NEVER fly Continental airlines again - EVER!!!

[DiverDude]

Just returned from a very nice cruise abourd the NCL Sun with my wife & daughter but I will never, ever fly Continental airlines again and I recommend the same to all other CruiseCritic members. Many fellow Continental flyers I spoke with this past week - not necessarily on the same flights - are taking the same stance against Continental. We were all disgusted with the total disregard by Continental for it's responsibility to paying customers.

 

Attached is a detailed account of the numerous issues encountered. Realize that I travel almost every 2 weeks on business using all of the major airlines so my recent experience with Continental was just so bad by comparison to the usual annoyances of flying that I had to write about it: (please view attachment - .txt format due to the very limited attachment file size constraint)

Continental Airlines sucks.txt

[critterchick]

Dude, people aren't going to be opening attachments from strangers in cyberspace. Waaaaay too dangerous in this day & age of viruses & such!

[Andee]

I agree with critterchick.

 

We've flown Continental many times without problems.

[bUU]

The first-tier major airlines (United, American, Delta) are practically the same, with regard to customer service, as are the second-tier major airlines (Continental, Northwest, and pre-bankruptcy US Airways), as are the budget airlines (Southwest, JetBlue, etc.). Even between these three tiers, there is very little difference.

[DiverDude]

First thing - the attachment is a .txt file, as plain-jane as it gets with no likelyhood of virus capability. Most newer computer users probably don't get this. Also, the file size is not even 20KB, no insideous program hidden in there. There is of course something called AntiVirus software which most everyone has and can run on any attachment if so desired - and recomended.

 

As far as differences in airline customer service, I beg to differ and as someone who flys many different airlines and flys very often, my opinion is based on a broad spectrum of experiences, not just a trip or 2 each year. In the past 6 months I have flown Alaska 9 times, America West once, Continental once, Frontier once, Northwest twice, Southwest once, and United 4 times - again this is just in the past 6 months and most of the trips had multiple flight segments. I do not claim that any of the carriers have great customer service, in my opinion they don't. But by comparison, Continental was pathetic since there were so many different issues at multiple locations and the attitude of it's ground crew employees was consistently awful. The flight crews on the other hand provided adequate service.

 

As a director in a major Semiconductor company that provides engineering services around the country, I do know something about good customer service and the difference between an isolated case of poor performance vs. a systematic failure of providing a minimally acceptable level of service. Yes, this is my opinion and everyone can agree or disagree but the facts are the facts so I am sharing them with whomever is interested in seeing them. I do this because too many people complain about a service they recieve or a product they buy but they do not take any action. If people do not take action then the providers of these services or products do not feel any pain and will not take action to make improvements. If you take the worst offender of a given marketplace - in this case I feel it is Continental for the airline industry - and impact thier bottom line through public forums then at some point they may have to take corrective action. This in turn gets the attention of other providers in the same marketplace and they too try to improve. And the winner is - us consumers!

 

Now, the likelyhood of a single post creating a major change in an industry is astronomical at best but if enough others get involved that are also tired of how poorly comsumers are treated, who knows - at least it is better than no action at all... IMHO

[bUU]

vBulletin software does not verify that the file extension of a file uploaded matches the data within the file. While it seems unlikely that Windows will recognize that it was an .exe uploaded with a .txt file extension, and run it as an .exe, I wouldn't bet my data on it.

[vivian02]

I think your situation is a good example of what can happen when flying to a cruise port. If you have much cruising experience you will know what decisions to make when flying. You are also sending the airlines a message on just how they are doing. I think everyone including the airlines got the message. I placed a complain on this board with a flight from Frankfurt into LAX early last summer. The cruise was wonderful until my dealings with the Airlines information person at Terminal 7 who claimed I had to return to Terminal 1? Anyway by using my best ability to determine what to do we made our flight by nine minutes. In your case you you made the best choice for making the cruise a sucess. The Airlines have made big cut back and it shows! Getting good customer service these days is tough. I think this board is the right place to let off steam. All of us will learn from it. By the way I have a flight scheduled back into LAX from Munich this coming May. I will do all I can to avoid Terminal 7. Fortunately I will have 3 hours in between flights. Now that I think about it I have a 55 minute layover in Paris CDG and I don't speak french. This might be interesting. Good luck flying

Tim

 

Norwegian Sky Alaska 05/03

Norwegian Star Hawaii 11/03

Royal Caribbean Splendor of the Seas Meditterean 05/04

[SubSailor]

DiverDude, I made a similar determination about 2.5 years ago regarding Continental. My experience was with the Flight Crew on my Houston to Norfolk leg. I'll spare you all the details - in summary, the flight attendant was the rudest individual, in a service industry, I have ever encountered. I had to contain my rage as I was concerned that I would end up in shackles for the remainder of the flight.

 

I will NEVER fly Continental again!

[Jane110]

DiverDude,

 

I read your report and unfortunately found your experience with Continental to be pretty much the same as my prior experience with them.

 

We flew with them two weeks ago from Newark to London. Since we were flying Biz Class, we were treated nicer and lines moved along faster, but their service was still below the standards of the other big airlines. At check-in my husband had an argument with the luggage screener. He insisted that my husband could not lock his luggage. That's incorrect info and the TSA *does* allow you to lock it after it's been screened. The handler insisted my husband was wrong. We called a supervisor, who told my husband he was right and that his luggage could be locked after screening. No apology from CO personnel for not knowing his job.

 

This is certainly not as awful as your experience, but definitely a barometer of their customer service, which I've always found to be lacking.

 

I do hope you write that letter to the CO and express your disappointment.

 

Jane

[ciship]

Flew Continental for the LAST time a year or so ago. New Orleans Customer service was horrible and Continental screwed up all kinds of things regarding our tickets, including our seating arrangements which was the worst for me especially b/c I hate to fly and I need the comfort of my DH while flying. They had us totally separated on the plane and I freaked out. Luckily, a sweet young college student showed compassion to me and gave up her seat so that I could be joined with my DH. She took my horrible middle seat all the way to the back of the plane. She saved me....bless her heart.

 

Anyway......never flying Continental again either! If I ever fly again at all!! Taking Amtrak these days instead..........

[CruisinMatt]

The attachment is fine, I opened it up :D

[dsclark]

My worst airline experience was with the former Western Air, flying out of Hawaii. I looked up and I saw 4 people staring down at me saying I was in their seat. We were all assigned the same seat on a full flight. As they say, posession is 9/ths of the law...

[bUU]

My worst experiences were on Delta. Seems that the airlines are all equal-opportunity disappointers. :)

[Philip217]

You should never fly US Flag Airlines. They are universally poor when it comes to service, food, and on-time performance.

I gave up on them years ago.

 

Even some of the new regional Chinese Airlines put the American ones to shame.

[StephenJohnson]

You should never fly US Flag Airlines. They are universally poor when it comes to service, food, and on-time performance.

I gave up on them years ago.

 

Even some of the new regional Chinese Airlines put the American ones to shame.

 

Sadly, the Chinese airlines (which are, no doubt, perfect in every way) - offer only somewhat limited service within North America for those of us who mostly travel there.

 

I have no idea what the OP's problem was - and frankly, if he doesn't want to post it here, I'll live without the knowledge - I'm not following a link off to someone's rant, scary viruses or no (Lions and tigers and bears, Oh my!).

 

We regularly see all manner of "OMG [insert brand name here] is so awful and I'm NEVER NEVER NEVER dealing with them again and neither should you" posts here - if we followed them, we'd all run out of purchase options pretty rapidly.

 

So, to the OP - sorry you had a bad experience, but you may want to consider switching to decaf rather than switching airlines.

 

Good cruising to all!

[Philip217]

Stephen,

 

Actually the Chinese airlines do not get my vote either. They are not nearly as good as the other Asian airlines. JAL, Asiana and Singapore Air are the way to go.

 

But the Chinese airlines do have:

- all new airplanes

- fantastic new airports everywhere

- TV screens on every seat back

- telephones in every seat handle (with reasonable rates)

- low ticket prices

- stewardesses who can give you something more than attitude

- stewardesses under the age of 1000

- stewardesses who can fit down the aisles

- tickets that cost the same price on the day of the flight as 6 months earlier

- free movies (and good ones)

- free drinks

- not only food, but good food

- exxcellent on time performance

- no luggage limits

- no overcrowding (and no American Bison sitting next to you)

 

Dont you wish you could have that in America?

Please remind me again who invented the airplane??

[bUU]

Americans are far more interested in keeping their costs down, than in the service and amenities you list. No airline can beat airlines like JetBlue and Southwest for what Americans want from their domestic airlines.

[StephenJohnson]

Would it be nice if North American (& most European) airlines didn't suck? Yes

 

Is it likely to change? No, alas.

 

My main point is that there's not a lot of sense in pitching a hissy fit about it.

[VanillaGorilla]

I completely agree with, and understand, DiverDude's point about consumers' need to voice problems (and good experiences at that) with service providers of any type. It's people that just sit back and take it that make it "okay" for service providers to treat the consumer as rudely as they please without fear of repercussion, as in a potential loss of business. He has a right to voice his experience and opinion to whomever wants to listen. It is up to the individual reading or hearing it to determine wether or not to give their business to the offender. To tell someone to just shut up and keep their complaining to themselves is just pompous and stupid.

We, as consumers, not only have the right to voice our complaints to as many people as we have access to, but we also have a responsibility to each other to do so. :cool:

[Bonnie&Rob]

Gee Philip217, way to get us to switch to your favored airline. Just call us American bison's, that will entice us!

 

And the nerve of the American airline companies who don't discriminate and fire those flight attendants that are over your age preference.

[bUU]

I completely agree with, and understand, DiverDude's point about consumers' need to voice problems

Talk is cheap. What matters is what governs your purchasing decisions. If you get service you don't care for, but still patronize the supplier, then complaining won't make any difference -- especially when there aren't any suppliers providing what you want for as low of a price as the supplier you're complaning about.

[VanillaGorilla]

Talk is cheap. What matters is what governs your purchasing decisions. If you get service you don't care for, but still patronize the supplier, then complaining won't make any difference -- especially when there aren't any suppliers providing what you want for as low of a price as the supplier you're complaning about.

True. I'm not sure if you meant that to be a counter what I said, but I didn't say anything to the contrary. If a consumer is unhappy with a service...then he/she should discontinue that service...DiverDude already said he was doing that....but then take it a step further and do your best to influence as many other people to come to the same opinion as you and hopefully they will take the same actions. One voice is just that...but many can make a difference.

[bUU]

I see what you're saying: Try to spread the dissatisfaction. :)

[Tex_Jen]

Okay, have to add my two cents. I fly often, not as often as DiverDude, but often enough. I also work in a customer service industry and have not seen anyone regardless of business, reach the level that I am used to receiving or providing in the past few years. We have definitely lost the "Customer is always right" mentality.

 

Most airlines have suffered in the customer service category. I feel for DiverDude, but there was a weather issue involved in this situation so the airline is not forced to make sure you have decent connections or that no further expense be endured. It bites when that happens, but it's also called Mother Nature. Planes may have been leaving, but your plane was not there yet. That means that weather in Portland was not the only weather affecting your plane. This set off a chain of events that colored your perceptions from the start.

 

Again, disappointing, a pain in the a**, yes. Grounds for letting Continental see wrath on these boards? Not yet. You said you were going to contact the higher ups at Continental to let them know of the situation and your aggravation for lack of service. Let that play out, before you blow them up here on the boards. Nobody can fix problems they don't know exist. You pointing them out, may do the trick. I had similar issues with what another poster called a first tier airline (United), although, I might dispute that term. Did they at least try to resolve the issue? Yes. Was I satisfied? No. Do I use that airline anymore? No. If Continental has been consistently poor providers of service to you, then, by all means, don't use them.

 

I, however, am forced to use an airline (not Continental or United) I don't like much because it is the only one that flies to where my parents live. Talk about no competition and no reason to improve service.

 

I hope you have a blessed Holiday and that Continental can resolve your issues to your satisfaction!

[VanillaGorilla]

I see what you're saying: Try to spread the dissatisfaction. :)

Naw...that's not the right thing to do either. What I am saying is.. let other people know about your experience, so that other's that have been or that eventually may be treated the same way will know that they are not the only one that has felt that way so that "we" can speak up as a group rather than as one individual. And, by doing so, you are also giving others a chance to make a decision about who to chose for a particular service with some insight from someone else that has delt with them previously. I think, and maybe I'm wrong, that is one of the purposes of this board in general. I for one come here to see what other's have experienced so that I can make some decisions that I may otherwise have little or no information about outside of the advertising done by the cruiseline itself.