IAH Terminal A/Bus/Colgan Air rant
 

As an experience CO/IAH traveller, I know the Houston airport inside and out. But Continental, you are seriously going to have to do something about the Terminal A transit situation. IT is completely unacceptable, especially when you couple the transit situation with the Colgan Air incompetence.

Yesterday, I was making a connection in IAH to a Colgan Air flight. My inbound flight from the west coast was late. However, my gate was realtively close to the Terminal C busstop. And a bus was there waiting. But, my god, even after the bus left, it took almost 15 minutes to get over to Terminal A.
Me and 2 others on the same bus missed our Colgan flight by about 2 minutes. (The plane was still at the gate, but they wouldn't let us on). That really pleased us, especially after we found out that the next flight was sold out. The only saving grace was the P-CLub in Terminal A.

I live where its kind of a push whether to just drive to Houston or take the connecting flight. I go back and forth, but after yesterday, I think I'm done with Terminal A and Colgan.

If they put a train connection inside security that will let you get to Terminal with the same speed as Terminal B, I'll reconsider. But the current arrangement is just too flawed.

Supposedly the Houston Airport System is planning to extend the TerminaLink people mover to Terminal A.

I will say that, by contrast, connecting from Colgan Air to CO mainline or express is actually pretty easy. Did this yesterday -- we got off the turboprop right onto the bus that was waiting for us, and the bus made stops at Terminal A, B, and C (you had to walk from C to E if your flight left from there). I was concerned that we would be bussed from the plane to Terminal A only to have to catch a separate bus to the other terminals.

Terminal A - Terminal Link plans
 

This is correct. If you look at the 20 year master plan for IAH from Dec 2006, it recommends an "above ground people mover to Terminal A" in Phase 1 of the plan. Granted, this is a 20 year plan, but it's definately part of the mix going forward and one that is ovedue. See the link here for the plan (it mentions the Terminal A people mover on page 1-8 and in Figure 1-3 (it's a pretty hefty file, over 50 MB so be forewarned if trying to download):

http://system.gocampaign.com/files/file.asp?f=13216

I frequently connect through IAH and my connecting flight to/from home always originates or departs from Terminal A. I haven't had the same experience that the original poster had in terms of delays in getting to Terminal A (I usually have lengthy connection times to avoid this), but I don't doubt it happens.

IAH is moving towards a more integrated terminal building approach (similar to ATL in layout), but it will take a while to reconfigure the sprawling terminal campus in its current form. The Terminal Link extension would certainly help in the near term.

Similar situation here!
 

I was flying BOS-IAH-CLL last December. We spent about 1.5 hrs (I had a 1 hr, 45 min layover) circling, due to thunderstoms in the area. I SPRINTED off that plane, told the Red Coat I was running to CLL, hopped on the (waiting) bus, had to stop at terminal B, then got to A. I saw a person get on the CLL flight, but when I went up, the GA informed me that he had just closed the flight (obviously, I was super mad, as the bus was still at the end of the jetway - I totally could have made that flight! :mad:). I went to the desk (it's 11:30am), agent tells me next flight is at 1:30 and is over sold. Next flight I can get a confirmed seat on is 9:30pm. I ended up renting a car and driving. Even if I had a PClub membership, a 10 hr layover for what is less than a two hour drive is totally not worth it. Of course, I was then out the $150 I had to pay for my one-way, last minute, airport to airport rental and the 500 miles, but what can you do?

I agree. I was going CLL-IAH, and it appears that now a the transfer shuttles go from A1, and the planes are pulling up to A7 or A8, and one has to schlep up the jetway from the stairs, then across the entire terminal and then down to a bus. It was much easier when a bus met each plane and you could make the connections very fast and easy. The way it is now....sheesh. :rolleyes:

This is exactly what happened to us.... going to CLL and door had just closed. Only there were 3 of us and they refused to let us on, knowing that the next plane was technically sold out.

LIke I said, the drive/fly equation is looking more like DRIVE.

I've never missed a connection to my car; its never oversold, and its never cancelled.

I know this thread is mostly Colgan Air transiting to mainline, however, now with Northwest operating out of Terminal A, this will be my first time going through IAH not arriving on a NWA flight in terminal B and going to a Continental flight going out of Terminal C or E. How difficult is this really, I know on the Colgan Air flights, the buses are out on the tarmac, however, in this situation it appears I will need to deplane go to a gate on the A concourse, grab a bus and then go to either C or E. The termalink bus that easily connected terminal B to C and E does not extend to A which it should. If it matters, I have about 75 minutes from the schedule arrival of my DTW-IAH Northwest flight to my schedule Continental flight. It looks like the last few days the Continental flight has departed from gate E7.

You should be fine with a 75 minute connection. I've made an E-A IAH connection in less than 30 before with time to spare.

After you arrive on your NW flight, head over to gate A2. That's where the bus to the other terminals is. From there you'll go down the jetway and some steps onto the tarmac to board the bus. After the bus departs, it will stop at Terminal B, then head for Terminal C. At Terminal C, get off the bus, and then from there it's about a five minute walk to Terminal E.

Sure, it's a lot less convenient than the TerminaLink tram between B and C, D, and E, but it's completely realistic that you'll make that connection with plenty of time to spare if you head on over to A2 right after you get off your NW flight.

Just wondering if anybody knows any more information about this extension.
The construction seems to be ongoing, with traffic around terminal A re-routed.
See This page at fly2houston.com.

I'm wondering if the new TerminaLink station will let you get to both north and south concourses at Terminal A w/out exiting security? Perhaps they will rearrange security so that it is similar to the layout at Terminal B?

I'm also curious if there is any published schedule for completion? (the web-page sited just states 'until further notice...')
Thanks for any info!

Yes. The TerminaLink station will be at the A North concourse, but there's supposed to be a walkway of some sort built to allow you to get to A South without having to exit security. I've not seen any diagrams of how this is going to work, but that's what I've heard from several sources. It will be nice to have that connection, as A South is currently the only concourse in the entire airport that is isolated from all of the other terminals and concourses with no behind-security method of passage.