Continental Offers Hot Sauce in Lieu of Customer Service
 

If I had received a little bit of compensation for my mutilated luggage that I got back from Continental Airlines I would have forgiven them for the cardboard sandwich with melted cheese that I got during my four-hour flight back from Houston.
I looked over at the packet of hot sauce that came with the meal. I remembered my brother telling me how he carried a bottle of hot sauce while in the military because anything with hot sauce is edible. To Grin and Bear It is how he often described his time in the Marines. If only I liked spicy I could grin and bear… I ate my desert instead.
To grin and bear is apparently something that Continental Airlines promotes and expects from their customers.
Continental’s even got this customer service phrase that’s pretty catchy, “There is nothing I can say that will make you happy.”
After the continental rep (we will call him little man) said this regal phrase I wanted to respond with, “there is nothing you can say that will keep me from taking the wheel that was ripped off of my luggage and smacking you with it.”
But, I digress…
So, isn’t that a long way from “the customer is always right?” But, the pendulum swings back- all the way back.
We have been left at the end of the tarmac, paying for extra luggage, terrible food, horrible customer service, delayed or canceled flights and sometimes we have to sit next to people who have a little to much junk in the trunk.
This is what it’s come to. As we struggle in a hopeless economy, with cost of living cuts, where my management gives me a title instead of a merit raise- my yearly evaluation is coming up at work and I just got crowned Director of Marketing and Community Relations.
Can you smell what the rock is cookin? We have no choice but to grin and bear because we are just lucky to get a flight that gets somewhere on time without having anybody plant a bomb in their shoe, or open an emergency exit. And, aren’t we lucky just to have a job in this economy.
So, can’t I come home from my Costa Rican trip – Yes, I was in Costa Rica and stayed at the Four Seasons for a work conference that my boss paid for. But, don’t judge- this is the reason I didn’t get violent with little man.
I left the Continental Counter and my brother would be proud- as he would grin and bear too. But, is it weird that I imagined pouring hot sauce all over little man’s Continental head?
*In Continental’s defense, they did give me an actual explanation: Continental only compensates for luggage when they tear the actual suitcase- meaning my wheel was not part of the actual suitcase. Continental said the wheel was an addition to the suitcase. However, my wheel did not come separate from my suitcase. In fact I have never seen a suitcase without wheels?

www.theleadonline.org

So apart from

1. mutilated luggage
2. plastic sandwiches and terrible food
3. continental horrible customer service
4. being left at the end of the tarmac
5. paying for extra luggage
6. delayed or cancelled flights
7. people with too much junk in the trunk
8. the hopeless economy
9. cost of living cuts
10. management titles instead of merit raises
11. being lucky to get a flight
12. people with bombs in their shoes
13. people opening emergency exits
14. just being lucky to have a job
15. not being able to get home from Costa Rica

how's life in the city Cyn?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/me...tes/259747.stm

I'm gonna be an airline guy for just one more post then back to the new me agan.

I missed this (the way it's worded) the first time. I'm guessing it's meant to say

paying extra for luggage.

Paying for extra luggage is a norm that all airlines have had in place since I was just a wee lad starting out. It's also now the norm to pay extra for luggage which I think is extortion.