Patty

My parents are currently scheduled to fly ONT-IAH-CMH on 9/27. They would like to re-route to LAX-CLE-CMH (CO1455/2518). I need help interpreting the re-accomodation policy from Continental's website.

Houston, TX (IAH – Intercontinental)
Due to Hurricane Rita, Continental is providing the option to reroute your travel, without a penalty, if you are connecting through Houston, TX (IAH – Intercontinental) for travel between Thursday, September 22, 2005 and Saturday, September 24, 2005. If we are unable to reroute your travel, a refund to the original form of payment can be requested.

Louisiana and Texas
Due to Hurricane Rita, Continental is providing the option to reschedule or reroute your travel once, without a penalty, if you are ticketed to/from/through Louisiana and Texas for travel between Monday, September 19, 2005 and Tuesday, September 27, 2005. Travel must be re-scheduled or re-issued by October 3, 2005. A change to your origin or destination city may result in additional charges. If your flight has been cancelled, a refund to the original form of payment can be requested.

It sounds like they're eligible for a re-route based on the fact that they're flying through IAH on Tuesday, but may have to pay a fare difference to fly out of LAX (all ONT flights route through IAH)? Ideally, they would also prefer to return to LAX on 9/30 (CO2270/1631).

I've been trying to call CO to find out what options are available but am only getting a busy signal (understandably), so I thought in the mean time I'd try to get some advice/suggestions here. Currently the fare for LAX-CMH-LAX is slightly less than what they paid for ONT-CMH-ONT, but that could change by the time I get through to CO's reservation line.

If I change their flights through continental.com, they'll have to pay a change fee right? What's the current domestic change fee?

Sorry, I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to CO. Thanks for any help.

Patty

Just to add - postponing the trip isn't an option.

Assuming no damage from Rita, what are the chances of normal operations resuming at IAH by Tuesday?

rkkwan

Patty - Sorry that you haven't been able to get through to CO right now. Keeping trying. I got through right away to change an itinerary on Wednesday night, to my surprise.

Anyways, I can't give you the specifics, but many airlines consider most of the Southern Cali airports to be one big origin, so you can indeed switch airport.

Having said that, operation at IAH on Tuesday should be more or less back to normal. I wouldn't worry about it too much at this moment.

BeachBoi

One of my roommates got thru one his 4th try.Hang in there that is the only way you will accomplish your desired goal.He was on hold for 82 minutes.The change fee for west coast to CMH is $100.00.Some carriers consider all 4 LA airports co-terminals(same airport as far as they are concerned).CO does not.ONT and LAX are seperate and distinct.Thus, changing to travel out of LAX constitutes a routing change.Now, as you are well aware as a well heeled traveller, airlines are FREE to break their own rules.Several of my friends are airline reservationists.Undre "crunch" circumstances such as this they have been told to "expedite expeditiously".Next call.You get it.So only CO will be able to tell you how much if any extra airfare will need to be collected.Good Luck and hang in there!.......Stephen

rkkwan

Also, while the only CO flights from ONT is to IAH, there are codeshares on DL (to SLC) and NW (to MSP). They may be able to put your parents on those.

Patty

I'm in the call queue!

It says my call will be answered in approx 300 minutes!

Did I hear that right? I would've thought that they'd stop accepting calls on hold at the 2 or 3 hour mark

rkkwan,
I saw the NW codeshares but no DL codeshares came up when I checked the timetable. I will ask about the possibility of reaccomodation on NW or DL (if I ever get a res agent). Are you in Houston right now?

Thanks to you both for the suggestions.

rkkwan

Patty - Were you using the searchable electronic table or the PDF version? I know they pull some of the codeshare flights on NW and DL after their recent Ch11 filings, so they may not have put the DL ones back on. But if you look at the PDF version, there are DL flights to ATL and SLC and NW flights to MSP.

Did they actually say "300 minutes"? That's hilarious. I know NW will not put you on a call queue if it's too long.

And yes, I'm home in Houston. Watching TV, surfing the web and taking naps. I'm really enjoying this 2-day holiday.

BeachBoi

rkk....Be safe,dude! I have a FA friend who is based in PHX but lives there in "downtown" Houston.I didnt know anybody lived DT.But he is weathering the storm there.Havent heard from him today.

Patty

rkkwan,
Yes, it actually did say 300 minutes, but it turns out I only had to hold for a mere 200 minutes or so! Guess others in the queue gave up

Got them reaccomodated LAX-CLE-CMH no problem. No changes permitted on the return, so they're still coming back CMH-IAH-ONT.

The option of NW ONT-MSP-CMH was available to them also, but the CO flights are scheduled to get into CMH a little earlier in the afternoon and that's what they preferred.

Take care of yourself in Houston!

rkkwan

Patty - Great to hear CO takes care of your parents.

The newest projection has Rita made landfall in SW Louisiana as a Category 3. That's over 100 miles from IAH, so the airport will be in good shape anyways, though flight schedule may still be messy for a few days.

P_M

OMG, 300 minutes, that's a HOOT!!

Well, at least they are being honest. Last night I called a hotel and automatically got put on hold. That annoying voice kept saying something like, "Please be patient. We'll be right with you." I held for 30 minutes and finally hung up. Maybe I was being put on hold for 300 minutes? If I had known the truth about how long the wait really was, I wouldn't have wasted 30 minutes.