thoughts
 

alright here it goes

so i leave for the airport with alot of time before boarding, so i would arrive at the airport 2 1/2hours in time to give me time to check in. The road upto the airport was being resurfaced and road works everywhere, so there was very little movement...than there was a car crash that blocked both the lanes as one car was spun out and couldnt be moved. The policee and tow truck took forever, so i didnt manage to get to the check in desk till 35mins before departure.

(singapore airlines tells you that there is construction going on at any airport they are going out of, and if there are any issues with terminals, etc, all online when you go to their website.....i know the accident is a diff scenerio that cant be helped, but at least they provide info and give you a suggested check in time such as arrive 3hrs prior to make sure)

I figured i should be ok since it said there was a 30min cut-off time.

I was wrong, the staff member was unable to check me in, so she gave me options, i decided to go on the nxt flight 2hours later, this way i could get coffee and read the paper.

I figured this was ok since it was a confirmed ticket (even though i thought i would be put as standby, they knew the flight wasnt going to be full) So we boarded the plane and i helped a old couple get to the plane and settled where i realized that the older gentleman had the same seat as i did, we checked both tickets and the seat was assigned to both of us. I ran to the gate agent and asked what was going on and if i should just wait and sit in a available sear once everyone had boarded. He said no your going to have to go over this procedure and so on. (i should have stayed on the plane and asked a flight attendant)

The flight went as planned mostly, nice short 4hr ride all quiete so i read a few chapters in my book. There was a 12year old seated behind me so i figure he would know how to behave, an hour into the flight i keep feeling hard bumps coming from my seat, i turn around to see he is kicking and punchin the seat back and his mom kept supporting him, yeah show me how its done, see thats why no one messes with you in school....blah blah blah, so i asked her to tell her son if he could stop doin that to my seat and she gave me the evil stare and said we paid for these seats and my son is better than you he can do whatever he wants. The flight attendant came and asked him to stop, to which he did and you could hear him mumblin on about how rude and how ****** people are on the flight.

I arrived at my destination to find my bags didnt make it, i filed a missing baggage claim and gave them my forwarding address, i got the bag the nxt morning, 1/2 beat up with missing work clothes, i wrote the airline about it and even though i believe it had nothin to do with the airline employees



btw this didnt happen, its just to see what people say and what their addvice is and suggestions....to help people

i know there are some good and helpful people on here....for example PHXFlyer who some people are mad about sayin he works for the airline and he is an airline sympathisor even though he is just offerein words of help etc

and dont go crazy that i put it in this file i didnt kno where else to put it

If this is indeed completely hypothetical ten shouldn't it be in the discussion forum? If it's not relevant to Continental Airlines in particular than it shouldn't be posted here.

The part of your story about the construction and the accident actually did happen to me though. I was going to Newark airport via the NJ Turnpike. There was bridge construction just north of the airport exit which had traffic down to one lane AND there was an accident obviously the result of an unfriendly merge. I could see the airport in the near distance and planes on approach were flying over us but I knew I would either be cutting it really close or miss my flight. I already had my boarding pass and wasn't checking a bag so I at least knew I wouldn't miss the check-in cutoff but as is usually the case (my dumb luck I guess) the departure gate was at the far end of the concourse. I'm sure folks in Newark got a good laugh that day for after going through screening I took off running with my shoes untied and my belt looped around my neck like a necktie. As I ran my pants were slowly but surely falling down and at one point I almost lost them!

Out of breath, sweating (summertime and the AC in terminal C is horrible) and disheveled I spotted the gate with many people still queued to have their boarding passes scanned. Even though there was no adjustment to the official departure time the boarding was slightly delayed. My only lucky break of the day. As I stood by the galley waiting to take my seat the FA handed me a glass of water. "You look like you need this" she said and she was right!

Now had I arrived at the gate and all had boarded and the agent was printing the manifest would I have begged to get on? You bet! If told no would I have been argumentative..."What do you mean? The plane is still there! YOU'RE about to go down there with your paperwork, why can't I go with you!?" Absolutely not! One has to realize that flat tires, traffic jams, or one's inability to get on the road in a timely manner isn't the airline's fault and especially not the fault of the gate agent. He or she is just doing their job which is to get the aircraft off the gate on time or as close to on time as possible.