[jimworcs]

Ok, lets take it from the top:

Let's assume Pax is inexperienced international traveller. Judges 90 minutes before flight to be reasonable based on past experience. Ticket says 60 minutes. He may have misread or misinterpreted that, but that is what the ticket said. Pax thinks.. well I will play safe and get there an hour and half before the flight just to be on the safe side. Arrives... to chaos. Who's fault is that?

PHX says...

Once the flight was missed I don't think Continental could have done anything right from the perspective of this person.

Based on what? Pax accepted standby for next flight, and stood by and watched others failing to get on and general all round chaos. Then went to get bags and stood by a further 30 minutes, now a full 3.5 hrs since he had first checked his bags. I consider him to be a paragon of virtue.. and far from impatient.

Just where do you believe they should get these employees? US based airlines have laid off between 5 and 15 percent or more of their total workforce over the past year.

The pax is now expected to anticipate the failure of the airline to adequately staff for numbers required. Lets compare that say to a Department Store gearing up for the day after Thanksgiving. Do they staff as normal for the busiest day of the year? Or do they anticipate extra and ensure that sufficient staff are on hand to manage the workload. Does the post office anticipate extra demand at Christmas? Continental knew exactly how many customers they were going to get that day and knew how many had checked in online and how many would require their check in services. Let's see what they could do...

1. Cancel all leave
2. Draft in part time workers to do extra hours at times of high demand
3. Offer and/or require overtime from their staff
4. Hire temps to undertake less skilled tasks releasing other staff to focus on demand

It's amazing.. how did I come up with such innovative ideas when I have never run an airline? Perhaps it is because this is an exercise in the bleedin' obvious.

It is reasonable for a customer to expect a service provider to provide the service requested in a timely manner. 90 minutes before a flight is not that unreasonable. A seasoned traveller might be more cautious but who says these people are seasoned travellers. Anyway, why are your expectations of the airline so low? Now, we know that when you have essential stuff, you no longer trust the airline to get your luggage to the same destination as you, and you therefore pay someone else to provide this service, namely FedEx. Would you be so accepting if when you got to FedEx they told you that this was a very busy time, please allow up to three hours to queue before they could accept and process your parcel. Then if you don't get to the front in time, refuse to guarantee it's arrival. You still ready to pay them for the service? If not, why not?

They probably called out your destination before you even entered the line. At least they were being proactive about processing those who were in jeopardy of missing their flights first. Yet you say there was a lack of customer service that day?

That "probably" indicates you are guessing right? An alternative explanation could be that they didn't call out this particular flight becuase they knew they had already overbooked the flight and all the seats were allocated. It suited them to "blame the passenger".

Proactive processing in this case, is called queue jumping. It may have been that our OP may have got to the desk in time, but some bloke in a red coat was legalising queue jumping to cover Continental's imcompetence. This rendered the virtue of arriving at the airport early moot... because late arrivals were processed before you. So much for the early worm and savvy traveller being rewarded. In fact, Continental were doing this because they knew they were understaffed and were frantically trying to limit the damage their incompetent management of the situation had created.

I think we have covered over-booking.. which effectively renders all airline tickets a form of lottery. You are simply buying the "opportunity" to get on a flight. Arrive at the airport 5 hours before departure, queue for 4 hours whilst being glared at by hostile employees in red coats, ****** off after 5 years of pay cuts and loss of benefits and then get given a lottery ticket, sometimes called a Boarding Pass. Enter the casino some airlines call the "Gate" only to find that your lemons didn't line up and you will have to wait another two days and travel via Seattle to get from Charlotte to Atlanta. Welcome to the 21st century flying experience in the USA.

Had it not been for your late arrival at the airport your 5 1/2 hour "ordeal" could have been averted.

The "late" arrival at the airport (ie 90 minutes before flight instead of 120 minutes), resulted in a 5.5 hour delay and this is the passengers fault!! You surpass yourself PHX, but you know I still love you