Continental Cancelled my flight...

[ckmommy]

OK, it is not to Disney, but to Hawaii! My DH and I are taking our first real vacation away from our kids (5 of them)--ever!! We leave in 11 days. I decided to look on the Continental website to see what movie(s) was/are playing during the flight. I did not know what type of plane we were taking, so the Continental site directed me to the timetable. I typed in the date we are traveling and expected to see our flight. Guess what--no flight is listed. There is one leaving 2 hours earlier. so, I decided I better check to see if our flight was still listed on our OnePass account. It was, but it is for the earlier flight. OK, no big deal, we get there 2.5 hours earlier, yay! Not so fast--because this is a different flight, our seats got reassigned. My DH has the same seat, but now I am 20 rows behind him. My DH travels a lot, so he knew what seats to book--first row after 1st class--for the most leg room. He calls Continental and the rep. tells him that she can move his seat next to mine. Yay, again, but these are not the seats we had wanted. We had booked this flight 8 months ago, to get these seats.
I am so excited about this trip, and these seat will not ruin it--BUT I really think we got the short end of the stick. Do you think I should call and complain or just leave things alone??

 

[janets]

Unfortunately, you're going to hear from many experienced flyers that when you book a ticket, you're only guaranteed of actually getting from point A to point B. Yes, you selected tickets, but they have the right to change equipment, and when that happens, they move people around. And unfortunately, you got stuck.

You can call and try, but it's not likely that it's going to work. Your best bet is to keep looking and see if anything opens up, and if not, make sure you check in at EXACTLY 24 hours before in order to move yourselves to better seating when they open the remaining held seats (sometimes exit rows, even if it might cost you if you want to take them).

I'm sorry you got stuck. We had this happen when we got a credit once on a flight, and they ended up cancelling and rebooking us. We had no idea that we lost our seas and ended up in the very back of the plane. What a mess.

 

[bicker]

Yup, janets hit the nail on the head, and sorry you ended up with the short straw. Airlines promise to get you from one city to another city on a certain day. They simply don't sell guaranteed flight times, guaranteed aircraft, guaranteed routing, or guaranteed seat assignments, because it would be far more costly to guarantee such things, and the last thing passengers want is higher fares!

 

[ckmommy]

Thanks so much!! That is what I figured.

I am going to Hawaii--I am just so happy to be going!