I was almost ready to give BE an A minus rating (up from the flunk rating from 3 previous trips)...upon arrival in Aruba on USAir from Clt, we watched the 3:30 BE flight taxiing to the runway...we knew we were in for a 4+ hour layover (aruba airport is not friendly for long layovers). If BE would only change their afternoon flight times to accommodate US travellers.... However, our flight left Aruba on time and we were in Bonaire about 8:30. Of course everybody's luggage arrived except mine (how could they lose it from Aruba to Bonaire)...the plane was nearly empty so there wasn't a weight problem...the good news was that my luggage did arrive on the BE flight from Cur (somebody explain that to me) later on that nite...so far, still an A minus because the bags did make it later

Went to the airport on Monday the 4th to catch the 11:30 flt to aruba and was advised that the flight time had been changed to 12:45 (of course no notification). Our USAir flight was scheduled for 2:50 departure. BE was then late leaving Bonaire. We arrived in Aruba after two AA flights and the Continental flt...the immigration check in was full with people backed up to the stairs (only 3 counters working)...we made it thru finally, grabbed our bags and raced to the USAir counter...finally got checked in (chastised by the agent for not arriving earlier even though we were within the legal time limit)...raced back to Aruba immigration and customs (again) to wait in those lines then on to US Immigration/customs for another 25 min wait, then customs for a baggage search then a long long run to the gate...they were closing the door on the plane as we ran up...yes, we lost our preferred seating...a couple of zantacs, dry tasteless mystery meat sandwich and multiple drinks on the plane made the trip home memorable...April sat next to a baby which cried/screamed the entire 4 hrs

April swears she's had it with BE and the Aruba connection

final rating on BE... B minus overall rating of the Aruba connection (including the long layover, completely uncoordinated security) F minus

experience in Bonaire...priceless

Gregg, tell April I'm with her! I too missed my 3:30 flight and had to wait. And since you are then flying standby, can't check the bags, which means even lugging the darn things into the restroom with you.. guess that's why it's called luggage??

Anyway, on the later flight, we stopped in Curacao before going on to Bonaire. Maybe that's where the baggage situation occurred? I didn't even know they were stopping in CUR, and when I finally got on the plane, and they said it's a short 15 min. flight to Curacao, I nearly had a stroke... lol..

Kelly,

there are two BE flights that leave about 30 min apart on the late flight...one is direct to Bonaire, the other stops in Cur...You have to make sure the BE agent puts you on the direct flight. I was on the direct flight and my bags were booked for the same flight

btw, our reservations were for the late flight..my comment was directed toward BE to implore them to change the departure time of the early flight by one hour to save their CUSTOMERS the 4.5 hr layover...all incoming passengers on AA, Continental and USAir (Philly) would arrive intime to catch that flight if it were delayed one hour

Gregg -- sorry to hear of your problems with BE. In July we flew USAir to Aruba, arriving late because of a delay in Philly. While waiting in Philly we met another couple who was also booked on the same BE flight. When we landed my husband and the other woman stayed for the baggage while her husband and I ran for the BE counter. I had our tickets but he still had to purchase theirs. The woman at the desk could not have been kinder and radioed out to hold the plane for us. Of course our luggage was the last off the USAir flight but everyone at BE was very gracious. During our stay in Bonaire we used BE to go to Curacao on a business trip and had no trouble. When we were returning to Aruba to get our flight home BE informed us when I called to reconfirm that the flight would be delayed by an hour. They were having trouble with one of their planes and we ended up making an unscheduled stop in Curacao to take passengers there. Needless to say we missed our flight from Aruba but the folks at USAir were very gracious about rebooking us and the agent even joked that she could tell we were BE customers since we missed the flight. Worst part of the trip was the long delay in Philly for our last flight as all was delayed because of weather.

So I guess the point of this long story is that I would again use BE. I understand that they have some kinks to work out but the people were always friendly and helpful and it is certainly getting easier to get to Aruba now that AA has cut down on the flights from SJU.

Susan,

I am glad you've had good experience with BE and connections thru Aruba. I truly want BE to succeed since it does open up many more options to get to Bonaire. Unfortunately, my experience with BE and Aruba is 4 bad experiences (out of 4)...BE could make very simple changes to improve things considerably (minor schedule changes to cater to the US market and ticketing).

However, BE is not in a position to improve the operations of the Aruba scene. The addition of a transient lounge would eliminate a lot of the pain of the multiple redundant security checks which take up much time, increase costs yet yielding little security value.

I need a BE flight in January. I went to their website and tried to get reservations but I have not received any response. Is this normal? Any suggestions?

It is not possible to book BE flight on-line yet they said it would be possible soon.

Just after my post I did indeed get a response and was able to complete my reservations via e-mail. You place your request and then they respond with a reservation and confimation number. You pay when you arrive in Aruba or Curacao. Sounds too easy, we hope it works.