[ronaldboesaart]

I had a reservation confirmed by Continental for a flight on August 10, 2009 from BWI to Bogota, Colombia via Houston, Tx.
Thus I checked at BWI airport for my flight. It being a public holiday there were not many passengers in the departure hall so the staff was quite busy with their own private conversations in which I was obviously intruding. When they very finally finished they helped me albeit in a very sullen and unhelpful way. When I presented my documents they refused to check me in as I did not have a visa for Colombia. After winning the first argument by telling them that I do not need a visa I was then told they would still not check me in as my return flight from Bogota was scheduled for January 20, 2010, which would exceed 3 months and thus I would need a visa. No matter how much I argued saying that I am a resident in Colombia - that I intended to leave anyway before the three months were over to go to Ecuador and Peru, only to return to Bogota on the 19th of January, 2010 in time to catch my return flight to Houston and BWI. And anyway, if I would overstay beyond the 3 months it would be MY problem and not the airline’s. Yet they insisted I could not board and that I had to change my reservation. And, according to them it had to be done by the original agent (Expedia). I asked them to lend me their phone as I did not have mine with me, to which they answered that making private calls on the airline’s phone system was not allowed and besides changing my flight was not their problem. I managed with the help a stranger to call Expedia who told me that they could not do anything as the change must be made with the airline. So back at square one. Finally, the supervisor took over and arranged the flight to be changed to November 8, which was all that she would do. But that is not what I wanted which was to honor my confirmed and paid for reservation, as I have connecting flights from the US to Holland to Egypt, in January, 2010. Moreover, not only did Continental change my return flight from Bogota they also canceled my flight from BWI to Dulles. (My next flight to London leaves from Dulles).
And to add insult to injury they also lost one suitcase. But here I have to admit that they did an excellent job tracing it and returning it to me at Cali airport.

But wait, that is not the end of the story. Once in Bogota I wrote a letter of complaint to customer service in the US and a request to change the flight back of November 8 to the original one in January. I received a very short reply in which no mention was made of my previous complaint and no apology of any kind, and was told to go to Bogota to the Continental office. Mind you, Bogota is an eight hour drive from where I live, and then back again. So I went to Bogota and spoke with the International CIO Agent over there. He was quite sympathetic but at the end he would not do anything as he needed the authorization of – yes, you guessed it – the same person who sent me there in the first place. SO, I made a two days’ trip and spent more than $ 100 for nothing.

DO you think I will ever fly Continental again? What a crummy airline. I have had no problems with the crew: it is the customer service that is a real stinker.