Rating: 
Summary: Why buy the recipe if you don't like the food?
Review: While I enjoyed the book, I cannot rate it higher because it is in many ways a work of fiction. As a frequent flier on Continental, I have witnessed a decline rather than improvement in the quality of service afforded passengers. Too frequently, business authors write books glorifying their success and business acumen, while the reported benefits are invisible to their customers. This is such a case.Has the airline improved its bottom line. Yes. But that is because frequent fliers like myself don't have much of a choice if we live near a hub. This does not infer that we approve of the airline's service or treatment of its customers. As my neighbor on a recent flight commented,"if I had any choice, I would fly airline XYZ in a heartbeat." If you would like to read a similar book by a CEO who did in fact turn his airline around (from a financial as well as customer perspective), try Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon of Scandanavian Airlines. In this case, why buy the recipe if you don't like the food?
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but very repetitious
Review: With broad brush strokes Gordon lays out how he got Continental firing on all cylinders through his Product, Marketing, Funding, People plans. The book is worth reading for his approach to those issues. However, what could have been communicated in 100 pages takes 282 because of the heavy repetition.
Rating: 
Summary: Packed With Knowledge!
Review: With literary assistance from journalist Scott Huler, Continental Airlines CEO Gordon Bethune describes how he transformed the near-bankrupt airline into one of the best companies in the industry. He describes the massive changes he made to improve the product, changing a low-cost, unreliable airline to a top competitor that emphasizes customer service. The transformations he brought about by exerting strong leadership reshaped financial controls and employee-supplier-creditor relationships. The book is a fascinating read, written in a straightforward, this-is-how-it-was style, typified by Bethune's characterization of the company he took over as a... "lousy" airline with terrible service. Sometimes he gets a little repetitious in summarizing the action at each new step in the transformation, but that's just a minor complaint about an otherwise excellent book.....
Rating: 
Summary: LIES, LIES, LIES........ Bethune's con game!
Review: YES, The airline was turned around,, but continental employees are the LOWEST paid in the industry! He insults FAs by considering them outcasts,,, DO YOU REALIZE they are the ONLY group at CONTINENTAL AIRLINES that does NOT get holiday pay? They have to be AWAY from family and friends, YET they are paid like it was any other day while other employee groups enjoy HOLIDAY PAY. THERE IS ALOT THIS BOOK COVERS UP AND SUGAR COATS. This book is the equal of a badly written AESOP FABLE. LET the readers talk to the FAs, ground staff, etc. Let the public see your salary and the under industry standard rates you pay the employees.
| 
