The horrific tarmac delay in Rochester, MN has come to the attention of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. LaHood apparently has a blog, and on it he’s asking some questions about the delay.
continental airlines
Persistence Convinces Continental To Abandon Impossible Itinerary
By 6.21.09
Continental thought 82 minutes was plenty of time for Chris to catch a flight connecting in Newark from Washington to Delhi. It might be, but Continental’s own data show that the Washington flight arrives late 96% of the time by 103 minutes on average. Chris wanted to switch to an earlier flight so he could make the once-daily plane to Delhi, but Continental wouldn’t let him switch unless he paid a $250 change fee. Unsatisfied with the answer, Chris hung up and kept calling back until he got the answer he wanted.
Continental Takes 2nd Child To Wrong Airport
By 6.17.09
…both incidents occurred when flights with different destinations were loaded simultaneously from the same doorway and that “miscommunication among staff members resulted in the child being boarded on the wrong aircraft.”
Continental Offers Free Flights, Frequent-Flyer Status To Misrouted Child's Family
By 6.16.09
Continental Airlines has made a much more generous offer to the family whose ten-year-old daughter was accidentally flown to Newark instead of Cleveland while flying as an unaccompanied minor. Paterfamilias and blogger Jonathan Kamens wrote that a Continental rep “assured [him] again that the airline takes what happened very seriously.” The details of Continental’s offer, inside.
Continental Puts 10-Year-Old Child On The Wrong Plane
By 6.15.09
Sure, airlines misroute luggage all the time. But how about misrouting a ten-year-old girl to the wrong state?
Continental Airlines Using "Fuel Emergencies" To Skip Ahead Of Other Airlines At Newark?
By 4.17.08
There’s evidence that Continental Airlines might be engaged in some shady manipulation of air traffic controllers by creating “fuel emergencies” in order to skip ahead of other airlines and land quicker at Newark, says the Wall Street Journal. So-called “fuel emergencies” aren’t as scary as they sound– planes that are getting close to the minimum amount of fuel required to remain in the air can call into the tower and get “expedited handling,” and skip the line. There’s no real danger to passengers.
Continental Airlines Sewage Flight, Eyewitness Account
By 6.20.07
“To be blatantly honest, I was more nervous than I had ever been on a flight,” said [passenger] Collin Brock. “I’ve never felt so offended in all my life. I felt like i had been physically abused and neglected. I was forced to sit next to human excrement for seven hours,” said Brock.
Here’s what happened: Mid-way through the flight, the toilets stopped working. The flight made an unscheduled stop in Shannon, Ireland to fix the problem…but the problem wasn’t fixed. Shortly after take-off a sewage geyser started, and this time Continental didn’t turn back.
VIDEO: Girl Kicked Off Continental For Excessive Coughing
By 3.30.07
While we appreciate the pilot’s concern for the other passengers, we still think he was overcautious.
Continental Ejects Passenger From Flight For Coughing
By 3.30.07
Moments after Collier was seated, she began to cough uncontrollably — suffering from a cold she caught from some of her friends earlier in the week. After a few minutes, members of the flight staff asked the teen if she was OK. […] “A doctor onboard even did a brief physical, said she sounded clear, to give her some NyQuil and she’d be fine, but the pilot didn’t want to listen to that.” Instead, according to Collier, he stepped in and asked that she be taken off the flight.
The teen, part of a school group, was left behind. A teacher stayed behind too, to chaperone.
AirTran Wins, Midwest Loses in Fastest Telephone Customer Service
By 4.17.06
Here’s the results of our week-long investigation into how fast it took airlines to pick up the phone.
Time to Human, Airlines, Day 5
By 4.14.06
All week we’ve been calling the airlines to see how long it takes their customer service reps to answer the phone. Here’s today’s rankings:
Time to Human, Airlines, Day 4
By 4.13.06
Midwest, while once again the loser, performed slightly better today.
Time to Human, Airlines, Day 3
By 4.12.06
Nothing can stop us from calling up all the airlines and comparing how fast it takes a carbon-based life form to pick up the phone. Not even the tinkly pianissimo of Midwest’s hold line. We foil all the automated response system’s attempts to pry out more information about an actual ticket using the short circuit shortcuts provided by GetHuman.
Time to Human, Airlines, Day 2
By 4.11.06
We’re calling the major airlines this week to see how long it takes them to pick up.
Time to Human, Airlines, Day 1
By 4.10.06
The statistics train keeps on rolling. We called up many major airlines this afternoon and here’s how long it took for them to pick up.
