[larryau]

On December 26, 2010 I had reservations for flight 387 from Newark to Orange County, these are the events from that day.
Going through security was quick. Boarding of aircraft went easy.

Once the plane was ready to back out, it was discovered that someone had forced the door to the aircraft and sheared a pin. Crew notified passengers that the mechanics were called. Once the mechanic arrived about 20 minutes later - they saw what part was broken and went for the part. This took about an hour and then another 20 minutes to fix the door. Total time = approximately 2 hours. During the time waiting for the mechanic and fixing the door - passengers were told that they could deplane but to stay near.

Since the weather was bad in Newark the plane was taken for de-icing. The de-icing took around 20-30 minutes.

Once the de-icing was complete, we were notified that one of the passengers decided that they didn't want to travel on this flight and that it was a law that Continental had to let them off - which meant that we had to go back to the gate. The plane sat in place for at least 30 possibly 45 minutes before it taxied towards the gate. Then we needed to wait for a crew to pull the plane in.

Once in, these passengers that wanted to deplane took their time in getting off, in fact one of them forgot something and had to come back. No crew member helped them - in order to speed up the process. Another 30 minutes passed after they were off the plane, when we were informed that the crew was over time (not sure of the words they used) and that they now needed to look for another crew to fly.

Sometime past when they asked everyone to deplane and stay near to the gate, this was a little after 4. At 6:45, a few hours after all other planes stopped flying out Continental decided to cancel this flight.

Now I have a few questions:
1) Where does it say that airlines are required to let people that don't want to fly off of the aircraft? Does this mean that sometime in the future I can tell the crew once we're near takeoff that I don't want to fly and I will be taken back to the gate? Isn't this a little costly for Continental and the passengers that fly?
2) Does Continental understand that the longer we were asked to wait, the more difficult it was for passengers to find hotel rooms and for the passengers who lived here - the dangerous situation they put them in; in attempting to get home while the weather and roads were getting worse? Once again, Continental took our rights away for the ones that decided they didn't want to fly.
2) Why were the rights of everyone else on this flight denyed for one other party?
3) Why wasn't a new flight crew requested once they knew that the plane had to go back to the gate?
4) Why did Continental tell us that we had to stay near the gate once we deplaned at 4 p.m.?
5) When Continental spends millions of dollars in advertising how great they are and how great their new alliance with United will be - do they expect the travelers to chose Continental or United after a ridiculous experience like this?
6) What type of accomidation do we get for our loss?

After all of this, Continental's customer service at the airport could not assure us that we would get a refund of both a flight that was paid for and the miles that we used for one of the tickets. They suggested that we call Continental and request both. No one answers today re these requests.

Seems like Continental has done everything to irritate and inconvience us and the others on this flight for the few whose rights could not be violated? Please note, I did call and ask, after investigating what rights travelers have, to show me where it says these people who asked to get off the plane - have that right. NO one at Continental can show me where this is stipulated.