USVI-On-Line

We are trying to fly to San Juan direct from Philly in February.

Right now, American has one direct flight in the morning and a 6pm direct for our return.
Cost approx. $370

US Air has three or so direct flights each day and both the departure and return times are more desirable for us. Cost approx. $480

One half of the group wants to go with American. The other half wants to go USAir.

I am leaning towards USAir because of the number of direct flights.

I am worried American will mess with the flight and our times will get screwed up.

My thought is with the greater number of USAir direct flights to San Juan, less could go wrong.

Cost really isn't the issue. The American half of the crew is greatly influenced by their travel agent, who is pushing for American.

For the people that fly American, are my worries about getting switched to crappy flight times reasonable?

USAir usually connects in Charlotte. At least that has been my experience. And the chance of connecting in CLT vs. SJU wins in my book every day!

AA.

While all airlines are struggling, US Airways and United Airlines are in especially poor financial condition. Unless a merger or acquisition takes place, I wouldn't be surprised if one or both of these carriers file for bankruptcy by the end of 2008. Although BK doesn't necessarily mean shutting down, it could mean drastic changes to schedules and destinations served.

IMO, AA is in better shape to weather the storm.

I've already received notice of a change in my AA itinerary for the end of October. As you can imagine, it is definitely not for the better. I'll be hanging around San Juan for a couple of extra hours (3) on the way down and like 8 on the return flight. I think it's too hard to predict one way or the other. No matter what you do, you just can't always have a contingency plan in place. Sometimes changes happen that we have no control over. I'd book with whatever works best for you based on the current flight schedules. Good luck, Ali~

As someone who detests both PHL and US Air, I'd vote for AA. But, I also happen to know that AA is in a lousy terminal at PHL. Should you get delayed at least US Air has more services. So, using that logic, I'd vote for US Air.

Arguments like this go on all the time in my head. It's why I'm such a mess.

and...I am aware that I added nothing useful to the conversation. Ill show myself out

pipanale wrote: Arguments like this go on all the time in my head. It's why I'm such a mess.

I take comfort in the fact that I am not the only one who puts too much thought into these things!

Between you and me...US Air's hub is in Philly. We always use them. I vote for Us Air..

I am feeling down on American at the moment. We got to Cyril King airport yesterday at about 2:00 for our 4:30 flight to San Juan on AA. I had called earlier to confirm the time. Unfortunately, it was now leaving at 6:00 PM. Which is the same time our flight left from San Juan for Dulles. We finally got rebooked (after waiting in a long, hot queue) on a flight to Baltimore leaving San Juan at 8:20 and arriving at midnight. They then put us in a cab to Dulles. Did I mention my mother in law was with us? Anyhow, we got home at a little after 2:00 AM. The flight to Baltmore was freezing cold. I am really not loving AA. But, these days, it could have been any airline.

During our Friday night on the back porch happy hour I forced Hubs to look at the AA flight information as well as the USAir direct flights. (Hubs doesn’t really like to plan but tends towards strong opinions once a decision is made for him)

Much discussion about getting home early (6pm) verse later (9-ish pm) followed.

After the 2nd Clementine martini, we could laugh at our “problem” and decide on flying AA. Good thing since US Air jumped to over $700 by this morning.

The husband half of our traveling friends is probably on the phone with his travel agent right now booking the AA flights.

Now we need to figure out how we are getting from SJU to Virgin Gorda.