A gripe story about Continental Airlines

[j]

Like thousands of Americans, I spent most of my weekend stuck in one Airport or another. I will address my gripe specifically with Continental Airlines. I flew into Newark Friday morning for a connecting flight to Boston. It was tight, but there was absolutely no way I should have missed my connection, but the policies and ineptness of their employees caused me to spend an entire day waiting to get re-booked. First mistake: I get off my flight at Concourse A and ask a representative how to get to Concourse C. I showed her my ticket and she directs me to the “AirTrane”, located on the other side of the planet. I arrive there with about 200 other people and feel somewhat relieved when I notice the sign which says trains leave every 5 minutes to Concourse B & C. Twenty minutes later a train comes but the surge of people getting on, and my good manners allowing a woman to go ahead of me, keep me from getting on the train. No problem I think, another train is close behind. Well…I get off the train and low and behold, I have to go through security check once again! (The mistake is she failed to tell me there was a shuttle bus that would eliminate going through security check again). There were the usual delays, and I grabbed my shoes in hand and ran for my gate (which of course was the very last one in the Concourse). I arrive and there are about 10 people at the desk, and I am told, “Sorry, the door has been closed”. I ask, “How long ago”? About 1 minute is the unsympathetic response. Another 5 people arrive for the flight. We are told to go to customer service (the one with the line about 50 people long) and re-book.

Now here is the part that frosts my Yankee ***! That plane (which I could see from the line), NEVER left the gate for another 45 minutes!!!!!!! They sent a half empty plane to Boston knowing damn well we would be lucky to get out of there.

I have had similar situations before with other Airlines and they have always let me get on whether the stupid door to plane had been closed or not, as long as it hadn’t moved.

I left my house at 4AM and arrived at my destination at 8:30 PM. I could have driven there quicker than that!

[gtalum]

One thing to address: the plane probably didn't have any empty seats. When they have an overbooked situation or a lot of standbys, they give away the seats of checked-in passengers who have not arrived at 10-15 minutes before scheduled departure.

Second, where did you hear about a shuttle bus from concourse A to concourse C? I have never heard of one, and that is one of my big gripes with EWR: you have to clear security to change terminals.

While I certainly sypmathize with your situation (I HATE airport delays) I think considering the events of the weekend you should consider yourself lucky to have arrived at your destination the same day. I'd send a letter to Continental. They'll probably offer you some OnePass miles to compensate for your delay.

[j]

One thing to address: the plane probably didn't have any empty seats. When they have an overbooked situation or a lot of standbys, they give away the seats of checked-in passengers who have not arrived at 10-15 minutes before scheduled departure.

Second, where did you hear about a shuttle bus from concourse A to concourse C? I have never heard of one, and that is one of my big gripes with EWR: you have to clear security to change terminals.

While I certainly sypmathize with your situation (I HATE airport delays) I think considering the events of the weekend you should consider yourself lucky to have arrived at your destination the same day. I'd send a letter to Continental. They'll probably offer you some OnePass miles to compensate for your delay.

You may be right about the seats being given away but still no excuse in my eyes. The emplyees down at the Airtrain could have (like several of us asked) called to the gates and alerted them that we were coming. I heard about the bus (and took it) on the return flight back from Boston on Monday. They announced it.

[senorpepr]

While I've never flown through EWR or with Continental, I can sympathize with airport delays as well. I have all sorts of stories, most involving international flight.

One particular story involves a several hour delay at Kansas City because of some light snow at Chicago. Granted, I understand safety, but with my background in aviation weather, I really don't see why the long delay.

Then... there are the two trips I've made to the Philippines.

The first trip... EVERY SINGLE leg of my flight was delayed for one reason or another. That includes the airline (Cebu Pacific) selling my domestic ticket because I wasn't in line 45 minutes prior to departure (thanks to previous delays). Then, a typhoon toward the end cause me to miss a bunch of legs. Eventually, several days later, I got home.

The second trip, I knew I was not going to make it to Manila. I saw a category five typhoon headed toward Manila, but the airlines didn't want to cancel the flight. I made it all the way to Minneapolis (and was about to board that flight on to Tokyo) when they finally announced the cancellation. Then, I had the nightmare of rebooking the flight.

Bottom line... I've found that the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila is one of the worst in the world. It's too old and small for the number of passengers it handles leading to silly delays.

[ohiostorm]

I happened to be stuck in LAX this Saturday because of backlash effects on US Airways. I was told that I would have to wait till Tuesday to get out of the city if I remained on US. I ended up buying tickets on Southwest. I ended up staying in the airport from 5am till around 4pm when our plane left. We had a delayed layover in Vegas then finally got into Pittsburgh around 130am. Should've been home around 330pm.

LAX is very similar to EWR. It is seperated into different terminals which require going through security for each. But the thing with LAX is, each airline is in its own terminal so you wouldn't have to go to another terminal to connect to another flight. With DFW, they have a Skytrain to connect to different terminals there, but its in the sterile area, so you wouldn't have to go through security for each terminal there.

EWR, Philly, Chicago, and the other NYC airports always have problems in bad weather. They have too much traffic and the runway setups aren't great for inclimate weather. It's always nice to try to avoid these airports when traveling. Sometimes it's just not possible to though.