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Getting to Bonaire: No More AJ From BWI to BON?!!!!!
Bonaire Talk: Getting to Bonaire: Archives: Archives 2006-2008: Archives - 2007-10-01 to 2007-12-31: No More AJ From BWI to BON?!!!!!
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Fehr (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #1) on Thursday, December 6, 2007 - 5:41 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi everybody. Been a lurker here for quite awhile, years I suppose. Now I've got a problem so I thought I'd register and put this out there...

We were planning our annual April trip to Bonaire and have had a hard time getting flights on AJ from BWI to BON. I finally called them, thinking their website MUST be having problems, however they told me they are discontinuing those flights from BWI after March? I'm shocked. Every year that flight is packed, so I cant understand why. The lady had no other information for me as to why.

Any information about this would be helpful.

How are y'all getting to Bonaire? I looked at other airlines but the schedules are horrible.


(Message edited by sundance on December 6, 2007)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Don Niles (BonaireTalker - Post #40) on Thursday, December 6, 2007 - 6:37 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Steve, why don't you look into Continental Airlines out of Newark every Saturday late evening with a return from Bonaire every Sunday early morning. BWI is not that far from Newark; you could find a flight from BWI to EWR, or maybe drive the distance. Both flights are nonstop. It worked for us in October out of PVD.
Or, log on to Travelocity and plug in your desired departure and arrival dates and see what else there is out there.
Oh, yeah, welcome to Bonaire Talk!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dr. Director (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #421) on Thursday, December 6, 2007 - 8:56 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Air Jamaica terminated its flight to Bonaire after Delta introduced a Saturday non-stop flight to Bonaire from Atlanta, starting in February. Leaves ATL about 10:50 AM and get to BON at about 2:30 PM. Leaves BON about 3:30 and gets back to ATL about 7:30 PM. Delta also added a mid-week flight as well, at least for the late Spring. Will not operate these flights from the end of August through the end of September. You might want to check this out in addition to the Continental red-eye from Newark mentioned by Don.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mel Briscoe (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #155) on Thursday, December 6, 2007 - 10:18 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Steve, where are you located?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ste-va-reno (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #2) on Friday, December 7, 2007 - 9:01 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

WOW! Thanks DR....I like that Delta schedule. I didn't know about that. That gets us into BON about the same time AJ did. I even suspect it will be easy to get a flight from either Dulles or BWI to Atlanta in time for the connection. Thats good news.

Don...I heard about the Newark flights but I wasn't crazy about the schedule.

Mel...we are near Hagerstown MD.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dr. Director (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #423) on Friday, December 7, 2007 - 9:10 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

There are two Saturday morning Delta options from National (DCA) leaving at 6:00 AM (2 hour connection in ATL) and 7:00 AM (1 hour connection in ATL which seems tight to me for typical Delta connections in ATL), plus the ability to make it all the way back on return, arriving DCA at about 11:15 PM. Flying from Dulles doesn't seem to provide any morning connections. Don't know about BWI departures.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ste-va-reno (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #3) on Friday, December 7, 2007 - 4:34 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Great! Thanks for that info Dr. You've been a big help! We were bummed out about the AJ flights but this seems like it will work out even better.


 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ron Gould (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1219) on Friday, December 7, 2007 - 5:13 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Delta is almost twice the money...

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ste-va-reno (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #4) on Friday, December 7, 2007 - 5:43 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I see that! But I'm not completely surprised. AJ's fare was a great deal and I was always scratching my head thinking this fare is going to go up someday. I paid $698 last year, same dates. This year with Delta it will cost me $1150. I can see that. I dont like it..but I can see it with oil prices the way they are.

Eh...but what can you do? I need one of those cars that can drive into the water and run like a boat. I can just see the arguments me and my wife would have trying to navigate to Bonaire. And forget about stopping and asking for directions at that point. HAH!!!...I would have her on that one.

However, we are sort of entertaining the idea of some other destinations now based on those airfares;just for comparison. With those rates, we can get onto a live-a-board...pay more for the trip but way less in airfare so it almost washes out to the same as a Bonaire trip...considering our meals and such. But..its REALLY hard to settle on going anywhere else. We just LOVE Bonaire.

Ah well...the "some other place" idea is short lived now that I think about it.

We got to get back to BON.


 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gallus50 (BonaireTalker - Post #51) on Friday, December 7, 2007 - 10:38 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

You might want to consider flying to Curacao and then taking Divi-Divi over to Bonaire. The fare to CUR is more reasonable, I think, and the cost of the Divi flight is minimal. You'll go thru Miami, but it's not usually too arduous.

I live in NC and I wouldn't pay over $1000 to get to BON. I don't think you should have to, either.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gallus50 (BonaireTalker - Post #52) on Saturday, December 8, 2007 - 12:29 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Out of curiosity, I did an Orbitz search to Curacao with some random April dates - say the 6th to the 13th. These are Saturdays - so other days might be cheaper - but American had a fare of $407 ($509 after taxes & fees). Even when you add on the Divi-Divi flight, it's still a lot better than $1109.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ste-va-reno (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #5) on Saturday, December 8, 2007 - 9:28 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thats a great idea. I'm going to have to play around with that and see what I come up with.

But why is it so much cheaper to fly to Curacao?

I do think an $1100 fare is steep considering the fares to get to some of the other islands and it really is causing us to reconsider other alternatives. But I'll explore this Curacao route.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kobi in Virginia * (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3061) on Saturday, December 8, 2007 - 10:16 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Steve,
We live in NW Virginia and have been going to BON every year since 1994. We have been flying AJ out of BWI for the last 10 years. Sad they are no longer going to fly to BON as arrival time was awesome! We'd overnight up at a hotel at BWI and get on that early flight; arriving for early dinner on BON. It was great. We also fly first class and AJ's first class was VERY reasonable.

Are you working with a travel agent? We use www.caradonna.com. Great folks very familiar with Caribbean dive destinations and Bonaire. They have been faithful for and to us from day one in 1994. They can work their magic to see about reasonable fares and arrival times for you. Call Kim and tell her what you want and they can see, of all the seats they hold, which will work for you.

We did AJ in April and then did Newark red eye in July of this year. Both went off fairly smoothly.

Good luck; we're trying to book again for early '08.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ann Phelan - www.bonairecaribbean.com (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #2992) on Saturday, December 8, 2007 - 10:17 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Please know AA's prices fluctuate daily. I added Yapta to my computer. I enter my chosen flights and am notified of price changes. Some dates for a client in Feb. have gone from 800-491 back and forth sometimes twice a day!!! It pays to register for www.yapta.com.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kobi in Virginia * (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3064) on Saturday, December 8, 2007 - 10:26 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Steve,

Better yet, click on Ann's link in her screen name above:-) She can hook you up with a complete BON package!!!!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ste-va-reno (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #6) on Saturday, December 8, 2007 - 5:17 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks to y'all...we explored our options and found flights from BWI to Curacao for $454 pp round trip. The hop over to BON was pretty cheap and flights leave pretty regualarly. However the return trip is a little screwy so we may have to work on this one a bit.

Another option was DCA to MIA to San Juan to BON with AA. That cost is $667 PP round trip.

Anyway... We now have two options with a much better cost than the $1100 fare Delta wants.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By greg maloney (BonaireTalker - Post #32) on Sunday, December 9, 2007 - 9:45 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I will miss AJ fights. Maybe if enough people call AJ. they will reinstate the flight to Bonaire. We flew from atlanta to montego bay to bonaire. It was great. Deltas fares a very $$$. we flew free on AJ.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ste-va-reno (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #7) on Sunday, December 9, 2007 - 7:00 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks Ann for that Yapta Info. I will Register. We did go ahead with our Airline tic's with AA so it will be useful; as you said to watch for fluctuations.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Deborah Bennett (BonaireTalker - Post #86) on Monday, December 10, 2007 - 12:05 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

it is probably even cheaper to get a flight to aruba and take the DAE over. Round trip from Aruba to Bon is $184.
flights to Aruba can be had from here in Charleston, WV to Aruba for low $400s.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ste-va-reno (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #8) on Monday, December 10, 2007 - 4:54 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hey Greg...

It seems to us that the connection from Montego Bay to Bonaire is the problem. We could still fly AJ from BWI but we couldnt get from MBJ to Bonaire. What we found was we had to board another airline...fly back to Miami, then to San Juan and BON. I think maybe its some sort of political thing going on. We couldnt find any direct flights from MBJ to BON anywhere.

All the flights we kept coming up with were flying to MIA and then thru Curacao or San Juan and onto BON; There are some direct flights from Houston, Atlanta, or Newark, But some were pricey, where the Newark, we just didnt like the schedule.

Either way...we are there from April 19-26 at the Belmar. Soooo excited!

We Love Bonaire!!!!!

Thanks for y'alls help!





(Message edited by sundance on December 10, 2007)

 


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