We are thinking of going to Grand Cayman from either San Francisco or Sacramento. Continental flies through Houston, with about a 45 minute connection and no later flight to GC that day. The airline insists that is enough time and is a legal connection. Does this sound realistic?

Houston's Intercontinental Airport isn't all that difficult to get around. Here's a map:

http://www.nwa.com/travel/trave/airports/HOU.shtml

Do you have the opportunity to take an earlier flight out of Sacremento or SFO to build in more of a pad in case you are delayed on departure?

jag.....Since the airlines themselves et their own and the interlining minimum connecting times at every airport, I always just figure that they will make it work.They are the professionals.If you have an alternative,then extra time always helps.

Continental has done a lot of work at their hubs to make the connection process run pretty smoothly - trams, carts, moving walkways, etc. While there is always the chance that uncontrollable events (e.g. weather)could throw a monkey wrench into things, in most cases this would work OK. You could also ask that your arriving flight be met by a cart to take you to your connecting gate if it is on the other side of the terminal.

We flew from Cleveland to Las Vegas with a stop in Houston twic on Continental and both times the hour in between was only enough time to go to the bathroom and run from one gate to the other. I wouldn't want to do it again. I'd fly in a day earlier and stay at the airport if it were me.

Yes, either taking a red eye and having five hours at the airport, or spending the night and losing a day in GC are our only other options. Unless we fly American through Miami.

Each to his own taste, but when I'm flying somewhere I just want to get there, not spend time on the ground betweeen flights. That's why I like how CO has redone their hub terminals to make connecting quick and easy.
As to the Miami option, I wouldn't do it because it is an awful plce to connect and I hate American.

Whether you hate American or not, and many do, the airport in Miami is to be avoided at all costs. Year by year it gets worse and worse. Clearing customs/immigration is like the waiting room to hell vs Houston which is slick and EZ.

The connection schedule seems to have been tweaked somewhat, and now there's only 33 minutes between flights! Looking at all the West Coast flights, however, they connect with about 50 minutes and several are in the 30 minute range. Has anyone actually had experience on a missed connection with Continental airline?How well did the airline deal with it?

just flew back and forth from london, connections were 1 hour in houston outbound, newark inbound. both were too short and co does nothing nothing nothing to help you. if i had it to do again, i would do the 5 hour layover and save myself the agony of missing the last flight to london, paying for my own overnight and losing a day of the trip (including $300 a night apartment in london) and having a co supervisor chew me out and roll her eyes at me and call me a liar (and it was all their fault, not mine and not the weather). the return through newark was a near disaster as co took 35 minutes of our on ground time to get our luggage to us and we still had to go through customs and then recheck bags, then go back through security and run 1/2 mile and make the flight with 5 minutes. also don't use co express as part of an international connection if you can help it. i found co unhelpful and unprofessional. i am a former travel agent and airline employee, i am sure that their short connection times should be investigated and as soon as my jetlag disappears i am going to see that it happens.

We frequently fly to San Diego through Houston with CO and a short connection time. When our first leg is late, they have had people at the gate to assist us with our connection. The only time we missed it, so far, was when Houston was shut down by storms and our plane ran out of fuel (!) and had to stop at another airport to refuel. When we finally got into Houston it was a madhouse and our next flight had already left; they gave us good seats on the next flight. We are so accustomed to the short connection time now that we no longer worry about it, and we do always stop in the bathrooms.

I never ever accept a connecting time anywhere within the US of less than 1 hr., and my goal is always 90 in.- 2 hrs. at a minimum (depending on how many options I'd have it the connection were missed -- the fewer flights to my final destination after mine, the more margin of connecting leeway I want). Any airline that routinely claims connection times under 1 hr. is needlessly misleading its passengers. No matter how easy Houston is to get around, there are so many factors that can mess up a connection that I'd never accept a 33 min. connection -- agree that Continental needs to be investigated for setting up such an impossible standard of connection time.

After I sold my business I was a Marketing Rep for Continental.

Let's just say I do not fly Continental.

The international arrival area @ IAH is a nightmare in late afternoon, but earlier in the day it is fairly efficient.
M