Well, I thought the 45 minute connection that American Airlines sold us in San Juan was too short. Our flight crew was late getting to our plane because of a "long walk" - they arrived to our gate "sauntering" up the concourse - then 10 minutes of hydraulic problems put us into SJU right about the time the American Eagle flight to Bonaire was taking off.

In spite of a DOZEN passengers to Bonaire making the same connection, and in spite of the pilot radioing ahead requesting them to do so, and in spite one of the passengers being handicapped with a service dog, American Eagle WOULD NOT hold the flight for 20 minutes... Some nonsense about "well American Eagle is it's own company, and since they have to bus people out to the plane they don't want to hold it...." BALONEY! No excuse, IMNSHO. Lots of livid, frustrated people.

Now we're sitting in San Juan, listed as STANDBYE on the Tuesday flight, confirmed on the Saturday flight a WEEK FROM NOW, aaaarrrggghhh....

On the phone again tomorrow trying to see what help we can get, and trying to keep a reasonably positive attitude in the process.

Tom,
You are to be commended on trying to keep a positive attitude. I do hope you make it to Bonaire before Tuesday. Keep us updated.

Tom, thank GOODNESS it is low season and the flights may not be full. I am surprised they did not ship you all to MIA and then Aruba which they have done MANY times to folks in the past. PHOOEY.

Suggestions on a charter company from Aruba to Bonaire? St. Maarten to Bonaire?

Got skype in one ear, my cell phone in the other, and figure all the info that I can give these folks for a solution to this dilemma the better.

Tom,

If you can get to Sint Maarten, DAE comes to BON via Curacao. Listen, A should be able to get you out Tue. If you can extend your holiday, enjoy Old San Juan and go to El Yunque.

I am on the phone with AA. Call me 508 737 5245.

If you can get to either Aruba or Curacao you should be able to catch a flight without having to get a charter.

http://www.flydivi.com/

http://www.tiara-air.com/

http://www.flydae.com/

THERE ARE NO SEATS ON AA TO BONAIRE TUE. EGADS

There is a flight to SXM today at 11:30 every day on AA. Then take DAE to BON.

Ken, he has to fly to Miami to connect to Aruba or Curacao. Best bet is SXM and then DAE to BON.

Tom, call Cape Air in SJU to see if they will take all 20 of you to BON. Private charter?

Right now it looks like American can get us to Santo Domingo by 3:52 PM tomorrow (Monday) or to St. Maarten by 12:30PM tomorrow (Monday).

I've got the airlines in one ear and am trying to figure out how to get from Santo Domingo or St. Maarten to Bonaire at those times. May end up with a night in either of those places?

And thanks for how everyone is jumping on this. The advice is REALLY appreciated...

Looks like we're leaving for St. Maartens tomorrow (Monday) and will need to spend one night in St. Maartens, and will get into Bonaire late Tuesday. Thankful for that.

Now we're just trying to find a place to stay in St. Maarten's that doesn't leave us in debt for the rest of our lives. Not easy on short notice.

Again, Can't tell you how I appreciate everyone here on BT.

Also, Liz at Golden Reef has been an AMAZING help. She squared away our tickets St. Maarten to Bonaire, and is helping us work on lodging. WAY ABOVE and beyond the call of duty... Thaks Liz.

Horny Toad or Mary's Boon in SXM

Tom, I feel your pain. When you make it to Bonaire, I hope you will find a way to extend your stay.

American abused my family exactly the same way on a trip to Bonaire back in 2006. We were late leaving MIA on a Friday flight because we had to wait for the flight crew. That put us into SJU late and AE did not hold the Bonaire departure. AA offered us stand-by on Wednesday, 5 days later! When we declined that kind offer, AA flew us to Aruba and abandoned us. We eventually got stand-by on DAE from Aruba to Curacao, then lucked into space on a DiviDivi flight to Bonaire, but I had to pay for those flights (for all 5 of us) out of pocket.

Airlines flights get screwed up. Weather, equipment issues, flight crew problems - it happens to every airline every day. In my opinion, the mark of a higher-quality airline is how they respond to these challenges. If the flights don't occur as scheduled, how does the airline respond to solve the customer's problem? In my experience, AA/AE is at the bottom of the barrel with regard to solving problems they have created. And that is why I will never fly the AA/AE itinerary to Bonaire again. Too many connections, too many places for things to go wrong, no customer service from AA/AE.

But on the side of positive customer service, you are fortunate to have Liz working on your behalf.

Sincerely hope you are able to get this mess sorted out soon and begin to enjoy your well-deserved vacation.

John, our own Timmy had a similar snafu with CO. When Ike was heading to IAH, they shut down the airport and cancelled his flight. I was on hold almost 2 hours and finally got someone. She would NOT protect him on another carrier and told me he was on his own. I booked him on AA and lo and behold the night before CO emailed him confirming him on the Newark flight. IMHO it's a luck of the draw with airlines. I fly AA about 20-25 one ways or 10-12 round trips a year and it's been almost flawless. Gotta knock wood.

Hi Ann - I know lots of people fly AA to Bonaire routinely and have no difficulty. You're a travel professional and probably hear all the stories, both good and bad. I also agree that you can round up horror stories for each and every airline. My point is that when things go wrong with the AA/AE connections, a minor problem can evolve into a major travel meltdown.

I'm willing to cut Continental a little slack in the example you cited. A major US hub (Houston) was completely closed by a weather disaster and Continental was left scrambling. Yes, they could have anticipated the problem and responded better, but it was certainly a difficult situation. And in the end, it sounds like CO came through.

Compare that with the AA/AE problems that Tom and I described above. In both cases, the sequence of events was set off by a very mundane and avoidable problem (flight crew was late for an AA flight to SJU), not by a catastrophic hurricane. But the end result of that seemingly mundane problem is that AA/AE was only able to schedule completion of our flight to Bonaire FIVE days late (and 3-7 days late for Tom's group, depending on the whims of the stand-by gods).

I'm glad you had had great luck with AA/AE. I'm no longer willing to take that chance.

John, Tom, I feel your and most others travel pain. Believe me I've been there and done that before in my travels for work and vacation. Some of us have to travel weekly for our livings and I can tell you that there is not one airline that is worse or better than any other in the long run.

Airline personnel, well that is another story altogether. It could be their usual bad nature, a bad day and god forbid a combination of both that day.

AA and AE have at BEST enjoyed a very tenuous partnership in many of their markets. I must admit that the SJ market can tax even the most veteran of travelers.

It may seem counterintuitive to do the following but make AA send you to MIA. There you have a better choice of destination possibilities and frequency at MIA than in SJ, by that I mean go to Curacao. At least it has been my experience that you will make out better on Curacao than on Aruba, as far as getting to BON is concerned.

Just MHO...

Jim

Any updates on our friends out there? I truly feel sorry for their misfortune.

I know this is way after the fact but we had the exact same thing happen to us in 2006. The flight staff actually told us they had radio'd ahead and they were holding the flight for 15 minutes. When we got there, big surprise the plane had left.

Luckily there was a travel agent on our flight who made some calls and secured six of us spots on a flight from Aruba to Bonaire the next day. If she hadn't we probably would have been stuck in San Juan for a week waiting for a direct flight to Flamingo.

Even though SJ is the worst airport in the western hemisphere I make sure I have at least 2 hours there these days.

My apologies for not bringing some closure to this original post. Here is our (very abbreviated) story, and lessons learned.

**After FIVE days in transit we finally ended up in Bonaire, CHOOSE to have a good attitude, and enjoyed the 7 days we had left of our original 12 day vacation. Highlight of the trip was doing a shallow 65 minute dive at Andrea II with my non-diving wife snorkeling above us the entire time. Meant SO much to me personally.

**Ended up 2 days in SJU, 1 in St. Maarten, and 1 in Curacao. Liz at Golden Reef was an absolute doll in walking us through every step of the way.

**How can I communicate how incredibly frustrating this was? We lost 5 days literally because of a late flight crew and American EAgle's inability / unwillingness to hold a plane for 15 MINUTES. Besides the lost days of vacation we are out $350 for the tickets that we had to purchase out of our pocket to get from St. Maarten to Bonaire. The only "compensation" we've been offered from American is $200.00 to go toward our next ticket. Unbelievable. (Oh, and by the way, this was not just our party of 4, but a total of 14 people, 1 handicapped person and their attendant, all going to dive in Bonaire.)

**We stayed in hotels on American's dime and ate well and made the most of it and would have traded any of it to be able to get to BON.

***Lessons Learned:
#1) (and most important) ALWAYS allow AT LEAST 2 hours for any connections in SJU to BON. An hour or so is just too risky. American will sell it to you, but if ANYTHING goes wrong you're sunk. This was not too bad when there were flights 7 days a week. Now that they only go 3 times a week it will eviscerate your vacation.

#2) If you do get stuck, get to Curacao or Aruba to connect to BON. We are not experienced Carribean travelers and so had no idea initially even what to ask for or we might have gotten to Bonaire more quickly. We ended up in St. Maarten for a night, and then our connecting flight out of Curacao was cancelled as well so we had to overnight there. Then the day we finally left 3 flights were cancelled or delayed before we finally got out late that afternoon.

Bonaire Talk is a great resource to the traveling / diving community. Thanks to everyone... Help and advice was quick and usually spot on.

Hopefully I'll get back in the next few months...

Respectfully,

Tom Nic

Tom, this is a terrible experience. My disappointment and frustration would have been unfathomable too.

I wonder if you had any insurance for this trip, or if it would have made any difference if you had it.

This is a situation that should have been rectified by the airline, but I am wondering what could travel insurance do for you in a situation like this. Anyone?

i was also stuck in San Juan for 3 nights. AA got delayed in Miami for 1 1/2 hr on january 3, 2009. when we finally got to PR we sat on the plane for 45 minutes. We missed our BOnaire flight. got stuck in PR for 3 days too. I tried looking at other airlines, routes etc but had no luck so i had to stay in San Juan, PR for 3 days. I i don't think travel insurance would make up for lost time. ALso i had over 2 hrs in layover time, i still missed my flight.