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Getting to Bonaire: Luggage delays in San Juan
Bonaire Talk: Getting to Bonaire: Archives: Archives 1999-2005: Archives - 2002-10-28 to 2003-04-30: Luggage delays in San Juan
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kate Hickson (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #142) on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 - 12:12 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

This should be under "Getting From Bonaire". After reading that this same thing happened to more than a few BTers who posted here, now I'm curious: 2 days ago, when coming home, we waited over an hour for our luggage at the carousel in San Juan. And the place was like a ghost town! Yet it's beginning to look like this is a regular occurence. Our flight left BON on time, yet we almost missed our connection. We RAN and it was already boarded, about 3 mins before departure. I'm just curious...anyone know what's up with that? I know other people on our flight definitely missed connections. BTW, although I spent 6 glorious weeks on Bonaire, I will not write a trip report because I'd be too embarassed to let you all know I did not do much except read, read, read, relax, dive, and eat. I guess I could review all the books I read! Oh!- it was great to meet everybody at the BT dinners at Gibi's.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kate Hickson (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #143) on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 - 12:13 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Ooops...meant to say it was the AA flight.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Linda Stoltzfus (BonaireTalker - Post #86) on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 - 12:30 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Kate, Thanks for the warning. AA recently changed our flight times and shortened the lay-over in San Juan. Having experienced a rush through Customs last year, I'm not confident of us making our connection. Did you connect to Miami?
But, alas, I'm not fretting as I'll be on my return, dragging my feet, not wishing to return to work anyway! It'll be an adventure. HA!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Chet Wood (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #364) on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 - 1:48 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi Kate,
It was great meeting you at Gibi's, the wedding, the wedding, your house, etc; and hope to see you again next year.
On our trip home through San Juan:
1) We had a 5 hour layover, so of course the luggage was delivered very quickly,
2) My complaint is the change in gate for the Chicago flight- from one end of the building to the other end of the building-
2a) Why do you get a twenty second bus ride from the plane to the terminal (the door we go in was only about a 100 feet from the plane) then walk a mile (at least it seemed like a mile with the 'carry-ons' over my shoulder)- why can't the bus take you to a door closer to baggage claim (which is near the center of the building)?
2b) They listed the departure gate at the same end of the building we had just come in at (that mile hike back)
2c) as we settle down for our now 4 hour wait, the departure gate is change to one of those at the other end of the building (oh well, at least we got extra exercise)
3) On the good side, since we flew on Friday and Monday this year, it seemed only about half of the planes were announcing "over-booked; compared to last year with Saturday flight - all flights were over-booked).
3a) Also, all of our luggage arrived with us this year,
3b) last year only half arrived with us at Bonaire with the standard response of "maybe it'll come on an added flight later or maybe tomorrow, come back and check."
Ah, the joys of flying to paradise.
Chet

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kate Hickson (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #146) on Wednesday, April 2, 2003 - 11:22 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Linda, we were connecting through to Boston. Chet, great to meet you and Jean too! Yes, getting to and from paradise has its challenges, but I guess it helps keep the riff-raff out!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Susan Taft (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #154) on Wednesday, April 2, 2003 - 12:04 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi Kate ... welcome home to spring aka the long winter! It was great to meet you back in Feb at Gibi's and the barbecue. Our connection to Hartford was just under an hour and we started to panic that the luggage would not make it for us to clear customs. We had no lines at immigration and ended up waiting quite awhlile for the luggage so we could clear customs. Of course, I was sure it would come any second and we would have to bolt so we could re-check it and then do the San Juan security thing so I was afraid to even take time to go to the restroom. The lines to do security were long and of course they needed to see our dive gear ... so now we were sure we would miss the connection but we did arrive at the gate just as they began boarding. After years of flying through San Juan returning from many islands I know that the luggage waits are long --- maybe because of the distance from where the planes come in? The same is true when returning to the country through Miami. But as you said ... Bonaire is worth the challenges!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ginny Stokes (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #493) on Wednesday, April 2, 2003 - 3:26 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

We had the same experience returning home on March 1, only we did miss our connection.

The big puzzle to me is why does American Airlines routinely book such tight connecting times thru San Juan? It took their customer service agent something like 20-30 minutes of diligent work to get our group of 4 rebooked onto other flights to get us home to Denver. And another agent spent even more time working on rebooking the other couple in our group to get them home to Ft. Meyers, FL.

After our most recent experience thru SJU, I took a look at tickets we already have for a trip to the BVI in August ... guess what ... same exact amount of time allowed in SJU. Sigh - next time, even on free tickets, I hope I remember to plan a different itinerary!

 


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