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Getting to Bonaire: Any ALM News?
Bonaire Talk: Getting to Bonaire: Archives: Archives 1999-2005: Archives - 1999-06-02 to 2001-12-31: Any ALM News?
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Luke Hoffman on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 1:18 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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.

Any suggestions?
Luke

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Chris Ierley on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 1:43 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dean Palm on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 1:54 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Linda Richter - NetTech on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 2:05 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

DCE not honoring ALM tickets is a development as of last week. See below.

This recent info is from October 26th.
And, keeping in mind that ALM itself isn't flying anymore (DCE is flying all of ALM's routes, more or less, and has been as of October 15th), that makes for an even more messy situation. I understand at this point, the only ALM-related tickets being honored may be ones issued by United Airlines, and even that's up in the air.

DCE is now asking anyone flying on ALM tickets (or ALM routes where the money for the route went to ALM already) to pay again. And, rebooking with DCE is no guarantee of being able to fly either - they don't have their own ARC code, and no relationships with anyone other than United right now. Plus, when ALM goes down, DCE will likely get pulled along.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Chris Ierley on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 4:28 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

WOW! ! ! I guess we got lucky

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Josie on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 7:39 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By DIVER DEBBI on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 12:45 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

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 "

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Chet Wood on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 8:29 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

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:
1) they seem to think ALM is still flying
2) convinced them to change our tickets without having to pay the $50 per ticket cancellation fee
3) got new flights (all on AA); ORD-SJU-BON and BON-AUA-MIA-ORD
4) arrive a day earlier (23 Feb) and will overnight in Miami (9 Mar) on the way home.
5) had to pay a difference in fare of $191 for our pair of round trips.

Diver Debbi; new dates 12 Feb - ? Mar???
Chet

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Andre Kaptein on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 10:24 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

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.
Thanks (Just want to be underwater)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By alan markus on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 10:32 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

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).

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Linda Richter - NetTech on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 10:46 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

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.)

I haven't got any great suggestions for the rest of the flights. I've heard people that have had to pay extra, buy entirely new tickets, or not had any problems at all. You have to check-in at the ALM/DCE counter in Miami so they might check you right through with boarding passes and everything will go smoothly. My fingers are crossed for you. I hope your trip is uneventful in the flying department.

On Bonaire, check with ALM/DCE at the airport a couple days before your return to reconfirm.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter - NetTech on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 10:56 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

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)

--------------------
Winair Officials: DCE Developments Confusing

PHILIPSBURG—Winair executives say the latest developments concerning AirALM and its successor Dutch Caribbean Express (DCE) have left them completely confused.

"Does Air ALM still exist? Yes or no? And what exactly is DCE?" Winair Chairman Michael Ferrier told The Daily Herald were the questions he would like to see answered by the Central Government in Curaçao.

He said that in a meeting with other Winair officials Friday the decision had been taken to request answers from Government on these burning issues. "We’re sending out letters this week," said Ferrier.

He criticized the fact that DCE seemed to want to use Winair when it was convenient. "We have been notified by Air ALM that our contract with them was cancelled and that they would stop flying between the islands. They one-sidedly cancelled the contract with us and DCE never considered contracting us for its ground-handling here," the Chairman said.

Meanwhile, however, there are DCE passengers who try to board Winair flights to continue on to their destinations.

"We don’t have an agreement with DCE," said Ferrier. And, as a matter of fact, DCE is not in the International Air Transport Association (IATA) clearinghouse either, he said, so there are doubts on how it would pay Winair its share of the fares if Winair would honour the tickets. All payments airlines have to make to each other go through the IATA clearing-house.

"And even if Air ALM still exists, we would not accept any tickets of theirs, because we have been notified by the clearinghouse that they kicked Air ALM out for not paying KLM. If we would try to collect money later they would ask, 'Are you stupid? Can’t you read?'" said John Strugnell, Winair's Managing Director.

He took the issue a step further, saying that what also deserved clarification was whether the new company was called Dutch Caribbean Express or Dutch Caribbean Airline. "One day they're DCE, the next day they are DCA," he said. Speculations are that DCE was first developed and, in a move to confuse the many creditors, DCA was introduced. "But eventually this kind of activity will turn around and bite you in the ...," Strugnell warned.

The officials were questioning how it could have been that DCE had been granted the right to fly on all Air ALM's routes, while Winair's requests were undergoing a tedious decision-making process.

"Winair is a national airline, DCE isn't. They told us that we could fly certain routes Air ALM flew, but does Air ALM still exist? We weren't even allowed to fly between Curaçao and Bonaire because, they said, we were allowed to fly to anywhere, as long as those flights originated from St. Maarten or Statia," Ferrier lamented.

--------------------

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Luke Hoffman on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 11:43 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

First I'd like to say thanks to everybody for all the information.

I called ALM's 800 number a few minutes ago and just confirmed my ticket for Saturday. I don't know wether it was ALM or DCE I was talking too, but I'm going to work on the assumption that I probably have a ticket to get to Bonaire Saturday I also called Delta (there getting me to Miami Saturday) and they said as of right now they are still accepting ALM tickets. I'm going to double check this Friday.

If I get to Miami and ALM/DCE stands me there I have a couple of alternatives. It looks like Air Jamaica and American both can get me to Bonaire on Saturday and have seats available. If worse comes to worse I'm pretty sure I can get there by Sunday.
Luke

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Andre Kaptein on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 1:28 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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!
Thanks again. See you under:)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By DIVER DEBBI on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 3:30 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glen Reem on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 5:40 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Debbi,

The best and cheapest is one way to Bonaire--no return, ever!!!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Lynn Turner on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 12:11 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Lynn Turner on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 12:46 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I did phone ALM reservations and was told that they are flying Bonaire to Miami on Saturdays. Is this accurate?
Help!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter - NetTech on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 12:57 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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.

Also, if the ALM route is part of another ticket, then you will very likely have problems, as ALM no longer has any arrangements with other carriers, and ALM won't accept the ticket segment for that flight because they can't get money for it (money is cleared through ARC and IATA when the ticket coupon is returned to this agencies after it has been used, but if the money can't get to ALM/DCA/DCE because they have no IATA status, then they will not honor the ticket itself.

Check with your travel agent or tour operator and make sure to mention to them that ALM has been kicked out of IATA and perhaps point them at the ALM threads here on BonaireTalk so that they can ask all the right questions.

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cheryl Lowery on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 1:53 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Yikes,
We are travelling to Bonaire from Canada in December. Calgary-Houston-Caracas (overnight)-Curacao-Bonaire. (Yup - it's an adventure for us Canucks to thaw out and go diving in the winter). My travel agent notified me late last week that our flights between Caracas and Bonaire on December 21 are now on Dutch Caribbean. On the way back January 5, we are still booked on ALM from Curacao to Caracas. Is ALM flying at all? Or is there only problems with flights between Bonaire and Curacao? Sounds like I should be checking further into the DCE/DCA flights as well.
Any updated info is appreciated - it's getting cold up here and will only get worse by December 20!
Thanks, Cheryl

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Luke Hoffman on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 6:22 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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.

I tried to call ALM Friday morning to reconfirm my flight, but couldn’t get through to a person. Late Friday afternoon I got an email from Expedia that there had been a change in schedule and I should call. When I talked to Expedia they said ALM had changed my direct to Bonaire flight to connect in Curacao. They had only left about 45 minutes for me to connect. I didn’t really like this since I knew the likelihood of getting out of Miami on time with ALM was pretty close to zero.

The nice lady at Expedia said ALM was still showing the direct flight to Bonaire. I asked her to see if ALM would switch me back to that flight or over at American. At that point we spent an over hour on hold trying to get in touch with ALM. The Expedia lady was using the agent line that should have gone straight through. At that point I thought ALM had finally gone under.

So then my options were to go with what I had, buy another ticket from Miami to Bonaire (and of course last minute tickets are expensive), or get a refund from Expedia. With Hurricane Michelle heading toward Miami I opted for the last. If I had it do over again, I’d probably just go ahead, bite the bullet, and pay extra to take the American flight.

There is an upside though. Now I get to go to the Jimmy Buffet concert in Birmingham tomorrow. I’m planning on rescheduling the trip for some time in January – through American.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cheryl Lowery on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 7:06 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Luke,

Sorry to hear you had to cancel your trip at the last minute like that. I will be talking to the travel agent tomorrow to try to get some solid answers on our flights. This is a long-awaited family trip with my husband and three kids. Plus we're meeting my parents and siblings down there. What a pain if any of us get stuck somewhere or have to pay a bunch more money to get there. Tickets were expensive enough from here to begin with.

Enjoy Jimmy Buffet!

Cheers, Cheryl

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gordon Brown on Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 4:38 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

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.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Anonymous on Wednesday, November 21, 2001 - 1:11 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

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.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter - NetTech on Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - 4:06 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

From today issue of The Daily Herald (http://www.thedailyherald.com):

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WILLEMSTAD -- The Curaçao Government in-tends to sell 80 per cent of the shares of Dutch Caribbean Express (DCE) to private investors, while the remaining 20 per cent goes to the employees.

One of those, a so-called "golden share," will be kept by the Island Territory of Curaçao, however, explained company president Mario Evertsz. DCE is taking over the ALM operations, following the dismissal of close to 300 employees.

Together with the earlier layoffs, 460 will not pass over to DCE. Government has reached agreement with the labour unions involved on the total of 18 million guilders in severance payments, according to the Collective Labour Agreement (CLA), to be paid in monthly installments over one year.

DCE will continue with 396 employees. Their benefits have been reduced by between 23 and 31 per cent (pilots).

In addition to the current MD-82s and Dash planes, two DC-9-30s will be added so the airline has seven planes.

The golden share is considered necessary to maintain DCE’s status as "national carrier" and so government can promote certain flights for tourism, as long as it helps cover cost.

The airline needs 12.5 million guilders, of which the sale of shares should cover 7.5 million. There are already interested parties, including a Canadian group.

A loan will cover the remaining 5 million. Evertsz expects DCE to make a 9.8 million guilder (7.6 million net) profit after one year, which will increase in the following years.

Only the transfer of landing rights in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic from ALM to DCE is still being finalised.

The flights to Holland in partnership with Sobelair have transported 56,000 passengers so far this year and will pass the 60,000 mark by the end of December. The flights have been increased from three to five a week and will go up to seven in April.

----------

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By stephanie jenkins on Monday, December 17, 2001 - 11:47 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

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

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Frederic MARX (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #2) on Friday, June 13, 2003 - 5:54 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

how about the new airline dutch eagle express or bonaire excel are they going ahead?

 


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