CONTINENTAL AIRLINES AND ADVANTAGE RENT-A-CAR SUCK!!!!

The recent bad weather in the Northeast has stranded me in Dallas, TX . I was supposed to come home on Sunday, but of course, those flights were cancelled. Then I was supposed to go out on Monday, but they cancelled those flights as well. Now they have "conveniently" put me on their next available flight, which is Thursday at noon, which means I am now waiting five days to get home. FIVE DAYS!!!!

You can just imagine how angry this might make me. Especially since the Continental Airlines reservations lines are all tied up and they never answer. For the past 48 hours, no one answers their phones, and they basically tell you they can't take your call. When I finally got through, I was on hold for over an hour, before I decided to make a special trip to the airport to see if I could get something earlier. The very unhelpful superviser told me that the only way I might get on an earlier flight was to come to the airport at 6 am and wait around on stand-by for any available flight that might suddenly (and miraculously) open up. But of course, there was already a long line of twenty or more people on stand-by for every flight. And since I am not an Elite Class member, I have no clout over any of the people who are waiting ahead of me.

So I asked the very unfriendly Continental superviser on duty how I was going to be compensated for my wait. Would they pick up my hotel and rental car fees for the next three days? No, of course not. They take no responsibility for anything. No vouchers, no discounts, no future discounts on flights. They basically say "f*ck you" to their customers and don't really care.

The rental agency Advantage was also just as helpful, as they jacked up my rental car price more than 75% a day for extending my car until my plane flight on Thursday. Yes, the weather was not their fault...but their customer service experience is. And to guoge stranded passengers like that is really not showing any kind of Advantage. In fact, I will NEVER deal with this company again.

What recourse does the average flyer have? When did airlines become so impersonal and pathetic in their customer service? It makes me never want to fly again...or at least not on Continental airlines.

Sorry for the rant, but I needed to get this off my chest. Thanks for reading. And if you have a choice, NEVER USE CONTINENTAL AIRLINES or ADVANTAGE in the future.