[Delly]

We were on Continental flight from ABQ to Bombay. Monday, December 27, 2010, from Houston to Frankfurt on CO 46 which was delayed by Continental by over 3 hours in Houston because they were trying to get all passengers to Houston from bad weathered airports. This was the cause of many of us missing our flight CO 5146 (operated by Lufthansa) from Frankfurt to Bombay. When we arrived Frankfurt our flight had already left for Bombay. At Frankfurt, they harrassed every passenger that was on the departed flight and would not help us stating that it was Continental's responsibility and when we spoke to Continental's representative in Frankfurt she told us it was Lufthansa's responsibility. FInally, Continental booked us all on Air India to New Delhi that night around 10pm. They changed gates at Frankfurt and all passengers had to run back and forth so we would not miss our flight on AI and did not bother to announce the gate change on the intercom. So we reached New Delhi and had a connecting flight on AI to Mumbai arriving in Mumbai at around 5pm on the 29th but there we did not receive our luggage. AI blamed Lufthansa who in turn blamed CO and nobody knew where our luggage had gone. So tired as we were, we left and went off without our baggage. I was travelling with my husband and our 8 year old son. We spent 5 days going to the airport every day which took us 5 hours to travel in the horrific traffic of Bombay and needing to rent a tourist taxi. Our bags arrived one or two at a time and two of them arrived from London on Kingfisher airlines and the rest on AI and Lufthansa. But this is not the worst of what happened.
On our return flight, we were booked on CO 49 scheduled to depart Bombay on January 11, 2011, at 11:40pm arriving Newark at 5:20am. That flight was delayed and we finally took off at 4:25am. It was United Airlines plane with flight attendants. Two incidents happend on the flight with the same flight attendant who would not give us her name. First, my husband complained and told her that the toilets on flight were smelling and to spray them since we were seated on the row in front of the toilets. She told him that she did not make them stink. So i told her to bring the spray and spray it so she told me rudely that it was not her job to do that and she brought me the spray and told me to do it. I did spray in and around the toilets near our seats without another statement. Soon after that she brought the night snack for everybody and when she reached our row, she threw the snack at my son who was fast asleep and that scared him and woke him up and he began to cry. At that point i was very angry and asked to see the flight supervisor who did nothing and took up for her. I have tried to contact Continental Airlines complaint section here in the US this morning and obviously they wont be doing anything although i spoke to a complaint manager (or so she claimed to be) and after i spoke she put me on hold and never returned. I held on for 1 hour and no sign of her.
Anyway, we landed in Newark and the ground staff was rude and would not help us but then we received a message from Continental airlines booking us on our flights back to ABQ.
I presume that Continental Airlines really does not like to serve passengers and thus maybe they should close shop and leave or learn to be nice to the public that travel on their flights because we pay for their service and if they cannot comply then maybe there should be a way to take legal action and make them refund every penny that was paid for the tickets.
Delly

[Foxtrot]

Cabin Service on Continental Airlines
I travelled on Continental Airlines CO82 non stop from Newark to New Delhi on 15Jan2012. Being a frequent flyer on all major airlines for the past 35 years ,I was horrified by the level of service and rude behaviour of the cabin staff and felt that it was necessary to comment on the service or lack of it.After boarding the aircraft meal was served and then the cabin staff disappeared ! There was no intermediate rounds with water or juice as is customary on other reputable airlines.Oh I must add however , a plastic bag with a water bottle and a cold snack was distributed to the passengers.I hope the airline takes a good look at this 'bag' practice, it lacks class.The cabin crew lacked the basic service mentality. I wonder whether it is cultural or sheer lack of basic training.If I were on the Continental management team,I would take a hard look at airlines like Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific and learn a few things from them about service with a smile!But the worst is yet to come.Prior to landing at New Delhi, an elderly male cabin attendent went around to check if seats were upright.He stood in front of our cabin section and just yelled loudly as if it was too much trouble to go down the ailse reminding passengers who may have forgotton to upright their seats.He then came to a passenger who had placed a bag near his seat.Instead of just politely telling him that was not appropriate he yelled at him saying he hadnt seen the bag in that position while taking off, then said SHUT UP to the passenger and placed the bag in the overhead compartment.I havent ever seen such abusive behaviour in my life.Witnessing such an apathetic service and verbal abuse has forced me to pen down my observations.I would like to appeal to my blog mates if they have had similar experience with Continental and to share their experiences so that the airline pay attention to quality of staff with the right attitude to service & training requirements.I for one will not fly Continental again.