Questions on Flying From Aruba to Bonaire

[sullivan]

After a lot of research, it looks like the only way we canget from Boston to Bonaire during our travel window is to get to Aruba (mostlikely on JetBlue direct from Boston) and then take one of the smaller airlinesto Bonaire. Having never done this trip,it’s a little confusing. Can folks confirm a couple of things:

1) Looks like the airline choices are DAE, DiviDivi, Insel and Tiara (the “Small Airlines&#8221. Am I missing any airlines/options.

2) For the Small Airlines, the baggage allowance forchecked baggage is 20kg (44 pounds). Ineed to work real hard just to get to the usual 50 pound limit on US carriers. Do people just pay the fee for additional poundage or am I missing some way to get increased poundage allowance?

3) When we travel American/Delta/US air to GrandCayman or Provo, we are allowed 1 checked bad, a carry on (a mid size dufflewith quite a lot of stuff in it) and a “personal item” (we take a day packeach). Do the Small Airlines allow, free of charge, for you to take a carry on AND a personal item? I’ve looked on their websites but they are not overlyhelpful.

 

[lmorin]

My info applies only to Tiara Aruba to Bonaire and return; four trips worth. Re baggage allowance. We have taken lots of overweight stuff via Tiara with no extra charge. This has been especially true for the trip from Aruba to Bonaire. Once returning from Bonaire with the identical baggage as when we arrived, we were admonished for being overweight. The carry-on luggage was weighed together with the checked luggage and a total weight was calculated. But, the airline staff simply said don't do it again.

On our last trip, a similar thing happened. No problem on Aruba, but returning from Bonaire each of us was again overweight and this time we had to pay for the overage. We take a few "extras" in our carry-on luggage such as a small camera and underwater case, plus flashlights and batteries and a laptop computer/charger--all things that add weight. We have one bag for clothes for two persons and another for the bigger dive gear for two persons. Each of those comes in at about 45 lbs. The two carry-on luggage pieces empty add more than 5 lbs. So, in the end, we are always over the 50 lb limit. We will continue to argue and ask that the airline not charge us, especially if they neglected to do so on the trip from Aruba to Bonaire, but ultimately they will do so if they whimsically decide that today is the day they will. As for the "personal item," my wife's purse can become pretty large and heavy at times and they have always ignored it. I am thinking of getting a purse or maybe just a backpack. My daughter does not carry a purse, but does carry a hefty backpack that stores as much as my carry-on bag. Her backpack never is weighed.

I will add that I highly recommend using rolling duffel bag with a sturdy aluminum frame and made of light-weight ripstop nylon. Our first soft-sided bag used for dive travel clothing weighed about 15 lb without anything in it! We now use a duffel from LLBean that weighs only a bit more than 8 lbs empty. That means a lot more usable stuff can be carried in the bag!

 

[sullivan]

I figured I would post this in case it helps someone in the future who is having trouble getting to Bonaire. What I found is that your typical search engine like Kayak/Orbitz does not do a good job of handling round trip travel to Bonaire. We're travelling from Boston and the options presented were terrible. I got a lot more choices when I planned travel to Bonaire and then home separately.

In my case, I could get to Bonaire by flying Boston to Curacao or Boston to Aruba; in either case, a short trip on Insel or Tiara was required to get over to Bonaire. (Options were American or Jet Blue).

On the return, we ended up getting United direct from Bonaire to Newark (could have gone to Houston as well) and then taking a flight onto Boston; total travel time only 9 hours. Another option would have been to take one of the small airlines Bonaire to Aruba and then catch Jet Blue direct back to Boston.

Hope this helps someone who may be frustrated getting to/from Bonaire.

 

[chauncy19]

sullivan,
thanks for posting. someday plan on taking jetblue to aruba and then on to bonaire. right now have been doing united red eye out of newark. price is great ff miles but the flight has had its share of cancellations. what airline did you take from aruba to bonaire? Tiara seems to be the winner but.
have flown american to curacao then on to bonaire on insel. worked okay but really not sure I'd do that again.
anyway again thanks for posting!

 

[sullivan]

what airline did you take from aruba to bonaire?!

We ended up NOT flying into Aruba to cut one leg off the trip. The option we discarded was Jet Blue Boston to Aruba (non-stop) and then one of the smaller airlines (DAE, Insel or Tiara) which required a hop to Curacao and then a flight over to Bonaire (on our days of travel, we could not catch an afternoon flight Aruba to Bonaire direct).

The most efficient flight for us Boston to Bonaire was American Boston to Miami and then Miami to Curacao before flying Insel over to Bonaire. This way we avoided the Aruba airport and the leg Aruba to Curacao.

 

[chauncy19]

Well have done the american route before. personally next time I'd just stay in curacao but that's me. it is a more civilized arrival and departure from Bonaire but that is only good thing I can say for it for us. Jetblue from Boston sounds great but obviously their are issues with it. you most be closer to logan that we are.
Well hope you enjoyed the trip. love Bonaire.