By Luke Hoffman on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 1:18 pm: |
I'm scheduled to fly into Bonaire Saturday from Miami via ALM (my fourth trip). After reading some of the other threads in this group I called my travel agent who then called ALM. ALM assured them that everything was cool. Still I'm a little bit dubious. I'm wondering if I should make contingency plans.
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By Chris Ierley on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 1:43 pm: |
We left on sat the 20th and we actually left 20 min early on ALM. Service was great. On the wy back we got held up about 45 min in bonaire but after all of the horror stories I was very nervous. But eveything turned out great. I also heard they are now DCE or somethiing close to that.
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By Dean Palm on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 1:54 pm: |
My wife just called and said that Caradonna called her and said that ALM will not honor our tickets for Sat. Nov 3, so we reschedule with AA and leave a day early. Just want to get there
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By Linda Richter - NetTech on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 2:05 pm: |
DCE not honoring ALM tickets is a development as of last week. See below.
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By Chris Ierley on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 4:28 pm: |
WOW! ! ! I guess we got lucky
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By Josie on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 7:39 pm: |
Luke, you'd better call your travel agent again and tell them what Linda said. Doesn't sound as if they have good info (or at least not current). You may need to make alternative arrangements so you're not stranded.
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By DIVER DEBBI on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 12:45 am: |
We bit the bullet today and canceled our flight on ALM in Feb ,rebooked on American, get to leave cold weather one day earlier but can't stay as long as planned because of the difference in price, but still feel better about the change..cost $35. per ticket to cancel...and hope we get the rest back on the credit card..feel bad to leave DCE but really did'nt give us confidence from ticket agents ...hope we resolved our problem..."just wanna go diving "
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By Chet Wood on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 8:29 am: |
We had purchased our original tickets (FEB/MAR)through AA amd were scheduled on AA for Chicago(ORD)-Miami(MIA) legs and on ALM for the MIA-CUR-BON and BON-MIA legs. Yesterday we decided it was time to change, Jean called AA:
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By Andre Kaptein on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 10:24 am: |
We're scheduled to fly into Bonaire this Sunday, American, ALM, finally DCE. It doesn't sound like a good combination, I'm trying to make alternate arrangements there's six of us. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This is the most irritating thing I've dealt with yet.
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By alan markus on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 10:32 am: |
Best bet is American all the way. Either via San Jaun or Aruba, depending on connections. If you have a choice - go via Aruba as the Aruba/Bonaire leg is three times a day both ways and San Juan is once every other day (one day into Bonaire Late, and the same plane leaves REALLLYYYYY early the next morning).
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By Linda Richter - NetTech on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 10:46 am: |
Check to see which airline validated your ticket. Every ticket must have a validating carrier which is usually the airline with the most segments on the ticket or the first international carrier. If it is AA (code 001) then you won't have problems with your flights in the states to Miami. (Some travelers on TWA had to buy new tickets to Miami.)
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By Jake Richter - NetTech on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 10:56 am: |
Well, the confusion about ALM/DCE is not limited to Bonaire. See the following from today's The Daily Herald (http://www.TheDailyHerald.com) from St. Maarten, another Antillean island. (Note: Winair is the other Antillean national carrier, operating in the Windward islands of the Netherlands Antilles)
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By Luke Hoffman on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 11:43 am: |
First I'd like to say thanks to everybody for all the information.
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By Andre Kaptein on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 1:28 pm: |
Yeah, I must agree that everyone is very helpful on this page, Our agent is trying to re-schedule our flights, our worst case is being stuck in Curacao for a day (How Aweful) Back to the diving page though, holly cow!
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By DIVER DEBBI on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 3:30 pm: |
Chet....coming to Bonaire Feb 6 thru March 7 ..put us down on the get together list..have to figure out how to stay in Boniare longer..the price of the plane fare more than doubles after a 30 day stay..dos'nt make sense..how do people that go to Fl or anywhere for the winter and stay 2-3 months buy tickets..pay the full fare??any hints..also does one have to pay the daily tourist tax if you stay that long ? anybody wanna hear some diver jokes ? go to Everything Else site
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By Glen Reem on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 5:40 pm: |
Debbi,
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By Lynn Turner on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 12:11 pm: |
I just found out that the flight we have scheduled to return home (Indy) has a leg from Bonaire to Miami on Dec 8th that is booked on ALM. This is the third time our tickets have been changed in the past month. Is ALM flying again or should I be back on the phone?
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By Lynn Turner on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 12:46 pm: |
I did phone ALM reservations and was told that they are flying Bonaire to Miami on Saturdays. Is this accurate?
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By Jake Richter - NetTech on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 12:57 pm: |
Yes and no. They are as Dutch Caribbean Airlines (DCA) /Dutch Caribbean Express (DCE), under the ALM name, but only if your tickets are endorsed by DCA/DCE, according to a travel agent I spoke with yesterday.
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By Cheryl Lowery on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 1:53 pm: |
Yikes,
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By Luke Hoffman on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 6:22 pm: |
Well, let me tell you what happened to me. I started this thread because I was supposed to leave Nov. 3 for Bonaire. After reading some the discussions on this board and elsewhere, I made sure to double check with ALM and Delta. Up until Friday both of them said everything was fine.
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By Cheryl Lowery on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 7:06 pm: |
Luke,
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By Gordon Brown on Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 4:38 am: |
I own an air ambulance service which does commercial medical escort flights all over the world. I can tell you this. If you want to get to Bonaire, Aruba or Curacao "for sure", go American Airlines. If you want to add a little excitement to your lives and have days to potentially kill, go ALM.
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By Anonymous on Wednesday, November 21, 2001 - 1:11 pm: |
An ALM flight ticketed for departure from Bonaire to Miami on 11-03-01 was eventually routed through Curacao to Haiti and finally on to Miami. There was no security evident nor was the stop at Port Au Prince, Haiti announced prior to departing Bonaire. This appears to be a violation of U.S. Federal law and is particularly depressing in view of the 09/11 events. This "airline" is the most pathetic display of professionalism I have ever been exposed to in 20 years of aviation. The confusion and inefficiency displayed at the terminals in Bonaire and Curacao were only surpassed by the misinformation presented to the traveling public. I have never been jolted so rapidly from "island" time in my life! In retrospect (two weeks later) it was a huge joke which I will do my best to avoid in the future.
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By Jake Richter - NetTech on Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - 4:06 pm: |
From today issue of The Daily Herald (http://www.thedailyherald.com):
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By stephanie jenkins on Monday, December 17, 2001 - 11:47 am: |
This will be my first trip to bonaire at the end of january.How is alm airlines doing.I am flyingin from miami.How much time do i need when checking in.thank you steph jenkins
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By Frederic MARX (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #2) on Friday, June 13, 2003 - 5:54 pm: |
how about the new airline dutch eagle express or bonaire excel are they going ahead?
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