Annie, My wife and I just returned from our seventh trip to Bonaire last Thursday and traveled through Aruba this time using USAir frequent flier miles to get to AUA and then Avia Air to BON. My arrangements had originally been made with Royal Aruban, and they took care of the Avia Air reservations and tickets(including one leg on DCA). I too never got Avia to return e-mails, but once in Aruba, we found Avia to be very helpful and quite pleasant. We would definitely fly them again if we had to go through Aruba, even with the long intervals between our arriving and departing flights. Here is what we had: Avia 305 AUA – BON 19:00 – 19:45 Thursday, 17 Oct DCE 3001 BON – CUR 08:50 – 09:10 Thursday, 24 Oct Avia 406 CUR – AUA 12:00 – 12:30 The CUR connection was forced because DCE discontinued its connecting flight to AUA at about 09:40. We had to recover our bags in CUR, go through Customs/Immigration, and then check in with Avia and re-enter the departure lounge. While waiting in AUA for our return flight to the States, we noticed an Avia Air flight leaving for BON at about 15:00. Not sure of its flight number or the return options. Also, from what we could tell, there are no convenient morning or early afternoon departures from Bonaire on Avia; mainly late afternoon and at about 8:00PM Avia flies 15 passenger Embraer Bandierante 110 aircraft. While a bit older, they were more comfortable than the J-31's and J-41'2 many local airlines fly in the States. We cruised at about 7,000 ft, and the flights were fine. When someone asked the co-pilot about the difference between the Embraers and the Dash-8s that DCE flies, he responded that the Dash-8s were more comfortable but the Embraers were on time. Only issue is the Embraers are small and have limited luggage-carrying ability. Avia limits you to 20-kilos (44 pounds) per passenger in checked baggage and some small carry-ons. Our combined checked weight for our two bags was 91 pounds (slightly over the combined 88 pounds allowed) but Avia did not charge extra or even comment. Plus our two carry-ons totaled about 35 lbs (28 lbs for the one computer bag holding our regs, dive computers and some other gear, and about 7 lbs for the knapsack), but Avia did not even question them. Only other issue with baggage is that Avia's cargo area cannot accommodate anything very large, like a wind surfboard. Good luck. Mark |