Please, take some advice from a seasoned traveler. DO NOT FLY AIR JAMAICA.

My family was in BON last week for a wedding, and all flew AJ. Not a single flight on AJ (ATL->MBJ, MBJ->BON and return) flew as scheduled. If it even did fly, it was so late that all connections had long since departed.
Our group was to fly (3/6) from Kentucky on DL to ATL to pick up the AJ flight to MBJ, then on to BON. They cancelled the ATL->MBJ leg, and in spite of the fact the flight was cancelled 24 hours in advance, could not book anything for the group until the 7th. 36 hour delay to kick off the trip. The group finally arrived after taking AA thru SJU.
On our return, (3/13) the flight out of BON was delayed two hours. The connecting flight to ATL was cancelled, and we were told that we would fly on a Falcon Air charter to Philly, then on to Atlanta. Only it was a lie in that the Philly flight only had five or six seats available, and our group alone was 11 people. By this time it was 7:00pm and all flights to the States were gone. We were rescheduled through MCO the next day, continuing to CVG, where the group would have a two-hour drive to get home. The process of rebooking the tickets and getting hotel rooms took FIVE HOURS of sitting in the airport. All in all we were stranded in MBJ for 19 hours.
The next day (3/14) the flight from MBJ->MCO was 1.5 hours late, making it impossible for the group to clear immigrations, get bags, clear customs, re-check baggage and get to the gate in time for the connecting flight. They were rescheduled for another flight four hours later, and finally got home 24 hours late.
Let me say this: we met some very fine, hardworking individuals working for AJ who did everything possible to help us. But as a corporate entity, AJ is so amazingly incompetent and poorly run that I would urge anyone considering travel to the Caribbean to avoid them until it has been proved that they have sorted out their management issues, and can be trusted again.
Several times we were faced with staff who said that our problems would be addressed in the next city, simply because they did not want to deal with our issues. This is particularly true of the AJ staff in BON, who were totally unwilling to discuss alternate routings, despite the fact they we KNEW we would never make our connecting flight in MBJ. Updates on flight status were never given unless specifically asked for, and then were wrong 90% of the time. We only found out that our departing flight was cancelled because a family member was on the phone with the Delta, confirming the flight to ATL, when the message popped up that the flight from ATL->MBJ was cancelled. There were three separate sets of reservations for the flight, yet NONE of us received ANY notice from AJ that the flight had been cancelled. (I spoke with one gentleman who DROVE from Gainesville, FL to ATL to be on the same flight, only to arrive and be told it was cancelled.)
When you factor in the additional consideration that the FAA forced AJ to ground several aircraft for what were called "Flagrant safety violations", it's just not worth the hassle or the risk to fly with them.
AJ may be trying very had to get its house in order, but right now they are unpredictable, unreliable, and potentially unsafe. If you plan to visit BON, for the sake of your vacation, I would urge you to consider all other travel options, and avoid Air Jamaica.

William...I sincerely second your posting..
It's so quite unfortunate because they used to be a wonderful reliable carrier.. But now.. Frankly if I had reservations on AJ I'd do my best to get them changed to another carrier. I suspect there's a lot more things going on then has been made public!

Is this a situation with some of the less active routes, or is this routinely the case with the most active routes like Newark and JFK?

Carl

With all the negatives regarding AJ... and as of late so truely deserved( personal experience too )... Is there any way that our posts can be directly transferred to someone at AJ... There are so many experiences that they need to know about...

It's interesting... we've never had a problem in about 10 trips with them. I made a reservation with them the other day, the optimist I am, and on their online site you can choose your seats. There were only about 12 seats left on the plane on each leg of the trip, so I'm hoping those flights won't be cancelled if the planes are filled. :-)

Carl

From what I have seen many of AJ's routes have been canceled. I know the Houston route has been canceled and when I was checking for flights out of Florida many of the Miami/Fort Lauderdale flights were not available. Our only option is to take AA thru SanJuan to Bonaire or to Curacao/Aruba and the take a local flight to Bonaire. AJ has made it very difficult to get to Bonaire for people from the western and Southern states. Hopefully things will be back on an even keel by the time we are able to go to Bonaire again which won't be until the fall.

We never had a problem with AJ until our return trip this January. Had a four or five hr delay in Montego Bay, and they nearly had a riot on their hands when they cancelled a local flight - people screaming that this flight was being cancelled as it was all Jamaican passengers in favor of tourists going back to the US. Only one monitor in the airport had the correct info, others listed the flight as on time hours after it should have departed. We had always had good experiences with AJ and their flight schedule allows us to maximize our time on Bonaire and dive in AM the day before departure, as opposed to getting up at 0-dark-thirty to fly AA, and sitting out the day before. We're booked on AJ for next Christmas week and watching this space with great uneasiness.

I just flew back home to Bonaire today. The flight from BOS left on time. We got to MBJ on time. Sat in the crowded transit hall for 1.5 hours. It was mental. They combined the Curacao and Bonaire flight which does make sense in the view of economic reality for Air Ja. Thank GOD BON is first but that meant the outbound Air Jamaica people leaving BON had to go to CUR first. That would ALSO mean they were VERY late getting into MBJ. I think I will watch and see how things go...it's up and down for sure..

Annie,

Welcome home! I can't wait! About 45 days to go! Yipee!

Liz

Just made my reservations on AJ, going to "roll the dice" again. Hope it works.
If it weren't for our AMEX rewards program I might have tried another airline.
Let's hope our luck holds out!
Cann't wait to see you, Liz,in your new home.
We'll be around the middle of May,at the villa.

Air travel might never be the same with a 600 million dollar loss last year at AJ. We have flown four times to Boinaire with AJ and mostly a pleasant experience but times they are a changing. Best to all.

I have no recent experience with American Airlines in the Carribean. However, I recently returned from Finland and used American Eagle for the final leg to Boston. Finnair was great, they are a code share with american.

The American eagle flight was one of the most horrible experiences I ever had. The flight attendant seemed (I am not using the term loosely) ... demented. Kicked me off the flight because she could not read the boarding pass, then got miffed when back at the gate, I put on my glasses and saw the seat assignment quite clearly myself. When reboarding, she felt that I was now a security risk because I was speaking "strongly with her". After more bowing and scraping and apologizing than she really deserved, we proceeded with the flight but not after a cermonial bashing of my laptop (which it survived).

So ... I am not sure which is the frying pan and which the fire here.

American Eagle is the name given to American's commuter-size flights all over the U.S. and in the Caribbean. Each regional American Eagle is run by different carrier airlines - so, drawing a comparison between American Eagle in the Northeast and AE in Puerto Rico is not a valid comparison (although I feel your pain Jeffrey - I refuse to fly regionals in the Northeast U.S. after countless bad experiences).

Jake

Please see my post on the other AJ thread. I only experienced a 3 hour delay on the way back to Logan and there was no re-routing.
It sure does look like it is becoming a crap shoot but so far I have been lucky in October and this last March trip. From Boston, I still think it is better than the American choices

Hi: We will be flying Delta out of Louisville to Ft.Lauderdale, theN Montego Bay which will be Delta operated by Air Jamaica, whatever that means. I hope we have better luck.

Actually, American Eagle in the US-mainland is owned by American Airlines. The American Eagle based in San Juan is operated by Executive Airlines. In the US, AmericanConnection is operated by 3 carriers: Trans States, Chataquah, and Regions Air-all used by American out of their St. Louis hub.