Continental suspends service to Curacao in May

[RickPeck]

I received word today that my flight to Curacao leaving on May 9th has been canceled. Continental is suspending operation to Curacao between May 3rd and June 12th. The travel agency for Breezes have offered to refund 100% of my fare (that's nice eh?) and suggest that I can book on another airline.

Fat chance of that, every flight I've seen departs on Saturday and doesn't arrive until Sunday. The resort (Breezes)will refund my hotel portion but insist that the trip insurance is non-refundable. So I'm out $118.

When I looked at my airline reservation it would have left me stranded in Newark for a week. They just wiped the Curacao potion off and left the first leg of the trip active. WOW, I'm freaking amazed at Continental's poor service. They haven't contacted me despite having my e-mail connected to the reservation.

This whole thing sucks...

 

[Divedoggie]

There is a direct flight from Miami with American Airlines. Another option might be to fly into Bonaire or Aruba and take a small island hopper flight to Curacao.

 

[Crowley]

Hi Rick - we spoke via e-mail - sincerely hope you find a way to make it down here for your original dates - I'll have a look around and see if there's a good alternative. Somebody posted good reviews about Insel Air, but not sure of their routes...

Hope to see you at some point anyway,

Crowley

 

[muzicgirl]

We always fly American to Curacao - whatever city to Miami and then Miami to Curacao- gets you in around 7pm.

 

[DeputyDan]

We have also done the AA flight - No problems with it.

Usually take the Divi Divi to Bonaire from Curacao (Not that you care about that)

 

[CheddarChick]

Air jamacia goes from Jamaica to Curacao, I hate all airlines BTW

 

[Curacao Sunshine]

I'm not sure why you were able to book that time frame. We've been on Curacao for 2 years and everyone on the island knows that they only fly during the winter months. I'm surprised it suggests that the flights resume in June (?). AA has terrible flights; arriving at night and leaving early morning. We've heard good things about Insel Air out of Miami but those passengers all reserved through a travel agent and didn't have to chase the airline down For now there's flights only from Newark, Atlanta, Miami, Jamaica, Aruba or Bonaire. There's talk of Insel Air adding a connection thru Puerto Rico this year or next.

 

[FlamingoVilla]

From Continental Website:
Curacao-Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles (CUR) is not currently served by Continental or its partners. Service ends on Sat., May. 2, 2009 and begins again on Sat., Jun. 13, 2009.

And I too am also surprised that they are advertising continuing service in the Summer?? I kinda expect that to change unexpectedly. Please check your flights often, as Continental has been cancelling flights without notice to passengers.

American Airlines: From April 7 - June 10, 2009, AA will begin servicing Curacao at a different time schedule. Departure out of Miami will be 10:15AM - Arrival into CUR 1:05PM
Departure out of CUR will be at 2:10PM - Arrival to MIA 5:20PM.
After June 10, they go back to their old flight schedule of 7pm/7am.

AA are definitely trying to compete with the new service offered from Insel Air out of Miami! Either they are doing this deliberately to crush Insel Air, or they are testing the new schedule to see if they want to continue it in the future.

Insel Air were great to fly with and I dealt directly with them by calling their Miami office: (1-877-546-7352). I was already staying in Miami, so I didn't need to coordinate getting to and fro Miami. But there are a lot of airlines that offer discounts to Miami.
Departs MIA at 2:00PM, Departs CUR at 10:30AM.

From the Delta Website:
The current seasonal service to and from Curacao, Netherlands Antilles will operate until 19 April, 2009. Summer seasonal service will operate from 6 June, 2009 until 29 August, 2009. Flights operate on Saturday only.

Safe travels,
Flamingo

 

[RickPeck]

Thanks all for the ideas but I cancelled the trip and am now looking at Roatan. The Curacao Travel board had a deal going for a $100 rebate on airline tickets and a bunch of other incentives to get people down to the island. They should be looking to Continental for reasons on why the airline took reservations and then cancelled them leaving people stuck with a financial loss. Obviously the airline is not supporting travel growth with these types of actions.

It's odd because when I did my seat assignments there were very few open seats, so it isn't as if the plane was flying empty.

Rick