Good Morning -- First time trip planner to Bonaire trying to find the best way and/or airline to get to Bonaire. I will be taking a regional flight to either Chicago, St.Louis or Minneapolis. Any suggestions, advise or comments would be much appreciated. Thanks for the assistance.

Since my flights to Bonaire originate in Kansas City, I've done a few routes to the ABC islands. Now I won't comment on the "best" way to get there, but will offer a few ways.. Sorry in advance for the long post, this is probably too much information...

Here is what I recommend:

1) go to Kayak.com (or similar website) search from your city to BON - just to see who is cheapest in general
2) go to Travelocity.com, input your city and BON, select "flexible dates" and select the month(s) your wanting to travel to Bonaire.

Between these two tasks this will tell you which airlines are offering the cheapest way down and back based on your preferences. (You may find Thursday departing flights are the cheapest)

Generally I've found that AA is the lowest cost to get to Bonaire, but you sometimes have to massage the route to get the fare you want.

Go to AA.com: (or your airline of choice)
1) Select multi city trip search
a. Use "Your city" leaving "anytime" or "evening" to "Hub City" on Day 1 (Friday) of your trip.
b. Select "Hub City" to BON on day two (Saturday morning) of your trip, leaving in the morning
c. For "Hub City" on AA, Use DFW, SJU and MIA. (Alternatively also look at FLL too)
d. I've generally found that MIA is the cheapest city, though sometimes FLL is much cheaper.

The reason I say this, is frequently if I'm wanting to travel to the ABC's (or anywhere in the Caribbean for that matter) and if I want to be there 7 or more days (Saturday to Saturday) I can frequently leave late on Friday, and arrive at a hub city, spend little on a airport hotel (since its Friday night and business travelers are done for the week, the rates are cheaper).

Now tips for this. On American, you can check your luggage "through" to your final destination as long as your layover does not exceed 12 hours. So If I leave MCI to MIA on a 7PM flight Friday, and get to MIA Arriving on the 11:30PM flight, as long as my MIA to BON flight departs before 11:30am in the morning (and it does), AA will hold all my checked luggage. (Sweet, eh? And I've never had them lose anything for doing this; just ensure that when the gate agent checks in your luggage do a double check on the paper tag on EACH piece. Ensure that each tag shows that its going to BON and on your itinerary - I've had agents accidentally try to put someone else's tag on my bag - bad deal - I also recommend printing out your complete itinary on a full sheet of paper and placing it on top of your stuff inside your luggage. That way if by chance it does get separated from you, whenever TSA or whoever opens it, they will know where it is supposed to be)

Now this being said, call the hotel in your hub city (and check their website) frequently Marriott, Starwood, et. al. will have internet only specials for weekend says (which include Friday night stays, sometimes free breakfast, and free shuttles to and from the airport)

Now I know that this does seem like a lot of work, BUT I've seen the price be substantially cheaper doing this "layover" method in a hub city. Now for whatever reason, I've found that AA's prices do change throughout the day. Further I've found that the lowest prices seem to be 9AM-11AM CST. Don't ask me why, but I've searched a route at 8AM CST, then at 10AM then at noon, had the 8AM and noon price be the same but the 10AM price be cheaper. Makes absolutely no sense to me, but for what its worth its been a 4 year history that sometimes the 10am search is cheaper. (for instance we are going to Aruba March. AA had a fare that I couldn't ignore, so it created a vacation)

Now that all of this has been said, AA has currently one flight daily from SJU to BON, its on an ATR flight, (small turbo prop 2x2 seating) AA does run a jet from MIA to CUR. You can generally get inexpensive tickets from CUR to BON. So I would check from your hub city to CUR for each of the segments and evaluate the cost of the CUR/BON flight as well.

My reason for mentioning this is two fold. That ATR flight is usually 100% sold, so if it gets canceled, you may be hanging out on SJU for a while. The MIA to CUR flight is generally not 100% full. AA started that flight to compete with defunct DCA from MIA to CUR; but has retained the flight nonetheless. So even if your MIA to CUR gets cancelled, you'll likely be on the next flight (which may be the next day, but at least your going)

Sorry for the long post, and yes doing all of these searches and options will likely take you a few hours. But if you can save hundreds per person on airfare, it can be worth it.

aron, on this trip we are flying thru chicago to SJU then to bonaire. flying down on a wednesday and back on a thursday. other than ORD being a huge airport to get from one gate or terminal to another we haven't had many problems there.

Paul, The quickest and easiest route from Kansas City to Bonaire is Continental via Houston. Only one change of planes in each direction.
My son flew this route and back recently and loved it. No problems and way fewer hours elapse from start to finish than on AA.
Of course, Continental hasn't been doing this flight long, so they have had little opportunity to mess up. Let's hope they never do.

Pat and Paul -- Thanks so much for the information. This will give me a great place to start from. I appreciate the assistance.

Tish, I absolutely agree with you. Continental is shorter takeoff to dive However AA can be much less cost than the shorter flight.

"Best way" there is subjective (least time in the airport vs least cost, vs wanting to go though SJU for the cheap rum in duty free vs wanting to have dinner in Miami to kickoff a vacation)

Paul,

I thought I was the only one that did all the research you describe to find the best route from KC to Bonaire. We go about 4 or 5 times a year. Feel free to email me directly any time you find a fare that "creates a vacation". If I am not motorcycle racing or diving I get bored very quickly. Maybe we will meet sometime at the airport.

Paul, no need to apologize for the long message, I got a little lost in there about Hub city to BON, but you pulled it out in the end.It's interesting what you seem to have found out, and thanks for sharing.

Paul, great information. We have been doing similar gymnastics for over 13 years. One further suggestion about A/A. We have found that the cheapest fare is often through a phone call to A/A, expecially late at night. We get all the internet prices and then see if they can match or beat them when we call. This has worked the last 2 years.

Thanks to all who responded, I appreciate your help. I no doubt will give your advise a go.

One more thought to ponder...I also fly from Missouri (we live central to both KC & St. Louis and St. Louis has been cheaper the last two years)and have spent many hours trying to find the cheapest flights. It can get frustrating, but the island is so worth it. Anyway, last year I searched and searched and then checked with SandDollars US reservations office because they offer help with airfares and they were able to get better prices than I could find on my own. They helped again this year also. Prices I was finding in the $1200 range went to $700. Only disadvantage - not much control over flight schedule. Last year we ended up in Chicago in January and it snowed (imagine that) and we almost missed the flight from SJ to Bon. This year we went through Dallas (not much chance for snow ) , but had a 5 hour layover in SJ on the way home. Arrived at BON airport at 5 a.m. and got into St. Louis at 9:00 p.m. Then 3 1/2 hour drive home. Long day. As my father-in-law says, the joys of traveling (but the island is so worth it - I think I said this already)!

Well in an amazing twist. If anyone here does any frequent travel, you must know of the "wright ammendment" limiting flights in and out of Dallas Love Field. Congress changed the law (again) and now allows Missouri to Dallas. As a result Southwest and American Airlines are battling these routes.

American is offering an amazing fly three, fly free Promotion. http://www.aa.com/apps/netSAAver/ViewPromotionsDetail.jhtml?repositoryId=14501598&repositoryName=PromotionContentRepository&itemDescriptor=PromotionContent

The crux of the offer is if you make three round trips (at an amazingly low cost) from Missouri to Dallas, AA will give you 30,000 frequent flyer miles -- which amazingly is enough to get from anywhere in the USA to Bonaire. So if you live in the general area, you can spend about 10 hours of your time, (going back and forth) to get a ticket to Bonaire.

So if your looking for a very cheap way to get a ticket, I think you'll be hard pressed to beat this offer from AA.