[aroyvt]

We were six of us flying from Burlington, VT to Cancun Mexico, with a layover stop in Newark, NJ this past February. Ours was the first flight out at 6:30am on a Saturday, and we were expected to arrive in Cancun around 12:30pm. Due to a bad light bulb on the fuel pump gauge, our flight out was delayed by 70 minutes because "they were waiting for a maintenance technician from the other side of the airport, who was waiting for a fax".

Finally we boarded an ice-cold plane (what, they couldn't turn on the heat in those 70 minutes?) and fly to Newark. We arrive with no time to spare and have to traverse several concourses to our connecting flight (all Continental). There were 4 other passengers on our flight from Burlington also trying to catch the flight to Cancun, so that makes 10 passengers in all. We were lucky enough to catch one of those electric airport taxis who gave us a ride most of the way. This saved us a lot of time, but no luck. As we arrived at the gate, our plane was pulling away, without us 10 passengers.

So now we have to wait in line to rebook our flights. The "best they could do" was a flight to Houston with a connecting flight to Cancun. The flight to Houston was not for another 6 hours: 3pm. Very annoyed, we kindly asked if there wasn't more they could do for us, considering this was caused by a maintenance problem and not an act of God, they gave each of us $8 meal vouchers, which didn't even cover breakfast.

In Houston, we again had to sprint through a couple concourses, (no taxis this time) but at least we made the Cancun flight. Then, what really irritated us, was that they held up the plane for 4 passengers who were going to be 10 minutes late from a connecting flight. What the f***?

We finally got to Cancun just before 9:30pm. Little did we know, first time to Mexico, that we'd be waiting 90 minutes in the customs line. Then we had to take a 30 minute taxi to the ferry port to catch a boat to Isla Mujeres, and the last boat is 11:30pm. We arrived at the port at 11:30 and thankfully, the boat was 10 minutes late in leaving or we'd be stranded on the dock overnight. By the time we got on the boat, it was like we were in an episode of The Amazing Race. We were all frazzled and didn't get to our hotel until 12:15am. Sure, this was a vacation, but I spent good money on this trip and taken time off from work, and Continental's poor handling of the situation and disregard for our itineraries is appalling. Subsequent calls to Continental were not helpful. They refused to admit the mechanical issue, saying it was weather-related. I have vowed to never ever fly on Continental again. If a $100 extra in fare money says that I get to my destination on time - say on a beach with a drink in hand - I will gladly pay it.