My wife, son and I just returned home this past Monday, 04/14/2008, from a week-long visit with family and friends in N.H. We were supposed to arrive home Sunday the 13th, but due to airline problems, we spent the night in Newark New Jersey at the Howard Johnson Hotel.
We booked our flights through Expedia for airline tickets with Delta who subcontracted the flights out to ExpressJet for Continental Airlines. For whatever reason our flight out from Portland, ME. to Newark, N.J. on Continental flight #2665 was delayed in arriving in Portland. That meant we'd miss our connecting flight from Newark, N.J. to Richmond, VA.
I watched quite a few passengers on the same flight approach the gate counter to question the Continental employees about the delay, but couldn't overhear what was being said because we were sitting too far away. That is until one man demanded to know why and one of the employees spoke up and told him she'd inform him as to why the plane had been delayed as soon as she was informed. He was rather loud and rude and I'm surprised she didn't rip him a new asshole, one that he'd deserve. She didn't though, she kept her cool and did her job, and very well I might add.
I waited a bit longer for the passengers to clear out and then approached the counter myself to see what our options were. The three employees at the counter looked up at me somewhat apprehensively, or so it looked to me. I made an off-hand remark about how they might wish the day were over and laughed, and then they smiled.
I said I was curious as to what we should expect for the delay and what our options might be for finding another flight or whatever they suggested. A young man (...I wish I could have read his name tag...) told me they were already booking hotel rooms for all passengers for the night and we had a choice between staying overnight in Portland or in Newark.
If we spent the night in Portland, they'd re-route us to Cincinnati, Ohio the next morning at 5:00am and then we'd catch a connecting flight from there to Richmond and arrive home by noon.
If we flew to Newark and spent the night, the first flight out would be at 4:30pm and we'd arrive in Richmond at 6:00pm.
I thanked him for the information and said I'd discuss our options with my wife and son and then decide.
I explained to my family what was said and we discussed our two possibilities; 1) Arrive in Cincinnati and possibly get stuck again. 2) Fly to Newark, and if we got stuck there for some reason, we could rent a car to drive the rest of the way home. It's between six to eight hours from Richmond to N.J. (...depending on traffic...), so we could easily drive that with three drivers.
I went back up to the counter to ask for information on renting a car in Newark and about the possibility of being refunded part of our trip costs to help cover this new cost. I was told that Continental would not pay for a rental car because of liability issues, and that I can fully understand. He said that if we rented a car in Portland and drove home we might get a portion of our money back, but probably not if we cancelled the connector flight in Newark. He printed out a list of all the car rental agencies at the Newark airport along with their phone numbers for me. I thanked him once again for his help and went back to discuss this some more with the family.
We decided to fly to Newark so that we'd at least be halfway home should anything else go wrong. I can't remember why, but my wife went back up to ask another question and a female employee (...I couldn't read her name tag either...) started apologizing to her for not having booked a hotel room for us yet. The employee didn't realize that she was with me.
She followed my wife back over to where we were sitting and recognized me from our previous discussion. However, she then apologized again for not having booked us a room yet and we explained that we had been discussing our options and finally decided to fly on to Newark (...although we nixed the idea of renting a car since the cost started at $150...). She said she'd take care of the room reservations immediately, get us some food vouchers for dinner and breakfast, and re-book our flights out for Monday.
I followed her back to the counter where she started entering all the necessary info into the computer. She told me flight numbers and times and said she had one seat available on an earlier flight out around noon. I asked her to book that seat for our son so he could get home and my wife and I would take the later flight. (Little did we know then that we should have accompanied our son when he boarded since there were a lot of empty seats on that flight according to him. Oh well, next time...)
I asked her if there was some procedure I should go through to see if Continental would still reimburse me for part of our flight if we did decide to rent a car the next day if flights were cancelled or delayed again. She replied that I could go to the Continental service desk in Newark and ask since it wouldn't hurt to ask.
She finished printing out our tickets, reservations, and meal vouchers and handed them over to me explaining how and where to use each one of them. I thanked her for her assistance and went back to explain this to my wife and son and gave them each their copies.
A few minutes later the same employee came back over and said she asked and her supervisor approved of her giving us each a $100.00 voucher good for any flight in the U.S. with a one year expiration date. She said she needed our mailing address to print out the vouchers, but we had to hurry since we were finally starting to board. We got in line last and she was frantically typing away at the computer and printing out the vouchers as fast as she could. She couldn't get all three of them printed and I told her not to worry about it, she could just mail the last one to use and thanked her once again for all she did for us that evening. That third flight voucher arrived just a couple of days after we got home and she added a little smiley face to it and said, "Enjoy! Deb PWMCO". I dunno what the PWMCO stands for, but maybe it will help Continental to identify her so they can properly thank her for all she did for us and for doing such a wonderful job.
We boarded the fight and finally arrived in Newark at 10:30pm. I had already called the Howard Johnson hotel to see what time the dining room closed so we could get dinner if possible. I was told they closed at 11:00pm by the person who answered the phone.
We caught a shuttle to HoJo's and asked at the front desk as we checked in how much longer the kitchen would be serving dinner and he said until 11:30pm. We decided to go to our room first and wash up before we ordered dinner.
Yuck! The room isn't very clean and it stinks. There were cigarette burns in the shower. We were not impressed with the room at all, even though our voucher says Continental only paid $55.00 for it.
We couldn't find a menu in our room nor could we find a number for Room Service so I had to walk back to the restaurant to find out what was on the menu and how much $$ it would cost us. Our dinner food vouchers were only good for $12 worth of food each.
When I went to the restaurant to order dinner and ask about room service with the meal vouchers I was told they were open until Midnight and that we could order room service while still using the vouchers (...that's three different closing times from three different hotel employees...).
While I ordered dinner, my wife inquired at the front desk if we could have a late check-out the next day. We saw the check-out time posted in the room stating that 12:00pm was the normal check-out time and she requested a 2:00pm check-out since our flight wouldn't be leaving until 4:30pm on Monday the 14th. She was told by the gentleman at the front desk that a 2:00pm check-out time would be acceptable.
I looked over the menu to see what our $12 dinner vouchers would buy us and realized we'd have to settle for burgers or sandwiches if we didn't wanna go over the $12 limit of each voucher. Since it was so late already, we really didn't mind and didn't want a large meal anyway and I ordered a BLT for my wife and a grilled Ham & Swiss for myself. I was assured that the meal would be delivered to our room when it was ready. I was also told that I could add a coupla muffins to our order since it came out below the $24 total of the two vouchers and I wouldn't receive change back from them. I didn't expect change anyway, but declined the muffins and headed back to our room.
It didn't take long for the kitchen to whip up our sandwiches and we received a phone call that our food was ready for pickup. Umm, hello? Didn't I just request that the food be delivered!!?? *sigh*
I walked all the way back to the dining room and picked up our dinner. When I arrived back in our room and opened the containers I realized I didn't get any HAM on my grilled Ham & Swiss sandwich. *sigh*
I was too tired and in too much pain to walk all the way back to the dining room to get them to fix my order and I quietly ate the soggy grilled Swiss cheese sandwich. The fries sucked too, but who am I to complain about free food, right? *sigh*
Our son came to our room around 8:00am to find out what we were gonna do for breakfast. I told him we were ordering from the menu and having it delivered to the room. He said he'd join us and we ordered breakfast over the phone. Now, considering we each only had $6 vouchers for breakfast, we knew we'd quickly go over that limit as soon as we looked at the breakfast menu. Any kind of eggs and meat plate cost $7 and up, without drinks. Who was I gonna complain to? We ordered breakfast knowing we'd be paying extra for this meal.
Shortly after we ordered breakfast, house cleaning came in and wanted to clean the room. We said "No, we aren't checking out until 2:00pm so please come back later." Why was house cleaning attempting to clean our room while we were still there? Maybe HoJo's doesn't have a computerized check-out list for house cleaning so they'll know when to clean certain rooms!!?? *sigh*
We sent our son off around 10:00am and he made it home safely without any further delays. We checked out around 2:00pm and caught the shuttle back over to the airport to check in through security and then to wait for our flight. Security was interesting since this is the first airport I've seen using a "sniffer" machine and we were lucky enough to be chosen to experience this system. My wife and I were both pulled out of line and told to stand inside this thing while it blew air puffs at us and "sniffed" us for whatever they sniff for. After all of my belongings went through the X-ray machine they were carried over to a table by security and she swabbed the insides of all of my stuff with small pieces of cloth that she then placed inside another "sniffer" type machine. I passed and was released.
Our flight home was un-eventful, but since we still needed to stop for milk, we didn't finally arrive home until after 9:00pm Monday night. I've experienced delays before, but this was by far the most horrible experience to date.
I would like to thank Deb and the young man in Portland who did a lot for us that Sunday night. They were the only pleasant part of this whole ordeal. They both kept their cool even though other passengers were being pissy with them and they took care of their passengers. Those two Continental employees deserve recognition from their management team and from their company for their professionalism. There were several other employees there as well, and I'm sure they handled this episode just as well, but I didn't have any direct contact with them so I can't say for sure.
As far as Continental is concerned? I think they could do better, a whole lot better. Pick some hotel/s worth sending your customers to and check the meal prices to make sure the vouchers can actually purchase a full meal, including the tip.
As far as HoJo's is concerned? Y'all have one very lousy hotel in Newark! Shame on y'all!! If y'all actually care about this incident, here's the info on the hotel we stayed at...
Howard Johnson Hotel - Newark
20 Frontage Road
I-95 Exit 14 & Frontage Road
Newark, NJ, 07114 US
www.hjnewark.com
Phone: 973-344-1500
Fax: 973-344-3311
Now go spank the management and employees!!
So, I filled out an Online Feedback Form at both Continental and Howard Johnson's web sites on May 6, 2008 and I received a reply from Continental only a coupla hours later. Wow! A reply from Wyndham Resorts and Hotels (...they own HoJo's...) took two days, but that's still purty good these days.
However, even though I've never done business with Wyndham Resorts and Hotels (WH&R) at any time other than stay at their hotel for one night with Continental paying the bill, WH&R has decided to add me to their mailing list so they can solicit me and even sent me a rewards card to use in the future. Bad Move WH&R!! Don't ever sign me up for some "stuff" I didn't ask for, ever!! And notice that Carole didn't include a phone number in her contact info, just a fax number. That's OK 'cause I probably wouldn't call them anyway since they might decide to "harvest" my cell phone number and start calling me.
Here are the copies of the e-mails I've recieved so far along with my reply back to Continental. Please notice that Mr. Fong corrected my mistake earlier when I said we were on Continental flight #2665 when we re actually on Continental flight #2296.
Tue, 6 May 2008 23:42:26 +0000 (UTC)
Dear Mr. Ford;
Thank you for your email.
Our records indicate that, on April 13, 2008, you and your family were scheduled to travel on Delta Airlines flight 2665 operated as Continental Express Jet flight 2296. I regret to learn that this flight was delayed 120 minutes out of departure, resulting in your missing your flight back to Richmond. We truly understand how frustrating it was for you and your family when your travel plans were disrupted by this delay.
I have submitted in detail, your comments about our choice of the Howard Johnson hotel and the value of our meal vouchers, in our Customer Care report to our senior management for their review and appropriate internal actions. Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience that this disruption has caused you and your family.
It is unusual when people take time to write about something good and I sincerely appreciate your thoughtfulness in complimenting the services of our agent "Deb" and her colleagues at the Portland, Maine airport.
One of Continental's primary goals is to have the highest standards of excellence exemplified through our service and employees. We are very proud of our employees who reflect true concern for accommodating the individual needs of our customers. In the service industry, nothing is more important than the impression we make with our customers.
Your comments will be shared with Deb, her colleagues and their supervisor. We are proud to have received your acknowledgement of this outstanding performance.
I take this opportunity to thank you and your family for your patronage of Continental. We look forward to be of service to you again.
Regards,
Chun Fong
Customer Care Manager
07 May 08 09:30:13
Dear Chun,
Please forgive me for being so personal, but I don't know if you're male or female by reading your name. :-)
Thank you for your e-mail and for replying so quickly. Rarely does any company respond so quickly these days.
Your records are correct. I forgot to include the Delta info, but you found the right info anyway.
My wife Linda and I are very happy to hear that Deb and the young man will be recognized for doing their jobs so well. I'm sorry I didn't get his name, but his name-tag had spun around backwards and I couldn't see his name. I can only assume someone will ask Deb who all was working with her that night and she'll tell you his name so he can be thanked as well. He was dark skinned and looked like he was in his mid-twenties. Very polite and helpful, especially considering the situation. He printed us a list of all rental car agencies available at the Newark airport along with both their local and toll free numbers, outstanding. He was the first person to start helping us and Deb took over after she realized we hadn't made a decision yet based on the info the young man gave us. She was worried that we wouldn't get a room for the night if we waited too much longer and wanted to get things taken care of as soon as she could. Your company has two employees who went out of their way to make sure we were taken care of and we are both happy to have been in their care that evening.
Please understand that my wife and I both know that there are delays in the airline industry that might be un-avoidable and we were not upset by the delay itself. The things that bothered us during this incident were based on the hotel accommodations. We can only hope that by pointing out the "problems" we had with HoJo's that your company can find a way to "fix" this issue for future Continental customers and no one else will have to endure what we did. Thank you for passing along our comments to your senior management team and please feel free to pass along this e-mail as well. And, please let them know that I will be updating the page...
http://www.stupidorjustignorant.com/Howard_Johnson_Hotel_Newark.php
...as I go along so my readers will know that we are pleased with the service and follow-up care we've received from your company.
Thank you again for replying so quickly!
Y'all take care!!
Bill
Thu, 8 May 2008 16:53:48 +0000 (UTC)
Dear Mr. Ford;
Thank you very much for your response.
I have included your additional information in a report to our management at our Portland, ME station. I am confident, the employees concerned will be located and their diligence be accorded the due recognition.
Once again, we wish to thank you and your wife for your understanding and patience as we strive to improve on our services based on your valuable feedback.
Regards,
Chun Fong(Mr.)
Customer Care Manager
Thu, 8 May 2008 15:33:40 +0000 (UTC)
Dear Mr. Ford,
Thank you for contacting Howard Johnson Customer Care concerning your stay at the Newark, NJ hotel. We sincerely apologize that the property did not meet your expectations of Howard Johnson's high standard of guest service. This property is independently owned and operated under a Howard Johnson franchise, and its management is responsible for meeting Howard Johnson standards.
The information you provided has been forwarded to the General Manager of this franchised hotel for review. You will be hearing a response from the hotel by 05/20/08.
Once again, we sincerely apologize for not meeting your expectations.
Sincerely,
Carole VonWald
Internet Specialist
Wyndham Hotel Group
1910 8th Avenue NE
Aberdeen, SD 57401
Fax: 605.229.8938
with questions or comments about this web site.
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