Air Fare to Bonaire

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

jjach

Contributor
Messages
133
Reaction score
25
Location
Chicago area
# of dives
100 - 199
I have been keeping an eye on air fare from Chicago to Bonaire and several other places for awhile. If I find a great deal on our flight, that will help us decide where to take our dive vacation. Two weeks ago Continental from Chicago to Bonaire was about $1350.00. Today for the same flight it was $1850.00. I know air fare can change daily but this is ridiculous. This is round trip for 2 of us. Last year we found a good price to Belize. We paid $850.00 for us. This year the same flights are about $1300.00. It seems like the airlines are trying to lose business. The cheapest air fare we have found is United to Cozumel. About $600.00 round trip, nonstop for 2. We have already been to Coz twice, so we were hoping for someplace different. Bonaire and Roatan are our first two choices, but with air fare like this, we may have to go see Christie in Cozumel. I'll just keep on watching sidestep, and hope these prices come down a little more. If anyone knows of a website that usually has good prices on airfare, please let me know.
Thanks
 
First of all if you are using Travelocity to "eye" your airfare.....just know that can fluctuate on 3 or more times per day. So check back and check often. Also another great website to find for airfare and hotels in South America is latinamerica4less.com Yeah its not Bonaire, but hopefully this helps.
 
I have been using Kayak to monitor airfares. They use several sites like Travelocity, Orbitz, Cheapseats, etc. You can tailor your search to use various agencies, and I believe even set up email alerts to monitor certain destinations for deals.
 
Depends on when you are looking to go. I am also watching fares to Bonaire for my trip in June. For one person flying on continental, prices have been between $665-$900 since I started watching. But then I had a friend who is a travel agent trend the tickets for me and and tickets purchased within 30-90 days of a trip seem to be the best price. He also said that he did not see tickets purchased on Continental for more than $900 in the past year.

I always book on Orbitz (different friend works there) and for flights to bonaire from late feb until around late April, tickets are from $575-650.

So that said, when are you going to Bonaire? If you can wait, then do that. Since tickets are high now, tickets bought later (and closer to the trip) have better odds of being cheaper. Worse case, the cost is the same as what it is now.

You can use Orbitz for the airfare and hope that someone else buys the same ticket for less later because the price assurance guarantee really does work.
 
Our dates are pretty flexible, but we were hoping to go at the end of April. I usually watch prices on Sidestep. They compare different websites like orbitz and travelocity. Sometimes I will just go directly to the airlines website. I was shocked tonight when I saw $1850.00 for 2 round trips. We have a big dive show coming to Chicago in February. (Our World Underwater) I plan on going and hopefully finding some type of a deal there. Otherwise I'll just keep on watching the different websites, and hope for the best.
 
Our dates are pretty flexible, but we were hoping to go at the end of April. I usually watch prices on Sidestep. They compare different websites like orbitz and travelocity. Sometimes I will just go directly to the airlines website. I was shocked tonight when I saw $1850.00 for 2 round trips. We have a big dive show coming to Chicago in February. (Our World Underwater) I plan on going and hopefully finding some type of a deal there. Otherwise I'll just keep on watching the different websites, and hope for the best.

I'll be at Our World Underwater as well and it is my hope to find a nice deal for a vacation (besides the June trip). See you then.

But I just went to Orbitz and put in dates. I found 2 tickets to Bonaire from April 17-24 for $629 each (tax included) The following week the tickets were $741 each.

I have watched tickets on Continental and on Orbitz and almost always see tickets for cheaper on Orbitz.

Good luck though. I hope you get a good deal. If you get one, then I know that I will get one too!
 
It seems like the airlines are trying to lose business.

Well, they are trying to stay in business and make a profit. They have all cut capacity, shuffled planes to different routes and have seemed to finally figured out that price wars don't help any of them. Good news for them, bad news if you're a consumer looking for cheap air fares.

$600 to $800 seems to be the new price equilibrium for destinations like this for most of us. If you do end up with a fare between $400-$500 I think it should be considered a great deal in this new airline economy.

By the way, have you seen some of the $12,000 fares? :shocked2:
 
I find Sidestep the best tool overall, and it checks Orbitz automatically, plus other sites you can select. I just posted a new thread about things I have learned the hard way; hope it may help some: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ge...ssions/321499-more-plane-ticket-shopping.html
Depends on when you are looking to go. I am also watching fares to Bonaire for my trip in June. For one person flying on continental, prices have been between $665-$900 since I started watching. But then I had a friend who is a travel agent trend the tickets for me and and tickets purchased within 30-90 days of a trip seem to be the best price. He also said that he did not see tickets purchased on Continental for more than $900 in the past year.

I always book on Orbitz (different friend works there) and for flights to bonaire from late feb until around late April, tickets are from $575-650.

So that said, when are you going to Bonaire? If you can wait, then do that. Since tickets are high now, tickets bought later (and closer to the trip) have better odds of being cheaper. Worse case, the cost is the same as what it is now.

You can use Orbitz for the airfare and hope that someone else buys the same ticket for less later because the price assurance guarantee really does work.
No, I think the worst case is fares go up. Had a guy who waiting until the last month trying to get to Cozumel and his fare skyrocket to over $1,000 each. And for the Orbitz guarantee, dont you have to have someone else to book the same departure from the same city, same flights to the same destination, same identical return - virtually impossible for some destinations. Those from ORD to BON may work better, large city origin, few flights a week.

End of April, huh? Too bad you didn't give more preferences. Anyway, also watch this calendar on Sidestep as it gives recently found fares...

click to enlarge: ScreenHunter_06 Jan. 31 03.11.jpg

So I clicked the lowest fare on that calendar, and it seems they recently lowered the fares for those dates...

ScreenHunter_07 Jan. 31 03.14.jpg

Then had it check again...

ScreenHunter_08 Jan. 31 03.15.jpg

$556 RT including taxes sounds like a deal to me! Choice of 4 booking sites, including Orbitze or Continental. Hope this helps get you there.

Then I played with it more and found that $556 fare the next weekend, if you don't mind coming back on Sunday...

ScreenHunter_09 Jan. 31 03.37.jpg
 
No, I think the worst case is fares go up. Had a guy who waiting until the last month trying to get to Cozumel and his fare skyrocket to over $1,000 each.

The way I see it, the ticket could go up but odd are that it wont. Especially if you are watching the fares. I am not suggesting that the OP delay his purchase until less than 30 days. That would be scary. But since, at first, we had no dates for travel, it behoves him to wait a little bit if the fares are not in his budget right now. You showed the trend for the tickets for the past 90 days. My friend was able to do it for the past year. Tickets to BON from ORD have not gone higher than $900 on Continental with some delay between purchase and travel so the odds are that worst case is that you are stuck paying exactly what is out there right now.


And for the Orbitz guarantee, dont you have to have someone else to book the same departure from the same city, same flights to the same destination, same identical return - virtually impossible for some destinations. Those from ORD to BON may work better, large city origin, few flights a week.

Yes someone has to purchase the same ticket with the same itinerary as you do for the price assurance. The OP lives in Chicago. I live in Chicago. Its possible that this is going to work out for us and since I have received a refund from them, I can say that it does work. Will it work for everyone, no - but it is possible.

Thanks DD, you did some great research and found wonderful fares for the OP. I hope he reads this and gets his tickets soon. I may need to contact you as it gets closer to my trip to see what you find for me also. :D Or I will follow the very helpful tips in the post you linked to.
 
Our dates are pretty flexible, but we were hoping to go at the end of April. I usually watch prices on Sidestep. They compare different websites like orbitz and travelocity. Sometimes I will just go directly to the airlines website. I was shocked tonight when I saw $1850.00 for 2 round trips. We have a big dive show coming to Chicago in February. (Our World Underwater) I plan on going and hopefully finding some type of a deal there. Otherwise I'll just keep on watching the different websites, and hope for the best.

Airfare out of Newark on April 17th is $481.20 -includes tax..Hpw much is it to take a shuttle to Newark /NY area and then hop on the plane? We have a group going on that date if you are interested on joining.PM me here if interested.
 

Back
Top Bottom