Air Jamaica to Montego Bay and on to Curacao

[O'Malley]

We have never flown Air Jamaica...anyone here flown and have any good, bad experiences or simply, advice?
We are leaving for Curacao next Saturday, departing O'Hare and flying AJ with a connecting flight out of Montego Bay. We are trying REALLY hard to pack minimally but I will be carrying on camera gear in a Lowepro Commerial AW DV while my wife totes essential dive gear in an Akona wheeled carry-on...the one hour to connect flights in Montego Bay has me concerned. Thanks!

 

[Drew Sailbum]

I've only flown AJ once, and it was a tremendous relief because it was my return flight home to Cayman after hurricane Ivan.

Connect times are properly scheduled for the Mo Bay airport, and should not be a problem. I flew in from Atlanta, got off the plane and walked down the terminal and straight onto my connecting flight. No problems.

 

[Floridawannabe]

I can fit into a semi large truck and do not eat much, please take me From one cold water diver to another cold water diver. Have agreat time, Happy New Years.

 

[scuba.gator]

We have never flown Air Jamaica...anyone here flown and have any good, bad experiences or simply, advice?
We are leaving for Curacao next Saturday, departing O'Hare and flying AJ with a connecting flight out of Montego Bay. We are trying REALLY hard to pack minimally but I will be carrying on camera gear in a Lowepro Commerial AW DV while my wife totes essential dive gear in an Akona wheeled carry-on...the one hour to connect flights in Montego Bay has me concerned. Thanks!

Flew AJ to Montego Bay from Atlanta a couple of years ago. VERY pleasant flight. Aircraft are all very up-to-date Airbus planes and the flight crew were very nice. Highly recommended.

 

[herman]

I don't know how to answer this.
AJ USE to be my favorite airline, on time, great planes, good food (well as airline food went) and nice staff. Then they ran into money trouble. The last year or so they had gotten pretty bad with canceled flights, never on time and burned out staff and were getting a rep as the airline from hell. BUT, the last I have heard they had reorganized and gotten back to being fairly good again. I have not flown them lately so a lot of this is second hand. The one hour connection in Mo Bay is not a problem, it's a small airport and the gates are close together. AJ is (at least was) always good about holding planes if they knew there were more transfering passengers.
That said, If I were heading to Curacao now, I would take AA to Miami and then on to Curacao. One plane change and one airline to deal with.

If you do take AJ, I would like to know how it went. I am in the early stages of planning a trip and AJ is one of the airlines I can use. Recent first hand reports are always nice to have.

 

[LI Diver]

I'm sorry to say but I had a bad experience with AJ in July. We went to Breezes in Curacao and our flight got canceled out of New York after we were already cked in. We had to get our baggage back and they told us it was canceled indefinately because of weather(not their fault ok). But when I went to the ticket counter they wouldn't credit me towards another flight because we purchased tickets through Breezes. It ended up costing me $2400. for (4) one way tickets to San Juan and then to Curacan our return we called to see if we could extend our stay and take a flight a few days later and they told us we did not have reservations because we did not use our tickets in sequence. After spending way too much vacation time with them on the phone we ended up paying $ 100. for them to reinstate our tickets and another $ 100. for them to change the departure dates. When our day came and we went to the airport they kept us waiting all day saying our flight was delayed and at 4 oclock in the afternoon told us it was canceled. They did put us up overnight at the Hilton which was real nice. 6 am the next day we schleped back to the airport to sit all day again and finally fly us into Montego Bay at 9pm. Of course our connecting flight to NY was over booked so we got to stay in a seedy part of Jamaica for the night. The next day there was no flights to NY so we had to fly to Ft Lauderdale and then get a flight back to NY. Oh BTW when I went to AA to get the tickets to San Juan the lady at the ticket counter laughed and said that Air Jamaica hasn't had a flight go out without a problem in months!Also BTW thewre was no air conditioning in the airport in Jamaica and they ran out of ice for drinks and food consisted of hot dogs the color ond consistency of play dough. Also Breezes super clubs did nothing to refund or help us in any way and even charged us $400. per extra night when we only paid $ 5100. for 7 days with round trip airfare. They tried to charge us more by telling my wife $700. per night while I was out diving!:huh:

 

[RICHinNC]

It is pretty simple for me. It would have to be under extreme duress before I would fly AJ again. It is the worse airline I have EVER flown on.

 

[crb792]

Sorry to hear you are flying AJ. We were to use them last year from Baltimore to Curacao, connecting in Montego Bay. Got to airport and was told there was no flight crew available untill 11 am. By that time we would miss our connection to Curacao. In the airlines defense the the counter personal did manage to reroute us through Miami on American carriers. This took much sucking up! They also gave us 2 one hundred dollar vouchers for our next excursion on AJ.
Return flight was late leaving Curacao. They did delay the Montego departure to allow us to get on board.
This year we are flying American Airlines through Miami. BTW, the vouchers went into the trash.
Good luck, perhaps things have improved.

 

[O'Malley]

Well, I guess we'll just go the course all hope all fares well...thanks for all the feedback!

 

[miesemer]

I share the same sentiments as others above. Air Jamaica prior to a few years ago was a class act. I've seen declining quality in their planes and service. This year, I had flights to Turks & Caicos and Bonaire with AJ. Out of eight legs I had four broken seats, two broken inflight videos, one missed transfer where they "promised" they would hold the plane and would not do anything to get our group back to the states earlier than the same flight the next day and had rude customer service personnel. However, we did receive all of our luggage at our destinations.

We try hard to schedule trips with alternate airlines which is not always option. If possible we stay far away from Air Jamaica.