Te Canaille wrote:

Regarding my previous post about Continental Airlines treatment at the Cleveland airport :

I received a call from a customer service rep. She was very apologetic about the treatment I had received at the hands of their
agents in Cleveland and offered to replace the gear I left behind in the airport lobby or a free travel voucher. I must admit they
were gracious about the situation and assured me this is not the way they would usually would ahve handled a problem like this.

Kudos to them, but did they do anything to make this policy known to their employees?

I realize in a perfect world I would have read the new policy and followed it but instead relied on the Continental
agent's previous actions so the assumption was it conformed to size limits. The Service Rep agreed that since this is a new policy,
a return leg, and the bag had been accepted on previous flights, the Cleveland agents should have checked it through and provided a
copy of the written policy so that this would not be repeated. I think that was the proper solution.

Now you know.

Continental stepped up and made the situation right and that shows good will. There are lots of good folks at
Continental, I just ran into a coupla grouches in Cleveland.

Back when I used to fly frequently and had to deal with them on a regular basis, it struck me that most of the people working security
seemed to come from the same labor pool as the folks serving food in the cafeteria and cleaning the bathrooms. For some of them, it was
obvious that the authority they were given (probably for the first time in their lives) went right to their heads. I used to carry a
tool kit regularly. One moron actually confiscated a bottle of Loctite, of all things, after pouring over the label and finding where
it said "may irritate eyes or skin" and postulating that "someone could squirt this into someone's eyes". She had no problems with the
knives, screwdrivers, spray lubes or butane torch in the kit, though she did wave a pair of 4" wire cutters in my face and warn me
"You're really pushing it!" She had no idea what she was looking at, but was obviously bound and determined to give me a hard time and
confiscate something, and ultimately she did.

BTW, this was the one and only time I ever volunteered that they may want to seach a carry on. I learned the hard way that you NEVER
volunteer ANY information, as it just gives them an additional excuse to harass you. Just plop your stuff on the belt and let them do
their job. If they ask any questions, give short, direct, polite answers, but don't offer any additional information. The less you say,
the less you're likely to be harassed

--
Regards

Brian