Has anyone taken the new Insel Air flight to Curacao from Miami? If so, what are your opinions. What was the connection like to BON in Curacao?

Also, does anyone know if Insel is planning on making this a MIA-CUR-BON flight?

I've looked at the layover on Curacao and as I remember it's a 45 minute layover-- 6:00 pm to 6:45 with a 7:10 landing on Bonaire.
On the return flight from Bonaire, it leaves at 8:10, land on Curacao at 8:40 with a 10:30 takeoff to Miami.

I'm thinking of that in Jan. Good times and cost. Rebate offer is a big plus as well.

Bill: Is the flight to Bonaire a continuation of the flight from Miami or do you have to change planes? Same question for the flight back to Miami.

Jerry: Had the impression the rebate is only if you stay on Curacao. Can you confirm it is also for Bonaire?

Thanks.

I asked the question this afternoon by email. As of this point ?.

I found the information on Kayak.com and it didn't say if there was a plane change. I would suspect that it would depend on the # of people continuing on to Bonaire.

Can someone tell me where to get info on these flights on Insel Air? I'm interested in taking one from Miami, also. I've looked on kayak.com, but I'm not seeing anything there. Especially about the rebate offer. I'm trying to book a trip for my brother's 40th birthday. He's in the Keys and I'm in SC. I'm looking for a place where we can meet-up and fly down to BON together. My hubby works for one of the bigger hotel chains, so it would even be possible to stay overnight in Cur if we had to, in order to make the connection. Where do you find the info about staying on Cur? Sorry to ramble but I've been trying to book a return trip since last Thanksgiving (our first trip) and everything has been so expensive, I'm excited about finding a good price somewhere! Thanks ahead of time for any advice.

The rebate is on the web site of Insel Air
http://www.fly-inselair.com/

shelia-- you've got mail!

The rebate line is stated: "Curaçao Tourist Board announces US$100 rebate on your next Insel Air round-trip from Miami to Curaçao!". When you click for details, it adds that a 4-night hotel stay is required. It does not say anything about rebates on flights to Bonaire, and I doubt that Curacao's Tourist Board wants to provide a rebate for people who only fly through Curacao on their way to Bonaire.

Also the Insel website doesn't say anything about continuing service on the same flight to Bonaire from Miami nor does it say anything about connecting service to Bonaire from Miami; it shows separate flights between Miami and Curacao and Curacao and Bonaire, with a scant 45 minutes between those flights on the way to BON. I doubt you could make that connection if you had to clear immigration and recheck in with Insel Air.

Again, asking for specifics. Wonder if a call to their call center is the way to go to get answers.

They don't respond very well to emails.

Jerry- I also sent them an email, asking for clarification!

I do think we Bonaire people are out of luck on this deal.

Jerry- let's wait and see, this is a relatively new flight,maybe they can adjust the layover time.
We always have are stand out of Curacao--Divi Divi

Any news today, guys? I've found some great rates for our travel plans (which includes a 17 hour layover on CUR), but that works great for us. I'm waiting for confirmation that these people really do exist! You know the saying, "If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is!" I hope that's not the case this time.

Sheila
Did you find the flight on Kayak.com ? The flight exsist--if your not sure about the second leg of the Insel flight onto Bonaire, book the last flight of the day on Divi Divi and you can be there in the late afternoon.

Even better give Insel Air a call?

Bill: I did find the flight. It was a great idea for us, but now my brother has backed out of the trip. He has no idea what he is missing!

So, we are off to find a decent flight from Atlanta in June. The prices aren't so bad right now to CUR, but I'm just wondering if I should wait a few months, since the gas prices are dropping so fast. What say you guys? Do you predict the prices will drop in the next few months?

Sheila
Have you used Yapta, it will track the flight price and alert you to any changes, I've got 7 trips tracking as we speak, all for a late July trip back to Bonaire.

Yesterday I read a very negative comment in "De Amigoe" about Inselair.

The article says that they are not reliable, don't answer to emails and letters, had a long delay on Curacao and lie to the passengers.



INDIEN EEN passagier de toegang tot het vliegtuig wordt geweigerd of van boord wordt gehaald, kan de passagier zich beroepen op de rechten van de passagier die zijn vastgelegd volgens de (Europese) passagiersvliegrechten. Op Schiphol hangen overal de borden.
Hier in de Cariben is het een ‘wild wild west’, waar kleine onbetrouwbare vliegmaatschappijen zoals Insel Air de passagiersrechten schenden. De samenwerking met SLM werd heel snel opgeheven, omdat Insel Air zich niet aan de afspraken hield. Met als gevolg dat ondergetekende de instapkaart in de vertrekhal van Trinidad bijna onder bedreiging werd afgepakt en tot de volgende dag moest wachten om terug te vliegen naar Curaçao. Dit ging ten koste van de continuïteit van de patiëntenzorg. Insel Air weigerde een verklaring te geven aan de gedupeerde passagiers, en bleef volhouden dat de SLM verantwoordelijk was. Achteraf bleek het tegenovergestelde.
De heer Heerenveen en mevrouw Lee van het hoofdkantoor reageren niet op brieven, e-mails en telefoontjes, nadat in eerste instantie werd toegezegd de hotel- en taxikosten te vergoeden. Excuses aanbieden is echt niet voldoende. Begin september heeft ondergetekende vijf uur op Curaçao moeten wachten omdat, volgens Insel Air, Aruba de luchthaven gesloten had vanwege slecht weer. Voucher voor een drankje? Ho maar.
Bij aankomst op Aruba bleek dat de luchthaven helemaal niet gesloten was, maar dat een Amerikaanse toerist zijn connectie gemist had door vertraging van Insel Air. Om te voorkomen dat Insel Air voor de kosten van overboeking moest opdraaien, hebben ze doodleuk deze leugen de wereld ingestuurd.
Het is voor mij onbegrijpelijk dat Insel Air een vergunning heeft gekregen voor de route Florida.
Ik ben benieuwd hoelang het zal duren voordat deze vergunning wordt ingetrokken, en hoeveel passagiers zonder te handelen volgens de internationaal vastgestelde passagiersrechten gedupeerd zullen worden.
Geef mij dan maar een duurder ticket, maar dan met de garantie dat de maatschappij zijn verplichtingen tegenover de passagiers naleeft.
MONIQUE J. WONG LOI SING
Aruba

That's it for me, boys! I'll be going from Atlanta, definitely not on Insel Air from Miami. And I'm a new member of YAPTA. Thanks for the tip, Bill.

sheila
Just sit tight and see what happens, Have you thought about Tiara Air out of Aruba. so far from Las Vegas, the one stop Aruba flight has been the cheapest, by about 200$. Haven't heard anything negative about Tiara, which flies direct from Aruba to Bonaire!

We flew Tiara from BON back to AUA a month ago. They charged us an extra $50 for excess luggage weight whereas DAE chose not to charge any extra.

Bob, any chance you could translate or summerize in more detail what is written in Dutch

Tom-- were they on time?--how was the service?

We flew Tiara on a Tuesday around noontime from BON to Aruba. There were no large planes leaving BON in that timeframe, so Flamingo was semi-deserted. None of the check-in desks were labeled for Tiara even an hour before the flight. I paid our departure tax while we were standing idly about; I don't understand what the complaints about that are about.

Eventually they came out and taped up a 2' x 3' TIARA placard on one desk and started (SLOWLY) checking people in. Our 3 checked bags were over the composite limit, as I said, and it took the fellow a WHILE to compute the cost of the overage.

Because it was a small plane, their inefficiencies weren't too bad and I think we left and arrived pretty much on time.

Just thought I'd keep this discussion group alive.
Does anyone have any experience with Insel?
I'd hate trusting my vacation with them if they are unreliable. On the other hand they have the perfect route for me (MIA_BON)

Has anyone flown them yet out of Miami? I'm a desperate woman. AJ cancelled the Cur leg of my flight in early Feb, so I just cancelled the whole reservation. ATL/MIA to BON has a sweet price one way thru Cheapoair, and I can get back direct to ATL from Cur. Any recent experience anyone?

Diane, I emailed them a few days ago about fares in May. Got a reply in a day or so indicating their lowest fare during May is $394. including all taxes r/t Miami-Bonaire. Good Luck. As you probably know, Delta goes on Saturdays fr Atl ns. Last year they also did a rt on Wednesdays during peak season. I don't dnow about this season though. We went a few weeks ago on the Atl-Bon Delta and got there as expected. Returning, the connection at a little over an hour; was a problem as the bags must go thru Customs and be rechecked, etc. The problem was getting bags in a timely manner--waited most of our time on bags and barely made a flight only because it left late. One bag did not make the flight--got it next day..................... We are hoping Insel Air will prove reliable as we live in Florida.

I'm the guinea pig, I guess. I booked Insel MIA to Bon on 2/5 (originating in ATL with a Delta flight). I see no evidence of a Wed Delta nonstop yet, and have to move forward as I have all my plans in place. I am taking the ATL nonstop back (out of Curacao, as it is significantly cheaper.)Will post when I get back.

Hi Diana the guinea pig,
I just spoke with Insel and the woman there (Vivian) told me that it may be possible to check in for both flights in MIA and than we wouldn't have to check in again in CUR for the BON flight. THey would also take care of the baggage BUT she wasn't sure. She was going to check with her supervisor

Thank you, Carter. Good to know. I take it you are flying Insel. Am I still the guinea pig, or are you booked sooner than I am?

Diane you are still the G.P. We will not be leaving until July. What are you paying?

We are paying 334. per ticket from ATL one way to BON, and 343. returning CUR to ATL (plus the cost of Divi to get to CUR). My AJ tickets to CUR were 500 RT, but in my frantic attempts to find new travel options when AJ cancelled, I was pulling up 1000 a ticket to go for 9 days, so I'm pretty happy. Just hoping it goes as planned.

If Insel Air doesn't screw this up this should work out well for all the west coasters-- it means we can get to Bonaire without staying up all nite.

Carter--G. P. let us know how this works out!

Hello Diane, Now you got me even more curious about prices. Insel quoted me a R/T MIA-BON for 521. Do you know what the Insel portion of your ticket cost?
Bill, I will definitely keep everyone posted since I think this could be a solution to the "how in the world do we get to Bonaire question" . In previous years we took AA to CUR and than DIVI. Unfortunately the AA schedule changes make this difficult, thus I am all excited about Insel. One thing that has always confused me was why many more Americans flying from all the states didn't use Miami as a hub to Bon.

No idea how the ticket splits up between ATL/MIA, and MIA/BON.