Continental to cut service to 15 cities

Continental says it will drop service to 15 cities and trim flights to about 40 more as of Sept. 3.
The airline, which carries about 4.2 percent of the passengers at Logan said last week that it would cut its schedule by 11 percent in the fourth quarter.
The nine cities on the chopping block domestically include Oakland, Palm Springs, Reno, Sarasota, Tallahassee, Green Bay, Chattanooga, Toledo, and Montgomery, Ala. The six international destinations include: Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia; Cali, Colombia; Cologne, Germany; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Monclova, Mexico; and Santiago, Dominican Republic.
What this means to you is this: Obviously, you won't be able to get to any of the cities listed above on Continental. And you may have fewer options to other places it flies.
This is the reason why: From Logan, the carrier only flies to its hubs in Houston, Newark, and Cleveland, and from there to other cities. That service will continue without change.
The airline is cutting service cumulatively from those three hubs to about 40 cities. So, if you need to get to, say, San Jose, Calif., right now you can get there by flying first into either Newark or Houston, according to the flight map on the carrier's website.
In the future, you will no longer be able to get to San Jose from Newark, but you will still be able to from Houston, so it might be harder to get a flight when you want it. Or it might not. Service to any city will depend on demand. But the carrier is cutting flights overall, so clearly things will tighten up.
All the big carriers are cutting flights. At the very least, I give props to Continental for trying to get as much of it out there as quickly as possible. Still for consumers, things are going to get more expensive and more complicated.