Comments on: Not everyone’s being nickeled and dimed at Continental http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/not-everyones-being-nickeled-and-dimed-at-continental/ The last honest travel site Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:20:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Steve GadFly http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/not-everyones-being-nickeled-and-dimed-at-continental/comment-page-1/#comment-4592 Steve GadFly Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:57:34 +0000 http://www.tripso.com/?p=5070#comment-4592 Continental's CEO Larry Kellner and President Jeff Smisek, quietly and without boasting in the media, gave up their entire salaries and bonuses this year. This airline is the ONLY legacy carrier whose management has made concessions at the same time as the workers during this financial crisis. While that may not make a difference in the bottom line, at least it's an effort to share the pain. Of all the airlines out there, the upper management of Continental seems to actually "get it" and this is evident on the faces and in the attitudes of the front-line employees. I have flown around 200+ segments on Continental every year for the last 8 consecutive years not in international first class but mostly on more regional jets than I care to count. The gate and flight crews are among the happiest and most courteous in the industry. When my father retired from Lucent Technology at the height of the dot-com crash, he still received a nice retirement package despite company losses. Know why? Because businesses reward years of loyal service. This isn't a ridiculiously inflated anual non-performance bonus given out when there are cuts being made everywhwere else, this is a retirement bonus that was probably written into Jeff Misner's contract years ago. It's easy to criticize the legacy carriers for all the dumb moves many of them have made recently but Contiental should be looked up to as a good example. Continental’s CEO Larry Kellner and President Jeff Smisek, quietly and without boasting in the media, gave up their entire salaries and bonuses this year. This airline is the ONLY legacy carrier whose management has made concessions at the same time as the workers during this financial crisis. While that may not make a difference in the bottom line, at least it’s an effort to share the pain. Of all the airlines out there, the upper management of Continental seems to actually “get it” and this is evident on the faces and in the attitudes of the front-line employees. I have flown around 200+ segments on Continental every year for the last 8 consecutive years not in international first class but mostly on more regional jets than I care to count. The gate and flight crews are among the happiest and most courteous in the industry.

When my father retired from Lucent Technology at the height of the dot-com crash, he still received a nice retirement package despite company losses. Know why? Because businesses reward years of loyal service. This isn’t a ridiculiously inflated anual non-performance bonus given out when there are cuts being made everywhwere else, this is a retirement bonus that was probably written into Jeff Misner’s contract years ago.

It’s easy to criticize the legacy carriers for all the dumb moves many of them have made recently but Contiental should be looked up to as a good example.

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