United Airlines review: What a pathetic way to run a business! 23

My name is Conrad R. Jones. My wife, Elaine Blanchard Jones and I are both seniors (73 and 71). We were set to take a trip to Bordeaux, France to attend a Jazz Festival and we decided to extend our stay to include a few nights in Paris. We went to the airport in New Orleans to make the change. The agent there put us on the phone with another agent and we spent 1 hour and 22 minutes, mostly on hold with that person, but finally made the change. The cost to us was an extra $200.00 per ticket.

On the day we left for Bordeaux, our flight, CO 0217 from New Orleans was one hour late leaving, cutting the time in Newark to thirty minutes for us to make our connecting flight. The flight in Newark, CO0138, closed it’s doors and we sat in the plane at the gate for twenty minutes. It seems that there were planes behind us blocking the way. When we did push off from the gate, we waited forty minutes in line before taking off. We got to Paris with 35 minutes to get to another terminal for our next flight.

When we got there, the person told us that we did not have boarding passes and sent us out of the secured area to the front desk. After ten minutes or so standing in line, the agent told us we DID have boarding passes and we had to go through security again. By time we got to our gate, the flight, CO 6060 was long gone and we were sent to the Air France counter where the agent told us we would have to buy another ticket. As he checked the roster, he could not find our names on the flight that we had missed. It seems that we were not on the flight that was marked on our tickets, but on the next flight to Bordeaux. This too was an hour and a half late. But we did arrive in Bordeaux that evening without our luggage. It arrived until the next day at mid morning.

We took the train to Paris and, on the day we left from DeGaulle on Continental, this flight was late, and the agent there put us on a later flight from Houston back to New Orleans. Upon arriving at our gate in Houston , this flight was also late and we were assured that it would be a short time before we left. An hour later, we were advised that they were flying a crew in from Dallas. Then they were late. Then, it turned out that there wan NO crew.

Finally, at about 10:30 PM, we were told that the flight was canceled. At that time there were three flights to New Orleans gathered at the gate. We were given seating assignments for a 6:15 AM flight the next morning and at fifteen minutes after midnight, told to go to a certain hotel (that turned out to be filled). My wife and I spent the rest of the night trying to sleep on the floor of the chapel in the airport with some pillows and blankets we scrounged. Customer service did nothing for us---in fact they closed down and left us to our own devices.

The topper was that the 6:15 flight that morning was LATE taking off. So instead of arriving home at seven P.M. Thursday evening, we got home at nine A.M. Friday morning. Our “dream trip” to Paris turned into a nightmare thanks to Continental Air Lines.

Continental Airline should get an award for the World Worst Service in airline history. My ex-high school friends and I boarded a Continental plane going from JFK (NY) to IAH (TX) on our little 4 day old friends reunion (just for the records, it’s been 7 years since we last saw each other), the flight number was 709. It was the worst experience in human history. The flight attendant had no sense of politeness; the pilots were a bunch of liars. Let me get to the point.

At first the flight was delayed from 4:20pm to 6:00pm that was ok because things happen. After finally boarding the plane, at around 6pm, we were stuck on the plane for another 5 hours, with the worst attendant and the greatest liars (the pilot) and worst of all, no TV, no radio no form of entertainment. At first they said ETC did not release the flight due to weather conditions, meanwhile the weather was perfect, and one couldn't have had a better weather than that. After about 4 hours they said ETC finally approved us to fly but there was a little situation. They said we ran out of fuel (first of all, what kind of plane runs out of fuel before taking off). Well everybody was at least anxious and excited that the plane can at least take off after getting fuel. They gave us a rhetorical option of either taking off and stopping somewhere along the road to get some fuel or just refill before we take off. After we were giving the option without a way of giving them our feedback, they suggested that the Agents were going to come aboard to speak with us to see if anybody wanted to be put on the next available flight, (after being on the plane for 5 hours, i doubt if anybody will want to come down), that wasn't even the case. After over 5 hours, they finally announced that the flight was canceled and that we were going to be put on the next flight which was 5Am, put in mind, we were still in the plane all those while. After we all came down from and lead into the bus, they stood us in the bus with no reason for another 30 minutes for no just cause. And we finally were allowed back into the terminal. Everybody were anxious to speak with that agents to really find out what was going on, first of all there were just 2 regular aggressive almost non English speaking attendant that did not even have any information as to what was going on. According to the information board, the flight was in transit. After severe questioning of these 2 gentle men, they finally told us that the next available flight was on Sunday (JULY 1st) when our vacation was over on the 2nd. They lied to us that were going to be on the next flight, ETC was holding back the flight, and all other lies, we all had to settle for the option of not going on our reunion which has been planned for over 2 years. Apparently, one of the passengers in the plane also experience similar situation, on the same airline, same plane with same employees. My point is do not fly Continental Airline if you do not want to experience this kind of pathetic situation.

I agree with them, I lost nine CD's out of my bags during check-ins.

I need a letter of proof for insurance of fight delay. Fight #2029. Milwaukee to Huston. Two passengers Thomas E. Svendsen and Renee R. Rego. Confermation #, s BG6ENV and BF6MWP. Thank You. RENEE R REGO

We were shocked that Continental stopped flights from Newark to Sarasota, Florida! The flight was always booked, no empty seats. We were frequent fliers several time per year! WHY!?

Vulgar tv viewing. I monitor what my four year old watches at home. Then we board Continental and he was exposed to not only a movie of bad taste but something for half an hour that the steward referred to as advertising. Three women in bed together-what are you advertising. Almost nude women on the beach and shopping for clothes. Then they followed that garbage with some kind of music video. My rights as a citizen were not respected, we do not watch that trash in our home. I complained only to have the attendants agree it was not that bad and that it would be off soon. To start out our trip the person are two people who checked our suitcase would not stop talking to one another to acknowledge our existence to take our suitcase, we finally butted into their conversation about daycare, we then had to worry about our luggage. The girl was very friendly to the couple ahead of us, even helping them to save some money. Is this a racial thing? When we boarded our flight we found out our family of three would not even be sitting together. We asked someone to change places with one of us but they were a rude group of boys in their 30's who then joked and giggled on and off and made silly remarks the whole four plus hours except for when the guy next to me took a nap. He fell on me as he slept, he was too large for his seat and smelled of sweat and onions. Some of this I guess can not be helped but I should not have to sit with some repulsive man instead of my husband and son and I should not be forced to watch vulgar television. Someone should file a court action for this.

Oh good lord, get a life. Be prepared and bring things for your kids to do so they don't have to see "almost nude" people on a beach (lol). Also, they have this thing called the internet where you can purchase airline tickets and select your seats at the same time so you can all sit together.

My mom n dad had taken a flight from delhi(INDIA) to newark, with a connecting flight from newark to cincinnati. They missed their connecting flight from newark to cincinnati as their delhi to newark flight had reached newark quiet late. It has been two days and these continental guys are alloting them night flights only ; which gets cancelled each time. About 5 to 6 flights are available during the day time, but each time they allot them only the night flights. The airline has not even provided any accommodation to them. It is highly deplorable on the airlines part and this action is totally unjustified. This has caused lot of inconvenience to my parents. Continental Airlines should give preference to long route fliers and learn to take the responsibility and serve their customers better ; atleast for god sake dnt be so unfair to ur customers. This dissuades people from choosing ur airline.

This is actually a compliment for your customer service person: Diane Johnson. I had an issue with being charged a $150.00 per ticket fee when I made a mistake in booking a flight to visit with my daughter in New Orleans. She has taken a year off from her teaching job to go and help out at a church in New Orleans. I must have been distracted when I booked my husband's and my flight to visit with her and I switched the itinerary and booked it backwards. I didn't realize it until 2 days before the flight. I felt soooo stupid. When I called Continental, the woman there was helpful. It would have cost us over $1000 dollars for the rebooked flights. We choose to use 75, 000 miles we had accumulated and I believe we were also charged a $100. fee for each ticket. She said we would be able to use the amount we paid for the tickets on our next flight. I went to use the credit for a flight to California to visit our other daughter and was told we could use the credit but would have to pay and addtional $150.00 per ticket for cancelling our previous flights.
I was very upset. The rep who booked the ticket for me (Maurice) was very understanding and suggested I call Customer Care. I did and explained my story to Diane Johnson. She took pity on my plight and understood why I was so upset. She went ahead and waived the fees for us.
I so appreciate her understanding and willingness to help. It was very nice to speak with someone with a heart!

On February 11, 2010, our non-stop Continental flight was canceled from Bombay to Newark due to inclement weather. They rebooked us without our knowledge to a flight on the 17th! 6 days later!

After calling Continental, an agent rebooked us on a flight from Bombay to Newark via Frankfurt (2 flights). To my shock, we were charged an additional $425 per person (3 people all together)!

Continental could have charged us whatever they wanted for us to rebook our flight closer to our original departure date. I will never travel Continental again since they are criminal for what they do to their customers and how they take advantage of inconvenienced travelers.

While waiting in line for hours at Newark Airport (nj) trying to make my flight on 12/29 after my previous flights had been cancelled b/c of the weather I experienced to most incredibly rude group of Continental workers I have ever come across in my whole! I understand that the airport was crazy because of the blizzard but the way in which Continental chose to handle the situation was completely disorganized and lacked any logical thought what so ever. I very patiently waited in line for a really long time and kept checking my flight status on my PDA while waiting in line. When I noticed that the time kept getting closer and closer to my delayed flight time I asked the woman walking by if there was anythingshe could do to ensure I made my flight. Her only response was " your going to have to wait in line like everyone else". I had already checked in online and just needed to check my bag which would take all if 1 minute to do. I asked yet another woman if she could help and was told " my job right now is helping the people going to Tel Aviv make there flight so that's all I'm concerned with found right now". I heard the first call for my flight so I stepped out of line to walk up to the check in counter and asked yet another woman if she was able to help since my flight to Boston had just arrived. She in turn says " Boston I dont think there is a flight going to Boston right now". I mentioned I had just heard them make the first call and she said shed find out and be right back. Needless to say she never came back. I finally was told to speak to the "team leader". His only response to me was saying that I'm going to miss my flight along with everyone else. This wouldn't have bothered me as much but they kept calling group of people going on international flights up in mass quantities so that they could make their flights! I'm talking about 60ish people going to Tel Aviv, 50ish people going to Port Au Spain and at least 75 people going to Santo Domingo with an average of 4 bags (that's being conservative) each. So at the end of the night (1am) I ended up being 1 of the last people on line when there had originally beena few hundred people standing behind me in live earlier. My biggest grievance is if it's okay for me to miss my flight why wasn't it okay for those people going to Tel Aviv, Port Au Spain and Santo Domingo to miss theirs?

I have been on hold and transferred for the past hour and these comments are true. Just let Continental go bankrupted the next time. Write your congressman and Senator not to bail them out and about your complaints - for certain the company does not listen. I have had three (3) round trips that 142 miles each (71 each way) to get my son off this morning. They wanted him to get a $300 ticket if he would walk all the way to the entrance ticket stand while his bags were being returned to him because their pilot was an hour and half late. That caused him to miss the next two connections since they were full. They even wanted him to fly to Newark the next connecting place where there were no seats then available in order to get his $300 certificate. Why could they have not called us before we left for the airport since they knew since last nite that their pilot was not going to make it. After one hour and half another agent came on the call to only hang up or lose me. The first Continental agent was rude and hung up on me. I have had it with this sorry airline and do not recommend anyone fly with them. Let him go bankrupted like the rest of the terrible services.

I have been flying Continental for seven years and am a OnePass member. Recently after not taking a vacation for two years I decided to fly out to visit family. I purposely chose Continental because of my OnePass, even though they were slightly more expensive. Now Continental charges for everything! Bags, food, even a movie. The customer service was horrible, two employees stood around chatting at ticketing while people waited patiently to be called upon. Instead, I wound up being proactive and stepping up to the counter and clearing my throat loudly. When I arrived home and was checking in for my return flight, there was no record of my flight! I wound up spending my last day of "vacation" driving out to the airport to remedy the situation. To add insult to injury I have recently learned that I will not be credited for a leg of my journey, because they are not a Continental affiliate, even though Continental was the one that changed my ticket and booked me on this leg of my journey. I am done with this airline. Never again. Goodbye Continental!

My colleagues were scheduled to fly from San Francisco to India on Continental Airlines. My colleagues missed one day of business seminars they were presenting because of erroneous arrival date information emailed by Continental Airlines. They had purchased two business class tickets, costing over $10, 315.00 as well as rented lecture halls, paid for advertising, hired caterers, and other expenses. The actual expenses for the missed meeting were $4000.00. They had a difficult time recouping the lost business due to missing the seminar. As a consideration of financial losses I requested two free business/first class tickets anywhere Continental flies.

Over the course of a year I was in contact with Ms. Self-King at Continental Airlines. I provided advertising and seminar invoices for the missed seminar, a copy of the seminar advertising, and Continental Airline’s confirmation with the incorrect arrival date. Because one of my colleagues was a frequent international business traveler with Continental Airlines, I assumed Continental Airlines would want to keep a valued costumer. I provided Ms. Self-King with his Continental Airlines OnePass Gold Elite number as well elite numbers for other airlines that he would have used when flying Continental. I indicated that in the last year (at the time of the complaint) that he flew to India 6 times (4 of the flights were on Continental). He also made numerous trips to Central America, a large portion of the flights were on Continental in Business Class.

Several times over the course of the year I requested the free tickets as a consideration of the financial losses. Ultimately my colleagues were offered travel certificates for $500.00 each or 30, 000 bonus OnePass miles if they singed an indemnity release. They did not agree to these terms.

Our last contact with Ms. Self-King was in May of 2009 when my colleague emailed her thanking her for the offer but indicated that our expenses and business income lost were excessive. A $500 travel voucher did not come close to compensating the losses. They did not agree to sign the indemnity release with the offer Continental presented.

Continental Airlines lost loyal customers. It is now company policy to only use Continental Airlines as a last resort.

I have filed a complaint with Consumer Affairs and the Aviation Consumer Protection Division. I also plan to notify the airline that I've posted this complaint.

I just had the trip from hell. I usually travel on Jet Blue and Southwest but this trip was booked by my company and my return flts were on Continental. I arrived at Boston airport on Friday evening to find out my flt was delayed by an hour. Clerk told me it would be no problem as I would still arrive in Newark in time to make my connection. When we arrived we we waited on the tarmac for 25 minutes because they didn't have a gate ready for us. When I finally got off plane I was told to look for a cart to get me to the connection gate which was 30 gates away. I ran for at least 10 gates before finding a cart willing to take me. When I got there the door was closed and even though there were 2 other people who also were suppose to be on the plane they would not ask the pilot to re-open the doors so we could get on. We were told to go to the service desk to get re-ticketed. I waited over an hour at the service desk. I watched the clerks treat every passenger before me with disdain. They showed no sympathy for any of us. When my time came I was informed I could ge a seat on the 8:45 flight the next morning. I asked if they would put me up and she said no because it wasn't their fault I missed my connection. When I asked whose fault it was she replied "air traffic control". I asked her for a list of hotels and she said she couldn't help me. I told her I had my wallet stolen and had no id except for my passort and no credit cards - only cash. Most reputable hotels require a credit card. She said it wasn't her problem.
I ended up spending a miserable night at Newark airport. My flight the next morning was delayed an hour. After finally boarding and the door closing I was finally thinking I was on my way home. We were then informed by the pilot that there was a technical problem and that maintenance was trying to resolve it. One and a half hours later we finally took off. Halfway through the flight I asked an attendant for some water to take some pain pills (My back was really hurting due to all the sitting (12 hours in the airport and then 8 hrs on the plane) She never came back - I asked her again 20 minutes later and she told me I could wait for the next drink service. 25 minutes later she got to my row and said "oh yeah you need water". If only one Continental employee had shown any compassion for me I would not be writing this complaint. Even if Continental offered free seats I would never fly Continental again.

I would like to share my story with the recent trip with Continental. I have booked a flight with continental from ewr-pbi and pbi-ewr for me and my wife. When I bought the ticket, I have made a change to it after a few hours and customer service informed me that the change was completed. the change was a date change of the return flight. The confirmation email and fax showed the updated change.

Long story short, on the way back to EWR on the PBI airport, me and my wife was able to check in and pass security. At about 30 min prior to boarding ( Yes, 30 min prior to boarding; was able to check in and pass security), i was told that my wife does not have a ticket (obviously a ticket was issued to my wife with her name and a seat assigned) unless I pay $303. Apparently, when they were making the change to my ticket, only myself had areturn ticket and my wife was refunded the amount of $114. I honestly do not check my credit card for refund or charges as I was relying on the confirmation email and fax confirmation. I basically had a choice of paying $303 or leave my wife behind ( remember that this is 25 minutes prior to the flight; did I really have a choice?)

When I complained to continental, they basically said that my complain has no basis since they apparently refunded me the $114 and have to pay the $303 value of the ticket.

I believe that my complaint has merit, since an email and fax details showed my wife has a ticket and a seat number ( i was even able to change our seating a month before the flight) so this would show that we are registered in that flight.

I do believe also that the fact that we were issued a boarding pass and passed security in PBI means that we are registered and booked in that flight.

Do you think that I should continue on with my complain or move on and suck up the $303?

Despite living in Houston, Continental's hub, I take great pleasure in flying any other airline I can to avoid giving Continental any money. I fly business class but on the odd occasion that I have no choice but to select a Continental flight I even fly economy to minimize their revenue. So far in one year I've denied them over $100, 000 which I was happy to spend on British / European / Asian airlines where check in is not an ordeal and the cabin crew are not rude.
Classic US airline "the best of the best"...

Son was coming home from California for week leave before heading to afghanistan, went to airport and was bumped from his flight, was told it was over booked by five people no other information was given at this time other then have a nice day. He then went to Jetblue bought another ticket and got home. Went to airport in R.I. to return to California to check in, was emailed confirmation number, was told the ticket was canceled because he was a no show in California. It is VERY DISAPPOINTING that someone trying to come home, before going to fight, for their right, to go to work and scam someone out of there HARD earned money. The [censored] at T.F. Green had nothing to say other then call the 1-800-we care number. Any company that treats our men in such a way should be boycotted, probably owned by a foreign corporation, if not they should be ashamed. Its bad enough that the government doesnt help with the cost. Beware of Continental airline have seen a lot of complaints.

Continental has very poor customer service, and is in the practice of gouging their customers. I paid 544 USD for a trip that included a 9-day itnierary. I wanted to come back three days earlier thanthe whole 9 days. I was told I would have to pay a $150 change fee and an additional $283 to make up the difference in a ticket - that was just a three day earlier flight. This was crazy. So, I would end up paying $433 to come back three days earlier under the same itinerary after already paying $544 for the tickect. This, in my opinion is madness. The only "break" I could get is if I cancelled the whole itinerary, paid $110 and used 50K sky miles - but would have to leave earlier. Trust me, there was no negotiation with this either. I absolutely despise Continental Airlines. Too bad they are cornering the market - otherwise I would avoid them altogether. Trust me when I say, I will always look for alternatives to flying Continental before having to book a trip with them. Any business that actively gouges their customers is bad...Boo on Continental!

I arrived at Newark Airport in plenty of time to make my 7:20 am flight. after parking in the long term parking lot, I waited for the shuttle bus. It arrived 15 minutes later. The bus driver must have had a fear of driving because he did not go over 5 mph. This delayed my arrival at the check in counter by 10 minutes.

The check in was a total nightmare. There was a huge line of people and the attendants were worthless. By the time I was able to check in my luggage, I was told that because I was late, I had to check in at the gate. OK, I didn't have a problem with this. However, the attendant told me that I had to take my luggage with me. I questioned this and she said that it was too late to check it in, so I would have to take it with me.

Of course when I tried to go through security, they told me my luggage was too big to be a carry on. Something I knew from the start, but I figured that the person who told me to take it to the gate would have the proper training for a situation like this. Well, I returned to the regular check in counter. By the time I got through the massive line of people, my flight was in the air.

So now, I am sitting here on a standby status. The first plane I could have taken was booked solid. I now have to wait another 4 hours until the next flight. I was told that this flight is also booked solid.

Had it not been for the total incompetence of the check in agent, I would have been on the flight I originally booked. I was supposed to land in Las Vegas at 9:30 am. This would have allowed me to go to the hotel, check in and get ready for a meeting with a client. Now I have to cancel the meeting, which would have brought a lot of business to my company and hope that the client understands the situation.

Thanks Continental! Once again, you have proven that you have the worst airline I have ever had the misfortune of taking. I can assure you that I am going to "go to the top" on this one!

Negligent about passenger's ID info & ticket processing. Claimed that ticket had been used when passenger was standing right in front of them & ticket had clearly not been used. Issued boarding passes for passenger who had already flown instead of looking at current passenger's ID driver's license & issuing proper passes w/ correct name & info.

Inconsiderate treatment for passenger foot injury. Patient produced dr's note about meds for foot injury - totally ignored w/ the words: "Policy is policy!" Didn't consider delay in dr's app't caused delay to airport. Didn't help procure cart so passenger wouldn't have to traverse entire airport to reach last gate in the Cleve Hopkins Airport.

Insensitivity w/ regard to patient's condition.

I see a trend; I had a request for accommodations for an acute injury that were denied as well. When I filed the "formal complaint", I was told it would be "handled internally" which means that nothing will happen. I wonder if there is a class action lawsuit to be had here for folks who were not accommodated per ADA regs?

For the past 52+ hours I have been attempting to book a published fare ($783.60) that Continental will not honor.

I have called, tried on the website and am told that their partner will not 'release' the fare. Surely the airlines should be forced to honor published fares, especially if they remain advertised for longer than two days.

After three days and several hours on the phone with Continental, the most they can offer is a Case Number and promise to have yet another person call me back within 72 hours.

As such, I may need to book with another airline, which would prompt me to boycott Continental (and United). A shame for both of us, as we've had a mutually beneficial relationship over the past years.

I would certainly appreciate Continental Airlines to give me the requested flight for the published price, plus compensation for the hours of time I have lost. And should I feel the need to book with another airline, I should expect compensation that is at least equivalent to the difference of the fares as well as for the inordinate amount of stress and trouble this has caused.