Continental Shelf

Continental Airlines will be our first target. Today, I tried to fly out of Newark Airport to Chicago. My original flight planned to leave at 2:58. I arrived quite early at about 1:10 pm. Looking up, I saw that another Continental flight was scheduled to leave to 1:45 pm. I rushed to the earlier flight's gate in an attempt to hop on the earlier flight if the plan had open seats. Now, I have done this trick repeatedly in the past. So often in fact that I took it for granted that airlines allow this Mig-29 like maneuvering.

After getting to the gate at about 1:20pm, I asked the flight attendant and she confirmed that there were seats open. I then inquired as to whether I could hop on to the earlier flight. After all, I had no baggage and seats were open. She informed me that it would be a $50 charge.

I refused to pay an outrageous and price gouging fee for a customer convenience that costs the airline nothing. Think about it. I am not late. If I missed a flight and needed to hop a later one, I forced the airline to waste a seat on the earlier unused flight. I get that problem.

But, in this case, the earlier flight already has empty seats. No one is going to buy them. The airline is already stuck with empty seats on the 1:45 flight. In fact, I am helping the airline. The 1:45pm seats are a lost cause. However, the 2:58 flight might actually need the seats. For example, the airline may have oversold the seats on the 2:58 flight (as airlines are prone to do now). We know that this did not occur on the 1:45pm flight because seats remained empty. Similarly, late traveling passengers at 1:20pm might actually try to buy seats on a 2:58 pm flight. This would not happen at 1:20pm for a 1:45pm flight.

All Continental is doing is price gouging customers or wasting everyone's time.

Welcome To Grumbledore

Grumbledore represents my first solo foray into the insidious world of complogging. Together our anger will fester and our thirst for respect will never be quenched.

Enjoy!