"Bumped" without apology or consent
 

Yesterday, my parents took a United flight from San Fran to St. Louis and where they had a connecting Continental flight to get them home. The United flight was 15 min. late. They arrived at the airport and ran for their connecting fight, however, they had to go through security again, which slowed them down. They arrived at the gate 13 min. before the flight and were told that since they weren't there 30 min. ahead, they sold their tickets. (They spoke with another passenger who said he gave up his seat because of over booking...so I'm not sure "sold" is really the correct word anyway.)

Continental offered them nothing but a late flight out today and Continental blamed United. But really, they would not have made it in the 30 min. window even if the other flight was on time, due to some logistical issues within the airport, getting from the one gate to the other, but seriously, they "sold" their seats as they ran through the airport!

My parents went back to United, who arranged for a flight this morning for them and gave them a "stressed traveler" coupon so the hotel room was not so expensive. The other man who voluntarily was "bumped" got a free hotel stay and free airline tickets...and he agreed to it!

They called Continental's customer service line and the lady basically said she would do nothing, other than file a complaint for them, and she told them "but airline tickets are so cheap nowadays"...what the heck is THAT suppose to mean? And these tickets actually were not cheap at all!

Does anyone have any advice? What they want is what they would have gotten if they voluntarily gave their seats up...reimbursement for the hotel and meal, and free tickets for later on. Is this reasonable?

Thanks for any help!
Karma :)

Okay...corrected info, I think...
 

Just got off phone with Continental. Apparently the main issue is that the fist airline, which was American, not United, (although they are showing they flew Alaskan, but I don't think they really did), failed to "check them in" when they checked in for their first flight. If that airline had checked them in, then Continental would have known they were coming, and not bumped them.

So that lady said it was an issue with the other airline for not either checking them in, or telling them they couldn't and sending them to that counter at the first airport.

Aaaahhhh! What a mess! Who is to blame here?

Wow you're pretty much all over the place here. First before you write a complaint, even if it's just a forum, it's best to gather your thoughts and get the story straight because you'll leave yourself open to contradiction. Your major contradiction is
30 minutes is cutting is pretty close and a longer layover would have been better, especially if they are older folks, then it cannot be healthy for them to run through terminals. (I can attest to that as more gray peppers my hair). Second, you say they arrived 13 minutes before the flight... before it departed? if that's true then yes they were late and their seats were released for standbys, not sold. It also sounds like the flight was oversold if Continental had someone who was willing to give up his seat, so your parent's seat was probably given to someone who didn't have a seat, but a confirmed resrvation.

But your parents were late from a United flight, that is where you need to begin. However United did their part in giving them a hotel discount voucher and a new flight.

But to answer your final question, I don't think Continental would have given them the hotel, travel vouchers etc, simply because they were not there or even checked in for the flight. I'm not saying it was there fault, I'm saying they are not qualified to receive such compensation if there were not there from the start. You can try and ask United for travel vouchers as your parents were late from their flight, that would be your only recourse in this matter.

The San Francisco to St. Louis flight was indeed an American Airlines operated flight (AA1276) which also serves as a codeshare for Alaska Airlines (AS1070). I would re-check the facts with your parents before calling American and/or Continental again because they, and you, claim they were only 15 minutes late but both FlightAware and FlightStats show that flight was delayed ~35 minutes:

Airlines cannot "check in" each others passengers. They can interline the bags, but check in can only be done by the airline that operates the flight.

Actually your statement is not true. If both airlines are codeshare partners and/or members of the same alliance then one should, with very few exceptions, be able to check-in once for the first flight of a multi-segment trip and be issued a boarding pass for the connecting flights.

I do this all the time. For example if I have a combination of Alaska and American operated flights or Continental and Northwest and/or Delta (with the current codeshare/alliance agreement) or United and US Airways I can obtain boarding passes for all of my flights on a given day when I check-in for the first flight segment. It doesn't always work with respect to online check-in but at the airport the originating airline should be able to issue boarding passes on a partner/codeshare carrier.

When it gets dicey is when there is a mix of non-partners as in KarmaRocks' parents situation. Yes the flight was an Alaska codeshare and had an Alaska flight number but the flight was operated by American and connected to a Continental flight. Had the original flight been operated by Alaska then boarding passes for the connecting flight could have been issued because currently Alaska and Continental are partners who codeshare on each other and have reciprocal mileage earning and redemption. Since the first flight was operated by American and American and Continental are not in the same alliance and are not codeshare or milage partners then their systems are not inter-connected to facilitate checkin for connecting flights.

You're correct. There are some agreements in place that allow printing "downline" boarding passes. Very few, though.