Flying The Friendly Skies (Cont. Airlines)
 

I just got off the phone with a supervisor at Cont. Airlines, who told me due to an agents mistake in training my return ticket on a freguent flier award was not good. I already made hotel res. etc.The supervisor was nasty and then hung up on me. Does anyone have a phone number or an email address hirer then a supervor at Cont. that I can contact? Any help would be appreciated. I am besides myself. As my hands are tied. Thanks Myra

The standard rule for dealing with difficult airline phone people is to keep calling until you get the answer you want. Really.

Did you use a credit card to charge any services for this? If so, maybe they will help you resolve the problem...

I did not use a credit card. My mistake if I did they would have to honor it. I have been calling, but I need to speak to someone over her. Ned a phone number or email address. Thanks

Customer Care
1600 Smith St 34th floor
Houston Tx 77002
You can get the phone number from information..I will not give the ladies name out here but if you call there and ask for the person in charge. They will most likely be helpful, we have had nothing to complain about as far as Continental doing right by us when we have had problems.
Good luck.

I don't mean this to sound like nit-picking, but I'm really curious because others have said similar things about NOT using a credit card. If you did this on line or on the phone, how did you do the transaction without a credit card?
I'm unsure how you could pay the taxes or fees without using a credit card. What am I missing here?

Meanwhile I agree about keep calling until you get the answer you want. I'm assuming you are a Cont. FF member. Do they have a special phone line? AA does, and I never call any other number -- only the FF one which is far more helpful than the generic one.

The agent said they would hold the res. for 7 days and that is why I did not give a credit card at that time. Again my mistake.Never again. I can kick myself. Myra

Myra, don't kick yourself. Just keep calling and try to make this work. It is so frustrating, but eventually you will end up talking to some kinder person on the phone.

Now, for the practical part: the agent admitted that it was the airline's fault, which means that you are not responsible and should not have to pay for that BS. Point that out and argue the point until you get your way. This is their fault and you are not responsible for it.

Folks, I believe most of you are missing a very important point here. The OP did not have confirmed reservation. She admits that she just put the award res on hold, that's it. The airline caught the mistake and cancelled the return. Until one is ticketed one has no recourse. PERIOD.

OTOH, assuming that what the OP is saying about the supervisor is true, then she should write a letter to CO and let them know about the behavior of the agent, but don't expect for CO to allow her to do an illegal routing or using wrong partners, or whatever the mistake was, just because the agent was rude.

Even when one gives a CC number, the deal is NOT finalized until the res is TICKETED, and from mine experience, award ticketings take anywhere from few days to as long as few weeks if the trip is far out. Each award ticket does get checked by human for any errors by the agent and the airline reserves the right to reject the ticket if there was an error, whether by the customer or agent. With all the different rules and terms as to award tickets, agents do make mistakes. It happens all the time.

1-800-WE-CARE-2

I've never had to use that line, but from what I've read, those CO agents there are able to solve problems like this.

Call them up and see what they say.

And I agree with what AAFF says in his post.

If the itinerary is all on CO, then I think you have a good chance of getting your flight back. Harder if it's on a partner reward.

And while the original flights were not ticketed, the OP should have a 6-digit locator. Have that ready when you call.

AAFF, I'm not sure what you mean by "most of you are missing a very important part here". There was only one post after myra told us this was only a reservation. When she originally said "my return ticket. . .was not good" I thought she meant just that -- that she already had a ticket.

No problem, but since the new "reservation hold" information was given, yes the whole thing is a lot clearer. While I wish Myra luck, I sure wouldn't hold my breath.

Thank You Now I have phone number.I have the ticket locator with all the info. Thanks again

ttt

Why are you topping this, Myra53? You have all the info you need at this point.

I have had good results from Continental when I have been civil and persistent. But at the same time, I know the number of FF award seats is very limited, and that their agents are apparently trained to look only at Continental flights, rather than at all of their partners. People who have had success getting these limited seats report that before calling, they do their own research, so they can politely ask the agent to look at availability on airline x, or flight y.

I think that, even if you can get them to find another flight, there is a very good possibility that they may not be able to match the dates you want. I don't see why you feel you are in such a bind, as my experience is that hotel reservations, etc., are almost always easily cancelled or altered.

There is a Continental frequent flyer forum at Flyertalk, and some of the posters there report good results from dealing with certain individuals. Perhaps you could devote some time to reading their posts to get an idea of what you can do, although I think you have already gotten quite good advice here, except for the advice about calling customer service over and over again until you get the answer you want. If a supervisor has already looked at this issue and made a decision, you can call all the clerks in the world, and none of them will be capable of overriding their boss.

Just got off the phone with a great agent at Cont. She took care of everything. I now have a return flight, and an e ticket. I thank you all for your help, as presistence does pay off. Thanks again Myra

Good deal! ((y))

I'm curious now. Did you get the same flight(s) as before? and if so, then what was the explanation for kicking your ticket in the first place?

Something is not matching up here?

OTOH, it's good to hear that your trip is set.

This is not about the OP's experience, as I don't know her detail, but in my experience, CO's software is quite "trigger happy" to cancel unbooked award "reservations". Here are two examples:

1. If you hold two reservations on the same itinerary, they're likely to cancel both of them. You may ask, why would I have two reservations? Well, if I put one on hold through their website, it's good till midnight the next day. Well, next day, I want to book another one to extend it for another 24 hours. But one has to cancel the first one first, or else both are cancelled.

2. This happened to me recently. I had an award on hold. Then I went to "complete purchase" just to see some payment options, I think. But there's no going back. I cancel the payment, and the reservations is also gone. So, don't click "complete purchase" until one's really ready to pay.