and pretty much exploded. Whose bright idea was this? You WILL get my bags off that flight. All the while pretty much ignoring my questions, fired one after the other. After I said that I wanted my bags, 8 others said the same thing, which made me feel good.

Finally the gate agent (the orignal one) says to me “Your bags will be at Carousel 2 in about 2 minutes.” I thank him, as he’s been quite helpful, and look at the supervisor and tell him that he hasn’t heard the last of this.

I e-mailed Continental customer service to ask the names and e-mail addresses of pretty much any senior manager for the region, and got told I had to call corporate. I am now considering my options, as I’m not wanting to call corporate, and now, thanks to you, I have e-mail addresses of several high level executives to complain to.

Unfortunately for me, the ONLY direct flight to EWR from RDU is Continental. Jet Blue will get me to JFK if I desire. I might have to start going that route.

I explained the situation to the supervisor, who told me that I was stuck and could only get on the MOnday flight. I informed him that I was starting work in Bangkok on Monday and therefore was BEGGING to be transferred to an outbound flight flight with a partner airline (there was an available flight with Air Canada, going from YUL to Toronto to Vancouver to Hong Kong). The supervisor told me there was nothing that could be done; that the best thing for me to do was to cancel my flight with Continental and book with another airline. I asked him again to reconsider, stating that he would be losing a value customer. Unfortunately, nothing could be done for me and I Had to cancel my flight.

Due to the horrific customer service I received with Continental, I was obliged to book a flight to Bangkok with Finnair. I also had to incur cancellation fees with Air Asia (for my scheduled flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok on the 12th of Feb). The total cost of all these amounts to a little under 2000$ CDN of expenses.

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.