We visited last month, but this time we opted to give Aruba Airlines a try. It wasn’t a direct flight, but it got us to Bonaire much faster than it would have been with any other airline. The tickets ran for $700 per person - round trip. We left Miami at 8:00 a.m., and we’re standing at the curb at Flamingo International waiting for the rental car folks to pick us up at 12:30 p.m. That’s 4-1/2 hours. Not bad.
Our actual route was Miami Aruba, Aruba Curaçao, Curaçao Bonaire. When we purchased the tickets, it was Miami to Aruba and then to Bonaire. No mention of Curaçao anywhere.
While everything worked out in the end, it was almost the most stressful flight experience I can recall. I say almost because back in the early 80’s we barely made it onboard an Antillean Airlines flight from Curaçao to Aruba, and that one flight takes the cake.
All legs of the flight were fully booked. To the brim. The planes are beat up, but functionally speaking, they did the job.
I want to keep this positive. I want to share this experience so that if the option of flying with Delta, American or Continental opens up, that fellow divers know that Aruba Airlines is likely to submit you to a stress test that no one expects to be forced into.
Every conversation with staff was unpleasant, every exchange of luggage custody felt like a gamble. Luggage was supposed to arrive without us having to re-check it. Fortunately, on the return flight while waiting in Curaçao, my wife and I noticed 2 lonely bags that seemed awfully familiar. We went to inspect and guess what, they were ours!!! Staff assured us that the bags would make it without our intervention. Of course, this was not true.
It seemed to us that we were going to loose our connecting flight between Aruba and Curaçao because the Airline kept paging us over the airport PA system, but we where simply moving as fast as humanly possible.
The Airline did O.K. We got our luggage all in one piece, and in the end.... everything turned out fine. There are very few fans of Aruba Airlines on social media. I think I understand why. Aruba Airline was very disjointed. Every leg of our trip seemed like a roll of the dice.
We love Bonaire, we plan on returning soon; however, will gladly fly from Miami to Atlanta if needed, pay more if needed, and just cope with the known challenges of getting to and from Bonaire than to chance it with Aruba Airlines.
Hope this helps.
Ricardo