AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Travel Connection Time Question

Any insight on the amount of time a transfer takes in Houston? We are scheduled to arrive into Houston (United) at 11:05 AM. Our flight to Belize (TACA) departs at 2:15 PM. Is this enough time to get our bags and make the transfer - or should we be considering carrying on our bags? Thank you...this site has been so helpful for a first timer to AC.

That is plenty of time. I wouldn't think carrying on would be necessary.

Have fun on your trip!

poolgirl
When you check your luggage at the start of the trip isn't it checked all the way to your final destination??
Then all you worry about is your carry on stuff.
Don't forget to leave half of the clothes you were going to take and take twice as much MONEY.
Jim

Carry on bags are a lot more reasonable when you land in Belize. You want off the plane and through customs as quickly as possible. Take lasers recommendation above and remove half of what you have packed. You'll be happy you did.

I'll agree that any time you can take your luggage as carry on, your trip will be much less stressful. We did that for our trip to AC, and I was very glad we did.

if you can fit it all in a carry on, great.

If you can not, it is simple to get your luggage in Belize City, the easiest place I have ever been. After you go through customs it is always waiting for you right there.

Best to find out if bags are checked all the way thru to your destination. Not always the case, when connecting to Int'l carrier.

by the way, your three hour layover is enough time for lunch, getting luggage (which you should not have to like lasorgod said but check) and a nap where you wait for the plane plenty.

strongly recommend carry-ons for all luggage if you can swing it.

I learned my lesson when I was 15 and went to Washington D.C., while my luggage instead went to Manchester England, and then Costa Rica before finally reaching me again 5 days later.

Spending 5 days without your stuff is awful.

Since then I always try to carry on!!

We have a 30 minute layover in Houston - will we make it?

same carrier? never been a problem for me.

Assuming, of course, your arriving flight is reasonably on time.

We have been through Houston 4 times and usually have 1 to 1 1/2 hours and never had any problems. Just 18 more sleeps to AC againn.

same carrier

Another thing to consider is if you need to change terminals. I have found it can take a long time to go from one terminal to another. That underground "train" can be painfully slow when you're in a hurry. The last time I went through Houston (almost 2 years ago), there was alot of construction and the only way to get to the other terminals was by that train. Plus, you probably will have to go through a security checkpoint.

When you return, remember you also have to clear customs and claim your luggage.

We didn't make our connection but we tried. Had to run like a bat outta heeel to TACA...to find we had "just" missed our flight. Overnighted and hated it. Lost $$ on our reservation....blah blah...

Yes, that was one slooow train...I agree!
We try to avoid Houston.

For some reason AA connected us with TACA...odd!

We have decided the "free" seats from our mileage are not "free." Too much time was wasted in Houston.

We had free seats on American when we came down in Nov. and our transfer was at Dallas FortWorth, A great and easy airport to go through.
Jim

That is odd NYgal. I try to avoid Houston too. It can be a long way between gates. We booked free AA seats for Nov way way in advance. Went from Austin to DFW and we got a free 1st class upgrade to BZE. Coach was full and no one was in 1st. Told the gate agent it was my b-day and my wife needed the room to stretch her injured knee. Despite what they tell you gate/ticket agents can do anything including upgrading a free ticket. My motto is it never hurts to ask.

spl,
"After you go through customs it is always waiting for you right there."

I think you mean before you go through customs, yes?
...............................................
Another option for the lost luggage possibility: I carry on a day's worth of clothes, my meds, passport,etc and MY SNORKEL GEAR and SWIMSUIT. So if checked luggage is delayed, I can still go snorkeling : )

Razorfish....that was the last plane leaving for Belize that day from that airport
That was 3+ years ago.

Believe me we used every method. I guess it depends on who you get at the keyboard in the terminal or on the phone when making the communication for an airline.

Last year we had to overnight in Miami on the way home. Waste of time.....
But this year...ZOOM...hopefully

what I ment was before you go through to get your stamp, it says "customs" right there where you get your stamp. Your bags are then waiting there after for you everytime (in my experiences) and then yes, you go through the rest with your other form and bags. Just like in the states. Stamp, bags, finish through customs with form.

It's really hard to plan for layovers... my best advice is to notice the weather in your departing city, city in which you layover, and final destination, the day you leave. Some airlines give updated "on time status" for their flights, via their website. If the weather is really bad (snowing or raining hard) you may want to go the airlines website for the latest information and that will help you decide whether or not it'd be a good idea to make other arrangements. Of course things can and do change at the last minute.

And when you do finally get to your city of choice, thank "him" for getting you there safetly.

If you are flying internationally to Europe and you go through Houston, in our experience it is a nightmare. We went with Continental and were told by staff that they intentionally overbook each flight to make sure seats are filled. What seems to happen is that if they don't have enough seats, they tell people on transfer in Houston that the gate is closed when they disembark from Belize. They tell you this to stop you trying to make the flight because they don't actually have enough seats available. On our last trip through our international flight was overbooked by 40 people. We ignored them and ran to our flight with another girl on the same flight and despite having been told the gate was closed, they had not even started boarding. We asked them about the next flight that day and they told us this had been over booked too so we would have to wait until the next day to fly.

This happenned on our last trip too although we didn't ignore them and ended up stuck in the Holiday Inn over night. The Holiday Inn staff told us Continental block book two hundred rooms every night to deal with this issue as it is cheaper for them to do this than to put people on other flights.

The legal limit for connections is not in any way possible to meet for international flights at Houston. I would suggest that you insist on at least 2 hours connection time.

Also, it doesn't matter whether your luggage is checked through. If you are in transit through the USA they now make you pick up your luggage in Houston after immigration (which can take from 1-2 hours depending on the queues), go through Customs and then hand it back in again. Because of the tight connections most of the people I know from the UK have had problems with their luggage at the other end.

In addition, on this trip, we had items stolen in Houston airport while our luggage was in transit. We don't pack valuables in our check in, so all that was stolen was clothing. But it was still aggravating. We won't be going through Houston again unless absolutely necessary.

can you connect thru Dallas? I like that route best, myself. Took an hour to get thru customs tonight on the way home. the US citizens line was huge & crawling, visitors flew thru. What's the deal with that? Any way, Houston pretty much sucks when you're sweating the time.

interesting story as I have only had sucess every time with Continental. And flew Continental 9 times now to Belize and twice to Europe and several domestic locations.

It is not Continental who overbooks flights intentionally, it is ALL airlines. Normal and standard. My mother works for an different airline who does it and American and Delta does it too. That is the airlines's way of ensuring fuller flights/profits to stay in business and offer the service to the places we all want to go. The 2 times the flights were over full for me to Costa Rica and Europe they were honest and announced that anyone willing to wait and go on the next flight would receive a $400 voucher for any future travel. It was only a few seats on both. What a deal, I'll take it! Many won't, but there are usually a few that will. Esp. if you're on your way to Europe the next flight is usually within a few hours. For Costa Rica they even put those volunteers on another airline within 3 hours and gave them the $400 voucher. They put you in a hotel only if there are no more flihts that day to the destination as they definately want you on the next flight to get you out there- either way they have to get you there...

Sounds a bit exagerated with the 40 seats overbooked. As far as 200 rooms being booked nightly at Holiday Inn, this is actually a VERY low number if you look at how many hundreds of flights go domestic and international out of Houston. Therefore if they only book 200 and have hundreds of flights it is impossible that on one flight they overbooked 40. Doing the math it means they only overbooked 2 1/2 flights that day. If that's the case, good job on them.

Another incorrect piece of info:
It is not that they "now" make you pick up your luggage in Houston after immigrations...it has ALWAYS been that way. What the others were saying is if you check it all the way through on the way THERE you do not need to pick it up. Whether you fly through Houston, Dallas, Atlanta.... anywhere, you MUST pick up your luggage when you arrive back into the US for customs and for the past 21 yrs I have flown internationally it has been this way. This is for our own protection to have random searches and our bags goes through our US Lock. Mart. TSA Security system screening before going on to any other US destination.

As far as your items being stolen, this can happen anywhere. What does it have to do with Houston? My mother flies all over since she works for another airline and has had people take her stuff from 4 other airports. Luck of draw. Some are on purpose and some do it on accident, thinking it is their luggage so I suggest tying a large colorful cloth to the handle to easily identify your bags. Less likely someone will want to walk out with it too, in fears it would be harder to justify they thought it was theirs if caught by the owner.

knock on wood, flying Continental tomorrow...and funny thing, through Houston! Let's hope I am not overnighted at Holiday Inn or have my bags stolen. wait, wait, if there is another flight to my next destination perhaps I DO want to be on an overbooked flight. I am a good volunteer, always up for a $400 voucher which would cover an entire roundtrip ticket another time from Belize-states and back.

Will report back.

One more comment regarding perhaps an unusual day at customs for colly or an exageration. 1-2 hrs to go through customs??? I have always chosen the connection with only 50 min, make it through customs and to my gate (walking, not rushing) with time to spare. Again, 9 times from Belize-Houston International.

FYI correction, I said they had hundreds of flights daily so 200 rooms was so low at Houston International Airport. It is actually a few thousand.

Continental Airlines, Inc. (NYSE:CAL)
"The Company operates more than 2,500 daily departures throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia"

Does this mean we will know for sure?
Will it be perfected after your trip?
Sorry....we all have our own agenda's and since this one fits you doesn't mean it fits all of us too.
Thank your mother for the information

spl, are you talking about arrival at BZE International? It sounds like it to me

A little added ditty......Dallas FortWorth
No problems so far

I had no problems flying Continental to Belize. In fact, I'd rather fly them than any other airline.

The only problem we encountered, was going HOME, we only had a 1 hour layover, and after going through customs we almost missed our flight. Thankfully we ran to the gate & made it just as they were closing.

Lesson learned: Next time, set up for a longer layover when returning into the US.

Thankfully all our luggage was carry on, otherwise we definetly would have missed our flight.

Kra-Z-K I am delighted that your experiences have been better than our own and thank you for all of the information about the way the airlines operate. I hope you have another pleasant journey.

What does this mean? Who are you talking to?

OPINIONS PEOPLE!

By the way, the airport in Houston is HUGE as is other airlines' major hubs. You should expect delays or the unusual when traveling to a big airport such as IAH and Newark, NJ.

Collyk, I appreciate your wishes for a pleasant journey, thank you. It was indeed a very pleasant trip. Customs this time was even faster than usual for me in Houston. I thought of you when I went through actually! It took 5 min to get through to get my stamp, 10 min to get luggage, and no line at all to go through and turn in the customs form. Grand total less than 20 min With plenty of time to spare at the gate to wait for the next flight. I had 1 hr and 10 min layover this time. Maybe I am a lucky traveler?? This is round 10 To/From Belize.

I wish you a pleasant trip without inconviences on your next BZ trip. Take Care.

Sometimes it just the luck of the draw. I have flown in and out of IAH(Houston)all my life and have rarely experienced any problems. You do need to allow enough time if you are connecting from one terminal to the next as the airport train can take a while. This is a very spread out airport and they just added another terminal last summer.

There is an element of luck of the draw for sure, but I have spoken to three other people who have travelled to Belize via Houston in the last year including clients of mine who arrived a few days ago. All have had similar difficulties to our own. I am sure that huge numbers of people have an easy journey, but having travelled to the USA annually for 20 years and to other countries in the world frequently, I can only say that my experience at Houston was extremely poor both times. Just sharing as this is a forum in which people share their knowledge and experience about visiting Ambergris Caye.

A moot (sorry just wanted an excuse to say moot) point, but I did not exaggerate the difficulties we had (nor the number of overbooked seats as this was the figure given to us by Continental). The immigration queue was so long for us at Houston that a desperate Continental employee (bless her for trying at least) tried to get me a wheelchair - at her suggestion - to pretend I was disabled so that she could get us through more quickly. In the end she did manage to get us rushed through immigration without the wheelchair but once we got to baggage that is where they tried to tell us that the flight boarding was closed. On our last trip, as we believed them when they told us this, we ended up staying the night - we later discovered that the flight had been delayed and boarding had not stopped on that flight either.

As far as our stuff going missing at Houston, so far Continental are saying that it was the responsibility of Customs there. Who knows.

Ah- one other thing. It probably is quicker if you have a USA passport. Those queues only took minutes while we were waiting. Ours took hours.

It does take longer for an Int'l pax to jump thru all the hoops, incl the luggage. But once you're inside the US "Bubble" all is fine. Checked bags on departing US flights will be handled straight thru to destination ONCE you are inside the "bubble". One OF Colly's problems was she ,as I understand it, came into IAH directly from outside the US and was therefore outside the "bubble". Had she landed in EWR, for example, and cleared there, sho would have had no trouble at all in connecting to BZE from IAH.

ya, what he said

sumbudy stole my ID

hoo

Any problems with and/or accolades for the fairly new (since Dec. 15)daily flight on Delta from Atlanta to Belize and/or back? I want to be prepared. 32 more sleeps!
It's 23 degrees outside. I need summer weather!!

Here at home, we clear US Customs after checkin but before security and reaching the gate. My bags go direct to final destination. When returning from my destination, I always have to pick up my bags and recheck my bags during my US layover.

As an aside to klc's point about the bubble, one time once I was at the gate, I told an employee that I wanted to mail a letter. She told me that I couldn't mail it there because I was no longer in Canada. I was in the US. She took it for me and told me she'd mail it at the end of her day when she returned back to Canada.