Flights...

[P2Pooz]

Well, we booked the house, the boat, and the trip from CO to FLL, and waited until the end of the list to book our flights from Ft. Lauderdale to Marsh Harbour thinking that would be a piece of cake.
Almost a HUGE mistake.
I had talked with Vintage this morning, and everything was fine. Called back this afternoon after booking with Frontier for the first part of the trip, and they were down to 1 seat - end of story.
I called Continental, BahamasAir.... nothing.
Finally, a kind lady at Yellow Air Taxi did some rearranging and got us the last seats on their flight.
DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST 30 DAYS - I've learned my lesson!
Whew - I'm tired.....need some Abaco time.

[Motuiti]

I hate to hear of folks who want to see the Abacos and cant get there.

The real problem here lies with the Abaconian folks especially the real estate / hotel industry whom will most suffer from poor air service and like wise benefit most for easy access. Hey this is nothing new.

I always suggest to those that ask; BOOK EARLY. This year it seems we've lost another two air carriers (FCA & Twin Air/Calypso) on top of USAIR last year.

I know thatÕs not what you want to hear. Check out below. It may help.
Sandy

http://www.motuiti.com/aircarriers.html
http://www.motuiti.com/Abacos.html

[P2Pooz]

Thanks Sandy,

Last year we used Vintage out of Orlando, and with the exception of the weather causing a 2 hour delay, it was very easy, and we were ready to use them again.

I thought there would be a lot more options from West Palm or Ft. Lauderdale.

Like I said, I learned my lesson, but to tell you the truth, we did not know until this past weekend that we were even going to be able to go this year.
That Abaco bug is strong!
Patti

[Motuiti]

Your question prompted me to post a seperate string on the subject.
See ...."Whats happening to the Air Carriers ?"

I think I raise some valid points when I suggest the Abaconians get more involved.

Sandy

[island daze]

Twin Air/Claypso is still in business it is not the same as FCA!!!!!

[CaywannaBay]

What is really bad is booking your flight to MH months in advance, paying for the tickets and finding out at the last minute that the airline is not in business anymore. Then the scrambling starts because of the limited options. I was also lucky that Yellow Air had space available, BUT it cost another set of tickets and not being sure I can get credit from my card company on what I have already put out. Hopefully there is recourse but I do know that one way or the other will be on Guana Cay on March 18.
The one good thing was that sdthere is this board and a lot of good people that let you know what is going on and that is what saved me, and allowed me to to something before I landed at FLL and found out that I had no way to get to MH.
I would like to thank Floridaaircargo for all the info and help he gave me.

11 days

Greg

[floridacargocat]

What did I do now?

[Marty]

I got a call at 6pm last Friday night. (Just over 30 days prior to travel.) We were entertaining guests and beginning to enjoy the weekend. JetBlue decided to cancel our flight from FLL to Dulles! Just over 30 days out and they cancel! No explanation, just that they "discontinued that flight"! It happens to be the Saturday before Easter! And of course they did not have any other flights available that day that would accomodate our Continental flight from MHH. They were nice enough to book us on a flight the following morning (7:30am on Easter Sunday!) and after some arm twisting give a substantial refund. Now I just need to find a hotel in Ft Lauderdale for Saturday night! I'd like something close to the airport with a shuttle and a pool. We'll have our two kids with us. At least it's on the way home and not the way there!

[CaywannaBay]

Floridacargocat, Axel, I just wanted to thank you for providing some insight on what was happening with a couple of the airline companies and also for providing me with some links to help resolve the travel problems I was having. All is good and greatly appreciated.

Greg

[DrRalph]

Marty, check out South Florida Airports and Accommodations (http://www.************/SouthFloridaAirports.html).

[Beth at Yellow Air Taxi]

Marty -

We keep a list of FLL airport hotels' phone numbers in all different price ranges at the office. Please call 954-359-0292 and one of our agents will be happy to help!

Beth

PS to P2Pooz and Cawanna Bay - I'm so glad we were able to help!! We look forward to having you fly with us!

[Cathy Arizona]

We are flying AA from Phx thru Miami to MH. Our trip is in May but when I went online in January and saw that the flight from Miami to MH only had about 10 seats left I booked our flights. Didn't think I would need to book AA that early. Glad I did.

[elcahun]

We are coming in late June and I bought our tickets on AA and Continental last week. In three days it went up $100 and a couple flights were no longer available.

The puddle jumpers fill up quick!

If you are planning a trip don't wait! The hope to save a few bucks isn't worth not being able to get a flight.

[Alan Brown]

From personal experience, if you are able to avoid weekend travel, seats are usually available to and from MH, even on "short" notice.

For example, I booked my April flights to Abaco just 5 weeks in advance. By choosing to fly on weekdays I had absolutely no difficulty booking them. Another plus was that I had more choices for my connecting flight home, than were offered on weekends. Now I can take a later flight out of MH and still have plenty of time to make my connecting flight to Atlanta. By waiting to make my reservations I was also able to get cheaper plane fares to FL than I could a few days earlier.

I know this doesn't help you Saturday to Saturday folks, but this is a viable option for everyone else.

[Flpilot5]

I got a call at 6pm last Friday night. (Just over 30 days prior to travel.) We were entertaining guests and beginning to enjoy the weekend. JetBlue decided to cancel our flight from FLL to Dulles! Just over 30 days out and they cancel! No explanation, just that they "discontinued that flight"! It happens to be the Saturday before Easter! And of course they did not have any other flights available that day that would accomodate our Continental flight from MHH. They were nice enough to book us on a flight the following morning (7:30am on Easter Sunday!) and after some arm twisting give a substantial refund. Now I just need to find a hotel in Ft Lauderdale for Saturday night! I'd like something close to the airport with a shuttle and a pool. We'll have our two kids with us. At least it's on the way home and not the way there!
My bet why the cancellation is the problems with their new airplanes, Embraer-190. Its giving them a lot of new operational headaches like every new airplane does. I'm on the Embraer 170 for United & Delta Express and first year we had a lot of maint problems due to bugs in the computer systems.

Was an article in the USA Today couple days ago about the E-190 and the problems Jet Blue are having with them. Jet Blue forecasted the plane to be operating at a certain level and it didn't meet its goals....so they are canceling some flights because of that.

Sorry it happened to you! GREAT airplane though :) Hopefully, they'll get the kinks worked out soon

[sugar loaf Roger]

I understand Vintage props and jets out of New smyrna is starting flights out of FORT LAUDERDALE in April !! You can't beet their reliabilty ans customer service.