USVI-On-Line

Hi forumites- Getting my act together for our June trip to STJ. Need some air advise...we have ALWAYS taken the USAir non stop , Philly to St. Thomas. Worth is to us to pay a little extra than have to change planes. This year, I see that Us Air does not have their non stop posted for Sundays!!! Yikes!!! so our options are...
1- Get the American flight from Philly thru San Juan, but no plane change.
2- try Spirit Air from Atlantic City, thru ft. Lauderdale. Great price at $404.
3- take train to Newark, NJ and get non stop with Continental @ $362!!!
Would like to hear from anyone who has flown with Spirit. Take a chance??? At least on the American flight @ $487 there is no plane change, just stop and probably have to get off of plane, but at least luggage wont get lost!!! Help with choices!!

I think I have nixed the idea of taking the train to Newark, NJ. While the air fare is excellent, it would cost $200 each way extra. So the only advantage is getting the non stop flight. Not sure if it is worth it.
ANyone tell me more about Spirit??? If we get stuck in Ft. Lauderdale, would there be another flight to get us to STT? I doubt it!
Whereas, if we got stuck in San Juan, there would probably be more flights to get us to STT.

suzi wrote:I think I have nixed the idea of taking the train to Newark, NJ. While the air fare is excellent, it would cost $200 each way extra. So the only advantage is getting the non stop flight. Not sure if it is worth it.
ANyone tell me more about Spirit??? If we get stuck in Ft. Lauderdale, would there be another flight to get us to STT? I doubt it!
Whereas, if we got stuck in San Juan, there would probably be more flights to get us to STT.

I have flown spirit plenty never with any problem but not to STT. but you are correct there is likely only one flight out per day so unless they could get you on another airline you'd be stuck.

Spirit from National Airport DCA was fine. The Ft. Lauderdale terminal is crowded with few food options. But, for a cheap fare it works fine.

Remember, Spirit charges for all checked bags.

Cheers, RickG

We flew Spirit in May of last year from Detroit, with a connection in Ft Lauderdale & felt the flight & everything about Spirit was great.
I would agree that there is probably only the one flight a day.

On our May flight, we were late checking in for our flight home& our luggage didn't make the flight out of STT, When we got to Detroit with no luggage we were a little concerned if our luggage would have been tagged for a late checkin. The next flight in was at 11;30 pm the next night. We checcked with the Spirit Air rep & lucky for us it hadn't been taged & honestly it should have.

To our luck since the luggage hadn't been taged as a late checkin, they would deliver our luggage to us on the Monday at no charge & we live in Canada which is a good 4 hours from the Detroit airport.

We felt this was excellent service.
Embarrased to say I don't think we would have received this kind of service from a Canadian airlines.

The Shopper

There aren't any other direct flights from Ft Lauderdale to STT. American does fly into San Juan but I doubt that they would honor a Spirit ticket.

We have flown Spirit for many years and have never had any problems. Many of those flights have been from ACY to STT. No problems. We will do it again in less than 2 weeks.

Last summer I flew Spirit from ACY to San Francisco thru Detroit both ways. The flight out of SFO was very late leaving and I have no idea how I actually made the transfer in Detroit myself. The door to the plane was closed immediately behind me so I felt certain that my bag could not have made the transfer. I would have understood how it didn't make it but there it was when I got to baggage in AC. I was impressed.

Get on their email list as they run some pretty fantastic sales. They go quick, like w/i 24 hours, but they are worth it. We once flew to FLL for $1 !

OH...forgot one more thing. Unless things have changed since we went to STJ last time, Spirit is running their newest nicest Airbus on the FLL to STT leg of the trip.

We did the American flight from Philly thru San Juan, with no plane change in August. Equipment was old as dirt, had some weather related departure delay from PHL, which is OK because it is the same plane that is going on to STT. It stops, lets some off, some on, about :35 turnaround. If you have to go thru SJU, thats the best way to do it.

One negative about small airlines like Spirit is that if you have equipment problems, there are a lot less options because there may not be other flights readily available from that airport and/or next flights are already booked, etc.

What is it with the AA flights to SJU/STT lately? The planes are definitely getting and even seem a bit dirty. Yuck.

Cheers, RickG

Hmmmm. just when I thought I had made up my mind to go with AA thru San Juan...rick tells me that the equipment is so old!! that makes me feel safe and secure!! And then Carolyn tells us that Spirit from Atlntic City to Ft. Lauderdale to STT uses their newest airbus!! Geez...pros and cons, pros and cons. Carolyn, is parking free at Atlantic City airport? That is a biggie bill right there! How much is it per bag to check? I imagine that security is a breeze in AC in comparison to Philly.
Maybe I'll wait til Carolyn gets back in a few weeks! She can include a plane report with her trip report!
the plus for AA thru San Juan, is that no matter how late the plane is from taking off in Philly, we won't have to worry about a connection.

Suzi-
I Have used all the flights you listed except Spirit. I will be flying Spirit to STT first week of February and can give you feedback then.
USAir is the best option in my opinion except for the Philly Airport lines.
AA's lines at Philly don't seem to be as bad as USAir
but I have always had trouble going through SJU because the flight is always over-booked on the return and then usually late but you should not have this problem since you wouldn't be changing planes.
Continental (used 2x) Good flight, usually great price and have experience both good and bad at the Newark airport.
The only other option is USAIR through CLT which still arrives at around 1:30 pm STT time.
USAir use to have a flight that went through MIA with a short layover but I haven't seen it in a while.
As I said I'm trying Spirit this time because it is actually closer and the Philly Airport lines have been terrible the last few times out.
Good Luck, Scott

Suzi-
Spirit charges $10.00 per bag at the AC airport or $5.00 per bag online ahead of time.

Thanks Traveler, for the input...I am def going to wait til I hear from you about your Spirit experience. Is there a parking charge at Atlantic City Airport?