[Bcopeland]

Shame on you, Continental, for having an employee who embarrasses and insults Senior travelers, lies about his name, hides his name tag, and doesn’t know his airport codes!

As I passed through the gate to board Continental Flight 387, Newark to John Wayne Airport, on May 23, 2011, a male gate official selected me and told me that my carry on bag would have to be checked.

I told him that my bag would not survive the check in process, but he tagged it anyhow. I asked if I could remove the valuables and jewelry inside, and he told me I could not. He tagged my bag and handed me a copy of the tag. My husband and I could only see the first name on his name tag, but we both made mental notes of it, “Jay.”

My husband suggested we move the tag to his bag, which was sturdier and contained no valuables. We made the switch.

When the gate official saw the tag on my husband’s bag, he became irate. “You can’t do that!” he shouted. He grabbed for my husband’s bag and I stopped his hand. “Don’t touch my hand. I tagged your bag and you have to check it or you’ll be in big trouble.”

“Can I take my jewelry out first?” I asked.

“Absolutely not,” he said.

“What’s your name?” my husband asked.

“You don’t need to know what my name is.” He turned his body away covered the name tag with his hand. “Jason,” he said, despite the fact that his tag said “Jay.”

Then the stewardess came out and said that all of the carry-on bags belonging to people in the jetway would have to be checked. I told her I had to take out my jewelry, and she stood between me and the irate gate official while I, a 69 year old grandmother, sat on the floor in full view of the other passengers, unpacked my bag, took out my valuables, and repacked.

After we were seated, my husband looked at the copy of the tag that Jay or Jason had put on my bag. Instead of SNA, the symbol for John Wayne Airport, it said SAA, Shivley Airport in Saratoga Wyoming!

Other passengers in the gangway expressed their distaste for Jay or Jason and apologized for his behavior. Several came over to me during the flight to make sure I was OK.

However, no one connected with Continental said a word about it...I guess that’s how Continental does business.

[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

Your bag did NOT go to Saratoga, Wyo. There is no scheduled service to that airport. Nearest scheduled service airport is about 100 miles to the east, at Laramie ("LAR"), with United Express as the sole carrier.

[jeffinity]

We encountered a very similar issue yesterday. Warning! This seems to be a "new policy" of Continental.

Firstly, on our way to Newark EWR the gentleman in front of us was told to tag and check his carry-on. We didn't say anything then and luckily we were ignored.

HOWEVER, on return from EWR, flight 787 to SNA John Wayne, we were "selected" to check our carry-ons. We appeared to be the first passengers to be selected and we were very upset due to the contents of our carry-ons containing fragile items such as irreplaceable commemorative wine glasses and prescription medications.

The runway employee Martha was extremely rude as we pleaded with her to let us carry-on our bags. She would not take no for an answer and tagged our bags and handed us the slip. Later in line, before entering the airplane, she came back to us and huffily grabbed our bags from us (we were still holding on tight). We asked her name and she became even huffier and we saw her nametag "Martha" and she grabbed my wife's boarding pass with a very rude "What's your name?!" She shoved our bags out the door and down a chute. (I would like to add that she did offer we can take the valuables out of our carry-on). However, I would like to add that not only were we threatened with not being able to board, but this is very disrespectful, unkind, and rude and we will be lodging a complaint with the airline.

Our seat-mates agreed that this was some sort of power trip and in addition, the frequent flier sitting next to us has noticed this new "policy" designed to get the plane out of the airport on time.

Additionally, we took pictures of several overhead compartments that we empty as we approached our seats and the overhead compartment across from us remained empty as the plane took off.

Consider this. I don't read the fine print from the continental.com site, however, all indications were that we had a contract that allows one carry-on in addition to our personal bag (purse, laptop bag). That contract is now ignored by Continental and my warning to consumers is that you no longer can trust the contract nor trust that you can store your critical belongings in your carry-on.

The "one carry-on" contract is apparently now null and void.

The runway attendant was a rude and arrogant bully, and not customer service oriented at all.

If our luggage did not make it to us safely (fortunately it did), we would have followed up with the Sheriffs Dept for theft and destruction of property as the employee certainly had a motivation for doing so.

Please consider yourself warned if your flight is with Continental... there is no longer a guarantee that your carry-on will not be taken from you and thrown in with the other luggage!

[Hank Man]

We've repeatedly seen Continental treat seniors poorly. It may be because seniors are considered more docile and less likely to complain.

We've flown our aging parents from the East Coast to the West Coast on first class because it's a non-stop, but the last two times, they have had to suffer poor class treatment from Continental ground staff.