Continental airlines

Anyone any experience of Continental airlines travelling to the US from Dublin, then onto Mexico? Specifically in relation to baggage being checked through to final destination? Friendliness? Flexibility?

Continental

I flew with them from Shannon to Dallas via Altanta at Thanks Giving '03 with no issues, only thing I found was to leave enough time between connections, I know it was the busy season but I had two hours between flights but you have to claim your baggage even though it is checked through, bring it to another counter for your connecting flight, then pass through security so by the time all this was done I got to my gate with 5 mins to spare.
Hope this helps

Re: Continental

Thanks for your comments raid, we are due into Houston with a 45 min connection time, I know if we have to collect bags we are bunched, so you asked them to check bags through and you still had to collect them?? Thanks

Baggage

Yeah, my baggage was checked through, but as this was first touch down on US soil I had to claim my bags and bring them to another desk pretty close to the carousel where you just hand them in, you already have the labels on them for your final destination, I think this is a security measure so that the bags are tied to the person at the point of entry, might be worth checking this with the airline, as I said there were huge queue's at the security but this may have been due to the time of year & 45 mins might be a bit tight though, I know in Atlanta I had to change terminal, etc……..on the reverse when I was leaving I just checked my bags in DFW and didn't see them until I got to SNN

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Traveling to the States you must clear customs at your 'first' point of arrival. So even if the bags are tagged thru to your final destination they will automatically come off so you can pass through customs with them.

Not as bad as it sounds though, just collect as normal, exit the arrivals hall (clearing customs on your way who may or may not fancy a look at your stuff anyway) and right outside the bag drop is there and they'll take the already thru-tagged bags to the next flight for you.

Takes up a bit more time but not too much then you just make your way to your next flight. Newark is relatively easy to get around so it shouldn't be too bad.

(By the way on your way home the bags are thru checked again but no need to clear u.s. customs leaving the country so no need to see your bags at all in Newark on the return trip.)

> Not as bad as it sounds though,

Unless you're going via Chicago - it's a disaster in terms of throughput particularly given that one of the busiest hubs in N.America, it's prone to storms and the heightened post 9/11 security measures no in place all add to delays. On the other hand they often simply delay all flights rather than have thousands of people missing them or connections...

45 minutes is probably too short a turnover time in the current US climate (code orange). You will have to collect baggage, go through customs, recheck bags and also go through a security check before catching your connecting flight. Last week in Atlanta, things went very smoothly but waited 30 mins for baggage, cleared customs without delay, queued for 20 minutes to recheck the baggage, queued for 10 minutes for security check and then went to new check-in desk for second flight. This was much faster than my previous trip where the same sequence took 2.5 hours.

Could you travel with hand luggage only? It would speed you up a lot and I think you might make it then.