Well, our return trip home this past weekend on Air Jamaica was a nightmare. I'll try to make this short.

Our 4 p.m. flight ended up departing Bonaire at 10:15 p.m. Agents never could tell us why the plane was delayed in Montego Bay and late arriving in Bonaire.

We arrived in MoBay around midnight. After standing in line at Customer Service for more than an hour, we were transferred to the Holiday Inn. There we spent another hour-plus in line trying to check in to a room. Finally got into a room at 2:15 a.m.

The flight the next morning was only slightly delayed, and we arrived in Atlanta a little before 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

There were people on the plane with us from Chicago. Their trip was delayed in both directions (both to and from Bonaire), causing them to miss several days of their vacation.

Needless to say, I am now very wary of Air Jamaica. What is going on with them? I run trips to Bonaire through a dive shop, and had 14 people/customers with me. I am almost afraid to book another trip on Air Jamaica because our continued business depends on customers being happy.

Any thoughts/comments?

Thanks!

Peggy

Peggy,

The folks from Chicago didn't happen to include Mick & Barbara, did they? They definitely had a heck of a time getting to Bonaire the previous weekend.

We had a bunch of friends arriving on Saturday's AJ flight, which got in sometime around 8:30pm, I believe - only about 5 hours late.

AJ usually is quite plane dependent, so it's possible that they had delays taking off from wherever in the U.S. the plane started from in the morning, and it just passed that delay through the rest of the day.

I've been flying American exclusively since they came on-island about 18 months ago, and so far no missed connections, and no significant delays. But the early morning departure from Bonaire is brutal.

Jake

We talked with many of the Chicago people while hanging around the airports, but I don't know if Mick and Barbara were among them (we didn't always ask for names).

Aside from that, the trip was the best yet.

I've heard that Delta will soon be providing nonstop service from Atlanta to Bonaire. Hopefully that is true.

Peggy

The same happened to us on our way home from Bonaire a couple weeks ago. I might add it’s happened 3 times in the last 2 ½ years to us on American (to other Caribbean destinations) which got us stuck in Puerto Rico. Frankly I enjoyed the opportunity of getting stuck somewhere new and was most impressed how well AJ treated us in Montego Bay. Anytime you have a late afternoon flight your risk of having delays and problem increases as all your problems from earlier in the day stack up against you.

Also lets hope Delta’s flight isn’t a code share on DCA as it was on ALM. At least AA and AJ don’t unexpectedly divert you to other Islands after you get in the air with frequency (Curaso, Haiti, etc.)

AJ is still my choice, of course that avoids a 6 hour layover in SJU for me.

It is always a crap shoot on any of the airlines.

Wait until DCA completes their change back to Twin Otters interisland. BALM-- baggage always late, mon-- it comes in at 11:30 pm on the MD-80 after it's days work is over. 1980's all over again.

Jake,

If it was Saturday, you can bet Mick & Barb were on the flight. I will never hear the end of it..... I'm the one that told them to take AirJam in the first place!

Our flight on Friday was slightly delayed. No problems going to Bonaire the previous week, but we were a bit late leaving Bonaire, then about 2-3 hours late leaving MoBay. We arrived home around 4am Chicago time.

Who cares? I just take it in stride. Being mad will solve nothing. Besides, it gave me a chance to finish my novel. I haven't finished a book in about 10 years. Always start them on vacations, but never seem to finish them (in case you're wondering, I read "1984" for the first time).

We have taken AirJam four times and have never had any serious problems. I have every intention of taking them on our next trip.....

Jake, do you reckon Barb will have anything to say about it??

Barb? Nah. She's too much of an introvert :-)

Jake

If anyone hears that Delta is actually putting on a direct ATL-BON , please let me know. I'm currently booked on Delta out of Rochester on Jan 29, via ATL to San Juan, then AA to BON. I'd see if I can switch if there's a direct flight, it'd be worth the cost, if they don't gouge me...

I know that the weather was bad through out the US. "Bad" as in snow in the central state up to Washington DC, and ice in the lower states.

I saw yesterday, that Delta will probably be implementing an Atlanta to Curacao flight as of 01/05/03.

We were on that Air Jamaica flight. What happened was the door-life raft thingy (them's technical terms, thar! ) at the front of the plane had lost pressure. They first tried resetting it, then repressurizing it. We sat on the plane for an hour and a half without AC for that. Then, they hauled out a "portable" AC unit (about the size of an F150), and piped in AC for us for another half-hour or so. Eventually, the mechanic determined he couldn't fix it. They had us all deplane (out the back door, since it was the main door having the issues), and I believe they eventually replaced it completely. We eventually got off the ground around 7:30 or so I think.

The fact is, this was a safety issue, and I for one am quite content that they made sure the liferaft would deploy if it were needed.

We've flown Air Jamaica a number of times, and although there has often been little glitches (no power in Montego Bay once, so hand ticketing, for instance) we've always been happy with their service. I doubt the mechanic was an AJ mechanic - it seems much more likely that the service people are employed by the airport itself. Even though we were almost 6 hours late getting in, our return trip this past Saturday (14th) was completely uneventful.

We'd still fly Air Jamaica again, any time.

I also want to add that the Air Jamaica reps in Bonaire probably had as little clue to the problem as anyone else except the mechanics - as it was, even the pilot was at their mercy. Every so often he'd get on the PA system and announce that they "thought" it was fixed; then 5 or 10 minutes later he'd be back on to say that it was proving to be more of a problem than they thought, and that he'd keep us informed as soon as he heard anything.

In the current times, travel can often be problematic. It's unfortunate that this happened but it isn't necessarily something particular to Air Jamaica.

We had AirJam down and back 11/30 and 12/7
We started at 0430 on Saturday arrived at Capt Don's at midnight on Sunday. That's a day and half of diving missed and then arrived back in Chicago at 0200 on Monday after starting out from the resort at 1300 on Saturday. No I'll not fly AJ again if it was free. This was our third trip to Bonaire.

Tom,
Sounds like you had some seriously bad luck. We have never had anything like that, in the 5 trips down we've made. Were you travelling from the midwest or west coast?

Still, before abandoning Air Jamaica completely, search this board for some of the American Airlines horror stories - many of them eerily similar to yours, with the added "bonus" that they often overbook flights, so the flight you were to be on may be on time for all connections but you'll have been bumped.

When it comes to flying, I try to look at my personal horror story the same way Garp in "The World According to Garp" looked at the plane flying into the house he was about to buy: what's the likelihood of this ever happening again? At least by my experience with Air Jamaica, not all that likely.

I was on that long AJ flight on the 7th. I have flown American and AJ in the past and I prefer AJ because of its departure and arrival times. It leaves me more time in Bonaire if on schedule. Even with all our delays, we were at the airport at the same time as my friend who had just landed on American! I think any airline can have mechanical problems and my vote is still AJ.

If you want to find out how a Bonairean and some visitors made lemonade out of a lemon of an Air Jamaica "experience" from Newark Airport to Bonaire, check out the story in this week's Bonaire Reporter, "Knight in Shining Armor."

a miracle happened.on our last trip to bonaire in august air jamaica messed up in ny.mechanical failures prevented us from taking off in time to make the connection in montego bay.they got us there after many complications via AA.i complained despite the fact that i had been told from friends that i would get no satisfaction,not from AJ. imagine my surprise when i was recently sent an apology for the inconvenience along with complimentary round trip tickets.hurray for air jamaica.bonaire here we come!!!

Go you dog