I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I am sitting here with a memo from Air Jamaica released on May 12 that it is suspending service to Bonaire in two phases. Phase one is flt # 66/67 on Wed., Thurs., and Sun. as of June 27, 2005. The second phase is all remaining service will stop as of Aug. 28, 2005.

Good Luck to all!

OMG, this is not good news at all Nadine.....I would have to guess that these might be their flights that have not been fully booked on a regular basis??? Just a thought.

This leaves the Saturday flights intact???

I have to go check my other email addresses to see if there is anything there from AJ....we are flying on Saturdays in each direction, however, and it is before those dates.

I wonder if this is "permanent"???

Thanks for letting us know....not good news, but something we all have to know about none the less.

PS Were with your hubby two years ago when AJ "messed" up and he was trying to get to Bonaire for two or three days. (He was across the aisle from us) He was a sweetheart and was very helpful to us with the hotel and other arrangements. He had been thru it all before...you could tell! Carole

Hi Carol...

Yes we remember you. I've just spent the last hour trying to see how we can get there from here (Baltimore) and the only way is to go to San Juan the night before, have a nice morning and then catch the flt to Bonaire. We are booked on AJ in July. We just used the freebee tkts from AJ - so I lucked out there!

I just checked with AJ on our Sat May 28/June 11 flights and it appears to be fine. She didn't really know much about the suspension of the flights at all....or didn't want to discuss it with me, at least.

I really liked AJ...nice roomy planes and easy to get to Bonaire for us, too....Newark to MB and into Bonaire. Not little puddle jumpers...just hate those little planes!

We might have to take a reprieve from going to Bonaire after this trip...so sad. Maybe AJ will be up and running again by then...one can only hope so.

Thanks for the info, Nadine and have a great trip in July!

Good luck everyone! Carole

PS Maybe KLM will wake up and smell the coffee and after the big boy lands in Bonaire from Holland, just head towards Curacao and pick up some folks and bring them over to Bonaire....might work??? Have to find an "easy" ride to Bonaire from the States!

(Message edited by Carole on May 13, 2005)

There's a copy of the AJ press release announcing the cancellation in this thread:

http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/29/225183.html

American Eagle has also apparently decided to add 2 flights a week starting July 2nd until at least Sept. 5th (they will be flying daily during that time).

See http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/29/225235.html

Jake

(Message edited by jake on May 13, 2005)

Thanks, Jake...boy, I'm going to go thru Bonaire withdrawal if we can't get there at least once per year! I'm hoping something good will happen out of this mess. See you soon! Carole

Carole and Nadine,

Hello ladies (ok you to Jake! LOL) We have our tickets (one way, yipee) leaving 21st May on AJ. Anyway, since I know you both have access Spirit Air flies out of Atlantic City to San Juan daily. The average fare is about $275-300 r/t. I just checked AE and the average trip to Bonaire from San Juan is $300.00 R/T Could be a viable alternative. Could be a possible alternative route. Hugs and enjoy!

Liz

Thanks Jake and Liz..will look further into that. All the more reason to stay in Bonaire! Liz, you're getting out of here just in time!

Wanted to know if anyone out there has ever booked the Wednesday MBJ to BON flight and not made it to MBJ on time. I don't think Air Jamaica goes to Bonaire on Thursdays, so I'm curious as to how long I would have to stay in Jamaica if I were to miss the flight to BON.

We are flying with them just a few weeks prior to the service reduction date.

Thanks for the tips, Liz! I'll have to check into that further. See you soon on Bonaire! It must feel great to be able to buy a one way ticket and still be "alive" on the other end to enjoy living on Bonaire! I know you and Ed will wonderfully on Bonaire....you lucky dogs! Carole

(Sometimes a one way ticket is not an option we want to face, if you know what I mean, LOL.) cb

John, yes we have taken the Wed flight and they will do one of two things: hold the plane, therefore making the turn around back to MoBay late and people miss the connection home. No big deal for AJ as they have flights to the states daily. The other thing we have had happen is they put you up then send you on the Curacao flight the next day - and you pray real hard that BE (or whoever the airline of the moment) is flying.

Nadine, Thanks for the info. So have you actually been diverted to Curacao? Does Air Jamaica coordinate and pay for the BE connector or do they leave it up to the passengers?

Thanks

Yes we have, and yes they co-ordinated it and paid...now that has been under the old AJ - who knows now. However, last month we had a little problem and they were very helpful in resolving it.

Thanks again, Nadine. I intend to post an entire report upon my return, although I don't think it will be of much use to anyone since AJ will soon be history as far as us 'Talkers are concerned.

John

I just got off the phone with Air Jamaica - as we too have tickets for Bonaire in July(BWI/BON 7/6 and 7/24.) The reservationist said that the newest information is Air Jamaica services will be temporarily suspended as of August 27, 2005; they have pushed out the window. She also said that suspension was "temporary" and service may well continue. I gave her our confirmation numbers as we are on flight numbers 66 and 67 - in on 7/6 and out of 7/24. She said "service on those days was still running and that the only change that we will see is a slip in the departure time of approximately 10 minutes."

Last year we had an AJ disaster when we attempted to fly out of Philly, on a Wed, with no flight on Thurs and on the opening day of Red Stripe fest. There was a mechanical delay of several hours. AJ said they would put us up in MoBay only to realize there were NO ROOMS!! due to fest. We wound up driving back to BWI, dumping half of our gear, changing into dufflebags to go on the puddle jumpers available, flying through Aruba - but we made it(runnning full throttle through the airport-not my usual calm, cool well-planned start to a vacation!) That was strike one.... Hope this does not turn into strike two... We have enjoyed travel for 6 years of annual visits to Bonaire on AJ - hope they don't mess up a good thing for us divers! I love their liberal luggage allowance.

Strike two - I called back to speak to another service representative after visiting a few more Bonaire threads - and - you guessed it - FLIGHTS cancelled. Maybe strike two was being given miss-information. I called back in and the next representative did tell me "Service cancelled!" Just GREAT - They are offering Sat-Sat service changes...gee swell. Looks like this is going to be an interesting week! - Just when I thought my summer vacation issues were finalized - I never heard the fat lady sing - I should have known something was missing!

WOW,,,horrible news. I've always flown from Miami to Bonaire via Air Jamaica and I really enjoyed their service.
I've never flown on a small plane such as that of American Eagle. I must admit that it scares me a little, but I guess that if I want to get to Bonaire from now on, I'll have no other choice.
I feel badly for those of you who are holding AJ tickets. I hope it all works out. Robyn

This Air Jamaica thing is so devastating... but OK - I'm semi-over this re-booking shock and learning to deal with it! After a bit of a run around (it is ALL in the "WHO" of who you get for a customer service rep at AJ) I am rebooked with paper tickets on AA which are being FedExed to me later today. I guess I am going to spend more reading time on the BonaireTalk thread - "What to do in San Juan for 7 hours!" - especially with kids! I always try to find a lighter happier note - so here is mine...at least I will get AA frequent flier miles which I have a bunch of and have not used yet....In all our AJ flights I have never quite made the 7th Heaven free flight list - always a wee bit short or something just expired.
AND...I think AA has the same kind of luggage policies as AJ so I can still bring things for "the kids" and "our friends and family." The rep I spoke to said that all the divers she has been dealing with over the past few days have been very pleasant and understanding and they have all urged AJ to reopen full service to Bonaire ASAP. Maybe they will hear us...or maybe they will hear us better at US Air (Thanks for the suggestion to write to them - I did that last night!)

Since AJ will no longer be servicing Bonaire, does anyone think this will have a major impact on the Bonaire economy? I have been checking out flights from NYC to Bonaire, and the price is very steep. $1200 on orbitz.com and that was for economy. Not only is the price high, but many of the flights put you in a position of staying over in Curacao for the night. So now we add in the added expense of a hotel, meals, and taxi. Not to mention lugging the luggage. We're hoping that some airline picks up the slack. Even if they flew 3x per week.

I am headed to Bonaire on Sunday, July 3rd on the ATL AJ flight. But instead of MB/Bonaire, its MB, CUR, a 5 hr. layover, then BON at 9 or 10 Sun. night. The good news is: I won't have to wait as long to dive, the bad news is: What am I(and the 25 or so others from my LDS)going to do for 5 hrs. in CUR? It was so much easier last year.

I too had a flight booked on AJ to go to Bonaire on Wednesday August 3. They did not even call or email me to tell me it was cancelled!? My brother had the same flight (Mon Bay >Bonaire) through Expedia and they emailed him.
Anyway, let me just preface this with the fact that this is my first time dealing with Air Jamaica so sorry if this is long. So get this, my brother cancels his ticket through expedia. I booked mine directly through AJ and contacted them on the phone. After sitting on hold for at least 20 minutes, getting disconnected once and calling back, they told me that I had 2 options, a)Full Refund or b)they could find me a flight on "another carrier" for either Aug 2 or Aug 4. This poses a major problem for me as I am coming from NYC and connecting and my friend is coming from San Fran and doing the same. I also have my hotel booked in Bonaire. They offer a hotel room in Mon Bay for Aug 3 if I would like. I opt to see if they can get me to Bonaire on Aug 2...i hold for another 30...she went ahead and booked me on flights to Bonaire on Aug 2. I am watching my reservation on the computer change in front of me. I say, wait a minute, explain my situation and ask her if she can check to see if there are more seats available for Mon Bay to Bonaire. I hold for a quick 10 minutes this time. Latoya, gets back on the line and says, yes she has booked another seat on that flight and asks for a mailing address to send that ticket to. I hesitantly ask her how much the charge is for the extra seat and she says that there will be no charge. In utter disbelief, I give her my address for both tickets, thank her for her help and then I hung up the phone. I now have a 4 hour layover in Curacao, but it could be worse. I also will be cutting it extremely close on my return as I will be going Bon > Curacao > Kingston > Mon Bay > NYC and I have 1:15 minutes between arriving in Mon Bay flight and my departure for NYC. Anyone got odds on me making that flight. I might also add that the Mon Bay to Curacao and Bonaire are all on Carib Dutch Express, which doesn't make me feel to positive. Which airline is worse?