Continental Airlines Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Continental Airlines

Pros – Young, vibrant workforce. Great information sharing. Fun place to work.

Cons – Too many managers. Not a lot of employee recognition.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't treat your worker bees like slaves.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Continental Airlines

Pros – Continental, while a large company, has a small company feel. They have an absolutely fantastic corporate culture. You can go to corporate events and everyone from the CEO on down will be there mingling with employees. I absolutely loved working there.

Cons – The only con is that the pay is lower than is available for similar work in other industries. However, that is offset by the great corporate culture, flight benefits, and other things.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep the culture strong, as it is such an important part of what makes Continental great. Maybe consider a culture committee or something similar to keep that passion alive now and in the future.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Continental Airlines

Pros – Great culture
Respect for the family unit
Flexible and understanding
Awesome travel benefits
High emphasis on technology
Team oriented

Cons – Trade-off compensation for travel benefits
Leadership politics are rampant
Unknown advancement_opportunities
Weak employee improvement structure
Always facing a challenging market

Advice to Senior Management – Synergize team efforts, instead of silos of team functions
Reduce pride leadership barriers and work together

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Continental Airlines

Pros – fly with discount, ok paid if u are senior

Cons – cant never fly, u cant be sick, u get abuse, u work for free, always trying to scare there employees, that they will do 1000+ cuts every yr, to get what they want

Advice to Senior Management – none

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Continental Airlines

Pros – With seniority you have more choices, compensation, vacation, etc. There are opportunities to choose destinations, days off, favorite layovers, etc.

Cons – Volatility of the industry makes continuity of employment risky at the bottom of the seniority list. Less senior pilots have less choice about where they are based, what equipment they fly, etc.
But, it doesn't take long for opportunities to open up to a new hire.

Advice to Senior Management – Do not screw with our lump-sum retirement fund. There will be a sudden, drastic drop in pilot morale which will affect operations.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Continental Airlines

Pros – The travel benefis are unheard of compared to other jobs that are not in the airline industry. The health benefits are not too shabby.

Cons – The tuition assistance program they have in place is rather limited compared to other companies their size. It is basically a donation-based pool of money that is awarded via a rather closed process lottery system. Also you need to write an essay and divulge your whole life story to get it. It would of been nice to just have access to a tuition reimbursement program rather then feel like you are attempting to get a handout.

Just my two cents.

Advice to Senior Management – The senior management that runs the operations at Continental is actually a very strong team. I do have some suggestions Human Resources though.

* The "capped" raise model is rather insulting especially after you have worked hard to get a promtoion

* Need to continue improve the talent you have by encouraging continuing educations (see tuition reimbursement above) and ensuring that salaries overall at competitive NOT only for new hires but for those employed 1 or 2+ years. I say this because the attrition rate is rather high.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Continental Airlines

Pros – The airline industry is both exciting and personally rewarding. CO has a terrific management team, is a fun place to work, and is well respected amoung it's peers (competition).

Cons – There is little advancement opportunities at Continental. Now, more than ever it is imperative for CO to differentiate itself based on service as well as product. They have previously focused on the product; however the competition is finding ways to duplicate it. The employees are the true service differentiator and it is critical to attract and retain skilled and motivated employees. Cost reductions and limited growth and outside opportunities has led to many talented, achievement driven employees to leave the company.

Advice to Senior Management – In an era where neither the industry nor the company can afford the latitude of attractive salaries we must find other ways to satisfy employees. If successful the Organizational Development department would help retain skilled and motivated employees, and improve the organizational learning and skills inside CO. Doing so would differentiate CO as providing superior service to its customers allowing them to collect premium fares while keeping their cost structure in check.

Current Employee – been working at Continental Airlines

Pros – i love the airline industry as is gets in your blood. Meeting and working with a variety of people with different social, ethnic, religious and social-economic backgrounds. I work at the airport and meet people I would not normally meet if working in an office. Sports stars, politicians, media personalities, musicians, TV and radio personalities and movie stars. Now that is cool and exciting! My job working gates is fast paced at times and ends with a rush to push a flight on time. Then I may get a 20min to 2hr break after that. I take advantage and look forward to the down-time. The benefits are excellent....Health, paid sick pay, trade days off, free flying system-wide (after 10 years), paid vacation weeks and a decent 21.00/hour wage. The wage, while not considered lucrative, is pretty darn good considering I may only actually work only 4-5 hours out of 8 on slow days. Better than some factory job and well paid in the customer service field. My wife and I are able to live in a beautiful newer house together in a great middle-upper class neighborhood with great schools. We are good with our money and that helps us lead a very good comfortable life together on my wage and her wage, which is about he same. I love the fact that we bid for shifts and can work 4 10 hour days. I love having 3 days off every week! That beats many other jobs.

Many employees have a great work ethic to strive toward excellent customer service, but know when it is appropriate to take a break.

Flexible schedule to meet your personal needs and lifestyle.

Cons – We do not have a union and local Continental management can mess with you as far as treating some better than others. The rules and pay can change anytime when needed. I don't like the inconsistencies of "flexible" work rules. Some local supervisors get promoted not because of qualifications, but because they are "ass-kissers" and have no opinions. Those people are like "corporate clones", that keep their opinions to themselves and truly lack innovative leadership skills. They cannot think "outside the box". One problem is that they don't pay enough, maybe only 10-15 percent more than my base pay. So consequently they get the wrong leaders. The one who could excel, like myself, would rather make $43,000 per year 40 hours a week with a better work schedule and great JOB Security. Sometimes I feel the smartest people are really the ones that stay in place, and the dummies are the ones getting promoted. I am confident that this applies to many other companies in various industries.

The crap and negativity you have to take from passengers when they encounter a delay, cancellation, diversion or missed connecting flight. Some things like Newark ATC delays are out of your control, and happen like clockwork, every day beginning in the afternoon.

Inconsistencies to corporate policies and how it seems to be interpreted differently from one employee to the other. I don't like how sometimes we operate and interpret situations differently.

Hubs, in a crazy way, seem to be more organized. I will put it differently.......some of the small out stations don't apply or don't know important policies and procedures. Many of these cities are Continental Express or Connection cities. Training and communication seem to be missing in these cities.

Trying to explain to a young family why they were denied boarding due to an oversale. It is a cold method and bad public relations image.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire better supervisors by paying better.(SEE ABOVE). Many of the most qualified people are on the ground level who don't want the fancy title, less job security and more stress.

Shore up the small out stations. Many agents seem to be clueless as to corporate policies and procedures in these Express/Connection cities. They seem to lack training and communication. I would have to fault local station management for lack of communication. Also blame needs to be on corporate as there seems to be a lack of follow through to ensure consistencies from one city to another. The hubs seem to be more together on this issue even though they have many more personnel to be dealing with.

 Ensure that those people in technology talk to the employees who interact with the passengers, so they can truly understand how to make our jobs easier, thus making the customers more satisfied, offering better customer service.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Continental Airlines

Pros – Travel Benefits, relative job security, task diversity, respect from co-workers, decent but expensive medical benefits, good sick time policy. Central Job Location

Cons – poor advancement opportunities, poor holiday and vacation policy. Very poor middle management. Eroding health, 401K and pension benefits. Eroding health benefits.

Advice to Senior Management – Go back to real Dignity and Respect...Go back to employee empowering. Stop the ridiculous executive bonuses and return to real pay for long term performance...not short term personal executive gains

Current Employee – been working at Continental Airlines

Pros – Flight benefits are pretty nice

Cons – Can be boring and stressful. Too many people pointing fingers. Lots of corporate politics

Advice to Senior Management – Get it together before you go bankrupt