AJ or AA to bonaire

[texas-buzzard]

planning trip to bonaire in sept. any problems AJ out of HOU ( 35 min layover in MB). not much fun running with dive gear if the plane is late on arrival. AA has 1:50 layover in MB but is 300 bucks higher. don,t want to miss a dive boat going out.

 

[RICHinNC]

From my one time trip experience....there is but one plane out of MB and it leaves when it has everyone. On my trip...time table meant zip. Herman will hopefully join in here and let you know his experience as he has made the trip many times.
And, you could go to www.bonairetalk.com and get lots of info.
I was not impressed with AJ at all....the seat I had was falling apart and that was the good news. Havent flown AA but while in Bonaire, I heard nothing good about it....so it is kind of a wash. Save the $300 for something else.

 

[herman]

I would go with the AJ flights. As Rich said, they have 1 plane going to Bonaire so they will hold it for late flights, the 35 minute layover has never been a problem for us. AA flies small planes to Bonaire and I have heard a lot of complaints about them leaving baggage because they were "overweight". I don't know what their flight sched is now but it use to be really bad leaving Bonaire, seems like it was around 6am. This caused problems with things like how do you return a rental car if your flight leaves at 6 and the rental place opens at 7........7 Bonaire time which means don't be in a hurry. No matter how you go, Bonaire can be a challange to get to.

 

[texas-buzzard]

gat a reply from another forum stating AJ is probably going belly-up. i
think saving 300 bucks is worth it. who knows by sept AA might belly-up to.
thanks

 

[herman]

I just saw the AJ post as well. Darned if I know how we are going to get to Bonaire it that's true.

 

[texas-buzzard]

update to AJ problems http://pr.airjamaica.com/default.asp?sFile=davies

 

[diversteve]

AA flies small planes to Bonaire and I have heard a lot of complaints about them leaving baggage because they were "overweight". I don't know what their flight sched is now but it use to be really bad leaving Bonaire, seems like it was around 6am. This caused problems with things like how do you return a rental car if your flight leaves at 6 and the rental place opens at 7........7 Bonaire time which means don't be in a hurry.

The planes are still small - Fokker something, I had to check my airline approved rollerbag with my video gear in it on the tarmac, since it was too big for the cabin overhead - but the schedule's changed. They now leave at 8am so the drill is to check-in around 6 then drive around to the car rental around 7-7:15 BT. Worked for us.

 

[texas-buzzard]

thanks for the replys. we booked with AJ yesterday after finding info that they are struggling but not out yet. who knows by sept. AA might be broke too. someone needs to look into fast boats to get us to dive places lol. you would sure be awake when you got there. long count to sept.

 

[scubaboy44]

I went to Bonaire with my LDS last July, Atlanta-MB-Bonaire. Did not have any problems with AJ except the 1 hr.layover in MB turned into 2, and on the return it was just the opposite: we had to run to catch our connection MB-Atlanta. But the great diving sort of smoothed all that over. I am going back this July with the same group.