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Getting to Bonaire: Alert - AAA bookings for AE thru SJU are being changed!
Bonaire Talk: Getting to Bonaire: Archives: Archives 1999-2005: Archives - 2004-08-16 to 2004-12-31: Alert - AAA bookings for AE thru SJU are being changed!
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Joe Pacific (BonaireTalker - Post #82) on Monday, August 30, 2004 - 9:25 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I booked my tickets through AAA travel agency. They are just now finding out about the first changes that AE made to the BON-SJU flights (Fridays instead of Saturdays). As I type, AAA is choking on my current reservations which are for BON-SJU on a Saturday (which is correct) and are actively trying to find a way to fly me out on Friday instead!!! (I have to wait 'til tomorrow when they open to chastise them for messing with my carefully fixed plans). Anyway, if anybody else out there booked travel through AAA and is flying through San Juan, be aware that AAA agents apparently have no clue about the return of Saturday service to SJU.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Linda Stoltzfus (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #295) on Monday, August 30, 2004 - 11:55 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

This just doesn't make sense to me since we all can go to aa.com and see for ourselves the "current" scheduling. Doesn't apollo and sabre (travel agent systems) catch the updates?

Good Luck, Joe....hope it all works out for you.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Joe Pacific (BonaireTalker - Post #83) on Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - 10:52 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I called AAA Travel and got it taken care of. This is the last time I ever use a "middle-man" for airline ticket purchase. It is not worth the $50 cost savings to have our itinerary in the hands of inept third parties. I have had a similar experience with Orbitz where they made last minute cancellations and reinstatements of flights, lost our seat assignments, then blamed the airline. (Aside - a word of advise to Orbitz users: Expect the unexpected!)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Linda Stoltzfus (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #296) on Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - 11:15 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

AND Orbitz no longer lists all hotels available. This just happened a few weeks ago. Orbitz will now only list hotels that sell rooms directly to them at deeply discounted rates and they can then mark up and receive a significant profit. Orbitz will now control the rates. The owner of the property now receives less for his time and investment while Orbitz increases their profit. Completely unfair. Customers need to know that they are feeding the large corporation and not the property they have chosen. Buyer beware!! :-(

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Belinda Z (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #182) on Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - 11:37 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Joe,

I had a similar experience booking AA through Travelocity - since that time I have only booked air reservations directly through the airlines web site. Live and learn!

I'm glad you got your situation taken care of.

Belinda

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Meredith Lynch (BonaireTalker - Post #76) on Friday, September 3, 2004 - 7:10 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

From what I understood, it was American Airlines itself making those changes, not the travel agency as we had the same problem and dealt with American directly.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Belinda Z (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #183) on Friday, September 3, 2004 - 9:02 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Meredith,

I don't think the issue was the changes AA made but the fact that AAA didn't know that AA had reinstated Saturday flights and was trying to move Joe's Saturday flight to Friday when it was totally unnecessary.

"They are just now finding out about the first changes that AE made to the BON-SJU flights (Fridays instead of Saturdays). As I type, AAA is choking on my current reservations which are for BON-SJU on a Saturday (which is correct) and are actively trying to find a way to fly me out on Friday instead!!! "

Belinda

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Joe Pacific (BonaireTalker - Post #84) on Friday, September 3, 2004 - 9:55 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Meredith,

Your post is correct. They also scrambled my seat assignments to boot in the process. Oh well. Buyer beware. All fixed now through no small effort.

-Joe

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Joe Pacific (BonaireTalker - Post #85) on Friday, September 3, 2004 - 9:57 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Sorry, it was Belinda Z's statement that was correct, not Meredith's. Friday brain mush.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Stan Eker (BonaireTalker - Post #19) on Sunday, September 26, 2004 - 2:57 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

And it's not just the Saturday flights that got messed with.

I'd booked in July for 3 Nov MIA > BON, returning 16 Nov BON > MIA. I just checked my reservations, and AA has me apparently swimming *from* Bonaire, now. I'm there to dive, but that's one heck of a long snorkel run

Looks like they cancelled the Tuesday flights and moved 'em to Wednesdays, without so much as a "by the way, you're out of luck" e-mail or letter. Thanks a lot, AA

It's gonna cost me > $300USD to change everything around, figuring the $100 to AWA MIA to PHX fee and the extra day on Bonaire, plus changes to the overnight hotel in Miami. I could use the extra day on Bonaire , but I'd have appreciated a warning when they cancelled my Tuesday return flight. This was all booked direct through the respective airlines.

Right now with 5 weeks to go, I'm praying that they don't do any more drastic changes to the schedules. AWA is pretty reliable, but it looks like AA and AJ enjoy mucking about with basic scheduling.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mark Baker (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #1) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 2:11 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

For what it's worth, AA canceled my 17 OCT flight from SJU on Aug 9th and I just now heard about it from a friend - not from AA. When I called them, the AA representative swore up and down that AA has NEVER flown directly from SJU to BON. She was pretty quiet after reviewing my itinerary. They did put me on a flight to CUR and I had to purchase the CUR-BON leg on my own - which AA would then credit me (in the form of an AA voucher).

I got a ticket on Bonaire Excel - are they pretty good/reliable??? Any of the same luggage problems that have plagued other ABC island carriers (ALM?)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Susan Taft (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #396) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 6:17 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

We used Bonairexel this summer from Aruba to Bonaire round trip and Bonaire to Curacao for a short 3 day trip during our time in Bonaire. We were very pleased with the people and the service. There was no trouble with lost luggage but make sure you know their regulations: one carryon only and only one check thru not weighing more than 44lbs. If you contact them that you are a diver you can get them to make a note on your reservation that you are a diver and then you are allowed 66 pounds. This summer they were having trouble keeping all their planes in the air because of mechanical issues so some flights were delayed or cancelled so make sure you have a long enough layover in Curacao.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tim Jordan (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #8) on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 - 9:10 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Would like to add my two cents worth too> American Airlines and their American Eagle has screwed us royal too. Seems that our reservations for the flight from San Juan to Bonaire (made 5 months ago)for Dec 27th is no more as AA has changed the schedule/route/pilot/tires/coffee filter or what ever and never bothered to tell us, nor did they even bother to switch us to a day when they were going to make this run--and Orbitz just now tells us the flight is no more and there are no other seats available anywhere near Dec 27th for the 5 of us. Does not make a great lot of sense to all of us, especially when the flight we had scheduled was sold out too. AA and Orbitz did keep our reservations to San Juan but now no means of getting to our hotel or more importantly our diving in Bonaire. My question to all of you out there and especially American AirLines and Orbitz is this, what does the word "RESERVATION" mean?? As for our tickets on American Airlines to San Juan--they can stick them where the sun doesn't shine. That is just as soon as we get our money back. Hope others out there are not getting shafted as we have.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Johnson (BonaireTalker - Post #61) on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 - 9:53 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Tim:

Sorry to hear about your troubles -- I was very fortunate to read this thread back in August. That gave me time to rebook my flights (late Sept and early Oct.) without any problems. BTW, the flight is now departing SJU on Tues/Fri/Sat and returns Weds/Thurs/Fri (and remains that in AA's most recent schedule).

In theory, it was up to Orbitz to notify you of the schedule change. That said, AA was supposed to notify me directly and I found out from this board so...

Here is my advice:
1) Call AA and beg to get on another flight that works to Bonaire.
2) Fly into Curacao using either AE (flies Mon/Weds/Thurs/Sun from SJU) or better yet AA (flies 7 days a week from MIA). You could then grab a Divi Divi (daylight hours but very reliable) or Bonaire Excel flight.
3) Fly into Aruba (lots of flights into there) and do Excel over to Bonaire.

Dave

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Johnson (BonaireTalker - Post #62) on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 - 10:07 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Generally speaking, a reservation does not mean much. A ticket does mean something -- they agree to fly you from point A to point B for the price of the ticket.

That is:
a) unless the schedule changes in which case they will typically offer a refund and/or another flight date;
b) unless the flight is overbooked in which case you are entitled to certain compensation;
c) unless the delays are caused by weather in which case they typically agree to try and get you a future flight and that is about it.

The conditions of carriage is useful to know http://www.aa.com/content/customerService/customerCommitment/conditionsOfCarriage.jhtml -- although I don't know that it applies from SJU to BON.

 


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