I LOVE Continental. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Continental. Maybe its because theyre about the only non-low fare airline that isnt just hovering above bankruptcy. Their people are friendly, the planes are nice and the customer service staff is all American. They speak English and are VERY friendly. Even at 3am.
Delta might as well be because their balance sheet totally sucks and security costs just went up like another 1000% again this quarter so they're up the river without a paddle. I myself am not fond of Delta, they have rude staff and broken planes. My seat on my little one hour flight from Ft Lauderdale to Orlando(it was $100 to fly vs that much to drive so it was worth the flight) the ticket agent told me that since my boarding pass would not read Id have to go see his supervisor, get a new boarding pass and catch the next flight since they would give my seat up. At that point I literally threw a fit in the terminal. This flight was planned out to the T and any deviation from it would have messed up all my plans. So the supervisor comes over.... turns out he was scanning the wrong part of my boarding pass. I printed mine off the internet and I guess he was just retarded or something. Then on the flight I asked the flight attendant if I could have soda and water. She told me no. WTF Id have even paid for it but she said NO. Fine, you want to be that way..... be that way. I made sure to call their 1800 number. I got some miles and a $200 voucher. I may never use it, I despise Delta.
Ive never flown a low cost carrier since I dont ever seem to go where they fly but I dont ask for much. I just want them to be friendly, hospitable... and human. Continental has done that for me more than once. I was kinda stuck in Tulsa for Katrina, I called the hotline they had on their site. The friendly lady that answered my call had me a flight booked and CONFIRMED 100% confirmed since I was a displaced traveller and I had first priority over everyone. She gave me a confirmation number, gave me like 5,000 extra miles and sent me an e mail with everything so I could check in online. Apparently something happened and I didnt come for the right flight... they later confirmed a ticketing agent had messed up several iteneraries after my phone call and I was not the only one that got screwed. They got me on the flight out I had requested on the phone with no problems and I got a $150 voucher.
Recently I was booking my flight home.. and apparently Im a moron. I couldnt figure out how to apply my vouchers and I had more than one. I called their reservations number at like 3 or 4 am and the person who answered the phone didnt make it sound like they were looking down at me. They may have been cursing me in their mind but thats ok, I do that at work all day. I just never let it get through my voice. So anyway they got me through it all very easily and in English.
I like American too but for some reason when I go to search their fares they always seem to come up quite a bit higher than Delta, Continental or NWA.