Comments on: Continental wants you to know your place

By: joey

joey — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:37:33 +0000

I travel a lot for work and I am always amazed to find that the most ignorant, pushy, impatient people are always the folks who have been upgraded to 1st. Sure it is a nice perk we all want, but geeze there is more to life than getting a “pre-flight” drink and boarding first.

I have also heard many complaints about not getting upgrades, but hey, at least you have a seat! If they want that 1st class seat, pay the full fare or buy the Y fare. Else be like the rest of us, buy cheap and hope for the upgrade.

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By: Elite NO Access

Elite NO Access — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:28:00 +0000

I am an “Elite Member” with Continental and was removed from my first class upgrade by gate agent Van Fossen. This rather large woman yelled at me and told me to “get back in the back of plane, you get what you paid for”. Funny, who pays for upgrades, we’re all frequent flyers! I had barely caught my flight, and was told by a rather nice gate agent, to grab the first seat. Being “elite-ess” I asked, do I still get my first class upgrade? He said yes, he had several late connecting flights and missing passengers,if I saw one available sit down and tell the 1st Class flight attendant. I did as told, so excited to see an open seat. You quickly learn, 1st Class attendants aka waitresses, have a power isssue. You may never sit unless they tell you to do so if your the last passenger on. Who knew? I told her the man at the gate told me their was room in 1st class and to grab the 1st seat I saw. She did not like my explanation and had the door re-opened so Van Fossen could remove me. Van Fossen asked if I was eligible for an upgrade, it would say so on my boarding pass. I assured, it did. She told the attendant, “watch this” I handed her my Golden Ticket which clearly stated, “Added to 1st Class Standby List”. I was forced into submission, removed from my seat, and placed in the last row in a middle seat. I was forced to walk all the way to back of the plane while everyone stared at me, extremely humiliating. They had no idea I was right and I earned my seat. They all thought I held up the fligh. So much for Elite status! I’ll never fly Continental again, I’d rather arrive early to the airport & fly Southwest in Group A and hand pick my seat with no fear of being humiliated.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 18:37:00 +0000

A separate line for elites is okay, since elites can board first. But calling you “non-elite” is pretty stupid and yeah, snobbish. Bad marketing, too. They should draw attention to the people who _are_ elites, not the people who _aren’t_. Reward the best, but don’t punish the rest.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 15:05:00 +0000

Continental is one of THE most snobbish airlines around and I wonder if that’s why they frequently won those JD Power awards. I once sat on a flight where some guy kept complaining that he didn’t get upgraded to first class over and over again stating, “I’m a platinum member and I didn’t get upgraded!”

I felt like slapping the guy down hard. He was a little winnie guy too.

By: Melissa Petri

Melissa Petri — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 22:54:00 +0000

wow, they found a great way to make sure that you strive to be part of the elite. guess they didn’t take the trouble of consulting a thesaurus dictionary or maybe they are just that insensitive.