Airline woes hitting home

I've been quite vocal in this blog about the state of the airline industry, but because I haven't flown since March, I have so far been spared the pain that many fellow travelers have felt since then. (Unless, of course, you count the travel plans I've had to abandon because of prohibitively high air fares.) But now, I too have been touched.

Awhile back, we bought tickets to California for Thanksgiving. The other day, Continental sent an email to inform me that they'd changed our return flight for one that was three hours earlier. Our original flight apparently went the way of free meals and leg room—extinct.

The new flight was scheduled earlier enough in the day to be inconvenient, so I called Continental to cajole them into giving us a better flight. Considering the current climate of airline service, I fully expected to have a fight on my hands. But fortunately, after a brief hold time and an even briefer explanation of my issue, the representative changed us to the next later flight leaving that day.

But wait—it's not quite the happy ending you might expect. The next later flight turned out to be much later: a red-eye, in fact. So, thank you, Continental! (not)