I didn’t notice, but last fall Continental revised its carryon limits from 51 linear inches (L + W + H) to 45 — at just about the same time they added a fee for the first checked bag for everyone except Elite fliers.
Like I said, I didn’t notice, despite flying weekly since March, which means they haven’t been enforcing the new rule. Until this week.
Now they’ve got some fucking beancounter weasel at the check-in line with a tape measure, which means my year-old suitcase (an Eagle Creek Velocity) is suddenly useless. Moreover, the 45-inch rule means that many bags still advertised as “regulation” size aren’t, and that road warriors like me will have to buy a new bag to avoid trusting baggage handlers on short trips.
Continental’s reasoning is that many of their partners — customer hostile organizations, I assume — were already at 45″, so they just wanted to be uniform. Bullshit. It’s a creepy and disingenuous money grab, plain and simple.
Fuck you, Continental. Fuck you twice. Oh, and by the way: Southwest still allows a 50″ carryon, and they go nearly all the places I need to go.
I’m not nearly as frequent a flier as you, but I don’t consider anyone but Southwest for my trips. Everything about the process just works. On those rare times when I have to fly Continental or (god forbid) United, at some point in the process I inevitably end up scratching my head and going, “huh?”
When I complained about another issue with Continental recently, and pointed out that “you know, I could be flying Southwest to KC instead of Continental,” the CO rep said, “well, you really can’t compare our service to Southwest’s.”
I said I agreed, but not for the reason she probably had in mind.
I’d be on SWA every week but for one thing: Their Houston to KC flight stops in Dallas, so it takes an hour to an hour and a half longer. Continental flies those tiny little jets, so the plane is less comfortable, but I spend less time on it.