Hi

Has anyone in the last few weeks flown Bon Excel? Or is it called Bonaire Express? (I gather no more DCA?)

If so, how did the flights go and how did you arrange for ticketing?

Thanks Lydia

We have not travelled yet to Bonaire but would love to hear feedback from anyone who has used Bonaire Excel when traveling from Aruba to Bonaire. We booked our tickets with them via their website and had no problem, I just hope there is no problem when we actually go to travel.

My information is based on Boston to Bonaire (AA to Aruba, then BonExpress) March 12, returning Mar. 31. I booked and paid for tickets via the web site. Everything went fine. I particularly liked that departure from Bonaire requires check-in only 30 min. before take-off. For about 5years prior I used Air Jamaica and, overall, had very good luck with them. I did it differently this time because there was an AA sale on non-stop Boston to Aruba flights (the entire Boston-Bonaire RT fare was $540).

Look back to an earlier (Feb?) topic for helpful details on the multi-step Aruba arrival/departure
process.

There are no guarantees. Things are in a state of flux. Best of luck.

I flew BE twice this month and had perfect on time service. I bought my tickets from the airport but there are places to buy in the US. www.bonairepros.com is a ticketing agent for BE.

Ann

Thanks for the info Ann. John aka "Smack" just used BE and again had great service, both ways.

We have tickets to Aruba for October and hope to use BE then.

My wife & I flew Bonaire Express on Sunday, April 10th on their 11:00 am flight from Bonaire to Aruba and everything was PERFECT! The flight departed on-time, arrived on-time, and the baggage was delivered promptly and in tact. The aircraft seats 27 and was less than 50% full.

We were told to arrive 1 hour before departure. I got a little lost driving to the airport and dropped my wife off with the baggage at the check-in counter at 10:15am while I went to return the car rental across the parking lot. The only problem we had was that my wife had to go down to the Reservations Office (down the hall & around the corner) to exchange the electronic tickets for standard tickets. But there never was any question about payment or identification.

Despite all the horror stories about late/cancelled flights and potential bankruptcy that were circulating on this BT at the time we booked and paid for our electronic tickets on-line back in February. Bonaire Express was the only way to get from Bonaire to Aruba. At the same time we also booked with American Airlines for Boston to Bonaire (via San Juan) on Monday April 4th and a direct flight from Aruba back to Boston on Monday April 18th.

Interestingly enough The BE flight was the only one on-time. AA was half an hour late leaving Boston and the San Juan leg was delayed 2 1/2 hours leaving for Bonaire. The return flight from Aruba back to Boston was even worse. We were supposed to have a direct flight departing at 12:54 pm. We ended up leaving 3 1/2 hours late but had to stop over in Miami to pick up a fresh crew. Finally arrived in Boston at 11:15 PM just in time to get the final bus to our home town!

We flew BE from Aruba to Bonaire in February, and generally had no problems -- although the flight times on both ends of our trip changed. We purchased our tickets using an agent and had them in hand when we arrived in Aruba. Things may have changed, but earlier this year you could not purchase BE tickets on-line, you just reserved a seat on the BE website. It was also difficult finding an agent here in the States who could print a paper ticket (we used Carlson Wagonlit -- we were told that any Delta ticketing agent could also print paper tickets). Sounds like e-tickets may now be available.

Transitioning through Aruba is kind of an ordeal, so I recommend at least two hours between arrival and scheduled BE departure. There's alot of U.S. charter traffic to Aruba, and getting through immigration took a good half hour. Once you're admitted to Aruba, you pick up your luggage and go through customs -- easy, fast, no problems. You then exit the airport through the front doors (go outside), and turn right. The BE ticketing kiosk is a short walk to the right, if you don't have your ticket. The ticketing agent was extremely slow; lots of mysterious paper shuffling and stamping. We had a couple of hours to kill (and one of the only food/drink vendors at the airport is right next to the ticketing kiosk), so we watched quite a few frustrated BE passengers dealing with that process. If you have a ticket, you don't have to deal with it. You pick up your boarding pass and check luggage inside the departure area just beyond the ticketing kiosk; they started issuing boarding passes about an hour before scheduled departure. Then you go back outside, turn left, and head towards the gate area, process back through Aruba immigration and security, and on to the gates.

On the way home (if you're returning to the States), the process is even more complicated because you go through U.S. customs and immigration in Aruba, so there are multiple passport and security checks at the Aruba airport on that leg of the trip, including a strange process where you check your luggage, pick it up again when you've passed through U.S. customs, and recheck it.

The BE flights were packed when we flew -- it seemed they had extra passengers in the jumpseats. Standbys at the Aruba airport were out of luck. Mostly local folks traveling between Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire. I strongly recommend that you call BE the day before your departure from Bonaire to check on the flight schedule. We found out when we arrived at the airport in Kralendijk that our flight was scheduled to leave two hours later than planned -- fine for us because we had five hours in Aruba before catching our charter, but friends from Canada had only 45 minutes to catch their flight in Aruba. That would not have worked for any U.S.-bound traveler.

If this process has changed since BE's financial restructuring, or if you can actually purchase e-tickets online, I'd appreciate an update. Charter flights to Aruba can be comparatively inexpensive here in the Midwest, and the Aruba-Bonaire route for us was actually alot shorter (and cheaper) than using AA through San Juan -- a 20-hour, exhausting ordeal. So I'm hoping we can use BE again.

Andrew, as indicated in my message three entries earlier, for my March 2005 BE flights, I paid for my flights on-line (and got an E-confirmation rather than paper tickets). If anyone flying after March 31 has different information, please post it.

We are staying in Aruba a few days before our BE flight to Bonaire. It sounds like most of you have not had any real issues with them, which I am very glad to hear since this is our first time traveling with them and first time to Bonaire. I really appreciate the feedback.

We flew BA from Aruba to Bonaire Saturday night April 2. Plane was packed but left on time went to Curacao and landed in Bonaire on time with all luggage.
Not so good for return flight to Aruba on Saturday April 16 7:00am flight. I confirmed flight on Friday am and they said it was going to leave on time. It left an hour late so we missed our connection. Again the plane was full. Some of the locals showed up for the later flight time. They knew about the delay somehow???
K

We flew Bonairexel from Aruba to Bonaire on April 7 and back on April 12. The travel was on time and there were no hassles at all. I had purchased the tickets online, and had taken the precaution of carrying my AMEX bill with me as proof of payment because of all the posts here about difficult experiences. It was not needed. When we arrived at the airport for our return trip, the agent informed us that we should have called 1 day ahead to confirm our travel (which nobody told us to do) or we could be bumped on an overbooked flight. Fortunately the plane was not full and that was not a problem for us . BUT that would be my advice to anyone traveling on Bonairexel -- call ahead to confirm your seats.

Hi Carole,
Thanks for the great advice. We will be in Aruba for a couple days before flying to Bonaire so we will be sure to call in advance to confirm our seats.
JR

I flew BE from Aruba to Bonaire May 1st. It could not have gone better. The counter opened on time. We called ahead to confirm, so our boarding passes we waiting. We were very overweight, but were not charged at all. The flight left on time. All in all, stop worrying, it went great!

BonairExel cancelled the 11 AM Bon-Cur flight sometime in March but it has remained on booking computers until 2 days ago when our agent called and screamed to them.

We were stranded in Bonaire and had to charter an entire Divi Air plane to get to our connection in Curacao. Still working on getting a refund.

My advice....use Divi from Curacao or AA through SJU. BonaireExpress (FKA BonairExel) is in some kind of crisis.