For what it's worth, here is our recent DCA experience.

7/02-purchased two DCA rt mia-bon high season tickets(xmas thru new years)for $1100.00, for comparison, AA at that time was $1300 and AJ(which I won't fly) was about a grand.

8/02 read "Undercurrent" issue on Tobago, decided to cut Bon trip in half and give Tobago a whorl(a very good choice)

8/02 purchased two DCA tickets mia-cur-pos(port of spain)//pos-cur-bon/bon-cur-mia for (get this)
$970, got the refund for the first tickets in about 3 weeks.

Performance:

12/22/02 the mia-cur flight @10am was in the air @5pm, so-kind mia dca staff told us we were spending the night in cur. I must have really upset them by asking what the problem was.(answer:it's the holidays) when in Cur,same ever so friendly DCA staff managed a 1am flight to POS. luggage arrived with us. we managed to catch a flight on tobago express and went on to a week of excellent diving.

12/30/02 the 7am pos-cur flight was in the air at 5pm,(that holiday thing again!) we managed a connection on the last DCA dash 8 flight from cur-bon. arrived bon 10pm instead 11am,(with luggage) hey just 13 hours late or two or three missed dives, what; about a 10% loss in TBT over a week? no big deal, I mean it's just vacation time.

1/6/03 8:50am bon-cur in the air at 08:40am(go figger) 10am cur-mia in the air @ 10:30am.
arrive mia with luggage.

I do a lot of travel, in a lot of third world settings. As to DCA, a true third world airline with a capital T, I can say two positive things, they didn't kill us, they didn't loose our luggage. If your expectations are a bit higher than this, you may want to consider some other third world airline which serves Bon.

ROFL!

That's why I refuse to fly DCA...

Jake

We call it DCA... Don't Count on Arrival!

The airline calls it DCA: Don't Care when we Arrive.

Damn Curacao Airline :-)

you mean "darn" don't you Jake?

i do recall the non-stop cell phone use on an ALM hop from curacao to bonaire...just don't get that with AA...



all luggage missing....don't count on arrival...what a hoot

Doesn't Come Always
Don't Carry All
Driving Customers Abroad
Do Curacao Abnormally
Dirt Cheap Alternative

Marc - are you finally on Bonaire?

BTW, Linda was forced to use DCA today after American Eagle was a no show this morning (it didn't make it last night to Bonaire). DCA was actually on time and that let Linda (and little Bas) catch the AA connection to Miami and onward to the frosty north (hopefully - she's presently about an hour from touchdown in MIA).

Jake

Not yet Jake, 9 more days of Dutch frost to endure... We delivered our goods to the shipping co yesterday, that will arrive somewhere in the first week of February. Meanwhile we're still here in a half-empty house, trying to use/eat/drink up most of the supplies we still have before departure

And cold it is, Jake! Blast from Canada just gripped this whole section of the Country...way windy and cold. They won't mind tho...quite a switch from what they are "used" to, eh? Carole

Linda's timing is impeccable -- we're having the coldest weekend of the winter this weekend! Daytime highs in the mid twenties, 10-30mph winds today...

Hope she made it after all the "fun" with the flights...

Faith

We are scheduled to fly into Curacao in April. I need to get to Bonaire from there, which airline is best bet for being on time? Anybody tried the divi island shuttle plane?
JoEllyn

I have flown Divi Air. No problems aside from my severe claustriphobia (I sat near a window and it helped). It's 90.00 USD one way.

If you use Air Jamaica and cannot get in to Bonaire but can get into CUR, you still can leave out of Bonaire. I had several clients do this when they came for the windsurf event. Otherwise avoid CUR with DCA. Mercy had a horrid layover.

On a positive note, on my return from CUR Divi cancelled all flights due to mechanical problems. They put me on DCA and I got home (BON) fine!!

Annie

Annie,
thanks for info. Divi did email, email says 85 RT taxes included. It is a 9 seater, makes me nervous, but not sure of other options.

Would you fly them again, or any ideas of how to get there without divi or DCA?

JoEllyn

JoEllyn, be brave..if I can fly that little plane (short 15 min. hop over to CUR) ANYONE can. I almost had an anxiety attack but I stuck my face in the stream of air coming from vent and closed my eyes until the plane reached it's cruising altitude.

You can take Chogogo but it's 2 hours each way, rough on the way back and has limited service.

Divi to me, is the way to go..short and well easy!

Divi Divi is great. I've flown it a couple of times, and the customer service, smoothness of the flight (it's a bit loud, but quite comfortable), and speed between airports is excellent.

Jake

Hey, in the small planes you know you are flying not just sitting somewhere that could still be the airport. And usually you can watch out the front and see it all as it happens. More fun that way! :–)

OK, thanks for all the advice, we will take the divi flight, I want to get there as quick as possible to start enjoying Bonaire. trip only 9 days this time, so very limited and do not want to spend it all in the airports. THANKS

JoEllyn

Help! Plese advise info regarding Divi Divi air...is this an airline? How do you get in touch for reservations, flight times, tickets?

Jan

http://www.baibini.com/

Getting caught up, or trying to on postings. We just booked DCA from Miami-Bonaire direct for end of April. From these postings I'm a bit worried, but the choices from the states are slim. AJ doesn't seem to be a good choice and 13 hrs from Tampa to Bonaire via AA just doesn't excite me. Oh well just one more thing to look forward to!

Linda and I are hoping that for Easter week, when we head to Orlando with the kids, that BonairExel is already in operation so we can get direct (daily!) service from Bonaire to Miami, and connect from there by plane or car on the cheap (and bypassing DCA entirely). They claim they will be operational by the end of March, so here's hoping...

Jake

Flying in the face of popular opinion, I'm here to report that DCA gave us excellent service on our trip 3/8-22/03. Due to weather in Minneapolis we missed the connection in Miami and had to overnight at the MIA Hotel. No problem -- it has a nice outdoor pool for the kids and a great restaurant for dinner. On Sunday the flight was full, but somehow DCA squeezed in our group of 2 kids, mom, and grandma, and we arrived in Bonaire, with luggage, at the scheduled time.
The trip home was even better -- we left Bonaire 20 minutes early, left Curacao 10 minutes early, and made all connections. No complaints from us!