Information on Continental Airlines

[PaulChristenson]

Okay, let me try to take these in order:

Disclaimer: I work for Continental. I know our folks try very hard, and generally do a very good job.

(1) I would select the four hour interval. Your bags will have to go through the Customs Area, and if any delays occur, you will have time to do it comfortably.

As soon as you pass through Customs, we have people to take your bags and send them on to your Guayquil flight.

(2) The airlines do NOT open your bags. The TSA and Customs may. Note that I said MAY. When they ask you that question, they mean, could some evil stranger have had access to your bags when you weren't looking and put something in there. Most rational people will answer no, of course.

(3) The problem of theft is always with us no matter WHERE you go. We have thousands of baggage handlers. Most are very honest and very hard-working folks. There is always the one bad apple, however, and we try hard to weed that one out!

BigJetDriver hit all the points...just my personal experiences added

Absolutely use the 4 hour jump....we had a sub-2 hour jump at Houston and the only reason we made our plane was we caught an off service electric cart who motored us done there after we gave him a nice tip

And the delays had nothing to do with the airlines and everything to do with customs and security...

Carry extra TSA locks because we lost two of them at Houston during security check...

Continental Rules

Paul in VT

 

[Fionab]

Thanks for posting and reassuring me about the trip, we are just at the planning stage right now so I will inform my friends about the 4 hour against 2 hour, this is interesting because I phoned CA office in the UK and she said 2 hours would be plenty, suppose she didn't want to put me off booking with CA.

BigJetDiver I see you are in Houston so might bump into you, you can then smooth our way through

 

[scubapro50]

I was checking on trips to Cozumel and found out that Continental Airlines still has a reduced weight limit of 50 lbs/bag instead on the normal 70lbs/bag on most flights. You can get around this if you fly 1st class or are a member of their Onepass Program and book thru Continental. Both those options cost a lot more than the discount booking you find at various travel sights. Now we have to really watch the weight of our equipment since the overall checked in weight is reduced by 40 lbs ( 2 bags) per person. Flying out of Houston was great on Continental even thou that have misdirected some of my luggage the last 3 times in 5 years ( 5 trips/ one per year). Lucky it's always been on the way home and not to the resort.

 

[stiffany]

Knock on wood, but out of all of my travels (to Beijing, Tokyo, London, Mexico, locally back and forth between Philadelphia and my hometown several times a year- Houston - and beyond) on Continental, I've never had a problem.

I do second everyone saying to have extra time for customs, particularly with a nonUS passport. You never know how many international flights will come into the customs area at a given time and it seems like the "foreign" traveler lines get fairly long. But, Houston is a decent airport since it's one of Continental's hubs with a lot of traffic through with lots of restaurants and some shops to look at [especially in terminals C & E - I find terminal A to be the most boring (perhaps because I've been stuck there so many times by delayed PHL-IAH US Airways flights), but it's mostly local and US Airways so you should be fine!]

 

[Fionab]

The new 50lb per bag limit isn't really an issue for us, normally we are lucky to get 30kg in one bag, what I am a bit concerned about is the stories of bags going missing. In fact I am really looking at going out one day early just in case.

Appreciate all your comments though, keep them coming if you can add to this.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

We have found that if you ask at the counter if there is an extra allowance for scuba divers, and show your c-cards, it can often get you by without extra baggage fees. This isn't posted on the airlines web sites - most recently we found doing this absolved us of excess baggae fees on Delta to & from St. Maarten and WinAir to & from Saba and Statia in Nov. / Dec. 2005. On Air Tahiti in 2002, it reduced our excess baggae fees but didn't absolve us from them. Anything helps when going on a 2 week trip.

 

[BigJetDriver]

Thanks for posting and reassuring me about the trip, we are just at the planning stage right now so I will inform my friends about the 4 hour against 2 hour, this is interesting because I phoned CA office in the UK and she said 2 hours would be plenty, suppose she didn't want to put me off booking with CA.

BigJetDiver I see you are in Houston so might bump into you, you can then smooth our way through

Two hours would be sufficient.....until the aircraft is a few minutes late....and two jumbo jets disgorge their full loads in front of you....and the guy ahead of you in line has a paperwork problem.....and....I think you get the picture. Go for the longer interval. Take some stress out of your life!

I don't know about the airport, but I might be flying your plane! :14:

Rob

 

[padiscubapro]

We have found that if you ask at the counter if there is an extra allowance for scuba divers, and show your c-cards, it can often get you by without extra baggage fees. This isn't posted on the airlines web sites - most recently we found doing this absolved us of excess baggae fees on Delta to & from St. Maarten and WinAir to & from Saba and Statia in Nov. / Dec. 2005. On Air Tahiti in 2002, it reduced our excess baggae fees but didn't absolve us from them. Anything helps when going on a 2 week trip.

continental has some "unpublished" rules for scuba gear.. Most of them are because a few of the execs are avid scuba divers..
Youll need to get a supervisior, but when then do the checking you'll get up to 1 bag with scuba gear (cant be anyting else in there) up to 100 lbs without any overweight charges.. Sometimes you can even get more... A few years ago I did a trip with a group, and for specific reasons 2 of us had to take home gear for some other people..

My flight was from amsterdam to Newark and the other guy was from amsterdam to hoouston.. the supervisor let us get away with Three bags each as long as we kept them under 50kg! (or about 110lbs each!)

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Great info! Thanks!

 

[Lailis]

I have been reading some of the thread and was wondering if someone could give me some information.

Next year we are going to the Galapagos flying from the UK, we have almost decided to us Continental Airlines from London to Guayaquil, probably via Houston.

The reason we are using a US airline is to get the baggage allowance we will need, can anyone tell me anything bad about Continental. Apparently if we fly in to Houston with CA we have to collect our bags and re-check in what sort of time will we need between flights. One flight allows just over 4 hours and one is just over 2 hours between flights would this be sufficient.

I have also been reading about the airlines opening bags is this common in the US as I haven't experienced it before and what happens if your bags have been opened and when you check in for the next flight they ask you could anyone have put something in your bag.

How likely is it something will be stolen from the bag, we don't want to get to our destination only to find a vital piece of kit is missing.

Cheers

I recently stop over in LA. On the way going I did not have the TSA locks so the airport personnel checked my bags by breaking the locks and they were left without any protection against robbery.
On the return I did have those locks and when I got home my bags were perfectly locked.
I recommend you to get them , at least there are less changes of having your bags without any protection after they get checked at the airport.