[pokepsw]

Up until this week, I was a loyal Continental Customer. I flew with them for years in EWR and after relocating to LAX, still flew Continental. Further, I am a 2+ year One Pass Plus Cardholder, like many of you, in it for the waived baggage fees. I will never again fly with Continental and here's why.

Flight originating out of LAX at 12:18pm

1) Arrive at airport at 8:55am. Go to curbside checkin to check bags for me and my 1 passenger. Show the card and the guy goes "That's meaningless to me, $50." I try to tell him about the card, show him a continental.com website on my phone, and show one of his partners. No luck so I go inside

2) Get on the self-service line at 9:05ish and wait for 1hr 5 minutes to get to the front. Again, get a $50 bag fee, ask a service rep and he says "I've never heard of a card that gives you free bags. I can't waive that for you." I again show him the card, the website, and ask him to ask someone else. Two people come back w/ him and both say the same thing - they have not seen a card that will waive the baggage fees. They tell me to go to Line 6 to speak to an agent

3) Get on the Line 6 Agent Line at 10:15ish (for a 12:18 flight). Wait in line for 1hr 50min to finally speak with an agent who rudely tells me "Sir, regardless of your credit card, you're not checking bags on this flight, it's way too late." I try to plead with her that I"ve been in the airport trying to check bags for 3+ hours but not luck. This is after trying to get moved to the front of the line 3 times after showing various reps that were walking through the link on contintenal.com and telling them that my flight was leaving in 30 mins/20 mins/15 mins. No luck, Line 6 Agent re-booked me for a flight 6 hours later. Tell me I need to go back to self-service check in and re-check in.

4) Go to Self Service Check in, wait 20 minutes, try to check in and machine tells me to speak to an agent. Grab an agent, they tell me my ticket isn't "finished" and walk into the back for 15 minutes as I wait. 15 mins later, they come out with a new ticket and check me in.

To make matters worse, I called Continental today to wait 55 mins on hold, be refused any compensation because it wasn't a 4+ hr delay, and then as I asked about changing flights, Continental Customer Support Supervisor Sherri Reed HANGS UP. I couldn't believe it. Here's some of the highlights of our 10 minute call:

"We have a training issue that we need to take care of, yes, but I'm not giving you anything because of mistraining"

"It doesn't matter if our staff wasn't aware, it was only a 3hr 14 minute delay."

And the icing on the cake... "Yes, what I'm confirming is even if they were wrong, we're not responsible."

Nice work Continental. Great way to treat your loyal customers AND credit card holders. I'll never fly Continental again and will be closing my credit card immediately. Be warned FT'ers, horrible customer service and NO SUPPORT TO LOYAL CUSTOMERS!

ADDITION:

Yes, I should have just paid the $50 and tried to get it refunded, but Chase's policy is to not refund any baggage fees and I had no idea the lines would have moved so slowly. In hindsight, I wish I had just paid the $50...