Another Airline Misadventure

I'm increasingly in favor of letting these major airlines collapse under the weight of their own incompetence. Which leads me to my latest story of my own maltreatment by Continental Airlines.

We finished early on Friday. Checking online, it would cost me $400 to book an earlier flight, so I thought I'd try standby. So I headed to the George Bush International Airport, turned in my rental car and took the overcrowded rental car bus to the terminal.

Checking in, I paid the $50 fee for the priviledge of standing by for the 4:10 flight to Indy, endured the TSA shakedown, and trekked to the gate. I grabbed some lunch and settled in for the wait for my flight.

Finally the gate agent boarded the flight, but never made any announcements regarding standby passengers. So I approached her as the last few passengers boarded and showed her my standby document. She checked the computer and couldn't seem to find my record, then shrugged and told me the flight was full.

Just full. No apologies, no explanations, no eye contact. She then took off down the jetway to send the plane on its way.

So I'm used to rude gate agents, and didn't think twice about her appalling lack of customer service skills. Disappointed, I made my way to the other concourse to settle in for the 3 hour wait for my originally booked flight.

The agent working that 7:15 flight was somewhat friendlier and more helpful than the previous one. But when I gave her my documents and she looked for me on the computer, she frowned and said, "I can't seem to find you in here".

A few more keystrokes later, she found me. "This shows your standby cleared on the earlier flight. Were you late or something?".

Of course, I told her no, I wasn't late. That the agent told me the flight was full and turned me away.

She shook her head and sighed, asked me where I would like to sit, and printed me a boarding pass for an exit row aisle seat.

I got home after midnight instead of early evening because of a Continental Airlines employee who was uncaring and incompetent.

Would I care much if Continental ceases to be a viable airline?

The answer is obvious.