USVI-On-Line

Does anyone know when American will offer its nonstop from Boston to STT for next winter? We are looking at President's week and the fares are sky high already so we are frightened at the price of the nonstop but might take it anyway.

We have heard they are no longer going to be offering that flight. They are pulling out of the Caribbean...at least that is what they are saying now.

villafish wrote:We have heard they are no longer going to be offering that flight. They are pulling out of the Caribbean...at least that is what they are saying now.

Wow, that would be pretty big news. Any sources to substantiate this would be appreciated.

pmk

pmk wrote:

villafish wrote:We have heard they are no longer going to be offering that flight. They are pulling out of the Caribbean...at least that is what they are saying now.

Wow, that would be pretty big news. Any sources to substantiate this would be appreciated.

pmk

appear that they arepullingout of several caribbean markets--though not sure about STT-- however, i know that the ara they ahve been concentrating on are emerging markets in mainland china and India--


---- Dec 28, 2010
by Global News Staff

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- American Airlines and American Eagle have announced that they will be making more cuts to the company's San Juan operations with an additional five-route cancellation from April 2011.

A CMC report stated that four Caribbean destinations -- Anguilla, La Romana, Port of Spain and Puerto Plata -- are among the latest to be chopped from the airlines' schedule. Also to be dropped from the schedule is Washington Dulles.

The planned reductions, including five that were announced in September also to take effect on April 3, 2011, will leave American Airlines and American Eagle with a combined 36 daily flights, down from 58 at present, as they pull back their once-huge Caribbean operations.

American Airlines spokeswoman Martha Pantin said the company has no estimate of the number of employees to be affected by the schedule changes.

American launched its Caribbean service in 1971 when it bought Trans Caribbean Airlines. It opened a connecting hub in San Juan in 1966, by growing it by 2001 to 135 flights operated by American and American Eagle.

From what we have heard, their main deal is pulling out of Puerto Rico. AA got pissy when San Juan allowed Jet Blue in and started cutting flights. The word is they no longer want an routes down here.
That being said, I come from Boston area and go up to visit family. We can now book straight through from STT to BOS on Jet Blue. Cape Air flies from STT to SJU, then Jet Blue SJU to BOS. The flight times are actually pretty good and cost is about the same as AA was.
You can book all the way through on jetblue.com
I would love to hear if anyone knows anything different.

I have no idea when Presidents week is but I do have access to a worldwide reservation system and I didn't find any nonstop AA flight from BOS to STT during the period Nov-Mar.

I only got connection flights in JFK or MIA.

We always vacation Presidents Week and have found that the direct flights were usually offered much later in the year and generally they were about $1,000 pp. We learned our lesson quickly that if we could find a flight early that at least gave us a reasonable layover, we booked. That being said, as many will attest, what you book is usually not what you end up with and we have had to run from gate to gate to make flights, ended up our entire family scattered around the cabin on flights, been diverted to other airports etc.

We found flying before the weekend rush of that holiday worked well as well as booking as early as possible. We usually paid about $650. Enjoy!

A little puzzling regarding the BOS-STT-BOS nonstop flight with trying to book for Feb '12. Recently booked a stateside flight through Jet Blue and found they are "Partnered" with AA. One can select which airline to have ff miles posted to etc. I'm hoping Jet Blue might be considered for top options when AA discontinues Caribbean routes. That being said, STT hasn't been directly been mentioned but PR instead. Guess the wait/see game begins!!

$390 is a great price

villafish wrote: That being said, I come from Boston area and go up to visit family. We can now book straight through from STT to BOS on Jet Blue. Cape Air flies from STT to SJU, then Jet Blue SJU to BOS. The flight times are actually pretty good and cost is about the same as AA was.
You can book all the way through on jetblue.com
I would love to hear if anyone knows anything different.

That's good to know that you can book straight through STT to Boston on Jet Blue. Looks like they are jumping right on American's planned cut back. For several years we've been booking BOS to SJU then Cape Air to STT but I always did it separately. Years ago it was a savings compared with the American flight but little by little Jet Blue crept up and the past couple of years it's been more expensive than the American flight.

That said we still preferred to pay a little more for the comfort and reliability of Jet Blue and it's fun to come into STT on the puddlejumper. American pissed us off once too often. American's m/o was to offer a direct flight at a reasonable price 10+ months out. Then a month or so before the flight it would cancel that flight and put passengers on a flight with one or two lousy connections that arrived in STT hours and hours later in the day. By then, on busy weeks it was far too late to book elsewhere. That's Bait and Switch in my mind and I rant about it often. Good riddance to AA I say.

villafish wrote:From what we have heard, their main deal is pulling out of Puerto Rico. AA got pissy when San Juan allowed Jet Blue in and started cutting flights. The word is they no longer want an routes down here.
That being said, I come from Boston area and go up to visit family. We can now book straight through from STT to BOS on Jet Blue. Cape Air flies from STT to SJU, then Jet Blue SJU to BOS. The flight times are actually pretty good and cost is about the same as AA was.
You can book all the way through on jetblue.com
I would love to hear if anyone knows anything different.

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see STT as an option on Jetblue's website. How does it link with the Cape Air puddlejumper?

pmk

pmk wrote:

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see STT as an option on Jetblue's website. How does it link with the Cape Air puddlejumper?

pmk

I've noticed that STT doesn't always show in the pull-down options (matbe a glitch because it's new). It is there though - try typing it in.

JetBlue only displays their destinations. You have to type STT in the "Where To" box. It will automatically use Cape Air for the final leg.

-John

Agent99 mentioned that American bait and switched her flights out of BOS and for two years in a row Delta did the same to us flying out of BTV.

We where just talking the other evening about how we where going to approach next year's March trip. We talked about driving and staying in Boston and getting the American direct to STT. But we have grown to enjoy flying into our home airport and and a short 1/2 hour drive home on our return. We where discussed a double TSA in San Juan to fly Jet Blue then Cape Air or even catching a cab to old town and flying in on Seaborne.

The news that you can book Cape Air through Jet Blue is great news! That will keep me out of the clutches of Delta and a sprint through the Detroit airport.

I hope someone from the airlines reads these posts.