[Jetliner]

Originally Posted by WorkingMom4Boys

They can not tell me that it cost their company money to change those seats. Maybe some admin time but not an entire ticket cost.

First of all Continental will allow you to change a ticket, and just like on any other airline you will pay a change fee plus fare increase. Also, you are very wrong it the statement I have quoted here.

You may remember an airline called People Express (which was merged later into Continental by the way). They didn't charge change or cancelation fees. What ended up happening is people would just not show up for flights and change it for whatever they wanted. It was very much so a disaster. The ended up overbooking some flights by 100% or more.

The fact is Continental has not done anything here that any other airline would or would not do, and I'm sorry that you think some of the answers so far are BS, but they are in fact reality.

[Silent Bob]

I'm still not exactly sure what's goin on here.And who's going out of business: Southwest or Continental? Ok the jist of it is, you had to change your travel plans, and depending on your ticket, you would have to pay a fee to change. You can't escape it anywhere you go (except maybe on southwest). It looks as though you were looking for sympathy and rightly so, however depending on the class of seat service you paid for and seat availability for that date, you would have to pay some fees (change fees and additional costs), which I am guessing was equal to or more so the cost of what you paid. (I am making this assumption based on what your statement that Southwest charged the team flying them only 50 dollars).

Am I anywhere in the ballpark? if not please clarify.

Is your company that delusional? You think that we don’t have somewhere else to spend our hard earned American dollars?

That's the sad fact because it's all one big circle. You will hate continental now, maybe even the entire team, but in another area of the US there is a group of equal number that would praise continental. It goes the same for United, AA, Delta, even Southwest. You basically shuffle to the next airline believing your getting the best service, but I'm sure you will find (even on this board) that it isn't always the case.

[AirlinesMustPay]

For those people who hold that the dates are not part of the contract, you may want to ask yourselves how is it that if the date is not part of the contract when it suits the airline to say so, and when the passenger like in this case tries to change the date she either can't do it or has to pay a hefty fee, in some cases $150.

Either the date is or is not part of the contract. I have no difficulty in saying that it is part of the contract and would tell the OP that she would have to go along with the fee for the date change. But you can't be siding with the airline when they want to change the date, and again siding with them when they refuse to let the passenger change.

[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by AirlinesMustPay

For those people who hold that the dates are not part of the contract, you may want to ask yourselves how is it that if the date is not part of the contract when it suits the airline to say so, and when the passenger like in this case tries to change the date she either can't do it or has to pay a hefty fee, in some cases $150.

Either the date is or is not part of the contract. I have no difficulty in saying that it is part of the contract and would tell the OP that she would have to go along with the fee for the date change. But you can't be siding with the airline when they want to change the date, and again siding with them when they refuse to let the passenger change.

They didn't refuse to let her change. They wanted the change fee which is a condition of the fare she purchased. There is a difference.

[WorkingMom4Boys]

Just so you know "Continental" I would have hapily and cheerfully paid $150 to change my ticket date, however it was $150++ which made the ticket price total to be more than my original non-used fee (which you sold to someone else). So I would be paying double to fly with you. Which by the way, I will pay someone else, not you. It seems more reasonable that way.

[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by WorkingMom4Boys

Just so you know "Continental" I would have hapily and cheerfully paid $150 to change my ticket date, however it was $150++ which made the ticket price total to be more than my original non-used fee (which you sold to someone else). So I would be paying double to fly with you. Which by the way, I will pay someone else, not you. It seems more reasonable that way.

You need to understand that when you change dates on a ticket it's like starting over with a brand new ticket. The additional charge, over and above the $150 change fee, was due to the fact that the fare for the dates and times you wanted to change to was higher than what you originally paid. Checking the fares over the weekend of Nov. 7-8 (leaving the afternoon/evening of Fri. 11/6 and returning Sun. aftyernoon 11/8) the lowest fare including taxes right now is $204.20. It sounds like when you called there may have been higher fares but fares change all the time.

[WorkingMom4Boys]

Wow! You mean there REALLY is 'No Competition'. It's cute how you think that way.

[WorkingMom4Boys]

YOUR reality, so you know is that Continental charges waaay more than $31 for 'insurance'. Funny how you think you have everyone all convinced (including yourselves) that taking money for zero/donut service is somehow in YOUR reality justified. The seat was empty--keep telling yourselves that. Our deeply discounted ticket, was just a favor we receive as a gift for being a Continental customer. Keep telling yourselves that.

[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by WorkingMom4Boys

YOUR reality, so you know is that Continental charges waaay more than $31 for 'insurance'. Funny how you think you have everyone all convinced (including yourselves) that taking money for zero/donut service is somehow in YOUR reality justified. The seat was empty--keep telling yourselves that. Our deeply discounted ticket, was just a favor we receive as a gift for being a Continental customer. Keep telling yourselves that.

First of all Continental doesn't sell travel insurance. The travel insurance company they refer people to on their website is Access America. The premium is based on the amount you pay for your ticket and your state of residence. Since you were departing from OKC I assumed that you live in OK. I went to Access America's website, chose their basic coverage, indicated OK as state of residency and $222 as the ticket price. The quote I received was, as I stated before, $31.