[Dave McKenzie]

I was seeing my daughter off on a flight to Houston and on to Ecuador, as she would be spending a school semester there. She was quite nervous and out of her element. She was also told by her school to “pack a lot,” and so she had some bags to check. Here’s where the problem begins…She had a tiny back-pack as her 3rd piece of luggage to be checked. The fellow helping us with the touch-screen was more than a little rude as he ridiculed the thought of a bag not being a costly item. “It’ll cost you $100.” …For a 5 lb. bag. And “no, you can’t add that as a carry-on” (despite the fact that her carry-on was simply another small back-pack and a laptop).

Okay. We all know that rules are rules. But these luggage rules have holes in them. And there’s more. He asked her if she wanted to spend $200. extra for a 1st class upgrade. Well, she’s a student and doesn’t have extra money. So she said no. But now I see on your website that 1st Class passengers don’t pay for luggage! He should have pointed that out! The upgrade would then have been worth it!

The whole experience just made for a bad morning. Yeah, I know—others have it worse. But I only asked for the same logic, consistency, and fairness that I extend to others in my business. While Continental may be enjoying the profitability of its newer luggage policies (something else I read), we consumers are still at your mercy when we don’t have all the facts—or if the facts are not used in the best interests of your customers. The last I heard, you still cared about your customers. Well, today all I saw was the almighty “zero tolerance” attitude taken to a ridiculous extreme.

Well, after this incident I e-mailed the appropriate department at Cont. and nicely gave them the facts. I didn't ask for any sort of reimbursement; I only wanted them to acknowledge that they could have handled this better. Nope, they were just as rude in stating that their employees had followed the rules.

We will never fly Continental again--and I will spread the word.