Well, we left for Bonaire on the 22nd and got back on the 1st of January. I suppose it could have been worst, but it also could have been a lot better! The Continental redeye sounds good to me.

We left our home in NoVA around nine p.m. We were going to spend the night in Baltimore, since our flight left from BWI VERY early in the a.m. It was doomed from the start. There was a detour, we got lost, and it took us 2 hours to get to the Holiday Inn Express at BWI. We finally get to sleep around midnight. At one a.m. the fire alarm goes off. We pretty much spent the night in the lobby.

The clerk at the American desk was harassed and overwhelmed. (Also so heavily pregnant, I thought she shouldn't be on her feet so much.)I asked her several times to make sure our bags were going to Aruba. (We were going BWI-Miami-Aruba-Curacao-Bonaire.That was brutal enough, btw.) You guessed it: one of our bags didn't make it.

We were missing most of our dive equipment, some medicines, toiletries, etc. Not too painful, EXCEPT we were also missing the materials my son needed to complete his science experiment! That was bad. We spent an hour or so with the American customer service reps in Aruba who ASSURED us they would make the report and we would get our luggage in a day or two.

We didn't get it back until the day before we left. You know, so great to have your dive equipment on your off-gas day! The front desk at Buddy's tried. We tried. Many, many phone calls all over the place. E-mails. Two separate trips to the Bonaire airport. Turns out the people in Aruba never requested that it be sent to Bonaire (it had been in La Romana, D.R., which we knew from the onset.)

I could understand if it was a day or two. You know, traveling during the holidays. But over a week! And such callous indifference and incompetence. I've already written a letter for compensation; don't expect much from these people.

Perhaps now that they have some competition, they might straighten up and fly right, so to speak?

What a bummer, especially for your child's project! May I ask why you chose that horrible routing? It sounds horrendous. So once you got to Aruba, Dutch Antillean Express took you over to BON with a stop in CUR it seems...MIA has a non stop to CUR next time if you try AA. It is pretty much cake.

Personally I would rather spend a little more and have a direct route to Bonaire. There is less chance of getting lost luggage. No airline to BON seems to be without problems in fact no airline anywhere period. Flying with masses of people with masses handling our bags ..well, it's a miracle if we get there on time with our stuff period.

I have a friend who travels a lot to BON and she takes all kinds of routes to save money when she could probably take a flight with one stop. She has been plagued with bancrupt airlines, DAE changing schedules thus causing overnights in Aruba and on and on...I spend more sure going BOS SJU BON but it's cake..and I need easy peasy when I travel. The less headaches the better. When you fly as much as I do, you learn to make life easier.

Ann, trust me, this wasn't our idea. We had our tickets originally on Air Jamaica. BWI-Jamaica-Bonaire. When we got our tickets in the mail, they were on American instead of AJ and had the route I described. I wasn't able to get them changed at that date. Coming home, we had only one stop: San Jaun for 9 hours, which wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't all so tired and if it hadn't rained.

I completely agree with you--as few stops as possible. That is partly why Continental looks so good to me now; it's very easy for us to get to Houston from D.C. You also have to consider what your time is worth versus any money saved. And we have to consider that there are three of us traveling.

As for the luggage, understand that when we got to Aruba and found we had mistakenly received a claim ticket for someone going to La Romana, DR, we were pretty certain that our luggage had gone to La Romana. The CS Reps agreed. And then they couldn't be bothered to request the luggage be sent to Bonaire. Our bag wasn't really lost; it was just sitting in La Romana for over a week. The only reason we got it back at all is because we drove to Bonaire airport, INSISTED that they look it up on the computer (INstead of just shrugging their shoulders) and DOING something about it. Like I said, a day or two--especially during holiday season--I could understand, but an entire week? No.

And you can bet that now we check ALL our claim tickets before we leave the counter. That was a painful lesson learned.

If you write a detailed letter to AA customer service I am sure you will be compensated in some way.

We have had a lot of delays on AA, but heading out of Chicago and going south, they usually have the best times for us. I have had two major issues with AA. The first, I missed my connecting flight in MIA and my luggage made the connection. Long story short - attendant told me I missed the flight when it was actually being held. I ended up missing my entire trip and 21 days later, my luggage returned. I did write a letter and AA gave me travel vouchers for the full amount. The second time, I had a plane delayed 9 hours (while they kept us on the plane) due to (1) a medical emergency, (2) ground crew causing damage to the plane, (3) storms prevented landing. They ran out of food and drinks, but we couldn't get off the plane at any of our 3 emergency stop locations because we were not cleared for customs. AA did nothing to compensate for this trip. The first one was compensated because I missed the trip, the second one was not because I did arrive at my destination. I hope you have better luck with them than I did.

Hi, Laura!
Hope you had some fun on Bonaire at least.
Getting the correct claim checks doesn't help. A month ago I flew JFK-Miami-Curacao on AA. I did that route because I got a free ticket on that route.
AA did not remove my two bags in Miami. Took them to San Juan.
You can't phone AA from a home on Bonaire, so a friend in the states had to keep calling them. AA knew right away I was on Bonaire and could have sent the bags from San Juan to Bonaire.
Instead they sent them back to Miami and then to Curacao.
AA in the US could not reach AA on Curacao. Really!!
The bags sat on Curacao, were finally delivered to Bonaire, and then sat in the airport. AA no longer has an office on Bonaire, so nobody notified me the bags were here.
I love Delta!!! AA is another matter.

You should always carry your medicines in your carry-on, and ANYTHING that your trip will be ruined without. I feel so badly for you, I am wondering though, how did your son do on his project?? I bet the teacher was very impressed.

We avoid Miami, Aruba and Curacao at all costs. We've done Des Moines Iowa - Dallas - San Juan - Bonaire 6 times without a problem on AA. For what it's worth.

Thanks, everybody, for your words of comfort and support. Jeanine/Tribs, what a horrific story. Tish--your story is like a comedy of errors--without the comedic part.

I did have a lot of carry-on, actually; the laptop, the camera, a change of clothes for everybody, vital medicines, my son's prescription mask, my toilet articles, things like that. I guess it wasn't enough.

My son's project went well, thanks for asking! (he turns it in on Friday) It was certainly interesting! We just had a real problem finding that special waterproof paper from Reef.org--tracked down a very nice lady and rep from REEF who gave us two sheets--that's all there was on the island. He had to rewrite most of his work on regular typing paper, as we couldn't seem to locate a notebook. The thing that pisses me off the most--as I'm sure everybody here understands--is the loss of time. Futzing around with this nonsense takes valuable dive time away. Dive vacations are expensive, it isn't something we get too do very often.

But enough with the whining and complaining. I guess we learned several lessons. And, yes, we had a fabulous time. Loved it. Diving is a great bonding activity for all of us. And it really is educational, too.

It's interesting that we have gone beyond just identifying fish (although it's always great to see something you haven't seen before) and now are all really starting to pay attention to fish behavior. We were all so excited when we saw a trumpetfish shadow hunting with a grouper! The mating cowfish! Things like that. It really has opened up a new world for all of us. My son is starting to get into underwater photography and we want to support that as much as we are able. I think this is a wonderful family activity.

And I guess the horrible flying days taught us all forbearance. I have to admit, my son was pretty cool about the whole thing.

Laura, I think our children's reactions reflect our own; so that if you seem okay with everything and not worried, he will take his cues from you.

Please let us know how he does on his report.

Laura:

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quote:

The thing that pisses me off the most--as I'm sure everybody here understands--is the loss of time. Futzing around with this nonsense takes valuable dive time away.

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Cyn and Laura, I need to be on island with you two! I go nuts futzing around. I'm there to DIVE, DIVE, DIVE!!!! I love being in the water and go nuts waiting for the surface interval. I really need to go with a big group some time so that there is someone to dive with before breakfast, after breakfast, before lunch/after lunch, and then night dive. My dive buddy can't keep up! LOL!

Jeannie, sometimes going with a big group makes it worse, too many people trying to decide when/where to dive and eat! LOL! You spend more time futzing and planning your dives!

Cyn, I wonder if that woman could have been Linda Sadler (sp?)? She was the REEF.org representative who was so helpful to us. She even offered to take our son diving with her! Just a wonderfully nice lady from Texas--her husband works at Yellow Submarine.

The DeLoach Fish Behavior book is--as my son would say--beast! We read it before we went to Bonaire--it was one of the materials gone missing with our luggage. BTW, not having the fish ID book to refer to after diving was extremely frustrating! I whined about it so much that an Aussie couple took pity on me and lent us theirs! I also talked about the Fish Behavior book so much they went and bought their own! I talk that book up to everybody! I wonder if the DeLoaches will give me a cut?

Jeanie, maybe not a big group, but at least three? That's what we have--worked out well for us. As my husband is the only one who can drive stick, he had to do a lot of the futzing around and I was elected to dive with our son. So he lost no dives. And when I couldn't dive because of middle ear squeeze, hubby and son went out without me! Or maybe you just need to borrow a teenager--mine would NEVER miss a dive. Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow!

Hmmm....Laura you have a teenager that would do early morning dives? I might just need to borrow him come May.

Laura,
ALM (anyone remember ALM?) lost our luggage on our first ever just certified dive trip to Bonaire. A year and a day later, Louie from Air Aruba found my luggage.
Oh the joys of traveling...
mare

Mare,
That's the best lost luggage story I've ever heard!
What were your emotions when you got back the bags?

Well, since we were planning a dive vacation within two weeks of getting our bag back, my reaction was "Great! We're all packed!"

My original posting about my lost bag is here

Mare

Okay, Mare, you win the misery sweepstakes! My tale of woe is but a pale rider next to yours.

Jeanine, most days in Bonaire we got up at 6 a.m. for diving, as we had to be in the water shortly after 7 a.m. The early morning hour, btw, was when he found the most fish diversity. The evening rush hour, the greatest number.

I'm sure he would come with you in May in a heartbeat! That boy loves to dive--he now wants to become a Master Diver. And a tech diver, which just scares the beejesus out of me.

Laura, I don't think it was Laura. This was an older woman who lived on her sailboat moored near Sand$. It was in 2001, I have no idea if she is still even there. Is Larua's husband a DM from Yellow Sub? Can't think of the guys name that we had for a DM when we took a boat dive with YS last year...Maybe Martini would know!

Mare you crack me up! If only the world were so level headed and well balanced as you..."We're all packed!"

Laura...I got to do two early morning dives on our last trip and agree it was incredible. My nephew would only get up for the second one because we told him about a school of feeders we got caught in that were being "herded" by some Jacks and Tarpon. Thankfully we found them, or similar group, again the next morning. Wow! What an experience! He liked it, but not enough to get up early for another dive.

OK, you are talking Cilly here, I believe that's the one you gals are talking about.

martini, Chilly, that's the one I was thinking of! Isn't he from Texas?

Yep, that's the one...

He did manage to get me a great 500-th...

Thanks for the link, Mare. Love the extra details. And love even more your reaction "We're all packed."

Cyn, the woman I meant was named Linda and she doed indeed live on a sailboat with her DM husband near the Harbor Village (name?) and quite close to Yellow Submarine, where he works. She is just the nicest, friendliest person you could ever hope to meet. And interesting, too.

Laura, maybe that was her! This woman was really a gem too...probably was her!

maybe you're thinking of chile and linda? they live on the "natural selection" in the harbor village marina...they are bonaire residents now but i think they might be originally from TX. i just got an email from them a few days ago.

Pat, that's the pair! I never met him, but she was an absolute delight. And once she opened her mouth, you knew she was from Texas.

Can anyone give advice as to the best way to get to Bonaire from BOS? Sounds like Bos - San Juan- Bonaire comes out on top from teh above emails,
but we would like to be able to get there early enough to dive...and it sounds like with the long layovers that's not in the cards.
Which airlines do you recommend
Also- how do you arrange your fight from San Juan to Bonaire? Can't seem to find one on the web.
Thanks in advance for all your help. Just reading the entries puts me right back there in Paradise.

margaret, welcome to Bonaire Talk. if you are going bos-sju-bon you are on AA. go to AA.com and arrange thru there. when our son lived in boston he came down to visit on AJ but that was two years ago. also, if you fly AA and AE (american eagle from SJU-BON) you will not get there in time to dive on your arrival day...you won't be in till about 840PM. if you can get on AJ you can be there about 4PM. if you do the continental redeye out of houston you'll have a full day on bonaire but you'll have been flying all night.

when do you plan on being there? you'll have a great trip...guaranteed.

Welcome to BT, Margaret!
AJ no longer flies that route.
If you can conveniently (I.e. non-stop) fly from Boston to Houston, you will leave Houston at 11:30 and arrive on Bonaire at 6:15 a.m. There is a two hour time difference, so the flight is only about 4 hours 30 minutes from Houston. That will give you 7 full days on Bonaire. One of my sons just did that flight, and he managed to stay awake all day when he arrived even though he had not slept Friday night.
Otherwise, you can take AA and American Eagle through San Juan, or you can fly to Aruba or Curacao and then take a commuter plane to Bonaire.
I like flying Delta non-stop from JFK to Aruba on Saturday, but I don't know if you can get a non-stop out of Boston.
You did not say when you are coming. If you plan to fly during hurricane season, you would be wise to avoid San Juan and Montego Bay.
Enjoy Bonaire!

American flies non-stop Boston to Aruba most days at around 7a.m. But the Aruba/Curacao/Bonaire commuter plane doesn't get you to Bonaire until around 8p.m. US air also has non-stops Boston Aruba on certain days. Have a good trip.

while i don't want to get the flights too full for next year, I'm surprised more East Coast folks on this board haven't commented about the Continental non-stop from Newark to Curacao. They are daytime flights with quite civilized times (southbound: 8:50am-2:30p; northbound: 3:25p-7:15p). I'm already stressing about my AA flights next month - every time I fly AA at least one of my bags does not show up on time. Continental announced this service a month after I booked our Feb06 trip. If I could change my tickets today for $100/pp I would...

Sue, I didn't know Continental actually started a flight from the east coast, I prefer Phila., but will most certainly look into it.

sue, years ago we had that problem with AA. seems like every time we flew somewhere, at least one bag would show up a day or two late. (knock on wood) we've had very good luck lately...that's why i like flying AA/AE from cleveland to bonaire....three different planes but the same airline and we've always gotten our luggage.

Debbie, it only operates on Saturdays & started in December. It looks like it will operate year round, not just the winter.

I plugged a few dates in for sample fares (3/11-18 = $508; 4/8-15 = $684 Easter; 5/13-30 = $448), adding on DiviDivi for $80 roundtrip makes this an affordable and less stressful option for me than AA. I hope to use miles in 2007.

If one would think how long it takes to "earn a dive vacation" they probably wouldn't be so willing to wait in any airports too long or have a one stop flight... Too bad more airlines don't fly to Bonaire non stop from major cities! I'm more than willing to pay more money to fly non stop than to wait at an airport on my hard earned vacation time with a greater chance of "them" losing my divegear... Wasted time is money to me when I'm traveling to dive!

jiminiŽ