My wife and I spent the first week of November on Bonaire and found it peaceful as in the past. Getting there was a different story and I'm amazed at how 2 days of flying can wipe out 7 days of relaxing! They told us flying would be different. Trust me, the half has not been told. On the return trip, we went through 7 check points and had our carryon suitcase rummaged through 4 times. If you haven't flown to the Caribbean lately you're in for a surprise. I could write a book, but suffice to say that beside the heightened security (which no sensible person objects to in todays world), the two things that stood out were
1) You are treated as if YOU are the terrorist
and 2) No one cares if you are late or miss your plane or connection because of all this; they simply no longer care and I'm not sure they can. They are thoroughly frazzled.

Example; A large group of us who had been waiting
in an American Airlines check in line for an hour and a half happened to ask a passing clerk how we could make our flight in an hour when we were only half way to the desk? "You can't" he replied, "you missed it." "You should have been here 3 hours before your flight." "But our connecting flight only landed here an hour and something ago." "That has nothing to do with it......" So some were shuffled to other flights and some (us included) were put up for the night to wait for the next flight ("at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon...be here at noon") and so it goes.

John, what a nightmare...not only must it have been frustrating, but to leave paradise and then have to go through that, you need another vacation...where did you have to spend the night?

John:

Were you the couple that were going to Hartford...
and if yes, did you see the poor lady at the hotel going to Miami that the idiot at AA yelled at so badly she was crying?? (and yes, we did report his actions to American and he was truly out of line).
I was one of the 6 rebooked to Cleveland via JFK.
(and made it too!!!)
Guess you made it also..just a day late.

John,
Sounds awful, but I would rather have it happen on the way home, then then on the way there.
mike

Hi John;

Yes, that was us going to Hartford. The AA guy
who yelled at the lady was frazzled..... he did
apologize to us after you left. We spent the night in Aruba at a place called Sonesta.
Wasn't bad but the food was so so. We paid an extra $60 that AA didn't cover and got home a full day later but were thankful to have made it in one piece. Sad thing is, most of it could been avoided with some small changes in communication and not compromise safety one bit. They are going to have to get over this "guilty til proven innocent" mentality if they are going to survive.
Who wants to spend thousands of hard-earned vacation dollars to be made to feel like crap
and herded around like cattle? I'm for safety but when people chew you out over nail clippers while
some are bringing meat cleavers on board, something's not right!
Jack

Sorry, that last message should have been
addressed to Alan from Cleveland.

Just another disgruntled American Airlines screw up. We landed in Curacao about 55 minutes from our scheduled departure and the check in was already closed. We were told that it was too late to make our flight that was sitting in the front of the terminal and had not even started to board passengers yet. We were delayd overnight and rebooked for the flight the next day. When we checked in on Saturday we watched the check in counter, and they checked in people until 330 for a 358 departure. The day befor they closed the check in at 300 and told us we cannot get on that flight. All this after we had previously checked with the American office in Bonaire and told that it was no problem with our flight at 250 from Bonaire to Curacao. I guess that the airlines are just proving what many of us though before THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICE. The September 11th incident has just given them an excuse for treating us like s_ _ _. I for one am going to express my feeling to Mike Gunn, Executive Vice President of AA. To further ruin our great time on the island, AA was one hour and forty five minutes late leaving the gate at Miami. I urge everyone else who was mistreated by American to write and complain....

You would think at this point, with the state of affairs of the airline industry, AA in particular, they would be bending over backward to accomodate everyone to keep our buisness...guess not...

One would think....and hope....A good friend of mine is coming to NJ from San Francisco as she wants to visit Ground Zero and other WTC spots with us and is having a very difficult time finding a good deal...nonstop, of course. I don't understand. Carole

I have a client going from Minneapolis to Antigua in Feb. and AA has cancelled and rebooked various flights 3 times since Oct. He is very nervous..I for one am GLAD I am flying JA to BON for Xmas.

Had a nice sail today by the way so am happy..that and Harry Potter movie (GREAT) the Leonid showers..off to light a fire and read..

Annie
Cape Cod

When I flew AA SJU-BON on Sept 28th, I had zero problems. The reason? The long layover that I created on purpose. I left home at 6AM and was in SJU at 1:50PM on Delta. Long layover to the 6:12 flight to BON, but worth it.

On the way home? No problem, mon! Left BON at 6:15AM, arrive SJU at 8:22AM. Long layover to the flight to Atlanta leaving at 2:55PM. Home from Atlanta at 11:00PM. Long days? Sure. But well worth it.

Book the earliest flight into SJU that you can, and the latest back out on the return. Bring plenty of books, but don't worry about coming home on a different day.

You can get into SJU quite early from most major cities.

Finally, avoid Aruba at all costs. Reading the posts here can tell you that. Also, costs a tad more to mix and match airlines, but again it's worth it.

jeff