This is classic Continental! I've mentioned elsewhere, in some long forgotten post, about CO's "mechanical troubles" excuse. This usually means ..."not enough people on the flight to justify getting the plane off the ground" or "we need the plane for another route". On at least five separate occasions over the past two years I have received calls at home from CO at noon or 1 PM on a Sunday informing me that my flight that evening (usually around 8 PM) was cancelled because of "mechanical troubles" and I would be re-booked on an earlier or later flight. (This was on the DCA-NWR route). Eight hours notice that the plane had mechanical troubles! Yeh, right!