Stupid Continental Airlines

[BackInTex]

or more likely stupid flying public for letting them use our airways and treat us this way. I had booked a business trip to New Orleans a few weeks ago. I would be leaving next Tuesday. Today I found out the Wedneday meeting was cancelled so I don't need to leave until Wednesday. Returning the same day, Friday, as originally planned. So I contacted our company travel department and requested the change. Here are the details:

OLD TICKET/S - TOTAL AMT .............. 151.74
NEW TICKET/S - TOTAL AMT .............. 230.13
AIRLINE PENALTY/REISSUE FEES .......... 150.00
ADDITIONAL AMOUNT CHARGED ............. 228.39

I saved $1.74 by not just throwing the old ticket away and allowing Continental re-sell my seat.

I wonder what the Continental CEO would due if he tried to return something, say a $75 shirt to get a different size, and ended up having to pay an additional $73.

Or if he went to exhange something and the price had gone up and he had to pay the difference. The airline industry is the only industry that gets away with this stupid stuff. No wonder only one airline is making money consistently. And it happens to be the one that doesn't screw you when plans change.

[ghostjmf]

Yes, I agree it is crap. On the other hand, I bet it was all in the fine print when you went ahead & bought your ticket.

I don't know if Continental has this, because I haven't had reason to fly them lately, but Northwest, not a paragon of charity exactly, has starting offering $13.00 insurance against this. Even on non-refundable tickets. At least for on-line purchases of tickets. And I haven't bought it because I started buying my tickets online a short while ago just to avoid a $20 "talk to a human" fee; it irks me to lose 2/3s of my saving to insurance. And I wonder if they're even offering this to people who bought over the phone. And I further wonder how easy it will be to get them to honor it, & whether blackout dates etc will apply.

But eventually I'll be buying it, just to avoid what just happenned to you. Its only a matter of time it happens to us all.
Gee, that sounds fatalistic. Its only a cancelled flight!

[Snaxx]

I had this kind of experience with Southwest Airlines. I had to rebook a mid-December Dallas flight departing from Philadelphia instead of Long Island because I moved.

Old r/t ticket price booked in July out of Long Island: something like $354.00
New r/t ticket from Philadelphia: something like $210.00

Result: $144.00 credit that could be used towards another flight before July 2009. What a price drop!

[BackInTex]

I had this kind of experience with Southwest Airlines. I had to rebook a mid-December Dallas flight departing from Philadelphia instead of Long Island because I moved.

Old r/t ticket price booked in July out of Long Island: something like $354.00
New r/t ticket from Philadelphia: something like $210.00

Result: $144.00 credit that could be used towards another flight before July 2009. What a price drop!

Southwest rocks. Too bad, for me, they fly out of the 'far' airport here. My comute would be an additional 30-50 minutes each way.

[kayrharris]

Yep, Southwest is IT when it comes to changing a ticket. You can even
just not fly when you planned instead of rebooking and get your full credit to wait on another opportunity.