Comments on: Continental Flight with Human Waste Running Down the Aisle? Yeah, I Was On That…

By: harry

harry — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 03:28:26 +0000

I flew trans-continents, and I know how painful it is to be on a journey with problematic lavatories. My sympathy goes to all these passengers.

To Matti : 2. The only thing Continental did wrong was to take off with broken WCs. All other things (having no food at the airport, luggage claim to take 2 hours, not having porters to help those with too heavy luggage, not having 5-star hotels, etc) are accidental.

From reading the postings and comments, it’s clear that most of them are a bunch of reasonable people. They’d understand the difficulty on arranging such emergency logistics in these situations IF ONLY Continental would tell & explain to them about it.

Instead, they’re rarely informed, and most of the time those communications are pretty useless and/or not considerate of their situations.

I feel pity with both the good passangers and staff of Continental (Captain Customer Service excluded, of course), and they should sue Continental. This is the only way they may learn something from this — nothing else.

By: Laurel

Laurel — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 16:20:23 +0000

So I found a link to this while just surfing around, and when I saw articles and reports I just skimmed them and read the headlines, and I thought “hey that’s pretty funny.” Well there certainly isn’t anything funny about this, what you and all the other passengers went through was truly horrific.

I cannot believe all the grief people are giving you, this is a blog people! She has the right to speak her mind, she never said that her writing was specifically about how Contintental mistreated her, it was about the entire excruciating experience.

In a few weeks I’m going to China and I can’t for a minute imagine flying there (or anywhere really) without the use of a lavatory. If people are gonna harp on you for your experience, ignore them until they sit on a flight for 8 hours with excrement flowing down the isle, they have no right to give you grief.

I hope you come out on top for this, you deserve it!

-Laurel

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:19:01 +0000

Matti Kinnunen,
Do you work the airlines? Your comment about the writer not paying for her trip is crazy. She isn’t asking for Cash refund, she’s asking for her miles back. The airlines have a contractual responsibility to provide the service that a first class ticket warrents (or coach for that matter). She has every right to demand a refund. Shame on you! Do you know how much money these supposedly bankrupt airlines are making! You should be ashamed.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:15:18 +0000

My wife and I had a similar experience coming from Venice to Columbus, Oh. We ended up clocking 62 hours total and ended up on a bus from NYC to Columbus. It was horrid. However, we had the news meet the bus at the airport terminal, made a huge stink, and got our tickets refunded 100%. Stay on those bastards, its a waiting game. They figure that if they stall and stall you’ll give up. Screw them! Stay the course.

By: Matti Kinnunen

Matti Kinnunen — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:34:19 +0000

A few notes:

1. The writer did not pay for her trip. So, stop taking the role of paying customer – actually the other passengers paid for her trip.
2. The only thing Continental did wrong was to take off with broken WCs. All other things (having no food at the airport, luggage claim to take 2 hours, not having porters to help those with too heavy luggage, not having 5-star hotels, etc) are accidental. It is not fair to expect any airline to be able to arrange perfect conditions after landing – in emergency – at some accidental airport. There is not so much free capacity anywhere to make it a perfect and pleasant.

As for sueing: if one has too much free time, go for it. Otherwise, get on with your life. It sucks sometime.

By: Roman Friedman

Roman Friedman — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 01:08:25 +0000

I recently flew Continental and while my experience wasn’t anywhere near as bad as this, I can certainly sympathize. My flight was delayed several hours, such that I missed my connection and they could only rebook me for a flight the following day. I shall leave out all the annoying details, but when I finally managed to speak to a “customer service” representative, I felt like I was in some kind of Middle Eastern bazaar, haggling for accommodation, meal vouchers, anything. She was snide, inconvenienced by my patently unreasonable demands, patronizing, and all in all, a useless incompetent bitch. I read somewhere that there is a class action suit in the works about this. Best of luck and I hope that the passengers manage to extract some justice from Continental.

By: Violet

Violet — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 03:55:49 +0000

To all of you jerks sniping at this woman for (rightfully) complaining, I say this: YOU try sitting on a sewage-filled plane for 8 hours. People PAID for a basic service, and it was NOT rendered to the customer’s satisfaction. She has a right to complain and a right to be satisfied in a reasonable way. Jeeze, you’d think she was griping about not being served food on silver platters and waited on hand and foot! There is no excuse whatsoever for Continental to expose their passengers to inhumane, unsafe conditions, period. I hope they get taken to the cleaners for this.

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 03:45:01 +0000

I had no idea this had happened at all until I saw a link in a blog. This is one of the most horrific stories I have ever heard concerning air travel and mechanical issues that did not result in a crash. My sympathies go to you and your fellow passengers. No one should have had to deal with that.

I don’t fly nearly as much as some of the others I have seen make comments here, but I do fly fairly regularly. I know that I could not have lived without a bathroom on my last transcontinental flight, especially if they were still giving you food and water the whole time. Not to mention you were exposed to some major health hazards in a closed air system. I hope that you are all able to get your money back, and more. And I know I will never fly Continental again.

By: Trey

Trey — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:45:54 +0000

Ha ha, “InContinental”. That’s funneh.

Sue them all. God will know His own.

By: Shane

Shane — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:32:29 +0000

The truth is, the airlines don’t think far enough ahead or truly care about the passengers. If they did they would be considering the repurcussion of this treatment. If you consider everything that all of you have been through, I wouldn’t be surprised if people with medical issues can document illnesses or health issues that are related to or even a direct cause of this inhumane treatment. What will it take? 1 year, 2 years, 5 years? Truth is, being exposed to sewage is unhealthy and if you already have health issues, who knows how much worse it will be as a result of that exposure.

Toilets on a plane are nothing more than a sophisticated bucket and proper waste removal has been a cultural and heath related need for millenia. Sure you have a place to “go” but you really don’t expect it to stare back at you when you are done. However, if we were expected to deal with this with ANY regularity in a city, there would be significant outrage. As a result, if you can’t make sure the plumbing is working in this modern day, then what does that say about a company when they force their customers to “live with it?”

I have had too many negative experiences when I have flown to believe this story is indulgent or make-believe. I believe this person because I have had more negative than positive experiences when flying. Flying may be the safest way to travel, but it certainly is NOT the most convenient.