Well, we are FINALLY going to Bonaire. Yippeee! We leave on December 22nd, and return on January 1st.

Anyway, we had originally booked with Air Jamaica. I was somewhat relieved (after reading all the many complaints here about AJ) when our tickets arrived and they were with other carriers. U.S. Airways/Dutch Eagle Express on the way down and AA (through San Juan) on the way back.

However, we have a VERY short layover in Aruba. 45 minutes! Are they crazy? What were they thinking? And, having read several other posts here about various problems, I'm wondering if we aren't going to get stuck in Aruba for days on end. Does anyone know if they increase the # of flights during the holiday season? Does anyone have any advice? Has anyone here had an experience (good or bad) they could share?

Thanking you in advance...

not a snowball's chance in hxxxxx

good thing you caught it now...get on the phone to your travel agent...sounds like a crazy ticket ($$$)... at this time of the year you may need 2 hrs in Aruba..if not more...do you have your paper ticket in hand from Aruba to Bon? If not, you are in bigger trouble...I suggest you contact Larry at worlddive.com if you can re-do your tickets...doesn't sound like your current agent did you any favors

That's what I was afraid of...

Unfortunately, I booked directly through Air Jamaica--and am having lots of problems getting them on the phone.

I do have my paper ticket from Aruba to Bonaire, so perhaps I will try contacting Dutch Eagle Express, if possible.

Thanks for the advice.

Laura, you will still have to reclaim your baggage in Aruba and go through customs and immigration and it takes FOREVER.... I agree with Gregg, get it changed ASAP if possible! I would even give yourselves 3 hours if possible.

I agree with you to be relieved about having another carrier and not AJ. We will not use them again. Also, we recently returned from Aruba and went through customs. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get through the 4 check points that they have in the airport. 45 minutes is not enough time. Good luck with changing your ticket ! We are doing the red eye this time on Continental.

Laura,
Tell your travel agent that BonairExpress/Dutch Eagle Express does not ALLOW such a short connection time. Since your travel agent has violated the rules of the airline they have booked you on, they should be obliged to fix this.
I live on Bonaire, I take this route a lot, and BE has told me over and over that I must allow a long time for the connection, so this really is true.
Good luck fixing this!!
You're going to adore Bonaire!

Thanks for all your kind words, everybody, and now let me tell you what has happened so far...

So I call AJ, figuring that as they are the ones we paid, they should be the ones to fix this.

#1. The clerk first told me 45 minutes was plenty of time.(!) When I questioned this, she went away for about 20 minutes and then came back to tell me...

#2. That US Airways no longer flies to Bonaire, anyway. And that..

#3. I should Fedex all our tickets to their Brooklyn office so they can re-issue us a new ticket on American. The ticket is worthless, you understand, but they still need ALL the tickets (coming and going) before they can give us a new one.

#4. For some strange reason, I am very reluctant to send my tickets to them. I wondered if they would have even contacted me, if I hadn't called them? How do I know they will even send any tickets back? All I have is an AJ reservation number--not one from American. All very dicey, IMHO.

The people at AJ do not inspire confidence, let me tell you. I was disconnected at least three times--left waiting for long periods of time, and everything seemed very jumbled and confused. So...

#5. I'm driving to Baltimore myself tomorrow (1 1/2- 2 hours) and going to the ticket agent in person with the tickets in my hand. Does this sound crazy and paranoid? Perhaps. If nobody there can help me, then I will overnight fedex the damn things to Brooklyn.

#6. Wish me luck. And tell me again how Bonaire is really, really, really worth it!

I'm really confused.
1. You booked with AJ and they put you on other carriers? Doesn't make sense to me. I would understand if you went to a travel agent, but not if you went to AJ.
2. Secondly, you say USAir doesn't fly to Bonaire anymore? Not surprising, since they never did! But they DO go to Aruba, which is apparently where your ticket went to, and then you are on Dutch Eagle Express or whatever its name is today. No problem, except for the too-short layover.

Bonaire is really really really worth it. But you've got to get there first...

- Mel

yea seems kinda funky to me that they put you on other carriers. What did your original flight itinerary say when you booked through them? I just made my reservations for the end of may and they say I'm flying Air Jamaica planes. Seems kinda funky that they would put you on a different airline. Although they could change any of my flight things by then, so who knows. For now though i'm going with the benefit of the doubt from what others have told me.

Instead of doing all that driving, why not ask BonairExpress if they can switch you to a later plane with a longer connection time?
On another BT thread, you will find contact info for BonairExpress/Dutch Eagle Express.

laura,

the best thing you can do is to try to get AJ to completely refund your ticket and then contact Larry at www.WorldDive.com 1-800-433-3483 to rebook your ticket. You will be much better off having a competent travel person familiar with Bonaire routes booking your tickets. You definately don't want AJ handling an AA ticket.

There is nothing wrong with a flight to Aruba and then connecting on Bonaire Exel (or whatever their name is this week) as long as you have sufficient time to connect in Aruba. Aruba is not a friendly airport for transient connections to Bonaire

Thanks for all the replies! Most particularly to Mel--hi, Mel!--who is the best dive instructor in the world! Mel, I wish I had spoken to you first about this. Shoot, I just wish we were going on your trip in January!

Anyway, I made the drive to Baltimore today and got the agent to change my tickets. It was not easy, let me tell you. There were a couple of minor changes on two of the other tickets. Flight at 6 instead of 5; plane leaving at 6:45 rather than 6:15--that sort of thing. The itinerary he gave me had all the correct times with correct flight numbers--but he didn't want to go through the hassle of issuing new tickets for everything. He kept insisting that the airline would know and everything would be okay. So I had to be my MOST charming and tell him that just made me so uncomfortable not having all the correct information on the tickets and that my husband would blow a gasket if he saw that, etc. etc. So now I have three sets of tickets and everything looks good. A 4 1/2 hour layover in Aruba and a 9 hour layover in San Juan on the way back. I'll take it.

You can bet that after leaving the man at AJ, I scooted over to the AA counter and had all the seats confirmed. Unfortunately, we were not able to get assigned seats on the way down to Miami--so that means we'll have to be at the counter when they open at 4 a.m. sharp Yikes! Traveling during the holidays is such a hassle!

Shawn, all I can tell you is that I booked my tickets with AJ back in June. When they came in the mail they still had the AJ jackets but the tickets were all on other carriers. No explanation. It scared me a little at first because I saw the price--it was a lot more than we had paid. For a moment, I thought they had charged us a lot extra and the aforementioned husband would blow another gasket!

Thanks again, everybody. And Mel, so far, I have identified 16 must-do dives in Bonaire. We are all so excited I don't know how we are going to manage the next three weeks! I, for one, am completely useless.