A letter to Continental from a disgruntled passenger

[jfrenaye]

Dear Continental Airlines,



I am disgusted as I write this note to you about the miserable experience I am having sitting in seat 29E on one of your aircrafts. As you may know, this seat is situated directly across from the lavatory, so close that I can reach out my left am and touch the door.



All my senses are being tortured simultaneously. It's difficult to say what the worst part about sitting in 29E really is? Is it the stench of the sanitation fluid that's blown all over my body every 60 seconds when the door opens? Is it the wooosh of the constant flushing? Or is it the passengers asses that seem to fit into my personal space like a pornographic jig-saw puzzel?



I constructed a stink-shield by shoving one end of a blanket into the overhead compartment — while effective in blocking at least some of the smell, and offering a small bit of privacy, the ass-on-my-body factor has increased, as without my evil glare, passengers feel free to lean up against what they think is some kind of blanketed wall. The next ass that touches my shoulder will be the last!



I am picturing a board room full of executives giving props to the young promising engineer that figured out how to squeeze an additional row of seats onto this plane by putting them next to the LAV. I would like to flush his head in the toilet that I am close enough to touch, and taste, from my seat.



Putting a seat here was a very bad idea. I just heard a man groan in there! This sucks!



Worse yet, is I've paid over $400.00 for the honor of sitting in this seat!



Does your company give refunds? I'd like to go back where I came from and start over. Seat 29E could only be worse if it was located inside the bathroom.



I wonder if my clothing will retain the sanitizing odor . . . what about my hair! I feel like I'm bathing in a toilet bowl of blue liquid, and there is no man in a little boat to save me.



I am filled with a deep hatred for your plane designer and a general dis-ease that may last for hours.



We are finally decending, and soon I will be able to tear down the stink-shield, but the scars will remain.



I suggest that you initiate immediate removal of this seat from all of your crafts. Just remove it, and leave the smouldering brown hole empty, a good place for sturdy/non-absorbing luggage maybe, but not human cargo.



Put perhaps more amusing and entertaining is the PDF file of the actual letter, complete with drawings!



http://67.19.222.106/travel/graphics/seat29e.pdf

[stephen_s]

Pretty funny. I thought that happened to YOU, John. I couldn't open the pdf though. It said it was damaged.

[Eileen Sellers]

Ok it sounds like a 737 and the last row would be DEF right across from the lav, and the galley. I suppose the galley used to mask any odor when ovens were on. But now with no food service all you have for entertainment is lav traffic. I think the suggestion to remove that seat is a good one, actully remove the row. Put in another lav so coach class has a reasonable number of lavs and don't even think about making them coin stalls to raise revenue.

[Duchan]

I'm curious to know why the passenger ended up with this seat: just accepted what an automated system offered? last minute purchase on a full plane? or, heaven forbid, a careless travel agent?



Alan

[deangreenhoe]

On Continental, that's the last row of a 737-800 series. It would also be the LAST choice for seating that a travel agent would offer. However, sometimes it's better to have a pre-assigned seat rather than nothing at all, which is very often the case. (The airline's restriction, not ours.)



If we are forced to assign an "undesireable" seat for a client we flag it on the itinerary and give them the option of keeping the seat assignment and try to move at check-in, or cancel it and let them take pot luck at the airport. Unfortunately there are bad seats on nearly every aircraft. If the plane is full, ultimately somebody has to sit in them.



Generally, the last minute bookers and people who check in late are the ones who get the crappy seats, unless they have some sort of frequent flyer status with the airline or book a full fare. (They save the premium seats up front for them.)

[Eileen Sellers]

or, heaven forbid, a careless travel agent?



I always thought that row was reserved for on line purchases... you know

D for dot.com

E for Expedia

F for Fight between Travelocity and Orbitz.

[deangreenhoe]

:lol: LOL. Good one Eileen.



One good possibility is that the passenger booked on line and did a blind request for seating rather than choosing one off the seat chart. As with a GDS, most airlines will assign seats from back to front unless you pull up the map and request something specific.

[NW CTC]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Kairho]

I always thought that row was reserved for on line purchases... you know

D for dot.com

E for Expedia

F for Fight between Travelocity and Orbitz.

Interestingly enough, the port side is reserved for travel agencies:



ABC - A Better Choice

[deangreenhoe]

ABC - A Better Choice

I like THAT one too, Kairho. :D



People have to realize that assigned seats are a "perk," not a rule. I've been in the business long enough to remember when nobody got an advance seat assignment. That service (like frequent flyer programs) was started as a promotional incentive to book a certain airline and everybody followed suit. If things get any worse for the majors, I can see both of those services going away. :shock:



I also don't think that many flyers realize that on most carriers, at least a third of the seats are blocked out until check-in...unless you qualify for premium seating. (As described above.) Book late - take your chances. :? Regardless, NO airline will guarantee you get the seat you pre-reserved. I've been thrown into middle seats on a DC-10 on a nonstop flight from Chicago to Honolulu because at the last minute the captain arranged to move his niece and her new husband (they were on their honeymoon) to MY seats on the two-seat side. And no, I was not on a non-rev ticket or identified in any way as an agent. :x



I put great thought into picking the right seat for my clients. If they want an aisle, I ask if they are right or left handed. That way I can arrange that their dominant hand goes on the open aisle side so they aren't always bumping shoulders with the person next to them as they eat and drink. For window seat requests, I put them on the starboard (north) side of the plane on long westbound flights and port (still north) on eastbound flights. Why? That way they don't bake in the blinding sun. Sometimes it's the little things we do that makes our service charges worthwhile. :wink:

[Jeanie821]

Ew. Just... ew.

Worse than a litter box.

[UrbanSpaceman]

Hi John,

Is there been any follow-up from Continental? I figure it's been about a month since they got this letter, so I was wondering what they did for the put-out passenger.

Thanks.

And I agree with the poster above--eeewwww, yuck.