[Gary Kritz]

I had been sitting at Gate E21 at Houston Bush Int. Airport for 90 minutes when out of nowhere, the gate agent told us that we had to switch gates, 5 minutes before boarding. The new gate, C30, was all the way at the other far end of the airport. The E21 gate board still said to Philadelphia on-time, scheduled to leave at 7:05PM. We all started running as fast as we could to get to the new gate, which put us in the middle of boarding. It took me 15 minutes to get there walking at a very fast pace since I am a power walker. I felt bad for all of the old people who couldn’t make it. No one was boarding at Gate C30 when I arrived. We sat down and waited. At 6:45PM, we were told there was a mechanical problem with the plane, and the next update was at 7:15PM. We all ran for nothing, sweating and out-of-breadth. The plane had been sitting at Gate E21 since 6;10PM. We were never told of the problem, and we ran for nothing! There is no excuse for that. Continental knew there was a mechanical problem at 6:10PM, long before we were running for our lives to make the flight with the gate change. At 7:16PM we were told it was an air-conditioning problem and that we would leave at 8:15PM because the plane had to be cleaned and serviced. Since when does it take 60 minutes to clean and load the plane?! I’ve seen turnarounds in 15 minutes. There are connections made within 30 minutes. Why couldn’t the plane be loaded and serviced while we boarded like on any other flight? The C30 gate agents were belligerent and bewildered. They were told nothing or why. Even our pilot told us that he did not understand why the plane was switched from E21! No communications to the passengers or agents. We were kept in the dark.

I’ve had these frequent flyers miles since the mid-80’s. I had stopped flying Continental for this exact reason- being manipulated and lied to with omitted communications. Nothing has changed in 20 years. I’m done with Continental. And I know it is the “operations crew on the ground” who are responsible for NOT communicating to the gate agents and for making the gate change. How do I know this? It was these “Lack of communications problems” that led me to stop flying Continental. You should take a look online at all of the customer complaint sites on your airline. It is pathetic.