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Those of you who are holding future flight tickets with Continental might want to re-confirm your itinerary right now! Even you "old-timers" may not care much for the new departure time from BZE. Ah, that would now be 5:00 p.m.

Great, two extra hours in San Pedro! Not so fast buckaroo. The BZE to Houston flight now lands in Houston at 7:30 p.m.. If you are traveling on from Houston more than 450-500 miles you are probably screwed and will have to spend a unexpected, additional night on vacation. In Houston! Nothing against Texans, but the vicinity of the Houston airport is NOT where where I want to vacation!

CoconutLady,

I ran into a similar situation with American. With a later departure from BZE and the fact that AA cancelled the late flight from Dallas back to my home in CA, I am now flying into an alternate airport 60 miles away and arriving after midnight. It will be a long day with a shuttle ride at the end, but I prefer this over, as you say, a night at Dallas airport.

I just checked Continental's website and for different days that I checked, their flights were leaving BZ City at different times. I checked three different dates and one day the plane left at 12:30 p.m (ish), one day at 3:30 (ish) and another at 5(ish). All of those managed to connect with the same flight from Houston that I always take home. That's a relief for me, for as long as that lasts.

OK, so it's both Continental AND American. I'm not sure how much influence the BZ Aviation Authority has with the airlines that serve their country and bring millions of dollars to their economy with tourists---BUT---it would seem that these late departures inconvenience just about everybody, except those who live pretty close to Dallas or Houston. The impact of adding an extra overnight stay at a US airport, and the associated expense is a very serious matter to many who travel to BZ.

If the BZ governemnt, for whatever reason, had any input into this decision, it is something that was poorly thought through, and could have a negative impact far greater than they might imagine.

Lan, if you're out there lurking (I know you are) have you heard anything about this? I'd have to think that the resort owners on AC would be livid, especially if they have to let return vistors know that they will probably have to spend an unanticipated night in the US on their return. In many cases that will one less night that the operators in BZ will get. Not a good thing for anybody.

Yup, it's different times based on what day you return. Just talked to Continental and they confirmed that depending on the day of the week it could be anywhere between noon and 5 p.m.

The last 12 times we've returned we left BZE at around 3 p.m., and landed in Houston around 3:15 p.m. local time. Continental confirmed that they had staggered their return schedules.

Maybe it has to do with your final destination airport, but I had no problem with American on a late night flight from Dallas back to Sacramento.

Coconutlady- Thanks for the post! Had I not read you post I would not have realize continential changed my return flight. They had us leaving Belize at 4:55pm arriving in houston at 7:28pm then leaving Houston at 6:50pm. Okay there is the problem! How can we get in at 7:28 and leave the same day at 6:50pm? Now we have to spend the night in houston. something we were not expecting.
As I write this I am still on the phone (I have already been on the phone now for 30 minutes). EEEEEK.

YBON I think your headed back the same day as I am. We too will be stuck in Houston. Continental agreed to put us up for the night. I built in an extra day anyway, so it's not too bad. There could be a lot of us overnight in Houston.

And I do believe that this only effects flights to the mid US and East. Not 100% positive, but it looks that way.

I too checked our flight schedule. Surprise...our flight home is not affected (so far) but our flight to Belize is and this impacts us more than the other would. I don't have a problem tacking on an additional day in Belize or Houston, anything to avoid coming back to minus 20 degree temps.

Continental now has us flying to Calgary, then Calgary to Houston with an overnight and then off to Belize the next day. We weren't prepared to leave until the late evening of the 30th for Calgary and were going to overnight there and then off to Houston and Belize on Dec 1st.

Hubby is traveling in on the 29th from Venezuela and if his schedule changes we could end up waving at each other as his plane heads into Texas and mine (ours) leaves for Belize. :-(

All part of the adventure I guess.

Hi all, this isn't about a Belize trip, but we just traveled from New York (Rochester) to Portland, Oregon....on to Denver, CO then back to Rochester. Make double sure you have time !!
We had to be at the Denver airport 3 hours early and were the last ones seated on the plane. Unbelieveable waiting lines.
I'm sure many of you have traveled recently but this was really, really another whole day that was needed for just the waiting lines and the thoroughness of ALL the airports and the security is superior. It's an amazing sight.
Just an FYI....
Our next trip, to Belize is in January and we are prepared for that extra day this time. Unfortunately, we have had to do over-nighters in Miami in the past, but didn't realize the tickets were printed with that little AM/PM for the next day. Oh well, good time anyway.