Thank you for flying Continental Airlines...

So after two great weeks in the US I was heading back home to Geneva on what I thought was going to be an easy flight. SFO to Newark to Geneva. One stop. Two hour layover. Easy peasy.

I left for the airport at 4:30am to catch my 7am flight. The flight was on time and everything was going great until we got over Ohio and the pilot came on the intercom. "We have a bit of a storm ahead of us and air traffic control is holding all flights into New York, so we are going to circle a bit and see what happens." Well, 20 minutes turned into an hour and soon we were landing in Cincinnati to refuel. At first the pilot told us to stay on board, it maybe only a few minutes before we would be able to leave. But after another hour we were allowed to get off the plane but had to check in every half hour incase we got the green light to take off again.

FOUR hours later we were airborne again. I had missed my connection to Geneva, but I felt lucky because there was talk about us staying the night in Cincinnati, but I had overheard the somewhat overwhelmed gate agent say that there were no rooms in the whole region due to some sporting tournament going on. New York had more flight options and more hotel rooms... or so I thought.

About 70% of the folks on my flight had had a connection to somewhere in Europe, but by the time we had finally landed at 9pm, only one family had a chance to make their connecting flight to Rome. We all got out of the way and cheered them on as they ran off the plane. The rest of us were told to head to the Continental Customer Service desk next to gate 90 inside the terminal. Little did we know that almost every passenger on every delayed flight into Newark was heading to the same place.

I rounded the corner and could not believe my eyes. A line of approximately 300 people were waiting to reschedule their flights with a grand total of 5 customer service agents. I instantly got on my cell phone to try to rebook, but I was told that the next flight to Geneva with a free seat was on Friday, FOUR days later! I tried to get a seat on another airline, but was told since the storm was an "act of God", Continental was not required to put me on another airline. The best they could do was to get me to Brussels the next day. "But how am I going to get to Geneva?" I asked. "I'm sorry but Continental does not fly internationally outside the US, you have to get there yourself.” My patients were beginning to grow a bit thin.

Within an hour of getting in line I had made friends with my fellow stranded passengers who were having just as much trouble with the Continental phone operators. Yet another troubling development had arisen in the front of the line. We noticed that those lucky folks at the front were leaving looking quite pissed off clutching an airline pillow and a thin blue blanket. Uuuuuhhhh... aren't we supposed to be put up in a hotel?

It was now 10pm and there were no more hotel rooms to be had (I got word that no one was given accommodations, even those in the front of the line) and the line had grown by more then 200 people. In our first hour we had moved maybe 10 feet toward the ever elusive customer service desk. Things were looking bleak. I was in for the long hall though and settled in and chatted with my newfound compatriots.

The folks in line were surprisingly well behaved, with only an occasional outburst from an angry passenger from the front of the line who had waited a long time to get no help once at the desk. It was now 3am, and we had been in line for five hours when a group of official looking Continental employees came to announce that the customer service desk would be closing in 15 minutes. WHAT?!? I honestly thought a riot was going to break out. What were we supposed to do? How were we going to reschedule our flights and where were we supposed to sleep?!? People were flipping out.

Someone at Continental realized that closing the desk was not a great idea, and they kept it open for a while. But then, at 4am they announced that the customer service crew currently at the desk were leaving and a "night crew" would be in to replace them in 20 minutes. We were all given a pillow and blanket and expected to sleep in line. By now I was only about 30 people from the front, but after a half hour of no one at the desk I gave up. I spent 7 1/2 hours in line for absolutely nothing. I had to sleep, so I wandered off to catch an hour of sleep on the floor of gate 87.

We were told to go down to collect our luggage at 6am, but I had no flight to send it on to. I was told I could pick it up myself and recheck in when I did get a flight, but it was a 2-3 hour wait. I was so tired I didn't even care. I found a flight reschedule desk upstairs and after only two hours in that line I had been rebooked for a flight that evening to Paris and then onto Geneva. I also had $16 worth of food vouchers for my trouble.

I now had 9 hours to kill before my flight and I did not want to spend one more minute in the airport, so I re-routed my luggage and caught a train into Manhattan. It was great to have a change of scenery. New York was wonderful, but I was bummed when I found that there was nowhere to leave my very heavy carry-on bag, so I had to lug it around while I roamed around the city. I was in a great mood though, I had a flight and soon my crazy journey would be over. It was good I didn't know what still lay in store.

On my flight to Paris I was instantly asleep, almost missing the meal. I was exhausted but looking forward to an uneventful flight. It was not meant to be... two and a half hours from Paris there was a medical emergency and the cabin crew requested help. I volunteered but hoped there were more qualified people to tend to the elderly man who had passed out and was now throwing up in the back of the plane. Turns out it was just me, and a doctor who did absolutely nothing! I ended up sitting with the very altered man for the remainder of the flight, giving him oxygen and monitoring his vital signs. So much for a relaxing flight.

I handed off the man to the French paramedics (that was a challenging report to give) and of course I missed my flight to Geneva! I had to get rescheduled again and then I almost missed that flight! I had to go through the slowest security line in history and then my gate was the very last one, so I was literally sprinting through the terminal, trying not to knock people over.

I was finally in Geneva and my luggage was no where to be found, which did not surprise me at all. After an hour wait to file a report I was on the train home. I got home almost exactly 48 hours after leaving for the airport in San Francisco (not including the time change). 48 hours to make what was supposed to be a 14 hour flight. Unbelievable.

The good news is that 3 weeks after all of this madness I received a nice letter from Continental thanking me for assisting with the medical emergency and offered to add 25,000 mileage points to my frequent flier card. Nice, but I think it will be a long time before I fly with them again!