[rontild]

My vacation was just ruined because of all things....the size of an airplane. My wife and I had planned a wonderful 10 day cruise to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. The cruise would have taken us from Acapulco, Mexico to Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Panama Canal, Jamaica and eventually returning to Fort Lauderdale. But those plans are all gone because the flight we booked was on a smaller plane. My wife searched the web for best deals to help offset the outrageous cost of flying. The best we could do was to book with Continental Airlines leaving early enough in the morning to make sure we made it to Acapulco in time to catch the cruise ship departure time of 8:00 P.M.. I originally suggested one of two flights that were available. There was a Continental Airlines flight 2821 which left Atlanta at 7:40 A.M. and arrived in Houston at 8:55 A.M.. The connecting flight to Acapulco left Houston at 11:10 A.M. and would arrive in Acapulco at 12:49 A.M. giving us more than enough time to make it to the ship for our cruise departure time of 8:00 P.M.. The other flight that was available was a Continental flight leaving an hour later at 8:40 A.M. and arriving in Houston at 9:55 still giving us enough time to make the connecting flight to Acapulco leaving at 11:10 A.M.. Being on the cautious side we decided to leave enough time to catch the connecting flight due to possible delays so we opted for the first flight at 7:40 A.M.. That is where we made the mistake. We did not take into consideration the size of the aircraft we were going to fly on. The airplane was an Embraer RJ145 which only seats 50 people. We arrived at the airport on time and checked our luggage in and barely scraped through security (my wife has had knee surgery so it took a little longer to stop the bells and whistles from going off). We arrived at our gate with plenty of time to spare. There were only about 20 people taking the flight from Atlanta to Houston which is common for that time of the day. We were seated on time and we left the gate at exactly 7:40 A.M. as expected. By now, everything was going as planned.....so we thought. We taxied out to the runway and then waited for a little while. Then we kept waiting and waiting and I started getting a little skeptical that something was wrong. After about a half an hour the pilot gets on the loudspeaker and announces that there is a delay in Houston due to severe weather and we would wait about 30 minutes before we could get clearance to continue. We then went to a tarmack area of the field and sat there for almost an hour. Finally, the pilot gets on the loudspeaker again and announces there is at least another 45 minutes to an hour delay before we can attempt to fly to Houston and there are no gates available to go back to. It has already been 2 hours of waiting on the tarmack and some of the passengers are starting to get restless, myself included. The pilot comes out of the cockpit and starts to talk to the passengers trying to insure them that things are all right but he still can't tell us when we can leave. After two and a a half hours of sitting on the tarmack the pilot gets on the loudspeaker again to tell everybody that the flight has been cancelled and we are heading back to the gate. My wife and I are overjoyed to hear this but apprehensive about making the cruise ship on time since it is now 10:30 A.M.. We spend another 15 minutes getting back to our original gate and are led outside down the stair ladder and back up the stairs into the terminal to stand in line to make other arrangements to get to Acapulco. We are told to go over to the gate next door to the one they let us off at and it takes an hour of standing in line to get up to the girl at the counter to try and resolve our flying dilemma. We are notified that the connecting flight we missed was the last flight to Acapulco for that day. The girl desperately tries to find an alternate plan to get us to Acapulco but to no avail. All the other airlines are booked since the airlines have cut many of their flights and there is not enough time to get us there to make it to the ship. We called the cruise line to see what time we need to be in Acapulco in order to get from the airport to the ship on time. She informs us that we need to be in Acapulco by 4:00 P.M. to make it through customs and get to the ship in time. The girl at the desk has exhausted any ideas and so we concentrated on the possibility of catching up with the cruise in Guatemala, the first landing after the ship leaves Acapulco. The girl tries her hardest to get us a booking but all she can find for the next 2 days is one seat on some other airlines. This makes it impossible for us to get our money's worth out of the cruise since we would lose at least 3 or more days out of the 10 day cruise and we are forced to abandon the cruise. My wife and I are heartbroken since this was to be a special time for us to enjoy the 40 wonderful years we have been married. But, now to the saddest part of all....why size does matter. During the conversation with the girl at the gate desk, we were informed that the 8:40 A.M. flight made it fine to Houston. I was very surprised and asked her how this could be because we were repeatedly told that the weather was too severe to fly into Houston. It seems that the 8:40 flight was on a Boeing 737 aircraft which seats 106 and that larger planes have priority over the smaller ones. I was shocked to hear this and very irrate to find out that if we had booked the flight an hour later on a larger plane we would now be onboard our cruise ship enjoying our celebration. We bought insurance for the cruise through the agency we went through so I believe we are covered for getting our money back for that. I'm not sure about whether we'll get anything back from the airlines since we did not book that through the same travel agent. That is yet to be determined. But I want everybody to know that a plane's size does matter and of the practice of letting larger planes have higher priority over smaller ones in severe weather conditions.

[Corbel]

plane size doesn't matter. ATC controls how many aircraft can leave and depending on slots as well. i dont think you will much (if anything) back from the airline, because of this being weather.

[rontild]

I'm not necessarily looking for compensation. I'm just confused as to why we had to sit on the tarmack for almost 3 hours before they decided to cancel the flight. That is not God's decision (as they claim the weather to be) but some person's decision, as you say the ATC is responsible for that. If we had gone back to the gate right away I could have possibly made other arrangements in time. That is where the prolems lies. The fact that the girl at the Continental counter said it was a decision made by the size of the plane is what particularly irks me.

[Silent Bob]

I fly the RJ's a lot, but they're no good when it comes to flying in bad weather because more than liely they will be delayed for a long time or eventually cancelled. But the bigger planes don't get "priority", as I was once told by a continental agent the RJ's are low altitude planes where as the 737 that you could have taken, flies at a higher altitude. I guess you wouldn't call this a continental complaint, just a general one telling people not to take the smaller planes. Another tip you may also want to share (though it has been repeated many times). For time events such as cruises, weddings, etc, try to leave a day or two earlier because anything can happen.

[rontild]

Thanks Silent Bob for the information. I tried to convince my wife to fly to Acapulco the day before and stay overnight just in case something happened but she's strict with the money (bless her heart) and felt the added costs was'nt worth it. I think she regrets that decision now. I also know now to check out what kind of aircraft it is we will be flying on before making a decision on flight arrangements. As for taking Continetal again, I doubt that we will choose to do so.

[Corbel]

i wouldn't put ALL the blame continental on the cancelled flight. weather and ATC did have some part in it, MOST if not ALL airlines have the smaller aircraft as well

[Leatherboy2006]

Agreeing with Silent Bob, the size of the aircraft only matter cause of how high it can fly and go over the weather. Having been through bad weather on of all things a ATR, I was wishing I had waited an extra 2 hours at Ohare and taking a 727 (ok it dates that time).

[jimworcs]

To be honest, I think Continental did their best to help you. This is one of those things under the category of "stuff happens". I think you acted reasonably and 8 hours would normally be sufficient time to allow for normal delays. I hope you will get reimbursed for the ticket, but on the whole, be thankful you were not on Delta. You would have got to the desk and instead of trying to rebook you, the Deltanazi would have more likely had said "what do you want me to do about the weather" and then go on their break leaving you standing there!!!