Airfare, ugh

[Dark Blue]

If you go through Aruba going back home you go through customs there instead of a huge line in some US airport.

Did not know that, though I have hardly stood in a customs line coming back to the US since I downloaded the Mobile Passport App. It's free and almost no-one uses it, so the line is always empty.

 

[flyboy08]

So you say. I had a flight booked from Albany on United. Several months later they cancelled my flight and put me on another that went Albany to Newark to Huston to Washington to Bonaire.

Houston then Washington? That's absurd! Cant imagine you couldn't have gone EWR to Washington (Dulles I assume) and skipped the trot to Houston? WTF?

 

[Kharon]

That sucks. They have had the Newark direct flight for better than a decade though. Only reason I know that is my first experience of "why do I have to connect through f'ing Newark from Phoenix to get to Bonaire?" Continental used to have a redeye that I loved for getting me on the island right about sunrise.

It's actually pretty easy for me to get to Bonaire from Albany - Delta, one stop with total travel time of about 7½ hours. Gets me to Bonaire in time to dive that afternoon. Getting back is a different story. 20+ hours up to 72 hours. This time I'm flying Divi-Divi to Aruba, staying there another week then flying Southwest home. Travel time is much better that way.

 

[flyboy08]

Did not know that, though I have hardly stood in a customs line coming back to the US since I downloaded the Mobile Passport App. It's free and almost no-one uses it, so the line is always empty.

Global Entry is the same.....I've not spent more than 2 minutes in line since getting it!

 

[Kharon]

Did not know that, though I have hardly stood in a customs line coming back to the US since I downloaded the Mobile Passport App. It's free and almost no-one uses it, so the line is always empty.

LOL. I'm an old fogie with a flip phone. Don't know anything about phone apps.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Saving a few dollars with a connection in Curacao is how my luggage did not accompany me on the next leg of my journey to Bonaire but rather took a side trip to Venezuela. It was two days before they located it and sent it to Bonaire. Also, the layover in Curacao was long enough that my group decided to leave the airport and go have some drinks and food, which ate into the cost savings of the flights.

 

[mbs]

Re mobile passport app... Worked great except returning from Bonaire last May and it was down. 2.5 hours to get through to baggage at EWR!!! Convinced me to get global entry.

 

[Dark Blue]

Re mobile passport app... Worked great except returning from Bonaire last May and it was down. 2.5 hours to get through to baggage at EWR!!! Convinced me to get global entry.

That's rough, and ironic seeing how I ended up getting it. I was coming in through Atlanta and the kiosk system was down, so CBP folks were handing out paper forms to many hundreds of people and telling everyone this would take several hours to clear up. Word of this app was filtering through the line, so I downloaded it, registered, and was through within 15 minutes.

 

[mbs]

Ironic is the word!!! On the flight into EWR the flight crew was going around trying to convince everyone to download and use the app.

 

[Dark Blue]

Ironic is the word!!! On the flight into EWR the flight crew was going around trying to convince everyone to download and use the app.

So the lesson here is to have multiple plans for running the customs gauntlet and be ready to work with whichever system is actually functioning today.