Looks like Derek beat me to the punch. The red eye out of Huston on Continental may be another good option for you .
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The cheapest way to Bonaire from here we found is thru LAX. One of those cheap Southwest flights to LAX and then AA/American Eagle thru San Juan. You can do it with no overnight stopover if you catch the AA redeye to SJU. Only downside is about a 7 hr. layover in San Juan, the BON AE flight doesn't leave till 6PM.jaydub:hey thanks, missed that part. Now to look around and see how cheap or expensive airfare would be.
holy crap, cheapest I could find flying out of tucson or phoenix was around $1100
sjspeck:The cheapest way to Bonaire from here we found is thru LAX. One of those cheap Southwest flights to LAX and then AA/American Eagle thru San Juan. You can do it with no overnight stopover if you catch the AA redeye to SJU. Only downside is about a 7 hr. layover in San Juan, the BON AE flight doesn't leave till 6PM.
Cost $680 r/t to Bonaire last summer(04'), plus $80 r/t on SW. It's probably more now. Coming back is a long day, but you can time it to catch one of the last two SW flights back here since you've already cleared customs in SJU.
Or Air Jamaica out of LAX to Aruba then over on Dutch Exel (assuming AJ still flies that route, they canceled a lot of flights earlier this year) But I think it's an overnite in LAX on the way back since the AJ flight doesn't arrive till after 9PM and the last SW flight is around 10PM. Since it's direct, you have to clear Customs/Immigration at LAX, then go from the Intl' terminal to Terminal 1 in under an hour. Probably not possible.
If you want to take advantage of herman's deal, Southwest advertises $98 - one way - to either Miami or Lauderdale regularly. Either one works as there's regular shuttles between the two airports - about $40 last time I was thru there. But it will depend on when the charter leaves, you can't get there much before about 2PM from here on Southwest.
Not sure what Southwest site you're looking at but here's what I found. (I'm considering this trip also as a backup to other plans I'm making this spring...)jaydub:I checked southwests site and they dont list ft lauderdale or miami as a destination or departure cities. Checked on expedia and cheapest I could find was $404. Factor in food and drinks and other misc stuff and I will be close to $1700 - $1800 or around there.
We're also doing that this summer, either the Pilot on May 20th or the Rorqual on either May 27th or June 10th. (want to go before Hurricane season)For that price I think I would rather stick with my plan on the nekton cay sal bank trip.