Continental Airlines Inc.

Burgers Off the Beaten Path: Shuttle Burgers and Space Age Memorabilia

Inside the shady dining room at Shuttle Burgers, inflatable space shuttles and cartoonishly fat airplanes twirl slowly at the end of fishing wire suspended from the mottled ceiling tiles. In one corner, a crackling television set's handwritten paper sign implores guests: "Don't change the channel! T ... More >>

Southwest vs. United: The Tale of the Texas Tape

This week brings another chapter in the titanic showdown between Southwest Airlines, who wants to fly international flights out of Hobby, and United Airlines, the company that flies international flights out of Bush. United knows that allowing international flights out of Hobby would be a very, ver ... More >>

United vs. Southwest Deathcage Match: Your Campaign Donations Scorecard

Houston City Council is currently in an uproar over Mayor Annise Parker's tentative proposal to allow Southwest to have international flights out of Hobby Airport. Councilmembers have said the proposal is rushed and would harm United Airlines, which, of course, merged with Continental and flies int ... More >>

Patti LaBelle Airport Brawl: Her Son Can Sue Continental Airlines for Overserving West Point Cadet

Pattil LaBelle's son will be able to accuse Continental Airlines in court of overserving the West Point cadet who got in a fight with the singer's entourage. Zuri Edwards, who is also his mother's bodyguard, was one of the people sued by the cadet, Richard King. LaBelle and several others have file ... More >>

Continental Told To Butt Out Of Pilot's Bedrooms

"No tears and no hearts breaking, no remorse..."​Continental Airlines kicked up a stir in 2009 when they went after nine pilots for having "sham divorces" in order to get early pension benefits. The airline apparently felt it could determine what is and isn't true love, or true divorce, a ski ... More >>

United: Continental's Merger Partner Keeps Tripping Up on 9/11

We all await the next misstep​Remember the good old days, when Houston's Continental Airlines only had to endure PR fiascos like killing off the Concorde? The airline has, of course, merged with United Airlines, and things have not gone smoothly from a public-relations standpoint. The new pl ... More >>

Mo Hussein: Claims Continental Tossed Him Off Flight and Stranded Him For Speaking a Foreign Language

Continental wanted less Hussein, suit says.​These days, if you're a businessman with a name like Mo Hussein, you're fighting an uphill battle in America. You've probably heard all the jokes you care to. But that doesn't mean you should be kicked off a plane and stranded 1,500 miles from home ... More >>

Come Here and Hang Out

Midtown Lounge has a prestigious location, but none of the usual neighborhood pomp.

What's Closed: Your One-Stop List, Updated Throughout the Day

​The announcements of closings due to the anticipated winter storm are beginning to roll in, the most significant so far being HISD closing all its schools and offices tomorrow. We'll be keeping a list of what's closed and updating it throughout the day, so check back frequently for news. Our ... More >>

Saudi Diplomats Sue Continental for Kicking Them off Plane

Flying to the courthouse​Two Saudi Arabian diplomats have filed suit here against Continental Airlines, saying they were tossed off a flight to Houston simply because they were speaking a foreign language. The action "unnecessarily subjected [them] to humiliation, degradation and embarrassmen ... More >>

Chihuahua Invasion: Brace Yourself For Cuteness, Houston

I, Chihuahua​The Houston SPCA is about to get hit with an airlift of 30 homeless Chihuahuas from Los Angeles. Officials are unsure if the city can handle the sudden influx of cuteness, but apparently have determined it is worth the risk. Chihuahuas are as common in LA as independent movie pro ... More >>

Don't Feel Turbulence

Slim Thug Requests "Sympathy P*ssy" After Flight Diverted

Marco Torres​Guess who was on the Continental Airlines flight from San Jose to Houston that was diverted to Albuquerque, N.M., this morning because of a "disruptive passenger"? That's right, the Boss of All Bosses, Slim Thug. Guess how we know? That's right, Twitter. Apparently the passenge ... More >>

Upcoming Events

Photo by Troy Fields​Have you ever wanted to play chef for a day in the vast kitchen at Brennan's? Your chance to man the stoves (seen above) is coming up, as Alex Brennan Martin has now revived the Creole restaurant's beloved "Chef For A Day" program. Available only to one person per day (and ... More >>

Continental Airlines Puts an End to the Free Meal...in Coach

Felix Sanchez/PR Newswire​Admit it. You knew this day would come. People have been ragging on airline food for almost as long as people have been flying in planes. And now they want you to pay for it. Yes, Continental Airlines is introducing menu-based cuisine to the skies. Beginning Octob ... More >>

Continental Airlines: Last Stand For The Logo Downtown (Updated: People Are Acting On Rumors)

Photo by Richard ConnellyEnjoy it while it lasts, fellas​ Word has gone out to employees at Continental Airlines in downtown Houston: The historic -- iconic, even -- logo in front of the company's (former) headquarters will be gone after today.As a result, people have been getting their pictures t ... More >>

Continental & United: We Lost The Headquarters, But Won The Logo Battle

Losing everything but the logo battle​Houston's Continental Airlines didn't make out too well in its merger with United, at least from the viewpoint of Houston -- the headquarters is gone, jobs are gone, flights will no doubt be more of a hassle.But at least Continental won the fight over what the ... More >>

Cecil Harris Young & Recessioned: At A Job Fair, Trying To Find A People Job

​Today's installment of Young & Recessioned features Cecil Harris, who spent Monday afternoon at a Houston career fair trying to find some work. I've been looking for a job since December, and it's like, there are no jobs. I was working as a dispatcher with an incorporated company for Con ... More >>

Annise Parker Says Fear Not Tthe Continental/United Merger

Continental -- just a memory now​Houston's Continental Airlines is seemingly about to be taken over by the Yankee corporation of United Airlines in a $3 billion merger than will create the world's largest airline.That airline will not be named Continental.Bad news for Houston? Not necessarily so, ... More >>

First, They Came For My Legroom...Then They Came For My Food

​Earlier this month Houston's Continental Airlines announced that it would be improving its customer service for tall people by charging them for legroom.Today the airline announced it would be improving customer service for everybody in coach by no longer giving them free food."Continental Airlin ... More >>

No Tears And No Hearts Breaking, No Remorse: Judge Throws Out Continental's Suit Against Divorced Pilots

​We wrote this summer about Continental Airlines' decision to sue some of its pilots who, the company thought, had undergone bogus divorces in order to get some pension benefits.The pilots were still in love, the airline essentially argued, and therefore shouldn't be getting the early pensions tha ... More >>

Houston Companies Don't Do Too Badly In Survey Of Gay-Friendly Workplaces

​The Human Rights Campaign Foundation has issued its latest rankings of how businesses treat their gay and lesbian employees, and things look a little better than last year.The report gave 305 businesses a top score of 100 this year; that's an increase from last year's 260. Eleven of the top 20 Fo ... More >>

Continental Airlines Manages To Piss Off India

Continental Airlines is having a tough stretch -- its CEO quit, its recently announced earnings are dismaying Wall Street (What do those two things have in common? Hmmm....), its laying off a bunch of workers, and now it's got the parliament of India all in an uproar.Indian politicians are shocked, ... More >>

Larry Kellner Out At Continental Airlines

Larry Kellner, the head of Continental Airlines and a prominent guy in Houston political, social and charitable circles, is gone.The airline announced that he "has decided to return to private equity at year-end after 14 years with Continental, the last five of them as chairman and CEO."Taking his p ... More >>

For Continental's 75th Anniversary: Five Not-So-Great Highlights

Houston's Continental Airlines announced today it's taking delivery of a plane done up in "retro livery," which to the rest of us means an old-school paint job and decoration, to celebrate the 75th anniversary.It's "The Blue Skyway" design from 1947, in case you're interested, and was chosen by curr ... More >>

Continental Airlines: Work Hard, Fly Right -- Unless You're A Kid

For the second time in a week, Houston's Continental Airlines has admitted they sent an unaccompanied minor passenger to the wrong destination.One 10-year-old girl who was trying to get from Boston to Cleveland ended up in Newark. (The only time ending up in Newark is "not so bad" is when you were i ... More >>

Continental Airlines, Like Foreigner, Wants To Know What Love Is

Eminem and Kim Mathers could do it. So could Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. Richard Burton and Liz Taylor elevated it to an art form. Of course, we're talking about revolving-door couples; putting cyanide in each other's wine one minute, dancing to "Endless Love" the next. Rinse, wash, repeat.And as ... More >>

The Former Chron Employees' List, So Far (Updated April 3)

So far we've been limiting our list of laid-off Chron people to names readers might recognize; we've heard from some current and ex-Chronsters that they'd like a master list, since no centralized information is coming anywhere else.With that in mind, here's what we've heard so far. Other names are s ... More >>

You Are Now Free To Bounce Around The Runway

Think you had a bad weekend?It could have been worse: You could have been coming home from Denver on Contintental.As you've no doubt heard, a Continental jet skidded off the runway into a ravine while trying to take off Saturday.Continental has issued an Official Statement: "The care of our passenge ... More >>

End Of The Line For The Edward James Olmos Book Fair

It's official: The Edward James Olmos Book Fair Houston Latino Book and Family Festival is no more. At least not as presented by Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, the organization that originally brought the festival to town. To be honest, there have been riffs with corporate sponsor ... More >>

Guy Sues Continental Airlines over Fuel Surcharges

Aftermath: The Black Keys at Meridian

Airline Food: Now There's An Even Better Reason To Ignore It

Scenes From The Osteen Trial: The Race Card Played

No Panic Yet At Spec's

KTRK, License Plate Frames, City Council, Bun B and Google

KTRK has a "Meet the Rapist!" contest

Breaking News, Sorta

Please Check Your Seatbacks -- and Pilot

Junction Jog

Electoral Gift

A magazine provides a judicial campaign

Air Sic

In cargo holds or plane cabins, critters are taking more than flights of fancy

Quoth the Chron

The Chronicle runs out another inept marketing campaign

Tax Lean

Want a subsidy for your corporate expansion? Local governments are ready with millions in property-tax abatements -- and very little oversight.

Insider

Not Ready for Prime Time. Continental may have taught the mayor how to fly right

District ZZZZs Triumph

Hordes of city candidates block-walk, while voters sleepwalk

Playing the Games

The Insider

Fast Eddie's Getaway

Insider deals. Outrageous perks. Exorbitant salaries. No wonder Eddie Webster's taken a permanent vacation from the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Alison Cook looks back at 1996: Year of the Rat

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