I am booking a package deal to Bonaire end of June or beginning of July through Bonaire Pros they are recommending AJ from Atlanta to Bonaire - Has anyone had a GOOD experience in the last few months??? Should I look for another carrier?? Or give up my trip to Bonaire

read the posts from the last several weeks re AJ

I wouldn't even consider AJ....try a different carrier... in fact, I'd be suspicious if a travel company even offered the deal... Call Larry at www.worlddive.com .... Larry will give you the best deal available and won't put you on AJ

Andy at Bonairepros is a reliable guy who has bent over backwards to rebook my flight to Bonaire in October when AJ bailed out. I am now on AA on the way down with BonaireExcel from Aruba and on the way back from Curacao to MBJ on AJ--confusing, but should be allright. He has also been able to get the connections on BonaireExcel for me.
This way, I get to see all three of the ABC islands!

Being on AJ is a crap shoot right now but if it were AJ or not at all, what do you have to loose??

If you are flying in and out on a saturday you might have a shot, however I would stay home before I tried AJ.

i would trust andy,he has never let us down.

you can trust Andy (?) but can you trust AJ? I can't believe any travel agent would be recommending AJ these days...other dive brokers are working hard to transfer their clients from AJ to other carriers

There's absolutely no way we would risk using Air Jamaica.

hi folks -- and thanks for the kind words from the ones that have worked with me.

for the record ... we did not exactly "recommend" air jamaica ... we offered a fare for janet's dates from atlanta on air jamaica, as this was the only reasonable option we found. are there other options? sure - we list them on www.bonairepros.com and encourage people to shop and provide links to do such. do we offer other options besides air jamaica? sure do. does air jamaica have problems? yep - as most everyone is aware of -- although message boards are not exactly a statistically reliable indicator of historical performance or on-time percentage. wish we had that data! does air jamaica still get people to bonaire on saturday flights (which has become the only option they are operating)? indeed, although i nor anyone else knows if you will have a serious problem or not on your day of travel. but based on the last several months it can be hit or miss for sure.

consider this ... if air jamaica changes their plan and continues service on saturdays to bonaire, and people stand to save considerable time and money flying on them vs. other options, would you be willing to bet whether or not people will continue to use them? i bet some would and some would not -- depending on their past experience. it could happen. would we offer air jamaica as an alternative in the future? for sure. is that any assurance they will solve their problems and operate with the level of service we came to expect from the many years they have flown to bonaire. nope. i, like everyone, hope they get their ducks in a row. we don't need another ALM to bonaire. and people flew them for many years after it was obvious they would never get it together. and believe it or not, there are people out there that NEVER had a problem on ALM flying them for MANY years!

same with air jamaica. we should all be so lucky.

now, would we continue to "offer" air jamaica as an option should they develop a longer history of poor performance and service. no - just as we washed our hands of ALM, several years before their demise, even when others were still offering them.

should i be "mad as hell" at air jamaica for all the hours they have put me through rebooking passengers, etc. for the flights they have cancelled. yep -- probably so. but if you have been in the business of booking passengers to bonaire as long as i have, you get some perspective on the recurring airline boondoggle that has become a part of the history of flying to bonaire. comes with the territory.

we are VERY hopeful for the alternatives that are developing and VERY excited about having alternatives to offer clients as a way to get to
bonaire. but at the moment, with people looking to travel in the next 60 days or so, the options and availability are limited. and unfortunately, we are in a period of major financial instability in the airline industry that tends to translate to "crap-shoot" every time you board a flight in terms of any facet of the experience -- from customer service to on-time performance, baggage, mechanical, etc.

anyway, enough of my jabber. final thought? my thinking is probably not the mainstream for travel. sort of like what groucho would say ... "i would never join a club that would have me as a member."

well, for bonaire, my thought is "if it was too easy and cheap to get to, who would want to go there?" (hope i don't have to explain that)

guess i am numb to the pain of flying to bonaire. it usually doesn't hurt every time.

ayo,

andy

ps - i suggest everyone buy travel insurance to offset any losses due to travel delays or cancellations. no matter who you fly on. and i don't sell insurance ... i just "recommend" it.

Susan and I had a great experience with Air Jamaica a few months ago. They were great, on time and with the usual wonderful cabin staff.

The only real complaint is complete and total confusion about departure gates in Montego bay. Don't believe anything, including computer monitors, until you are on the plane. Check with whoever is in charge of the gate as to exactly what plane is leaving from there. If waiting in line, make sure that there are plenty of people who think they are getting on the same plane that you are.

We just got back from Bonaire and flew AJ.

The good: we made it to the island and back. Eventually.

The bad: we got to Bonaire nine hours later than we should have courtesy of Delta because the AJ flight from Baltimore-Washington International was delayed and we would have missed our Bonaire connection. So AJ put us on Delta via Atlanta and Aruba and on Bonaire Excel (or Express, can't remember) to the island. No biggie, we arrived on the day we should and we did not miss any days of diving - our main concern.

Coming home, however - pain in the tush. Our flight from Bonaire to Montego Bay was delayed, and as a result, we missed our connection to BWI. So AJ put us and about 15 others on a flight to JFK, holed us up in a rattrap overnight and we flew into Dulles on Sunday morning. Thankfully flying into Dulles was actually a better option for us. For the folks who had to return to BWI, they didn't get home yesterday until 2:00 PM.

One of our biggest frustrations coming home on Saturday is that we missed the BWI connection by about 50 minutes. The JFK flight they put us on left two hours late. I don't understand the airline industry, so I'm sure there must be a good explanation for why they couldn't hold the BWI flight an hour when they held the JFK flight for two.

If you fly AJ, be prepared to not leave and/or arrive when you are supposed to and try your best to keep your humor about you. For us, given the option again (which we won't be because AJ is cancelling their Bonaire route), we wouldn't fly that airline again. When you are scheduled to go back to work on the Monday of your return, and you get three hours sleep the Saturday before, it's difficult to feel good about things.

But I will say this about AJ: the planes were clean and comfortable and the staff was friendly. It really is too bad they are going through whatever it is they are going through because they could be ideal.

As for Bonaire - it rocked. Working on the trip report and will post it after we've gotten some rest.

One more thing (sorry, still pretty tired). We used Bonaire Pros and we loved them. Because of them, we got incredible accommodations (Bellafonte), a good dive package and the vehicle we wanted. We used the travel insurance they recommended and that provided peace of mind. When we were delayed going down, Andy offered to contact the hotel to ask them to pick us up later (as the car rental would be closed).

Carlea, thanks for both of your post. Sharing both the negative and the positive is important.

Geoffrey, The pandemonium at the gates, is not new. Last October when Susan, you, Smack and I were returning to Boston, Smack and I were told by one gate person to be at a particular gate. If it were not for us seeing Susan heading toward a different gate, and our checking again with a different gate agent only to be told to hurry because our flight was boarding..... we might have missed that lovely long wait we shared sitting on the tarmac;-{)}

One precaution .. see if you can get a flight on an airline that flies to BON 2 days in a row .. and then schedule for the 1st. We did that with AJ .. as frequently happens AJ messed up the Jamaica connection and put us up overnight. They then (March) had a flight the next day, so not too much damage was done. I think AE does this from Puerto Rico, and Exel probably from Aruba.

Of course, if you can get a no-plane-change flight from the states that is pretty safe too.