Have just been dumped in Aruba instead of Bonaire by American for our Dec vacation. We are hoping to take BonairExel over to Bonaire. What are their luggage restrictions? Weight limits? How many bags? Carry on? I wonder if you can check your bags with American all the way through? They couldn't ticket us and so far I haven't had any luck getting though to anyone. Thanks.

Why on earth can't they get you to Bonaire? I'd raise the roof, myself, if my relentless niceness failed.

We were flying on a Wednesday and they said they don't fly into Bonaire on Wednesday anymore!!!! Or Tuesday, or Thursday!!!! At least not in December.

Constance,

If you have a choice, suggest you try to have AA send you to Curacao...the connections are more frequent from Cur than Aruba...unless of course your layover in Aruba is short. You can arrive in Cur but return from Aruba on AA. Leaving from Aruba is great because you go thru customs in Aruba instead of the U.S. port of entry

Gregg -

We have never returned to the States from Bonaire via Aruba.

Please let me be sure I understand your post: is it correct that U.S. citizens returning to the U.S. from/via Aruba go through U.S. Customs y Immigration in Aruba? So, U.S. citizens would not have to go through customs in San Juan, Miami, or wherever their first land on U.S. soil?

Thank you for the clarification.

Charles Poteet
Dallas

Back to the original question; BonairExcel luggage limits?????
Since our American Eagle flight to San Juan has been cancelled for Friday (12 March), we also may need to re-route thru Curacao or Aruba; will we be able to carry our normally close-to-the-AA-limit luggage? This is now three years in a row AA/AE has eliminated flights we were already ticketed for. We would consider AJ, except we would need to add a night near O'Hare to catch their early morning departure.

Charles,

Your understanding is correct. The U.S. has set up a customs entry point in Aruba. Once you pass thru customs in Aruba, you are in "the USA" and do not have to retrieve luggage and go thru customs anywhere in SJU or the mainland. This is true for U.S. based airlines. I am not sure how they treat AE. For me, this is one of the significant advantages...customs in MIA/ATL yuck!! The U.S. does the same thing in Canada (Montreal) and Bahamas (Nassau).

I'd skip SJU completely if you can get a flight to Aruba direct from DFW.

Gregg -

Thank you for the prompt and informative reply.

We have experienced the U.S. Customs at various Canadian airports, so we are familiar with the procedure. Not until your posting did we realize the same procedure was in Aruba.

For those using a BON-ARU-U.S. destination routing you do leave the door open a little regarding how non-U.S.-based air carriers might be treated.

Surely if you are a U.S. citizen in-transit home, even though you might have arrived in Aruba from Bonaire on AE, BonaireExel or Divi, you would still go through U.S. Customs in Aruba.

Your suggestion of non-stop DFW-ARU is a good one, if it exists. We currently have a DFW-Caracas non-stop which would be great, except there is no convenient nor timely way to get on to Bonaire...yet. (We're hoping BonaireExel picks up the Caracas-Bonaire route.)

Thanks again for adding a bit of travel intelligence that may be more important to we who use the AE SJU-BON routing than we ever anticipated.

Charles Poteet
Dallas

Charles,

If you determine that you will go thru customs in Aruba for trips to SJU, please post that info here. I suspect that the same rule will apply since SJU is a port of entry for the US. This was one of the reasons I've followed the AUA => BON routing so closely with BE and others. BTW, I have taken the flights and will be taking them again on Fri this week. You could also do DFW-MIA-CUR and return AUA-MIA-DFW...to avoid MIA customs pig pen

Constance,

Call American back on Monday. When American dropped three days of flights to Bonaire each week starting January 8th, some moron mis-entered the information into American's computers as November 1st. Yesterday American agents started calling folks to reroute them if they had November or December flights to Bonaire based on this incorrect information. That has now stopped, but the American computers won't get updated (fixed) until Sunday. So call on Monday and ask to have your original itinerary reinstated because American Eagle is still definitely flying from San Juan to Bonaire daily in December. Feel free to point them to this message - I have it from the American Airlines rep who works with the New York office of Tourism Corporation Bonaire.

And for the rest of you who are already ticketed on American to Bonaire after January 8th on the affected dates, raise holy hell with American to get you to Bonaire and not just Aruba or Curacao - it's their obligation to make it happen. However, you may have better options once BonairExel get's in-line agreements in place with more than just KLM (not sure when that will happen).

Jake

Jake,

Why is AA/AE dropping the Tu/We/Th flights to Bonaire? Is there not enough business for them to keep the flights? Bad news if this is true, although I will be doing the open jaws trip into Curacao and out of Aruba with BE flights to Bonaire and Aruba. Great ticket price - even with the BE flights added on!!!

Vicki,

AE is allegedly dropping those flights for economic reasons. See the other thread on this topic for more details...

Rumor has it that they are also paring back the number of ATR-72s (the type of plane used to fly from SJU to BON). Aruba and Curacao have also had flight schedule reductions announced, incidentally.

Jake

I wonder if direct charter flights from the US are a possibility now with the new airport facilities.

I feel like we are back to square one again with the lack of airlift choice. I understand AJ has hiked up prices drastically after Feb 8th! Hmmmmm...is that a response to AE dropping flights?

Seb,

Charter flights have always been an option with Bonaire. There was one from the midwest this past summer, and up to a few years ago, both Canada 3000 (a Toronto-originating charter) and GWV (Boston originating) flew here during high season.

The key is to find enough people willing to put down some money to make a charter viable on some sort of regular basis...

Jake

Bonaire Reporter and Extra Bonaire say that AA cut back service between San Juan and Bonaire soon after U.S. Customs began insisting that passengers in transit through San Juan, coming from countries other than the U.S., must apply for a U.S. visa. Given the extra cost and trouble, travelers from Europe found better service on KLM and other carriers. A great majority of travelers to and from the U.S. fly Friday through Monday. AJ will have the only weekday direct service between U.S. and Bonaire.