Lets start this off by saying that I am now in San Francisco after another day of hell traveling on AA. Those who follow my blogs will remember that I vowed after our last horrible flight that I was going to use all my points and try to avoid in future. I don't know which airline I expect to fly on to Tortola, but that is beside the point!
Our return flights to San Francisco had cost us 120,000 points each I believe to go mostly first class. Yep, really sucked down the FF points.
Our routing was EIS to SJU to MIA to SFO. We arrived for our civilized 130 flight out of Beef way earlier then we needed. I thought it was kind of weird checking in as she asked me several time if we were on the 130 flight. I eventually made a comment to her to the effect that she was scaring me by keep on asking me that and what was I missing? She assured me nothing. We paid our departure taxes, had lunch at the little restaurant there that had some great (but spicy!) chicken, and watched the AA flight to SJU before ours depart. About this time they start informing us that our flight to SJU was delayed. I know, you are surprised! We realized that the girl MUST have known that our flight was delayed when checking in!
They told us we would miss our San Juan to Miami connection so they took away our boarding passes for the rest of our flights, and said we really had no options for first class to check when we got to San Juan. Got to San Juan it was pouring rain, and i mean pouring! Totally soaked. Had to do the Immigration and Customs thing and then go to a service center. It turns out the flight to Miami was delayed, so we could have made it with minutes to spare, as when we were going through security they kept on bumping up the Miami people to the front to get them on the plane. Everything was full as it was Memorial weekend. She had us rush to get our bags back on a different flight, made a flight to Dallas with two minutes before they closed the gate. Of course it was in economy. I never had time to go to the bathroom in between never mind get a bottle of water for the long hike.
We were told in Dallas they would put us up overnight and we had boarding passes for the first flight to San Francisco in the AM, but only one in first class, Bazza (of course) in economy.
Got to Dallas, went to the service desk out of the air plane and they said, the last flight to San Francisco has not left yet, but it is leaving from a different terminal and you have to go NOW. He just took our boarding passes this time and made us run telling us he would put through a request to the gate while we were on our way. Ran through another airport without any food or water, got to the plane and we were in the last two seats on the plane. You got it, not together and in economy! No food served on this flight. I just zoned out I was so disgusted.
The biggest surprise of all was our bags were in San Francisco. Now, how they could move faster then we could run I don't know. BUT they had gotten totally soaked in San Juan and the cartons of cigarettes I bought my mother had dissolved all over the suitcase!
Woo Hoo.
Got to the San Francisco airport and my sisters place is an hour away from there, and we had not made hotel arrangements yet as of course, we did not know where we were going to be. Got up to the subway system to take the BART out to where she lives and the last one had just quit running. Paid $150.00 for a cab fare out to a hotel near her house, as I decided I would rather do that then find one by the airport, hump all our stuff over and then hump back to the airport in the AM to get the transportation.
So the moral of the story is, even when you use up all your points to get the high end (??) first class service, it was horrible.
A few other comments worth mentioning. With fuel prices they are really skimping on using fuel for A/C and that. We boiled on the ground in every airport we were in and it was not much better in the sky either. On the large runways we noticed they are not using the reverse thrust when you land, which saves fuel, but Bazza says it will use the brakes much faster. From talking to the agents, if you miss a connection at the beginning of your flight, with less flights and then running full, it will really make it harder to find other seats.
I don't know the answer, but you have my thoughts on flying once again.
There was an interesting comment on
TTOL from the owner of South Sound Villa on Virgin Gorda,
South Sound Villa who was looking into booking flights down here in October. The link is above and what he said was this:
Just checked the cost of flying from JFK to STT vs EIS
Oct 7 and return Oct 29
JFK to STT r/t $363 + $60 for baggage both ways based on 2 bags going down and 1 bag coming back (Combined bags on return)
STT to Ferry Terminal Taxi About $24 r/t
Roadtown Fast ferry to Roadtown $50 r/t
Total of $497 total to get to Roadtown
Compared to $645 JFK to SJU to EIS on AA
No baggage fees for this trip.
So the difference is about $150 extra to use EIS instead of STT and the ferry to Roadtown.
Bear in mind that you can no longer book a fare to SJU and then a continuing flight to EIS since you will have an enourous bill for baggage. I used to do that, since the separate flight costs was almost always way cheaper
Just checked JFK to SJU came out to $281 + $60 for baggage and SJU to EIS $363 + $60 baggage fee.
Note:
It costs much more to fly from SJU to EIS (About 100 miles) than JFK to SJU (About 1500 miles)
So it cost hundreds of dollars to fly SJU to EIS instead of SJU to STT. The distance in miles is about 15 miles difference between the two airports.
Seems like EIS airport is at a ridicuous disadvantage compared to STT. Not sure why.
By the way it costs $250 r/t to fly SJU to Virgin Gorda
I wish there was an easy way to figure out the air and what is best to do when coming down here, I can only say that every time is different on what is best. There are still some good options, but if and when you are coming on Promenade, tell me your flight thoughts so I can tell you what to watch for in potential pitfalls etc. I still am pushing the idea more of arriving on the yacht late afternoon and departing first thing in the morning to make it an easier travel schedule for guests. Now that they are charging for the first bag, and I am sure, to go along with that, going to start REALLY watching the carry on bags, It makes no sense to bring your own SCUBA gear on board, except if you have a favorite mask (forget the snorkel, we have good ones) and a computer if you are diving. I would also think to leave all the toiletries behind and make up etc etc. More benefits of going out on a casual yacht!
I have more to comment on, but I have exactly 57 emails in my inbox that have to have something done with. So, later. I have been mulling over addressing an issue that I have had crop up several times with me writing the blog. That issue is when I say anything the least bit critical or "insider" like on this industry I am in, I get blasted from people in the industry who think I am the wicked witch of the west. My standard reply has always been, I am not the tourist board, if we are only here to tell untruths to "hide" anything negative then it is dishonest.
I am going to stop right there and continue later.
