So I took advantage of Continental's "24-hour policy, " where you can book your flight and then modify or cancel it within 24 hours free of charge. I did end up canceling the flight. The charge for the flight (~$2000) is still pending on my credit card 12 days later. While I do not technically owe the money, the $2000, which is not a small amount (for me at least) is being counted against my credit limit. I'm between a rock and a hard place, as the credit card won't act on this, and Continental is IMPOSSIBLE to reach to figure out what is going on. Over the past two days, I have been on hold close to 3 hours combined, with most of my calls ending up with my hanging up or my battery dying. ONCE i got through and was told that since, by definition, a cancelation within the 24-hour window voids the transcation, the shouldn't have been a charge at all. And yet...Well then came another transfer to another department and another hopeless endless call. Needless to say that that the rep that did pick that once sounded bored and uninterested, at best. So for the fear of losing or my minutes (and sanity) to Continental, I'm just waiting for the pending charge to "fall off" after 30 days.
The irony is that I rebooked the ticket with Continental the next day. It will surely be my last time with them.

At Houston Intercontinental airport on May.17, immediate after I complained a continental service persons impatience to help customer check in baggages, that service person forced me to pay oversize charge 100 dollars for an air traveller standard suitcase which never had oversize problem in my prior travels, another option was buy a new luggage bag from them to replace that case for 40 dollars. This person use overcharge as retaliatory action against customer.
Initially I asked that continental ladys help on how to self check-in baggages by using touch screen panel, that lady was so impatient that she replied:" Cant you read?", and then I replied " I prefer to having people to help me check in the baggages", and then she measured the dimensions of my baggage manually and said my bagggage was 1 inch oversize. And she told me that I have two options: pay 100 dollar or buy a 40 dollar new bag from them. I was unconvinced since she was not supposed to take that baggage check-in responsibility initially and no accurate automatical measurement devices was in place. I argued with her and then she escaped and Mike.W and P.Williams came, they both did nothing to automatically measure my baggage again instead they threatend me if I did not pay and kept arguing, they would call policeman and block my boarding. since I had to take next international flight, I told Mike.W that I may have to buy a 40 dollar bag from them, and then Mike brought in a tiny bag, I realized if I buy this bag and then I would help them to get a personal business to reward their action of threatening and cheating customers. I finally chose to pay 100 dollar by credit card to enable my baggage on board and take that flight on time!

Actually that so called "oversized baggage" never had any problem with other carriers before such as American Airlines and United, as well as with China southern which I immediate took afterwards.

Listen! continental ground service person in houston intercontinental airport:

1. Be patient to help your customers to use self check-in touch screen, or it is always better to help customers in person.
2. Never response customers complaint with the application of "continental policy" to overcharge from your perspective or other tactics against customers interests.
3. Never measure, weigh or read the baggage manually, and use those datas to judge and charge!
4.Solve customerss complaint by your supervisors, not by policeman!
5.Never try to do personal business when you are serving continental customer!

Continental Airlines felt it was OK to change a 1 1/2 hour layover to a 13 hour layover 2 weeks before departure during spring break when alternate reservations are extremely difficult. The best we could do was reduce the layover to five hours. They also moved our return departure 1 1/2 hours earlier so we would have to wake up at 3:00 AM. Nine of us are travelling including four kids and our great seat asignmnets secured months ago now leave the kids sitting alone on one segment and the rest are less than ideal.
"Customer Care" would do absolutely nothing to compensate for the inconvenience and Terrell hung up on me when I said I would be posting on complaint board.

Here's my story. My husband's uncle passed away and he was named executor of the estate. We needed to fly to Ireland to take care of arrangements and meet with lawyers. We booked flights CO3439 from Buffalo to Newark (5:45pm - 7:20pm) and then CO 66 Newark to Shannon, Ireland (10:08pm - 9:28am) for August 23. When we checked in we were told that the flight to Newark was delayed until 7:30 due to weather. The previous flight had arrived on time and the plane was sitting at the gate the entire time we were delayed. We finally board the plane around 7:30 for a "wheels up" at 8:00. The flight attendants went through the safety instructions and everything and then the captain announced we'd be delayed another 2 hrs. They had everyone deplane. We spoke with an agent (Paolo) because at that point we knew we wouldn't make our connection. She told us if we went to Newark and didn't make the connection they wouldn't pay for a hotel. We don't live very far from the airport so we rebooked both flights for the next day (and rebooked our returning flight to be a day later as well) and we went home. However she failed to notify us that delays to Newark are a frequent occurrence.

We go back to the airport the following day and again are told that the flight to Newark is delayed, this time the plane was late arriving from its previous destination. The agent, Pam, was helpful. She put me in the very first row so I could be first off the plane and said in the event we didn't make our connection she okayed the airline to pay for a hotel for us this time. We spoke with the agent at the gate (didn't get her name but she was not too tall, heavyset, long curly red hair) and were told "You will make your connection". When the plane finally did arrive they told us once we were boarded we could be up in the air in 10 minutes. However after boarding we sat on the tarmac for at least 30minutes before the plane even taxied out. At this point we knew we were cutting our connection close. Near the end of the flight when I was skeptical about making the connection I spoke with the flight attendant. He made a call and said that the Shannon flight knew there were connectors on board our plane and they would try to hold it. When we landed I was the first off the plane and ran through the terminal (if you know the Newark airport, our gates were no where near each other, it wasn't a short run) and got to the gate. The plane was still there at the gate but the doors were closed and they wouldn't let us board. I told them about how we were going for funeral/executor business and they were not compassionate at all and the gate agent brushed me off and walked away. I followed her asking where I could go to get help but she wouldn't talk to me at all, didn't acknowledge me and kept on walking. I was in tears by then, they made an already bad situation much worse. We finally found someone who would help us, Joanna, who helped us at the customer service desk although they were supposed to be closed by then. She booked us a hotel but we weren't given any food vouchers. From the hotel we called the airline to file a complaint and they told us to wait until all our travel was complete before requesting any compensation or filing a complaint. The next day we finally made it to Shannon, 2 days late.

Our returning flight was delayed 2 hours due to plane maintenance. We were told by the agents we would "most likely" make our connection. And this time we did, however when we got to Buffalo our luggage didn't. 2 bags have since been located and are supposed to arrive later today, but the 3rd is still lost. For a first time over-seas flyer this was an absolutely horrid experience.

When I finally got home I called the airline to request a refund. The refund manager I spoke with, Janet, was not at all helpful or sympathic. She was rude, put me on hold for 20 minutes without even asking first if she could put me on hold. She said "I need to find out why your flight was delayed" and put me on hold unnecessarily when I could have told her why. She refused to acknowledge there was any wrong doing on the part of the airline and would not refund us. We were offered a $175 voucher each for a future flight... but why the hell would I want that? I never want to fly with them again, I want my money back!

So in the end the trip cost us an extra day off work with the rescheduling and 2 wasted vacation days not to mention the emotional stress we endured in an already emotional situation. I've read other forums and I'm going to be following up the DOT and any pursue any other means I can. I just wanted to share my story as a warning to others.. DO NOT FLY WITH CONTINENTAL.

If you have not yet figured it out I am determined to have resolution to this experience.
I was contacted by an agent by the name of Tracy at 832-235-1871. Although I appreciated the calls as of now they simply resulted on at least a 60 dollar phone bill. I will be leaving Bermuda, but while I was here and most upset my calls run 2 dollars per minute. My last call with her was 30 minutes long and then she called back and it cost me 4 dollars to check my voice mail After checking it was simply as message to call her next week as she will be away.
My problems with Continental continued today as I logged on to check in and my wife was not listed. I searched and searched and it wasn't there. I then had to make yet another long distance call to find her reservation and check her in. No one was able to explain why the reservations were separated, but they were.
I then asked the agent to tell me a bit about my paper trail. She told me that all of my details were documented down to the fact that Bermuda basically closes as a whole at 5. This means that getting the necessary essentials for my wife to feel comfortable was not possible and the trip to town and back cost me 50 dollars alone only to grab essentials from a local marked at extremely over rated prices because of the country.
I was also told that the agent that I filed a complaint about stated his story that I arrived at 6:57 for a 7:40 flight. This is a complete lie and a way for him to justify my complaint. I was at the airport on time. I did wait for a bit at a different line until being told that I needed to move. I am the type of person that asks everyone for help, so I had no problem asking what line I was in and where to go.
Once in the correct line and I have to stress already being electronically checked in from the night prior which I have I was still on time. However, your employees spent more time arguing with me instead of helping me and cost me my flight. As I told you after being re-ticketed and having my bags checked at 7:15 after a 30 minute minimum debate with your employees I went to the gate that I was originally seated for and they were still willing to take us on board.
We were turned away after the agents realized that our luggage was checked on the next flight.
I then called customer service and filed a complaint.
I walked back up and asked the supervisor for his name.
He told me it with an attitude and said "And why do you want to know my name?" Thank goodness the agent on the phone heard him. I told him that I was on the phone with customer service and filing a complaint because I could have been on my original flight if his intentions were to help not hurt.
I then went to the desk in the Continental wing and received seats. After a while of thinking I went back to the desk and asked for the Supervisor's boss. I told them I wanted to speak with him regarding how I was treated. I left out the red coat employee that was rude as well and spoke around me in Spanish. Anyway, I was told that if I persisted to follow up on this that the supervisor would and could remove me from the flight. I asked again and stated that you mean to tell me that he treated me poorly and because I think his boss should know about it, I can be thrown off the plane. No wonder he lied about my arrival time. If you even ask to speak to his boss about his behavior you are threatened with being removed from a flight.
To top it off out of the entire flight departing at 12 something PM and our bags checked at 7:15 and under two separate names both of our bags were lost at TSA.
I called TSA, our bags were not with them, nor were they tagged or marked in anyway. It was a full blown lie.
I don't think you can imagine what it was like for our anniversary after everything that we have been through in our family lives for my wife to go without so much as underwear after waking up at 5AM. There are times when the right thing needs to be done. As I stand now I lost two days of my vacation. The first one without clothes and the second getting clothes before we began our day. I rang up roughly $300 in cell phone charges calling agent after agent and being put on hold to go no where. Then spent a nice chunk of change to stay another night the hotel to make up for one of the days I lost. The whole time right up to now I have been sickened by Continental. I was asked by Tracy, what did I wan? Well you can not put a price on watching your wife cry while she sits in the hotel room because we were missing our anniversary dinner. You can't put a price on the stress of being treated poorly at an airport, or being threatened, or being pushed off your flight even though it was open, these things hold a value that can not be replaced. I will never for get this trip and how two agents at the ticketing counter ruined it and your customer care desk threatened me, even though I was in the right and should have been allowed to speak to his supervisor. So after all of that I felt it only fair that since I was granted $150 each for essentials that Continental pay for our final day, $500. I believe that is a bargain for the strain this put on my vacation and wife.
Finally I was given your email address because I am unhappy with just about everyone I have spoken to.
At first I actually thought that you personally replied to my email then realized it was generated.
A big step forward for a company that's new slogan is Work Hard Fly Right, might me to take my concerns personally, not pass them down. I have suffered, to my wife and myself, a great loss. Why would I be provided with your contact information if you were not going to contact me, but simply push it down.
Continental has a lot to learn at Newark Airport. The staff that I filed a complaint about owes us an apology and the customer service desk that threatened me instead of picking up the phone and contacting the acting boss might need re-educating that scaring someone isn't the answer.
I am not simply going to let go of this. I know that we were wronged and I would appreciate your direct involvement in this not an agents.
Please do not push them. Please work with me to resolve this so that we can part without hard feelings. I definitely feel that compensation is due as well as apologies.
I feel that the position you hold makes you the best person to finish this once and for all.