[Elizabeth Bell]

My daughter heard the flight was delayed and asked if she should wait until the next day to fly. The representative said no that her connection was late too. She was coming home from school for my mothers funeral from Miami to Dulles.
She missed her flight, was not given a hotel room or even a discount voucher, saying she could sleep in the airport and wait for the next flight 14 hours later. Never again will anyone in our family fly Continental. Let them go bankrupt! We will see if she gets here for the funeral or if she remains stuck in Newark.
Also there is really no such thing as a bereavement discount. The funeral home said that they jack them up before the 10 % discount.

[PHXFlyer]

I am sorry to hear of your loss of a family member. The stress of travel added to the emotions of bereavement can be a lot to handle. It's unfortunate that Continental seemed to take an "I don't care" attitude given the situation, however there is possibly an explanation for their actions.

I'm assuming that your daughter lives in the greater Miami area? If so then all airlines, not just Continental, will not provide lodging for extensive delays if the passenger is at the starting point of their journey. What they could have done, however, is re-book your daughter on another airline in order to get her to IAD as long as the delay wasn't weather related. If the delay was due to weather unfortunately the only option is to wait it out.

Hindsight is always 20/20 but may I suggest in the future if there is an urgent need to travel such as a death in the family that you look for an airline with non-stop service. Both United and American have non-stops from MIA to IAD and checking online the fares weren't much more than what Continental was charging. Speaking of the fares, the funeral director you spoke to is misinformed. Last minute trips are always more expensive but the airlines don't "jack them up" just because one is traveling to a funeral. I agree, though, that the 10% bereavement discount offered by Continental is a joke. My father passed away last year and I flew Continental to his funeral. I was aware of the bereavement discount but was informed I would need to mail or fax a copy of his death certificate in order to receive the discount. The round-trip fare was around $600. To obtain a copy of the death certificate would have cost me $25 and I didn't want to bother my step-mom by requesting a copy from her in order to save a lousy $60 so I just let it go.

[Silent Bob]

My best advice I can give to you or anyone in a similar situation; if you have a connection that it appears you will miss because of a delay, best to let the airlines know that you wanna go home or back to a hotel and try again the next day. Even if they insist that you will make the connection or the other plane is/might be late, let them know you have a bad feeling about it or you've had past experience where the plane was long gone before you got there. usually if its weather or air traffic delays, I've had good experience rebooking with United and Continental with no problems.

[PHXFlyer]

I apologize. In re-reading the OP I just realized that your daughter is stuck at her connecting point in Newark. EWR is notoriously bad for weather/ATC delays. The least bit of crosswind or reduced visibility will cause ATC to space arriving aircraft farther apart and the resulting delays just worsen progressively. I've spent a lot of time at EWR because of delays myself and it's not fun.

There is, however, a New Jersey Transit/Amtrak station adjacent to Newark Airport which is accessible by the free AirTrain. there is frequent train service to DC from there.

[Elizabeth Bell]

The airline trip from hell goes on. She boarded another airline that was to arrive at 1:50 today at Dulles. Another Continental Flight. She called to say that everyone was on so she thought they would arrive on time. She called back an hour later to say that everyone was on the plan and that the plane wasn't working. She said they said it might be 3 hours before it is fixed. I am not sure if she can get off the plane at this point. Woops she just called and was crying hysterically. Said she got in a screaming match with customer service. She must be off the plane. The phone went dead. Now I can't reach her. Looks like she will miss funeral visitation tonight. She is tired and upset. Continental will be on this families NEVER list for a long time.

[Leatherboy2006]

The funeral director was out of line saying that, we have families getting discounts all the time for funerals. My family has been in the funeral industry for over 40 years.