Is Tiara Air reliable?

[nelsonrl]

Insel air will nail you in excess weight if you have anything over their limits. They were late departing and I missed my connection out of Curacao. We probably could have made the connection, but AmericAn shuts down their checking counter very early.

 

[Hintermann]

I do not mind paying excess baggage fees since it can't be much for those short hops but I cannot afford to miss any flight connection. I am using Delta for all flight connections except the Bonaire to Aruba hop; Delta have their own extra bag policy which I am familiar with.

With Insel I have to change planes in Curacao and the window between flights - 50 minutes - is way too small. I do not want to risk it.

 

[nelsonrl]

I think we paid about $50 in excess fees, but since Insel decided to reroute my flight to Aruba before picking us up, I missed my flight home. We ended up having to pay one more night in Curacao as a result. I would not even consider a 50 minute connection. Remember you have to go through customs in Curacao even if you are just connecting through. Allow for that.

 

[Hintermann]

I think we paid about $50 in excess fees, but since Insel decided to reroute my flight to Aruba before picking us up, I missed my flight home. We ended up having to pay one more night in Curacao as a result. I would not even consider a 50 minute connection. Remember you have to go through customs in Curacao even if you are just connecting through. Allow for that.

Precisely. That is why I prefer Tiara Air. The same plane goes from Bonaire to Aruba; even though it stops at Curacao and passengers have to deplane, those going through to Aruba will remain on the Transit side.

 

[diver 85]

supposedly...........DA is belly up!!!!........3 of our group of 30 had tickets on it from Curacao to Bonaire on Aug 17th(coming back the 24th) & had to buy ANOTHER set(the other 27 were either flying in directly to Bonaire on Delta or had tickets on Tiara from Curacao to Bonaire)---only Insel Air was available to these 3--after getting to Curacao on the afternoon of the 17th & finding out this lovely piece of information...

 

[jimw]

supposedly...........DA is belly up!!!!........3 of our group of 30 had tickets on it from Curacao to Bonaire on Aug 17th(coming back the 24th) & had to buy ANOTHER set(the other 27 were either flying in directly to Bonaire on Delta or had tickets on Tiara from Curacao to Bonaire)---only Insel Air was available to these 3--after getting to Curacao on the afternoon of the 17th & finding out this lovely piece of information...

DiviDivi Air flys 5-7 times daily between Curacao and Bonaire--they seem to be more reliable than the others as well.

From what I read, DAE was not paying the employees nor the airport in Curacao--so they were booted for now. As I understand it, Curacao owns the airline and refused to extend more credit to the airline. They voted to refuse additional credit on the 16th of August. So, this could be yet another bankrupcy...............

 

[Hintermann]

DiviDivi Air flys 5-7 times daily between Curacao and Bonaire--they seem to be more reliable than the others as well.

Yes, they do but Divi Divi do NOT have scheduled flights from Curacao to Aruba, only chartered ones. My aim is to get from Bonaire to Aruba by starting out from Bonaire not earlier than that Friday morning and still be able to reach Aruba before midday. Looks like Tiara Air is the only one which do this without having to change planes in Curacao.

 

[diver 85]

Yes, they do but Divi Divi do NOT have scheduled flights from Curacao to Aruba, only chartered ones. My aim is to get from Bonaire to Aruba by starting out from Bonaire not earlier than that Friday morning and still be able to reach Aruba before midday. Looks like Tiara Air is the only one which do this without having to change planes in Curacao.

HA.........Just make sure your luggage flies WITH YOU on your Tiara flight---long story but they(almost) screwed us(19 travelers) royally Saturday Aug 17th...If you want details, let me know.....

 

[lmorin]

Yes, please let us know.

 

[diver 85]

Yes, please let us know.

Our flying schedule for Saturday August 17th was :......starting @ 6AM New Orleans to Miami, Miami to Curacao on American, then Curacao to Bonaire later Saturday nite on Tiara--couple hours in between American flights & 5 hours between Curacao & Bonaire flight, no big deal....Since we had a very early flight Saturday AM out of N.O., wife & I were were leaving home Friday afternoon to catch a hotel room in N.O. to get a couple hours sleep Friday nite(we live 4 hours from N.O.)....

About 5 PM Friday afternoon, while driving to N.O., wife gets an email from Tiara stating our Saturday nite flight has been cancelled & they can book us on Sunday morning Insell flight to Bonaire..Getting upset VERY QUICKLY, wife looks up on Kayak flights Saturday to Bonaire & sees DA is selling tickets for their Saturday nite flight to Bonaire from Curacao...She asks back in an email why can they not put us on that flight??..Response was 'DA is having trouble flying right now so that was not an option' etc(we had no idea @ that time what was going on with DA).....They also stated in one of the 4 emails between us they'd put us up & pay for all meals etc in Curacao.

FF to Saturday afternoon-----all 19 of us finally get to our hotel(Clarion) in Curacao, went to eat lunch @ about 5:30PM @ their outdoor bar & was told dinner would be served @ an indoor place after 7PM----------???everything's sounding better, right???..lol.....about 6PM our waitress comes & tells us to eat pretty fast cuz WE'RE flying TONITE(on Tiara) @ 8 & taxi will be there to pick us up @ 7PM.....Well, everyone's VERY EXCITED.........About 15 minutes later same waitress comes back to tell us to eat VERY fast cuz our taxis are HERE-- right now-- waiting for you.....We all proceed to gobble the rest of our food, go back up stairs to get our suitcases & bring them back down to the lobby....

Get to the airport, finally get on the plane around ?9ish, get to Bonaire-----------NO LUGGAGE---for anyone ie we flew but our luggage didn't......They told us maybe noon tomorrow they'll get there. Noon came & no luggage, was told then maybe 6 PM tonite...Around 8 PM Sunday nite we get all pieces--I guess better late than never.....Needless to say very interesting day of flying & post 24 hours....good luck to all.......lol

EDIT post here-------3 of our 19 had gone 'sightseeing ' Saturday after we got to the hotel---& we could not reach them right away.....Someone finally got a text to them to get their butts to the airport cuz 'we flying TONITE'.....lololol...good thing the flight was about an hour later than (re)scheduled cuz they came running up to the upstairs holding area about 8:45PM......the look on their faces was absolutely priceless--because they thought they had missed the flight......!!!