Things have changed so since our last flight to Bon in 04. It only took us 4 hrs to get there, then, on AJ. But anyway, trying to look at flight schedules for this trip (out of Tampa), every flight seems to have a HUGE layover in PR. 8 hrs is a long time.

So anyway, I signed up with Spirit to get my daughter these $8.00 (yes, no 0's are missing) tickets from ATL to Tampa next week, and have been looking at their specials, and they have flights daily to Montego Bay, Jamaica. SHORT flights. And it looks like AA to Bon will work out.

Since I'll be using my FF miles, I'm thinking of just trying to book from Montego Bay to Bon, and paying the tiny price for the r/t from Tampa to Jamaica myself, just to save us 16 hours!

Anyway, if anyone's tried this, let me know. Or if you have other ideas for saving time on the trip.

So if I am reading this correctly you will fly Air Jamaica to Montego Bay and then American to Bonaire? Wouldn't you have to fly from Montego Bay to San Juan on AA to get to Bonaire? I have never seen AA flights to Bonaire from anywhere other than San Juan.

Nope. Spirit Air from Tampa to Montego Bay, then AA or AJ from Montego Bay to Bon.

Still have to do so research and make sure the times work.

You have me confused on this one also, I do not believe AA flys from Montego Bay to Bonaire, only AJ.

Kathy you should also look at the Curacao route. Easy to get to from Florida (daily flights from MIA), then a short hop on Divi Divi to Bonaire.

Cecil, AA does fly from Montego Bay to Bon, but they go to Miami first. Scratch AA. I guess it would have to be AJ.

I'll check that route (Curacao) as well.

I just got to thinking when I started getting their specials, some this week to PR, Grand Cayman, Cancun for $7.00.

I'd just hate to waste 2 days of a 10 day trip in layovers.

Just remember if you book directly on two different airlines you lose all rights on missed flights, etc.; If Spirit is late getting you to Jamaica and you miss your AJ flight you are out of luck.

And I think AJ will only fly to Bonaire from Montego Bay on Saturday.

Yep, Jim, I just had time to check and you're right, though travel search engines list that they fly on Wednesday, as well. I think I remember when they cut that out.

Ah well. I'm going to keep researching this. 14 hrs to get to Bonaire and less than 5 to get back (on AA) is for the birds.

Oh, and I can't even get into spritair.com right now because those $7.00 flights expire tonight, and people must be all over that site.

Kathy, you could try to fly to Houston and do the Continental thingie to Bonaire. Have no idea of cost effectiveness with that, but worth a try. Yup, long layovers in San Juan with American. Just flew them and then had a three hour delay on top of the long layover to get to Bonaire. All worth it to me, but all my future flights are now with Coninental. I like that I can fly one plane and just one flight from the northeast now too.

Deb, we looked into it again last night and if we drive the 72 miles to Orlando the flights are about 4.5 hrs each way - all on AA, which is probably how we'll go. We will be using our rewards points from the Citi card, so no cost - so time was our only consideration.

Had to throw that out here and see if anyone else had come up with creative ideas on how to get there faster!

The whole AA thing is really a pain in the ***. We flew from Phila to San Juan in December and had a 7 1/2 hour layover in San Juan. We did go to the Inter-Continental and had a nice time. I also lost some money at their casino. However, that is par for me and casinos. From San Juan to Bonaire is on American Eagle, which is a prop plane and I think not real pressurized. My ears were really hurting, as never before. Anyway, when you land in Bonaire, everything was worth it. By the way, I looked at your profile. You and your girls are absolutely beautiful. The picture looks like a Sweedish convention.

Thanks, Jim. My daughters are beautiful, for sure. I'll have to take a new pic, that one is from the last time I had my two girls together with me here, and it's special.

My husband is on his computer checking these flight times out (he didn't believe me!), and I hear him exclaiming from the other room. ;) It's ridiculous. He's already tried Tampa and saw what I saw, then he just tried from Sarasota, and they want us to fly to Atlanta first. lol He'll see that driving to Orlando is the only way to not waste a day. Which, I used to live in PR as a baby and haven't been back, so I really wouldn't mind one day going to PR for a vacation (a short one), but I just don't want it to take a whole day of Bon time. Y'know what I mean.

My client flew Friday JFK to SJU on Jet Blue. It was late. She got to the AE terminal at 6:20 but they would not let her get a boarding pass. She had to overnight in SJU at her expense, fly to MIA and then CUR and then DAE to BON, all at her expense. Thank GOD she took my advise to get trip insurance. I know the topic was Spirit but take heed when flying two carriers to BON. It's not always a win win proposition.

IMHO