Scubaboard Meet and Dive on Bonaire

[herman]

Looks like Derek beat me to the punch. The red eye out of Huston on Continental may be another good option for you .

 

[diversteve]

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

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.

 

[jaydub]

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.

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. For that price I think I would rather stick with my plan on the nekton cay sal bank trip.

 

[herman]

Sure they do, Southwest flies to FLL, that's most likely how I will get to FLL. Not sure where you would leave from but I found flights from Phoenix. Looking at the times, the flights have long layovers so maybe a different airline may be better but SW does fly to FLL.

 

[diversteve]

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.

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...)
The only problem is you'd have to fly on the 3rd to get to Lauderdale early enough, which is what I thought.

Out 2/3/06

Flt's 1426
2206/3117
1316/254
1832

Back 2/11/06

Flt's 1929/1149
2521

The Internet fare is $119 each way. (So I forgot about the $20 tax...) You book it as two one way tickets, not one roundtrip. Get on their e-mail list and if the $98 special comes up, they'll let you know. I guess I was thinking about America West for Miami, they go to either and I've mostly flown thru Miami to the Caribbean.

Another option is United 1474/1586 it arrives in Lauderdale at 3:03PM on Saturday. But it's a connection through Chicago, I usually seem to get delayed there. The return's late, United 1591/1501 leaves FLL at 6PM and arrives at 12:30AM Sun. And it's $303 r/t.

Personally I'd rather find a cheap hotel in Lauderdale for the night.

For that price I think I would rather stick with my plan on the nekton cay sal bank trip.

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)

Have you noticed that America West has a 4PM arrival on Saturday? It's a non-stop so if it leaves on time it might be just enough time to make boat departure. Otherwise it's an overnite in Lauderdale.

 

[jaydub]

Steve thanks for that information. Must be something wrong with my browser because when I go to southwest's site no where does it list miami or ft lauderdale as a destination for me, weird. Anyways I would love to dive bonaire but I think I will stick with my original plans of going on a nekton liveaboard. Just have to figure out which trip, cay lobos, cay sal banks, or southern bahamas.