We're going to be flying American/American Eagle for the first time (we've always flown Air Jam or --way back when-- ALM in the past) and have a couple of questions about the (ugh!) 8am return flight out of Bonaire.

Any suggestion on how early to arrive, and what time the ticket counter opens up in the a.m.? Are there any options for checking in the night before?

Is there any place open at the airport, either outside by the ticket counter or inside the waiting area, to catch some breakfast before the 8am flight? What time do those places open, and what can you get for breakfast?

Any other AA/AE tips or suggestions that haven't already been brought up on BT?

Arrive two hours prior to your flight (yawn). Make sure that Buddy's has arranged a taxi for you in case their shuttle does not operate that early.

There are, I believe, two places where you can obtain, er....um...some things to chew on, I can not call the stuff - food. Sorry Buddy, but I can not remember how early these places open.

Arrive at the airport as early as you can, not just the stated minimum time: everyone else does that.

A departure 'system' you might want to try is this: Find out when the counter opens and be in line then (Buy the departure tax paper a day or more earlier). Check in and be rid of you bags.

Go back to your hotel, take a shower, eat breakfast and then go back to the airport 30 minutes before flight time. No crowds, no sweat flying home (literally, by showering after handling the heavy bags in that humidity).

As I write this, I realize that I have not been there since the higher security so I don't know if one can leave the airport after check-in. I know that system is a good one (for any flight); does it still work???

Glen,
We used to do that with the 3pm Air Jamaica departure -- check in at 10am, go back to the resort, enjoy some time in the water, eating lunch, showering, etc -- but that's not a possibility with the 8am AE flight. There's nobody working the front desk of the resort at 6 or 7am to return your truck to, check out, etc, and the time limitations would also prohibit that. Great idea though for flights with more normal departure times.

I have to disagree with Tom on the food thing.. Cynde and I had the BEST croissants in the departure area .... they were warm and fabulous..

I'm liking the idea of checking in and then going back home to shower, etc. I'll be interested to see if that's an option. Anyone???

Well then Kelly, I guess since you have officially disagreed with me, our honeymoon is over;-{)}

The option of early check-in still worked for us last August, but again that was the Air Jam flight at 3pm. Somehow doing this for the 8am AE flight doesn't sound desireable, even if you don't have to worry about checkout/truck return at your resort. Even if they opened the ticket counter at, say, 5am, and you were lucky enough to get checked in and back to the resort/other accommodation at, say 6am, you'd have to head back out by 7am if you were taking a taxi or 6:30am if you had to return a car at the airport. Plus, for me anyway, showers only work for about 5 minutes in Bonaire anyway; by the time I'd get back to the airport, even with only carrying my carry-on, I'd still be drenched!

We all should look at AJ again. The planes from ORD (chicago) are full and the saturday hub conection from MBay to Bonaire is also full. AJ cancelled the flights to bon because the planes were empty most of the time.. I booked 3 seats for Oct 15th. and arriving at 2:30 pm is right up my alley.... Ron

Mr. Phillips, I could have gone all day without all the information you provided towards the end of you 12:51 pm post.

Sorry, I meant to say "your 12:51 pm post" not "you 12:51 pm post". Still gagging here.

Beau-
Your inability to handle my personal details in a gastronomic manner is surpassed only by the gastronomic inability of those who dine on the veggies as grilled by y'all of back-country descent. Additionally, the copious manner in which y'all drench your grilled crustaceans in the evil underground bulbous flavorings of the devil is of equal gastronomic vulgarity.

Nice new photo in your profile, by the way. A lot better than the previous Deliverance-like rendering (cue the banjos playing hillbilly music).

Scott,

Can't help the shower thing but why not turn in the car just before the flight, at, say, 7:30 instead of on the first trip to the airport???? That worked for the 6 am departure, missing all the standing line.

Glen,
Ah, to each his own, kind of like diving on Bonaire. When doing the early check in thing bought me four hours of snorkelling, eating lunch and chilling at the resort, it made sense, but for me shuttling back and forth from the airport at 6am for maybe an hour or two back in my room sounds like too much running around for too little payback. I'd rather do an early check in and just chill in the AC in the airport waiting room.

While I always enjoy and participate in the playful wanderings of topics in these threads, I still would like to know if anyone knows what time the AE ticket counter opens up, and what time any of the snack areas open up at the airport and whether they serve anything resembling breakfast. Anyone have any recent experience/insight?

Ticket counter opens at 6am, snack bar in the departure lounge appears to be open non-stop (certainly it is open by just past 6am when I wander in there after checking in).

Jake

Ah...yes, Kelly, those crossaints...mmm...they didn't have them in March, I was quite dissapointed. Scott, once you are through security, the snack shop opens and there is something that you can get that's pretty decent in my book (certainly better than most of the snack stuff at SJ)

Ok, Kelly, Tom, you hearing this (probably more importantly Babs, as she will be traveling with me on that "early" flight in October when we leave)

I get up at 3AM, go to the airport, drop my bags, car, etc., take a cab back to Belmar, shower, relax (in the dark), have breakfast, do the dishes again, wait, drink coffee, then at 6:30 or so head back to the airport and go through security and wait for the plane...now we all know THAT is not going to happen...LOL! Glen <wink>

Hmm, I might go for that Cynde! I actually do wish I had dropped off my bags before I dropped the car last trip but Alison didn't want to wait in line with the bags while I did that...the eventual late arrival ended up with my luggage getting left behind on Bon after all the other heavily laden tourists beat me to the baggage check (okay and one entirely RUDE family of four cut in front of me and another family and they seemed to have gotten their luggage through)

Babs, our routine is, one is dropped off with the bags to get in line, while the other returns the car, then comes back over and we continue on, I think we will be OK

BBBBBBBabs (There I said it.), if you need any help that morning, I will be there. There is no way I am going to miss out on that photo opportunity. Cynde up before the sun, I am laughing just thinking of it;-{)}

Scott -

We have used the early AE flight several times and our approach is as follows (I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it, because I'm certain others follow it).

We drop off the rental car the night before departure, pay our departure tax at the airport, get a ride from the rental car company back to our hotel (after politely asking them in advance if they could take us, never had a refusal), eat at our hotel or take a taxi to eat, use our hotel's transportation (pre-paid with reservations) to the airport in the morning, check-in, get a snack, drink coffee, and visit with other passengers on the flight until departure time.

We find this approach much less stressful than waiting to do everything the morning of departure and it saves us some rental charges for the car we had rather avoid.

We regard the wait time in the airport as just another part of our Bonaire vacation and we inevitably get tips and ideas from other passengers for our next visit.

Charles Poteet
Dallas

In the 3 trips that I have made we took our bags to the airport and checked them as soon as the ticket counter opened, it was with AJ around 10:00 am. We then went back to Buddy's did the check out thing and settled up with the dive shop and DM's then waited in the room till time to go. They dropped us at the terminal and bid us farewell.

Can't say I will do it any different the next time.

Tom you had better plan on a pic of Cynde with a pillow case over her head! Cynde, I'm thinking Tom will be dropping us off and we can check the car in a day early...hint hint Oh, yeah, then after checking our bags he will be driving us to a nice breakfast while we wait for our flight! HeeHee

Babs, good idea, Tom, are you up for it? I'll even let you take a picture of me (with a pillowcase over my head) when you pick us up at 5:30 AM to take us to the airport...oh, and please, to prepare yourself, email Kelly and Michael as to just exactly what to expect that early in the morning...you may want to bring a taser gun, or maybe a poking stick as you see my eyes and nails...LOL...still want to go for that early morning dive with me? Seriously, some of us are just not mornin' folk...right Kelly (Kelly will not respond to this as she is on vacation...brat)