by I take back every nasty thing I ever said about Continental Airlines:
The insidious reality that Continental limits participation and requires documentation for Bereavement plays into the idea that you’re getting a great deal when you are not. It certainly appears Continental is preying on your loss and your broken heart to line their pockets and to blacken their bottom line.
It disgusts me when companies take advantage of the emotional despair that comes in waves of mourning and longing and yearning and companies like Continental Airlines deserve to have their Bereavement fares mocked online and wholly identified as an inconsolable and inconsiderate scam.
Yes, yes, I give in! I take back every single bit of it all, now that United Airlines have corrupted my previously unbeloved and loathsome Continental brand — just give us back Continental!
Imagine my shock this morning, when I typed in “continental.com” and that URL was automagically transformed into a final “united.com” landing. Yes, it was official. Continental are now wholly owned by United and that is bad news for flyers.
Before United ate Continental, I could buy Janna a nonstop round-trip ticket from Newark to Omaha for around $260.00. When I tried that same itinerary this morning on united.com, the price for that same trip was an astonishing $690.00!
Yipes! That’s quite a wallet pincher! Doubling the price of a fare just because one airline took over another? What’s the benefit of “airline deregulation” again? Deregulation isn’t pro-consumer, that’s for sure.
We have little choice but to pony up/cough up/spit up the additional money for her fare because that’s really our only feasible choice of airport and nonstop flight — but it doesn’t make us love United — it only makes us long for the days when Continental owned the Newark hub and rubbed out all the other competition to offer us outstanding nonstop prices back to the Midwest.
Brutal! Is the extra money worth getting your airport of choice? I would think from your location you could even get a limo service to somewhere serviced by JetBlue and get a better deal (and pay less overall…)
We’re definitely paying for convenience. We’re 20 minutes from Newark airport. Using a NYC airport would add an hour of travel time both ways. With Janna travelling alone, I like everything to be as smooth and short and as nonstop as possible so she won’t have to deal with too many unforeseen hassles.