WHAT IS THE BEST AIRLINE(S) TO GET TO BONAIRE FROM TUCSON IN MARCH??

Susan, I would check Air Jamaica from LAX.

Susan,

Welcome to the Board!

It would probably be an overnight flight thing. I looked into it for you and you can fly from AZ to Atlanta on AmericaWest for between $275-330 R/T per person then catch an Air Jamaica flight the next morning...I do priceline, rather than book direct with AJ, come in with a ridiculously low bid then then they offer me a price usually at least $100 less than the normal airfare on AJ. You can also fly AW into Ft. Lauderdale, the AJ from there, but it is over $500 for the R/T flight. Best of Luck!
Liz

Susan, Liz is right on doing priceline - it's the way to go. As a matter of fact, I'd go ahead and bid on an ATL to BON on priceline before I booked the connecting flight. If you could get to Phoenix, SW has r/t air to ATL for $204. As we're constantly shuttling our kids back and forth from Phoenix, Southwest wins hands down on pricing. And they offer web only specials as well.

Good luck!

Susan, you might also try SW from Tucson to Tampa then another booking from Tampa to BON. SW fares to Tampa from Tucson are 179 round trip. Bon from Tampa is in the 540 range, but could be bettered by priceline. As I said, book the priceline one first if you do a two leg trip to get your times right so there won't be any layovers! Check the schedules thoroughly before you book.

I was just running ours again (going back in July), and out of curiosity ran yours, and also noticed (then remembered) that SW doesn't fly into Atlanta, just B'ham - which is were we pick our kids and skids up and send them out.

Susan:

As someone who flys from the left coast, putting together a nice schedule at a nice price can be a real challenge! In the end, it depends on the amount of time you wish to take and the price.

Here are some alternatives (none of them great):

American
1) Fly American through Miami to Curacao. Overnight in Curaco. Then take Divi Divi over the next morning. The major advantage of this is that you could leave early one morning and be on Bonaire early the next morning. Another advantage is that is a seven day a week route (I think).

2) Fly American to San Juan. Then take AE to Bonaire. You could overnight in San Juan (or a US city along the way -- DFW or ORD). The major disadvantage of this approach is that you leave fairly early one day and don't get to Bonaire until the next night. OTOH, you could spend much of a day kicking around San Juan...

3) Fly AW or SWA to Atlanta then Air Jamaica. (Listed above).

4) Fly another airline to LAX and then do a red eye on AJ from LAX to Bon via MBJ. Schedule wise, this will be the only one that avoids an overnight (you sort of do that on the plane).

If you want to get creative, start with Bonaire and work backwards to get your best routing/price. The major ways to Bonaire from the US are via MBJ (Air Jamaica), MIA (American to CUR and then Divi or BE to Bon) or SJU (American Eagle). You can can also go via AUA...

In terms of getting your ticket, I always check the big three (Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity) as well as the AA and AJ websites. This fall, I snagged a special of AA (use 15k miles and pay $245 for Seattle to Bon). I have also had good luck with Caradonna (especially good for packages) and have heard positive comments about Bonairepros.

One note: Splitting the trip into two tickets can save you money but is not risk free. If airline A makes you late for airline B, airline B may require change fees, etc. Also, it is important that the two airlines will interline your luggage if your layover is tight.

That is why the overnighting with the airline change may be a good idea. If the plane is late to Atlanta, no big deal as you probably have many hours to spare. Likewise, you pick up your luggage in Atlanta from airline A and check it in to airline B the next day.

Believe me, it is worth the effort!

Susan -

Flying from Denver, it is now a 2 day trip for us. In April, we flew AA to Dallas and stayed overnite. Then, again AA, we made it Dallas -> San Juan -> Bonaire. The trip back was Bonaire -> San Juan -> Miami -> Denver - all in 1 day.

We used to make it in 1 day - 12-13 hrs of flying/waiting, but the connections are no longer there.

Remember if you are thinking of AA - there are limited AE flites into Bonaire - only 3 times a week last time I checked.

HTH - Bea

Thanks to everyone for the valuable input....I have reserved my flights and anxiously await.