Bonaire from Boston???

[TheWizard]

Hello,

It's pretty annoying when neither kayak.com nor orbitz.com give me any flight options whatsoever to Bonaire from the Boston area

So what seems to be the preferred way to get there for a week of diving?
Via MBJ or Aruba? With REASONABLE cost? Someone please tell me!

 

[Damselfish]

Depending what you consider reasonable cost, Bonaire is tough. For that matter, tough at any cost.

I'm looking at this right now myself. I guess Air Jamaica is still flying there on Saturdays so that's an option, but with everything I've heard about them I'm not going to consider that. Continental starts flying Fridays 12/16 from Houston but I don't think doing that from Boston makes sense schedule or pricewise. Then there's the charters from Fort Lauderdale that are supposed to start soon, (easy enough to get there from Boston) but nothing firm yet - last thread here.

So you could go to Aruba or Curacao which is easier, then do BonaireExcel or DiviDivi interisland (which makes it harder again!) Or you can do American/American Eagle which is the most straightforward. The general sites don't always cover international travel very well, best to just use aa.com. The price is less horrible than I expected, but availability does not seem to be very good in early Dec when I'm looking. Not sure yet which leg is the problem.

Let me know if you figure it out.

 

[TheWizard]

OK, I poked around AA.com and played with their "Dates Flexible" tab and found some possible bargains there, if you do indeed have flexibility in travel dates. You can give it a whole 30-day timespan to search for a stay of whatever # nights you tell it.

I tried March 2006 for 7 nights and I get a RT fare of $613 total leaving /returning on Wednesdays only. Other days of week are mostly $800 or more RT.

If I want to stay 8 nights however, I can leave either Tue or Wed, for the same $613 RT, so it's kinda whacky.

I'm not too keen about the AA flights via San Juan which get you into Bonaire around 9 PM and depart too early on your final day.

I prefered the AJ flights via MoBay, but I've not yet found how to make that connection efficiently. Doesn't Delta codeshare with them even tho AJ doesn't fly from BOS anymore?

 

[Dragon2115]

Another option is to find a bargain flight to Aruba and then take BonairExpress over to Bonaire. My wife and I did that after hearing all the horror stories from people that connected through other locations.