Dear all,
Does any of you have recent experiences with Bonaire Express? We'll be flying from CUR to BON end of July with the 18.00 flight (coming from Amsterdam first) and we are curious if they fly on time these days.

Thanks
Diana

Diana,

My husband flew a later flight in from Curacao a few weeks ago. They were delayed, but only because of bad weather. We see the flights come in from our porch on the hill often and they seem to be coming in pretty much on time.

Liz

Flew on them from Aruba in March and last year in October. Both flights were on time and had no problems. For a small airline they seem to do a good job.

Smack

I just returned from Bonaire. We used Bonaire Express/Excel to and from Curacao. They were on time. I'd just make sure you have plenty of connecting time as baggage was slow in Curacao.

I've been back from Bonaire for just over a week, but haven't had a chance to write a trip report of our experience yet...

We flew from the US to Aruba on frequent flier miles, then Aruba to Bonaire round trip on Bonaire Excel. Our Aruba to Bonaire trip went off without a hitch. Easy to pick up our boarding passes from the ticket office.

Our return flight from Bonaire to Aruba was a nightmare. We were scheduled to fly from Bonaire to Aruba on the 11 AM Saturday flight. Our connecting flight back to the US was shortly before 4 PM, so I figured we had plenty of time to account for flight delays, etc. Boy, was I ever wrong! We landed in Aruba just as our connecting flight was taxiing for takeoff. We ended up spending the night in Aruba, and had to buy new tickets from Aruba back to the US (since United didn't have flights for the next several days). Bonaire Excel kept telling up we would make our connection, up until the point they said we wouldn't. If we spent the money to charter a plane back to Aruba, we would have been better off financially! The Bonaire Excel agent in Aruba told us we should have taken the first flight of the day out of Bonaire if we had ANY connecting flight

LESSON LEARNED: If you have a close connection for your return flight starting with Bonaire Excel (e.g., less than 24 hours for the connection), it's much safer to take the last flight out the night before and spend the night where you're connecting to go home

Geoff, you have just described my exact itinerary for the last week in July, right down to the use of frequent flyer miles to get to Aruba. Folks, how frequent is Geoff's experience? Leaving the night before trashes an entire day of diving. Getting up for a 7AM departure from Bonaire to Aruba is NOT the way I want to end my vacation. I'm not liking these options!

I used Frequent flyer miles to get to Curacao. They will tell you that 1 hour is enough, no way! We had major stress getting to Bonaire Express. They held the flight for 10 of us. Very nice! I was uncomfortable with the 1 hour connection on the return as I knew that if we missed our America flight, that was it for the holiday. I scheduled our trip with our "dry time" on Friday with a 4PM flight to CUR and then the 824AM flight from Curacao. It was much more relaxing. The friends that travelled with us redeemed miles to/from Aruba. I had advised them to do the overight on the return as well. Yes, it adds another day, but i would have been more "bummed" out missing a day of diving.

I would like to make reservations for December with Bonaire Exel from Aruba to Bonaire, but their web site does not seem to work for me. It keeps telling me that there are no flights available. Also, there is no telephone number provided on such web site.
How does one contact them for flight information and reservations ?

Thank you
Peter

Peter, try www.bonairexpress.an that may work for you.

Michael, We had Geoff's experience last July. The 11am from Bonaire was delayed by over an hour, made an unexpected stop in Curacao, sat on the tarmac in Curacao (with broken airco)waiting for clearance for 90 minutes and arrived in Aruba as our USAir flight was leaving. Fortunately USAir was able to put us on the next flight out that night and make a connection for us in Phila back to Hartford.

Thank you for all the reactions.
I would almost think that going to Aruba causes more troubles than the connection between Curacao and Bonaire. We have been flying with them before (Bonaire Exel), one time it went o.k., another time we had to wait 2 extra hours before our departure to Bonaire. I was curious how things are going now, now they have changed to Express.

I have seen questions about how to book tickets with Bonaire Express: we booked them with our travel agency in Holland, as a part of our flight, which for us was cheaper than just buying the ticket.
If I see the hassle you Americans have to go to to get to the island, I think we are happy to be flying from Holland...

Diana

Just got back last night.

We did ATL-AUA-BON.

DL 419 Leave ATL 10:07A Arrive AUA 2:00P
BE 2973 Leave AUA 5:00P Arrive BON 5:40P

BE 2972 Leave BON 11:00A Arrive AUA 11:40A
DL 516 Leave AUA 3:20P Arrive ATL 7:23P

Everything went off like clockwork - no muss, no fuss, no luggage problems.

Brad, who did you fly on from Aruba to Bonaire that was a non-stop? Gary

Just looking at the times of Brad's flights between Aruba and Bonaire tell me it was BonairExpress. We flew that portion of his itinerary in May. The flight from AUA to BON was right on time and the flight from BON to AUA was about 1 hour late leaving and arriving.

Thank you Brad!!! Those are the exact same flights we are doing. I was getting SO nervous about the return. Glad to hear that your experience went well. We leave on Tues am. SO excited!!!

pattie,

hate to bust your bubble but we took the same flights last year...BE was 1.5 hrs late departing Bonaire...once we got to Aruba, other flights were beginning to arrive in AUA..by time we got our luggage thru customs, check in at Delta and go thru US customs, they were closing the door on our flight...we made it

if BE leaves on schedule, no problem...if they are late, don't dilly dally once you get to Aruba...the US customs and security check can be a long line

We're using US Air to get to AUA, then Bonaire Express to get to Bonaire.
I asked US Air if we can check our luggage through to Bonaire. They said 'yes' if they can identify the flight.
For all you people who fly via Aruba, are you able to check luggage through to Bonaire?

Going home should not be a problem for us as some have expressed above. We're scheduled on the 11 AM flight to AUA. We're spending time in Aruba after Bonaire, so we will get to the Aruba airport on time after our stay.

John

you will not be able to check your bags all the way to Aruba (unless they have changed very recently)...since there is no transient lounge area, basically you have to "enter" Aruba and go thru Aruba customs/immigration...then you turn around and exit Aruba to Bonaire....pretty clumsy process...I think Aruba does it this way in hopes people will stay in Aruba

We arrived in Aruba on June 28th at 4:00 with confirmed reservations for a 5:00 flight to Bonaire. We were told the flight was delayed and would leave at 6:00 P.M. and that we were on it. We paid $171.00 each (cash) for a round trip ticket. After the clerk took twenty minutes to handwrite the tickets, she said she had to book us on the 5:00 flight the next day because they had to combine two flights and we were being “bumped”. Needless to say, this did not set well with us. She said we could go on standby, but the flight was sold out. I asked for them to pay for a hotel and she laughed and said no. We had no other choice than to go standby. We asked what we had to do to go standby and she said to go ticket counter #4 and sign up, first come, first served, when the ticket counter opens at 7:00. We go to the counter and are the first in line. It didn’t open at 7:00. I kept inquiring at the ticket office about the opening of the counter and Evelyn, the supervisor got very rude and said I was told the flight was full and we couldn’t get on that flight. The ticket counter finally opens at 9:00 for a 10:30 flight very When the counter opened, four Dutch people walked in and jumped in line in front of us and we told the ticket clerk we were there first (which they already knew) and why did they let the people in front of us and he ignored us. Finally, we told the people we were there first and to get in the back of the line. After several unpleasant words they left. I asked the clerk why they cancelled the 5:00 flight and he said because there were not enough passengers. Finally, at 9:45, they booked us because there were some no-shows. We go to the passenger departure lounge where the temperature is about 60 degrees and several people are complaining. (Our daughter got very cold and ended getting sick and had to go the doctor in Bonaire. She only got to dive one time.) They updated the departure time several times until we finally left at 2:00 A.M. We finally arrived in Bonaire at 3:30 A.M. As we arrive in Bonaire, there are about twenty people there to pick up their luggage from a previous flight. We will never fly Bonaire Exel again. It is too stressful not knowing when you will get to your destination or if you have to find a hotel. Bonaire Exel has the poorest customer service of any airline I have dealt with. They would not even get me any information on hotels or taxis in Aruba. We were told that several people were waiting for a departure flight from St. Marteen for four days before Bonaire Exel got them out.
However, once we got to Bonaire, we enjoyed our diving (except our daughter) and vacation and flight back to Aruba was without incident and we returned home. We stayed at the Divi and the week was very slow for them. There were very few people diving. They said several groups cancelled because they couldn’t get to Bonaire. They were all talking about Continental Airlines starting service and about how bad Bonaire Exel is. I don’t mind a little inconvenience getting to and from Bonaire, but this incident was stressful.

Gary, it was BonaireExpress.

Pattie, you're welcome. I sweated over the outbound, not the return. Here's what we did for departure day:

Pack the night before, get up early and go to your favorite place for breakfast - I like the Lost Penguin, but we went to the Plaza because they open at 0700. Be back at your hotel about 0830 and deal with the bill. Load up and get to the airport about 0900. Drop off family (with passports and BE tickets)and luggage at the terminal and then return rental truck - plan about 30 minutes to get that done. Have spouse (wife in my case) pay departure tax and get in line to check in at BE. Walk back and join family in line. It worked for us, ymmv.

It seems to be a crapshoot. Last August we did the ATL-AUA-BON thing, but the flight times were different (arrive in AUA at 2:10, depart for BON at 3:30, or something like that - waayy to close). Delta was an hour late leaving ATL, hence we enjoyed an unplanned night in Aruba at the lovely Talk-of-the-Town hotel.

I dunno, it just seemed like BoneaireExel was totally disorganized last year - long lines going nowhere and employees more interested in filing their nails than getting it moving. This year I just had the feeling that BonaireExpress is trying harder - they started checkin on both Aruba and Bonaire earlier and kept the lines relatively short (and moving). Maybe it was potluck, but maybe there is a new day, new attitude.

The reason that they are trying harder is because the Antillian Government threatend to take their rights to fly within the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.

YOW!

What's going on between Aruba and Bonaire????

Mike (above) said he had confirmed reservations between AUA and BON....and tells a horror story. We have PAID tickets....paid by credit card since March.

Bonaire may be paradise, but getting there is sounding like hell.

We want to return to BON....we're looking forward to a great return after years, but it sounds like the airlines are working to strangle trips to BON.

Are we going to be able to get to and from Aruba.....or are we going to spend an extra night at each end of the journey.

I'm getting TOO OLD to deal with this nonsense.

Some reassurance please?!?

We had only minor problems associated with flight schedule changes when we flew BE between Aruba and Bonaire in February of this year. We also had paid paper tickets in hand, so we didn't have to deal with the ticketing kiosk at the Aruba airport (very slow, very tedious . . ). As long as you have enough time (I recommend at least three hours) between arrival in Aruba and departure to Bonaire (and arrival in Aruba and departure home on the back end), you've got a good shot at making this route work. Keep in touch with BE while you're on Bonaire re departure time -- make sure they have a local number where you can be reached in case of flight schedule changes. I'm hoping that BE works out the kinks -- the charter-to-Aruba, BE-to-Bonaire route is a whole lot cheaper and faster, at least coming from the Midwestern U.S., than using AA through San Juan.

I leave next Tuesday for a US Air CLT - AUA 11:14 am to 3:15 pm then BE 5pm flight. Sounds like I will be cutting it close - I have paper tickets bought through Larry at Dive World. Return flight no worries as I am staying in Aruba for 2 nights. Wish me luck. I will report back on my experience later. Pray Emily stays away from Bonaire! I can't wait to get back to Bonaire...I have been a year and 1/2 with NO dive trip!

Janet,

if you have paper tickets from Larry you have a chance...your luck will depend on how many other planes have arrived at close to your time...this ties up immigration and baggage for customs...go straight to the gate...you have to check into BE no later than 30 min in advance of the flight

Janet,

I will be flying the same schedule in September. Please update us with any comments on problems encountered.

Carl Neal

Can anyone tell me how to get in touch with Larry at Dive World to get paper tickets from BE?
We're trying to fly round-trip from Aruba to Curacao, but having no luck with BE's website.

Thanks.

From bottom of an e-mail I just received from him:

Larry Friedman
travel consultant
Caribbean Adventures Dive Travel
1507-C South University Drive
Plantation, FL 33324
800-433-3483
954-236-6611
954-236-0111 fax
larry@worlddive.com
www.worlddive.com