So we've found a great deal on airfare MIA-CUR-BON and back on Insel Air in November. I've searched on SB and internet in general about them and found some pretty mixed reviews. I did notice that most of the reviews were in regards to scheduling/cancellations, and (at least it seemed) that most of the problems were associated with switching airlines during one leg of the journey. What has been your experience? We are planning to book one way or the other in the next day or two so your feedback is appreciated! (edit: This will be our first trip to Bonaire)
Insel Air
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It's been a few years but I did the CLT - CUR - BON route several times. Direct access to Insel was difficult but if you book through a travel agency or site it helps. Then if there is a problem or question, you can go through them and not Insel. Be warned these are older planes as well.
When the Insel rates went up and the Delta rates went down we went back to Delta. Their arrival and departure times were better for us and we could fly out of a smaller, closer airport.
If the flight times were significantly better or a fairly large difference in rates, I would consider Insel again.
When the Insel rates went up and the Delta rates went down we went back to Delta. Their arrival and departure times were better for us and we could fly out of a smaller, closer airport.
If the flight times were significantly better or a fairly large difference in rates, I would consider Insel again.
Here's a link to 80+ posts on the subject over on TripAdvisor.
IMHO they appear to have expertly applied the Caribbean "island time" concept to the airline industry.
IMHO they appear to have expertly applied the Caribbean "island time" concept to the airline industry.
oldschoolto
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The wife and I had no problem with them this past trip in march.. Used them CUR to BON and back... We did fly out on the last flight the night before so not to miss our early flight from CUR to MIA on us airways... Flying the same routes in October.. But did find Delta flights non-stop for our next years march trip... Yes. We love Bonaire..
Jim....
Jim....
boat sju
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How long of a drive is it to Miami for you? It might be a lot less hassle to fly out of a local airport even if it means connecting through ATL on Delta. Things can get ugly quickly with Insel.
Hintermann
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I used Insel Air in May and found them quite all right. My original plan was to use the airline on a MIA-CUR-BON route and back but following criticisms here and on Thorn Tree, I flew AA for the MIA-CUR leg (and back) and limited Insel to the CUR-BON sector. As it turned out, the AA flights were delayed both ways (over an hour outbound) whereas Insel Air took off 5 or 10 minutes ahead of schedule outbound and was only 20 minutes late on the return flight.
The impression that I got was that Insel are all right and considering previous criticisms, have got their act together to a large extent.
The impression that I got was that Insel are all right and considering previous criticisms, have got their act together to a large extent.
jimw
Contributor
So far, we have used Insel once and Delta several times in recent years. We are going to Bonaire next Saturday on Delta for about our 25th trip since 1986.
We used Insel about 3 years ago when they were doing nonstop to BON from Miami and that worked well. I monitored their "lateness" for a couple of months back then and it averaged 25 minutes late leaving MIA. But they had some waay late flights too-2 to 6 hours. Coming back via CUR on Insel, it was a very easy connection to Insel's MIA flight versus others as we only had to wait at the gate......It appears that cancelled flights are the main problem. I would tend to go back to CUR the day before a flight to the US to ensure being there for the flight. Delta works well for us as we get more than half a day of extra diving as their schedule is great both ways. Arrives before 2 pm--leaves at 2:30pm, so we can dive well into Friday afternoon. We do feel we need to be in Atlanta the previous day to catch Delta to BON at 945am on Saturday. We are doing MIA-ATL next Friday and onward to BON next Saturday!
The next best Miami--Bonaire connection for us is AA to Curacao and DiviDivi Air to Bonaire. DiviDivi is the only reliable airline flying locally. Last flight, last time I looked; is 5pm. Weekends have a reduced schedule so check thoroughly. Book by email or online directly with DiviDivi Air.
We used Insel about 3 years ago when they were doing nonstop to BON from Miami and that worked well. I monitored their "lateness" for a couple of months back then and it averaged 25 minutes late leaving MIA. But they had some waay late flights too-2 to 6 hours. Coming back via CUR on Insel, it was a very easy connection to Insel's MIA flight versus others as we only had to wait at the gate......It appears that cancelled flights are the main problem. I would tend to go back to CUR the day before a flight to the US to ensure being there for the flight. Delta works well for us as we get more than half a day of extra diving as their schedule is great both ways. Arrives before 2 pm--leaves at 2:30pm, so we can dive well into Friday afternoon. We do feel we need to be in Atlanta the previous day to catch Delta to BON at 945am on Saturday. We are doing MIA-ATL next Friday and onward to BON next Saturday!
The next best Miami--Bonaire connection for us is AA to Curacao and DiviDivi Air to Bonaire. DiviDivi is the only reliable airline flying locally. Last flight, last time I looked; is 5pm. Weekends have a reduced schedule so check thoroughly. Book by email or online directly with DiviDivi Air.
OP
uncfnp:
For the timeframe we can go (November) Insel is $378 roundtrip from Miami, Delta is $1156 roundtrip from Atlanta.
boat sju:
All said and done, Miami and Atlanta are about equidistant. Our local airport is Jacksonville. It seems you really can't get anywhere meaningful from here for less than $400, hence the willingness to drive.
oldschoolto:
hintermann:
Interesting. I get the impression that this leg is the most likely to cause issues due to flight cancellations and gives us the most pause for using Insel. It's a small sample set, but looking at the last week and a half on FlightAware it seems that the MIA-CUR leg runs generally on time (for Miami...which is a cluster of an airport). CUR-BON apparently isn't in FlightAware's service area so I have no data on that leg.
This is actually something we considered. It's about $200 more in total though. The one drawback I see is having to switch gates, and therefore luggage from American to Divi, instead of staying with one airline and presumably, one set of gates. I can't imagine the airport in Curacao is huge, but I've read that it can be pretty disorganized. I also understand that since the Divi airplanes are small, they have somewhat restrictive baggage limits?jimw:
Yep. I would probably fly Insel in that case. Like jimw I can essentially get an extra day of diving from the Delta flights and the local airport is 30 minutes and easy parking verses over an hour drive time with off airport parking and shuttle service so I am willing to pay a little more but the difference in your case is substantial.
I have really bad luck with all the airlines, delayed flights, lost luggage, etc. My biggest issue with the Insel flights themselves is the hop from Curacao to Bonaire. Arrival for us was late into Curacao and the connection was the last flight out to Bonaire. More then once we found ourselves running through the Curacao airport to catch the connection. Made it each time but not always our luggage. Worse case scenerio is over night in Curasao and fly out next day.
If the luggage misses the flight it arrives early the next day. But because of this we always pack our must haves in our carryon just in case...
I just flew Insel to and from Bonaire from Miami via Curacao and really didn't have any problems getting there. We had a very early flight on the return when the airport in Bonaire took a power hit, they had to do all ticketing by hand. We got out on time and had no problem getting our luggage when we arrived back in Miami. My flights were handled by Harris trave through our corporate travel coordinator. I won't have any problem flying with Insel again.l
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