[WorkingMom4Boys]

To Whom It May Concern:
After lots of phone calls, a personal visit and now helplessness, I’m writing to report an incident that occurred before my son’s Continental Flight CO2245 scheduled to leave OKC to Houston on Friday, September 11. Confirmation Number DB9ZWH. Total round trip cost of $221.96.
My son was scheduled to leave for a regional soccer match and would be travelling with another family, the Bray Family. Our soccer team has flown and traveled together for4 years now. Each player is responsible for their own travelling expenses. Most of our team scheduled with Southwest but a few of us scheduled with your company directly, not on-line, to get ‘better customer service’ in case of game re-schedules. As in any team sport weather can be a factor, so it was that weekend when a monsoon hit Houston and regional play was re-scheduled to be in Houston for the weekend of November 7 and 8. We tried to re-schedule our trip with Continental Airlines, my traveling family and I even went to the airport ticket counter, hoping to speak to a rational human-being with no result.
To Whom It May Concern, all of our team members traveling with Southwest were able to transfer their tickets for a reasonable fee of $50. Not even to be considered with Continental. We were told we should have ‘purchased the insurance’ and that ‘Southwest would soon be out of business.’ Really??? You think so.
Is your company that delusional? You think that we don’t have somewhere else to spend our hard earned American dollars? I would rather pay Southwest double what I paid to your company than pay your airline again for a trip that was not taken.
From now on, everyone I talk to, everyone the Bray’s talk to, and at the very least everyone on our soccer team will know exactly Continental Airline’s stand on flight re-schedules and acts of God. Your message was received clearly, please tell your superiors ‘good job.’
Sincerely, Shelly Sanderson

[Gromit801]

So, what exactly did Continental do or not do?

[AirlinesMustPay]

Working mom, it seems you were the one who was changing your contract with Continental. Whether date changes are allowed depends on the kind of ticket. It really seems to be a case where the passengers might have insured.

[WorkingMom4Boys]

Well Gromit801,
They CHOSE to not change our reservation dates. We LOST all of our money. No one gained anything. Rational companies realize that 'maybe' it might be adventageous to 'keep some customers' maybe Continental should get back into the keep customers happy business and be REALISTIC. 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. You know it. Don't give me some bean counters tally about it.
But you know Southwest they are goin out of business. GET INTO THE REAL WORLD! It takes 200 positive messages to get rid of one negative message and Continental thumbs their nose at that.

[WorkingMom4Boys]

I will pay them DOUBLE before I pay you ANYTHING again.

[WorkingMom4Boys]

PS-Your 'reservation' policy is going to sink your battle ship.

[WorkingMom4Boys]

Wow AirlinesMustPay! Good stock answer. Complete BS but good job.

[PHXFlyer]

You purchased a deeply discounted non-refundable ticket. On every airline except Southwest there is a fee to change this type of ticket. I went to Access America's website (the preferred company COntinental uses for travel insurance) and the quote for a domestic round-trip ticket costing $222 was $31. That $31 includes much more than paying for the change fee.

Basically you're complaining because Continental isn't Southwest. If that's the case you should have purchased the tickets on Southwest to begin with.

[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.

[Leatherboy2006]

The weekend that the OP mentioned, I was trying to camp outside Austin, I say trying because the rain was coming down so hard and bad from a front that ran from houston all the way to the TX panhandle. I went home 2 days early soaked and miserable.
So since it was weather and out of both of their (OP and CO) hands that CO followed their policy, though out of customer helpfullness could have given some of the ticket value in future air vouchers with a some kinda of fee taken out.

[Jetliner]

That would apply if they were not able to travel due to the weather, but they still were able to travel. The issue is how the weather affected what they were going for. Continental has nothing to do with the soccer game. The contract is to transport the passenger from city A to city B at a designated time. If that time cannot be met, then to transport as closely as possible. Continental lived up to that and did transport them.

[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by Leatherboy2006

The weekend that the OP mentioned, I was trying to camp outside Austin, I say trying because the rain was coming down so hard and bad from a front that ran from houston all the way to the TX panhandle. I went home 2 days early soaked and miserable.
So since it was weather and out of both of their (OP and CO) hands that CO followed their policy, though out of customer helpfullness could have given some of the ticket value in future air vouchers with a some kinda of fee taken out.

They still have one year from the issue date of the tickets to re-use the value of those tickets towards another trip. At that time they will be charged $150 each to re-issue the tickets for the new dates and destination and will pay any additional fare over and above what was already paid.

[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.

[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.

[WorkingMom4Boys]

You need to remove that quote 'Einstein'. YOU ARE the INSANITY.

[WorkingMom4Boys]

They have convinced themselves that they are doing us a service by taking our money for no service. There is reasonable and there is INSANITY. This is what happens when there is NO COMPETITION. It's the new America.

[WorkingMom4Boys]

You sound just like Continental. Wait a minute...are you?

[WorkingMom4Boys]

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

[Gromit801]

All these comments from the OP, without any quote reference as to what she's ranting about.

[AirlinesMustPay]

Working mom,

If you can calm down a bit, there may be a way to get something out of your unused tickets. You need to accept first of all that the airline is entitled to charge a fee for date changes. In fact you accept that with Southwest. It is just the amount of the fee you are querying.

You appear to have approached the problem by phone calls and by visits to the airline counter. In my own experience, neither of these usually work unless your case is clear cut in your favour. These people (even the supervisor behind the counter) usually do not have the authority to override airline policies.

Airlines like you to file a complaint on their website, where if the agent reading it does not have to authority to assist, she can pass it up to someone else. But I find that writing a letter to someone in authority produces the best results. That could be the head of the consumer relations department or even the President who would pass it to where it should go.

Since you are the one who wanted the date change, you are on shaky ground and need to appeal to his compassion for this soccer team. Explain to him what happened, and it should not be too difficult to get proof of the weather in Houston that caused the cancellation of the match, and set out your case which is that the airline often relies on weather to justify cancellations and likewise, you are asking him to allow an exception to the airlines policies in this case because:
(1) You the passenger had to change plans due to an act of God, in very much the same way that airlines sometimes do
(2) You informed the airline at the earliest opportunity that you would not be able to travel and gave them the reason
(3) This is a team travelling to a match, not someone on business or even travelling for leisure
(4) Businesses and some airlines sometimes spend money to support sporting activities for the goodwill it will buy them. Here is his chance to bend a little to buy the goodwill of this team.
(5) You chose Continental over his competitor SW. So since SW just charged $50, ask for a travel voucher in return for the unused tickets after perhaps deducting $50.

[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.

[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.