Flying into Bonaire

[scottb27]

I am working on planning my trip to Bonaire on August and am looking at flights, and there is nothing that seems like a great flight to me.

But there is a United flight that goes overnight and gets in at about 6AM through Houston. Has anyone done this before, and will the resorts let you check in or at least is there something to do or a place to crash until a bit later in the day?

 

[DiveMaven]

We always take the United redeye to Bonaire (usually thru Houston, but we're going thru NJ this year), and really love the early arrival. Most resorts will hold your luggage for you until your room is ready so you can go to the dive orientation, grocery shop, and do your check-out dive if you want. Unfortunately, you might have to hang out for a little while before the resort office staff arrives, but it usually isn't too long.

We've always gone ahead and reserved our room for the night before arrival so we have access immediately upon arrival. It gives us an opportunity to get a couple of hours of sleep prior to the orientation and beginning diving. We're also able to settle in earlier, unpack, grocery shop, etc. and not be hassled by not having access to our condo until later in the day.

Since we go to Bonaire for 2 weeks at a time, the extra $80 or so that we pay isn't much in the grand scheme of things, and it gets our vacation off to a relaxing and easy start because of the convenience. And since I don't sleep well on planes, being able to sleep when we arrive means I can do 1-2 dives on our day of arrival.

 

[Doctorfish]

There is a flight from Atlanta to Bonaire on the weekends. As I recall, it departs ATL at about 9.45 AM giving you the whole afternoon of that day in BON and allowing direct resort check in without having to worry about bag storage, room readiness etc.

---------- Post added February 7th, 2013 at 09:32 AM ----------

Sorry, Delta flight out of ATL.

 

[redacted]

I like the red-eye out of Houston. I get 3 or 4 hours sleep on the plane and arrive to the rising sun in Bonaire. Rental or van to hotel (depending on where you stay) and get there just in time for breakfast around 7. Expect a dive briefing around 9 am. The room has always been ready by the time the dive briefing is over so you should be doing your checkout dive around noon. A little food shopping and another dive (or 2) on the hotel reef and you are more than ready for an early bed time. And you will also be ready for an early start the next day. Dive, dive, dive.

Then your departure flight will also be quite early (7 am or so). So the day befor you can slip in a few more conservative shore dives and be rinsing and drying gear by noon. While it is drying is a good time to drive around a bit and seen the land sights - nice but not worth missing a dive. You will be up around 4 am to finish packing and head for the airport, the flight back to Houston and another 3 or 4 hour nap.

That flight maximizes dive time.

 

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

We fly the United redeye out of IAH (Houston) too. I like that flight because we have flights connecting to Denver, then on to Houston, and the late night flight means we don't have to overnight. When we do a Utila or Roatan trip, we always have to overnight and stay at the Airport Marriott to be able to catch a morning flight to RTB. Some folks like my wife can sleep on the flight but I have never been able to do so. But it's not like I have to be fresh for a biz meeting in the morning of arrival....

 

[scottb27]

Awesome thanks guys, thats probably what I will book then.

 

[wwguy]

I am working on planning my trip to Bonaire on August and am looking at flights, and there is nothing that seems like a great flight to me.

But there is a United flight that goes overnight and gets in at about 6AM through Houston. Has anyone done this before, and will the resorts let you check in or at least is there something to do or a place to crash until a bit later in the day?

I'm not a fan of redeye flights (can't sleep on them) or multiple carriers (who always seems to be blaming each other for delays) or island-based carriers (who run their airlines on "island time", if they fly at all.) So that leaves me loving the weekly Saturday Delta flight out of Atlanta. We've done this flight annually over the Christmas holidays for the last 4 years in a row without problems.

The Delta itinerary below is currently valid for any Saturday-to-Saturday week in August.

 

[diverjen]

I have not done the red eye as we added a day or two in Curacao each way, but we were supposed to get in really early to Bonaire. We were staying at Sand Dollar through a vrbo rental and they let us do an early check in for half the cost of an additional overnight.... Not sure where you are staying but I though that was well worth it , too.....

 

[jimw]

Scottb27,

There is a seasonal Unted flight out of Charlotte as well. If it fits, much better for east coasters. We live in South FL and take American out of Miami to Curacao and DiviDivi Air or another local carrier on to Bonaire. This is available any day of the week.............Or we do the nonstop on Insel Air on Saturdays.

 

[diversteve]

There's a new Insel direct flight out of Charlotte now also in addition to the 2PM MIA departure. It stops in Curacao so it's about 5 hrs. total. It also looks to be between $5-600 r/t. InselAir - Reaching Higher - Fly-InselAir.com