We had booked our USA to Bonaire leg on Delta out of Atlanta for next August 23, 2008. Since they would only allow us to book so many weeks ahead of time, we were told to call back two weeks later to book the return flight. When we did so, to our shock, we were informed that not only had the flight we'd already booked been cancelled, but Delta has no more flights to Bonaire planned after August 16, 2008.

Now we read that Air Jamaica is also pulling out of Bonaire?? What is going on????? Is there no demand for travel to Bonaire??

Perhaps it is seasonal and will stop Aug. 16 and return in the winter? Let's wait for something official before we all react.

We are "reacting" (if you choose to call it that) because this time period is the ONLY time period we can ever travel to the island--August/September each year. So more flights in the winter, if that is even the case, (we spoke with several Delta representatives, supervisors and someone in scheduling who never offered even a hint of continued flights in the future) won't help us or others like us who can only travel during certain times of year.

We posted because we hoped a travel agent or someone with a more "inside" track on travel would respond with information.

F. I got the dig..thanks for that (not)...Unfortunately travel agents like myself find out the same time you do. No one in the know that I had spoken to when I read your post heard of anything. Living on the islands I have learned not to react right away until the facts are presented. That was my point, certainly not to invoke your comment directed at me.

Ann Phelan

Since this Delta flight is relatively a new thing and I think it will be quite successful, maybe they are waiting to see how things go and only are committed at this time to the dates they told you. If all goes good, they should open up those dates as time goes on. Another possibility is maybe they are quite FDAA approved for further than that at this point and are working on that. Hope that they continue this flight as we are also looking at that time period and waiting it out to see what transpires in a month or two.

I, too, would love to book now, but will wait a little while and see what happens. Going to try the CO out of Newark again to see how the family adjusts to the red-eye in a few weeks, in August, my son and hubby did not do so well sleeping on plane and were wiped out the rest of the day.

Perhaps no one at Delta is a fortune teller?
Delta came out of bankruptcy just a few months ago, perhaps are waiting to see how much $$$ they make on this route before they commit to it.
Why not try a carrier that has already established service? AA/AE has been there many years, CO has just added flights, etc...

Holy crow, I was thinking about flying Delta too... yikes. Dang it.... I wanted my first trip down there to be easy, and that non-stop out of Atlanta would have been perfect. Hmmm.

Ann, Who knew that you were a travel agent? Certainly I didn't. So if you read a dig into my remarks about travel agents responding, I assure you it was not directed toward you. It seems your comment about my "reacting" to Delta's cancellation of my flight was the first dig made.

But what say we just agree to let this whole thing drop and not turn this post into something it was never intended to be? I just want any information that anyone may have about future flights on Delta to Bonaire.

Teri,
I travel to Bonaire on AA Miami to Curacao and take Divi Divi to Bonaire. There is a daily flight on AA around 11 a.m. It is pretty easy and on-time. DD doesn't fly at night but is reliable too.
Bud
Boca Raton

Thanks for the tip, Bud. I'll look into that too.

I've heard that Delta will be taking a short "vacation" from flights during the really low season of late August through late September, and then will re-commence flights on October 4, 2008. The dates they will not be operating their new weekly service are Aug23-Sep27.

Hope that helps.

Susan

F.K. We too are frequent ATL to BON flyers, 14 times in the past 15 years. We have flown A/A, AJ, and a charter once. If you cannot get Delta or AJ I recommend the ATL - MIA - CUR flight and then on Divi/Divi to Bonaire. We have done this twice without any problem vs numerous problems through SJ. Also, we have been able to use FF miles on the Curacao flight and never on San Juan.

I just completed my 10th or 11th DFW-SJU-BON trip. All have been on FF miles and have never lost a bag or been bumped on the Eagle. We did accept $1000 to fly from SJU-Tampa-DFW last week and got home an hour later than scheduled. Bags were waiting of course. Try flying in mid Apr-May or Sept-early Nov and you won't have any trouble using miles or being crowded. I think we had about 15 people on the BON-SJU flight Thurs last week.

I'd not be surprised that Delta would take a break in the slow season? There flights to Cur are seasonal also.

I am going to Bonaire for the first time this January 4-13, and the Continental red-eye flight from Houston to Bonaire is already fully booked. I think that is a pretty strong statement that people are willing to go there. Looking back, it was very lucky for us because we got our tickets only a few days back.

Thanks, everyone, for your input. Don't know what we will do at this point. The dates Delta has apparently decided to take a "break" in flying to Bonaire are the only dates we can travel. Taking a red-eye flight and losing an entire day (not to mention a very early departure on the return that blows another whole day of our vacation) just doesn't excite us.

What is the deal with the red-eye flights?? Morning flights from the US would arrive in Bonaire by early afternoon, leaving enough time to snorkel or at least enjoy a partial day. And there would still be enough time for that flight to return to the States before it got too late in the evening. Why fly at such weird times? Go figure... But once again, thanks for everyone's suggestions.

Why not add a day by taking the Continental down through Houston and return through Newark? The Houston flight departs Friday night and the Newark flight returns on Sunday morning. That extra day will help make up for time lost being so sleepy the day after the red-eye. We did that in late August 2007 and it worked out good.

For what it's worth: we did the red-eye from Newark, getting in at 4 AM (the flight arrived early). We didn't get a whole lot of sleep on the flight but did manage to get two dives in Sunday afternoon, and even contemplated a night dive (but thought better of it when we completely ran out of gas around 8PM) so you don't *really* have to lose a day going down. I realize there are some people who think you haven't gone on a dive vacation unless you dive 4 to 5 times a day, but I'm thankfully older and wiser...

Robert
Try going thru Curacao--but whatever you do fly Divi Divi, do not try DAE---got to the airport at noon yesterday and DAE was so screwed up I didn't make Bonaire until after 5--- Can't trust them so I'll book on Divi for the flight back to Cur.