Continental Airline Tickets

Multi-airlines connection: What if I miss it?

Hi everyone. I'm a bit worried. I have a connection that is very tight in New York (Under 50 minutes to change flight). I'm flying Air Canada from Montreal, QC to New York, NY and then I have to catch a Continental Airlines flight from New York, NY to Houston, TX. If I miss my connection in NYC, will Continental put me on the next flight in departure to Houston (assuming there are seats available)? A little delay from Air Canada would definitely anihilate my chances of getting to the 2nd plane in time. If the delay is caused by AC or me not running fast enough, and not by Continental Airlines, will they still put me on another flight? I bought the multi-airline ticket in a package, not separately, I think that's important to mention.

Public Comments

1. i MAY BE WRONG, BUT THEY MAY PUT YOU ON THE NEXT FLIGHT OUT. i ALMOST MISSED MY FLIGHT AT THE oRLANDO aIRPORT ONCE BECAUSE I WAS TO BUSY SHOPPING AND LOST TRACT OF TIME. i JUST MADE IT TO THE PLANE BEFORE THEY CLOSED THE DOOR. fLIGHT ATTENDENT LAUFGED AND SAID IF I MISSED THE PLANE, THEY WOULD PUT ME ON A LATER FLIGHT. tHIS WAS dELTA aIRLINES.
2. If you miss your connecting flight, for any reason, they will put you on the next flight out. I missed a connecting flight from Detroit to Tampa about a year ago. Our plane landed in time, however, there were very few workers and we had to wait more than a half an hour to get to a gate. We ended up missing the connecting flight by literally a few seconds. They were closing the door just as we were running up.
3. It would depend on how restricted the ticket you bought is. The fare class (y,b,h etc.) will determine whether you will just be able to re-schedule the flight for free or have to pay a fee to re-schedule or possibly be out of luck for missing your flight. You don't say who you bought your ticket from, if it was a travel agent or website that mixed and matched airlines, I don't believe Continental would be liable. The best thing to do would be to call Continental and ask them, have your fare class available to be able to determine what would happen if you missed your connection. Good luck.
4. There are 3 main airports for NYC--Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark. Continental use Newark only. If your AC flight does not use Newark, then you have no chance of making this connection. If it does use Newark, and your flight is ticketed together all on one ticket or reservation number, then the airline will put you on the next available flight. Houston and Newark are hubs for Continental, and there are lots of flights every day between those cities.
5. I expect if there are seats available, Continental will put you on the next flight especially since it wasn't your fault that you missed your flight. The thing is that Air Canada and Continental may not share the same terminal at the NYC airport you are flying into so you want to find out how far apart the gates are from each other. Even if the flight is a little delayed from Montreal, the pilot can see if they can fly a bit faster if given permission by air traffic control. Actually I am surprised that they combined Continental with Air Canada instead of having you fly Air Canada to Chicago and catching a flight on United to Houston since United and Air Canada are part of the Star Alliance.