[Walla Walla Sweet]

In May 2008 my colleagues were scheduled to fly from San Francisco to India on Continental Airlines. My colleagues missed one day of business seminars they were presenting because of erroneous arrival date information emailed by Continental Airlines. They had purchased two business class tickets, costing over $10,315.00 as well as rented lecture halls, paid for advertising, hired caterers, and other expenses. The actual expenses for the missed meeting were $4000.00. They had a difficult time recouping the lost business due to missing the seminar. As a consideration of financial losses I requested two free business/first class tickets anywhere Continental flies.

Over the course of a year I was in contact with Ms. Self-King at Continental Airlines. I provided advertising and seminar invoices for the missed seminar, a copy of the seminar advertising, and Continental Airline’s confirmation with the incorrect arrival date. Because one of my colleagues was a frequent international business traveler with Continental Airlines, I assumed Continental Airlines would want to keep a valued costumer. I provided Ms. Self-King with his Continental Airlines OnePass Gold Elite number as well elite numbers for other airlines that he would have used when flying Continental. I indicated that in the last year (at the time of the complaint) that he flew to India 6 times (4 of the flights were on Continental). He also made numerous trips to Central America, a large portion of the flights were on Continental in Business Class.

Several times over the course of the year I requested the free tickets as a consideration of the financial losses. Ultimately my colleagues were offered travel certificates for $500.00 each or 30,000 bonus OnePass miles if they singed an indemnity release. They did not agree to these terms.

Our last contact with Ms. Self-King was in May of 2009 when my colleague emailed her thanking her for the offer but indicated that our expenses and business income lost were excessive. A $500 travel voucher did not come close to compensating the losses. They did not agree to sign the indemnity release with the offer Continental presented.

Continental Airlines lost loyal customers. It is now company policy to only use Continental Airlines as a last resort.

I have filed a complaint with Consumer Affairs and the Aviation Consumer Protection Division. I also plan to notify the airline that I've posted this complaint.