We are flying to Aruba on Friday, 1/6 arriving at 8pm, and connecting to Bonairexpress at 9pm. They just changed the flight from 10pm to 9pm. I have paper tickets in hand, but we are a party of 7. Are we too in trouble? I purchased the Aruba to Bonaire tickets from a travel agent on Bonaire (Bonaire Travel) and she told me it would be tight, but that someone in our group should go directly to their ticket counter once we land in Aruba and let them know the rest of the group is coming. I also thought about calling them directly the day prior to our travel and letting them know we are connecting from Houston on Continental so they would consider waiting for a party of 7 if we were late. Won't the airport in Aruba be fairly quiet that time of night?

Welcome to Bonaire Talk, Terry!!
Hard to predict whether this will work. If your Continental flight lands on time and they get the bags off quickly, it might.
Ask Continental for help. When you check in for that flight, ask them to tag all the bags "priority." Then they will come off with the first class bags. Also ask for seats as close to the exit as possible or ask that your group be allowed off the plane first, while other passengers remain seated.
Delta once did both these things for me, which allowed me to make a tight connection in Aruba. Again, this happened because BonairExpress changed the flight time.
Delta also had the Delta manager on Aruba meet the Delta flight and lead us (a group of five people) through the immigration line reserved for airline employees.
See what Continental is willing to do for you. If anybody in your party is a Continental frequent flyer, have that person make the requests.
Good luck! And enjoy Bonaire!

What is the process in getting through Aruba? Is it you go through customs and immigration, let them know you are "in-transit", collect bags and then head to the connecting gate? Is it one terminal where international and interisland airlines are together?

Terry,

immigration first, then you pick up your bags and go thru customs...after customs you exit the terminal completely...if you have you paper ticket, you then go to the adjacent terminal to check in (with bags)...once you check in, you go back thru a security check, then immigration again then on to the gates.

If you don't have a ticket, you must stop at the kiosk outside the terminal to wait in line and buy your ticket...then proceed as above

there is no transient lounge...Aruba is not a good airport to make connections due to the clumsy entry and exit procedures...

btw, if your plane lands at the same time as other planes, it can easily take 2 hrs to get thru immigration and customs

Well, I decided to make a change and not chance the tight connection. We are coming in a day earlier and flying thru Newark instead of Houston into Aruba, so a nice 3 1/2 hour connection time in Aruba. Thanks for the advice.
We'll be on Bonaire on January 5th, our 6th visit since 1992.

Terry,

if you are flying out of Newark, why not take the Continental flight to Cur which is supposed to leave on Sat...much easier to make connections to Bon from Cur

can you fly from Curacao to Aruba and if so on what airlines?

Yes, on DAE, Dutch Antilles Express, the latest name of BonairExpress, etc.

tish, with all the name changes do they change their website each time too?

First, Chris, I forgot to welcome you to BT. Welcome!! And it was not necessary to send me that private message to thank me. Happy to help!
Pat, that's a great question. Don't know the answer. I'm very tied up right now with a writing deadline, but I can tell you that the new name is official. The employees have new uniforms, the planes are getting new logos, the signs at the airport carry the new name and new colors.
Will the first person who does a web search or otherwise finds the proper web site please post it here. I might even have already posted it on another thread. (How embarrassing that would be!)

Hi
They do have a new website, but there is really nothing on it, except a couple of phone numbers and an email address.
Mickey
http://www.flydae.com/index.html

Thanks, Mickey!
Any excuse to stop writing, so I checked it out. If you bounce around among the three pages mounted so far, you will find the site is under construction and other links should be provided later.
At least two e-email addresses are provided: one for information and one to make reservations.
In theory, the phone will be answered during office hours, which would be an improvement over the old level of service.