[Zetmandu]

Ok, Ill admit right up front some of this issue is my fault, but then what Continental does after that is just play greedy and stupid.

I missed the outgoing portion of a flight, no didn't call to cancel or rebook (my fault in this), but my reasoning was because they charge $150.00 to just rebook a flight (Southwest doesn't do this by the way) why bother to pay that charge since I was going to be able to get to my destination another way anyway, but wanted the return part of trip available. So a few days later when I try to check my reservation, I find out that because I didnt make the outgoing leg of the trip, they just automatically cancel my return portion.

So in the end, they get my money for the whole trip, never have to take me anywhere or back from anywhere and they get the full fare, no refund, no nothing, just take the money and run and the only explanation I get from them is "this is our policy". OK, ill agree its their policy, but their policy sucks and only serves to stick it to the customer once again in any way they can and we cant do one thing about it!!

I even asked the CSR what common sense this policy made and she could only stick to her company line of "its our policy"...well change your policy Continental because its a really really bad one. It would of cost them nothing to just let the reservation continue for the return leg of the trip and they would of still not been out one dime, but this way, they just get all the money for doing absolutely nothing. Completely outrageous if you ask me because even if I had of called to cancel, the $150.00 change fee would of been almost as much as the whole ticket was anyway, so they have you and they know it. Go Southwest from now on, because number one they dont charge this stupid change fee which only serves to put money in their pockets at the expense of the paying public

[jimworcs]

This has been covered many times in previous postings. I don't agree with it, but he logic is this:

The legacy carriers operate complex monopolies via large hubs. To feed these hubs they must encourage large numbers of "transit" passengers, who make some of the flights viable. The purpose of these hubs is to lock out substantial competitors in defined markets and create monopoly or duopoly situations for the airlines.

This creates a need to fill seats for flights which would otherwise be unviable. They therefore charge high prices for direct flights from the hub, as people living around the hub would be prepared to pay this rather than have to change planes elsewhere. However, for those passengers who come into the hub as transit passengers, these need to be incentivised to travel via the hub, so the airlines offer these seats at lower prices.

This creates anomolies in pricing. For example, to fly from say Washington to San Francisco direct might be a high price, but to fly with Continental from Washington to San Francisco via Newark would be cheap. The people who lived in the New York region however were paying high prices for the direct flight from Newark to San Francisco. So, many would book the flight from Washington to San Francisco via Newark, throw away the Washington to Newark part of the ticket and pay considerably less for the Newark to San Francisco portion than if they had purchased it directly. The airlines, desperate to sustain their monopoly fortress hubs, quickly banned the practice by making it a term and condition of travel that if you did not use the whole portion of the ticket, it was forfeit.

There is only logic in this model if you are "fortress hub" legacy carrier. Southwest doesn't do this because it is a low cost "point to point" airline.

Don't misunderstand me.. the only logic in this system is to sustain the monopolistic tendancies of the legacy carriers, and to rip off customers. That is what you get when you fail to regulate markets properly. Sooner or later, we have to hope that Congress will wake up and smell the coffee.... but I don't hold out much hope, because the airlines line their pockets with "donations" or bribes as they are more commonly known.

[Jetliner]

Actually Southwest does this as well. All airlines do.

Jim, I think you misunderstood the OP a bit - what you are describing is something called a hidden city (travel agent term). What the OP is talking about is he didn't fly out on the origin leg of the trip, and because of the that the return was canceled as well.

As far as I know this is a policy on every single airline.

[Zetmandu]

Yes, I wasn't trying to state that Southwest would not do this exact same thing in identical circumstances, but what I was implying about Southwest is they don't charge you $150.00 just for the right to "change" your original ticket like all the other airlines. This is the reason I didn't bother to call and try and reschedule the flight with Continental to start with, because this change fee was within a few dollars of the total ticket cost.

I guess my peeve overall is them just taking my money and me not getting one thing out of it all because I didnt want to pay their stupid change fee and wondering why just a ludicrous policy is even a policy to start with. Well, in the end I know why it is, because they make money off of it at the expense of the paying customer and we cant do one thing about it

[jimworcs]

Jetliner?
You are right, sorry; but in the byzantine world of airline ticket pricing it can also be the case that one way tickets cost more than returns, and so the same rule applies... it is forfeit to prevent people buying cheaper returns and throwing away the outbound. Anything to protect their monopolies.

[larryau]

Everything must be their way or the highway, If they do something wrong - you don't even get a sorry or an apology.

Originally Posted by Zetmandu

Ok, Ill admit right up front some of this issue is my fault, but then what Continental does after that is just play greedy and stupid.

I missed the outgoing portion of a flight, no didn't call to cancel or rebook (my fault in this), but my reasoning was because they charge $150.00 to just rebook a flight (Southwest doesn't do this by the way) why bother to pay that charge since I was going to be able to get to my destination another way anyway, but wanted the return part of trip available. So a few days later when I try to check my reservation, I find out that because I didnt make the outgoing leg of the trip, they just automatically cancel my return portion.

So in the end, they get my money for the whole trip, never have to take me anywhere or back from anywhere and they get the full fare, no refund, no nothing, just take the money and run and the only explanation I get from them is "this is our policy". OK, ill agree its their policy, but their policy sucks and only serves to stick it to the customer once again in any way they can and we cant do one thing about it!!

I even asked the CSR what common sense this policy made and she could only stick to her company line of "its our policy"...well change your policy Continental because its a really really bad one. It would of cost them nothing to just let the reservation continue for the return leg of the trip and they would of still not been out one dime, but this way, they just get all the money for doing absolutely nothing. Completely outrageous if you ask me because even if I had of called to cancel, the $150.00 change fee would of been almost as much as the whole ticket was anyway, so they have you and they know it. Go Southwest from now on, because number one they dont charge this stupid change fee which only serves to put money in their pockets at the expense of the paying public