84 replies to this topic

[georoc01]

Good news for the NY area divers, no need to do the red eye anymore!

Effective 20 December 2008 Delta will be flying every Saturday JFK, New York direct to Bonaire.

Flight times:
New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK) to Bonaire, Netherland Antilles (BON) on Sat, 20 Dec 2008
10:35am
JFK 4:25pm
BON Nonstop 4 hr 50 min Delta 553
Boeing 737-800

5:15pm
BON 9:05pm
JFK Nonstop 4 hr 50 min Delta 554
Boeing 737-800

The price right now round trip is $587.50 which includes taxes and fuel charge...

[WreckWench]

I see that you are thinking June for the trip. If you did it the week of the 15th (that's my birthday) I'd be game. I was planning on taking that week off and there's no better way than diving to celebrate my 30th... And it will hopefully be post CFA Level II, still waiting on Level I results.

Hey Sweetie the resort has a big group that takes most if not all the resort the first half of the month of June so I have the last half. If you arrive early to celebrate your b-day then you can join the rest of us afterwards...OR you can just celebrate a bit later. The official dates are June 20-27th.

Please join us! You'll have a blast!

[georoc01]

I think I can do that. Of course everyone is going to have to party with me.

BTW, if you want to bring your S.O., my group saw exactly one shark in 17 dives in Bonaire last May. It was a nurse shark hiding under a big rock and you really had to search to see him.

[WreckWench]

I think I can do that. Of course everyone is going to have to party with me.

SUHWEET!!! That would be AWESOME!!!

[scienceteacher]

April!! Hopefully on my spring break so I can go!! **Preferably March 30th through April 3rd!! ****

Hi Stephanie! I already hold a ticket with air miles, American ticket arriving March 24 departing April 3rd in Bonaire. I booked it before joining the group and I can't even change it until the first week of August since they are not booking out that far.

I was looking to have to change it to June with the group. I really did not want to wait 3 more months for a vacation. I have not booked my ground. I would love to go Spring Break since school is out!

Maybe we can get enough people who want to go early and get the group trip time moved!

Jim
scienceteacher

[uwfan]

April!! Hopefully on my spring break so I can go!! **Preferably March 30th through April 3rd!! ****

Hi Stephanie! I already hold a ticket with air miles, American ticket arriving March 24 departing April 3rd in Bonaire. I booked it before joining the group and I can't even change it until the first week of August since they are not booking out that far.

I was looking to have to change it to June with the group. I really did not want to wait 3 more months for a vacation. I have not booked my ground. I would love to go Spring Break since school is out!

Maybe we can get enough people who want to go early and get the group trip time moved!

Jim
scienceteacher

March 24-Apr 3??? ....Wishing I had a two week Spring Break.....

June works better for me.

[netmage]

Don't get it.... sidestep says its 425 to get to CUR..., but 900 to get to bonaire... and delta has totally priced themselves out of the game at 1100... (tho I had to use a week priors dates as some airlines wouldnt let me price that far out...

It looks like Continental is doing a redeye out of IAH... whoo hoo.... texans AND bonus miles for use on a trip to Truk.....!

[ASDmike]

Don't get it.... sidestep says its 425 to get to CUR..., but 900 to get to bonaire... and delta has totally priced themselves out of the game at 1100... (tho I had to use a week priors dates as some airlines wouldnt let me price that far out...

Darn 'puters! --- Just the yield management algorithms doing their thing. Sell the seats, but not cheaper than they have to. For yield management this means not loading availability in the cheap categories if the flight will sell. Of course there is much more to it and the 'puters periodically evaluate how well the flights are selling. Plus the airlines have many more seats to sell to Curacao so they are more aggressive in selling them than that purely leisure destination of Bonaire that all these wealthy divers want to go to at any price.

It's interesting to look at the flights this far out. It's deja vu to this year's pricing on our May trip on Delta's offering of new ATL-BON service. So, Delta may still not have not enough data yet to offer the flight competively. Our plane was only half full (both ways), but for next year their software is still, as you said, pricing themselves out of the game. This year they did drop prices about 5 weeks out, but most people going to BON were already on the AA and CO flights.

Digging deeper by looking at the flights on the 20th, they seem certain the flights will sell pretty easy (so, sorry folks, no cheap seats at this time). I follow AA and DL so I can say for great fares that still earn miles to BON/CUR, you want to get "N" or "Q" on American or "LUT" on Delta, although "K" on Delta and "S" on American may be ok.

On the 20th of Jun for next year, I don't see any seats reserved yet on these flights which makes sense since its just a bit too early to book a "typical" 1 week Sat-Sat leisure trip.

This is what the 'puters made available for June 20 outbound:
J7 D0 I0 Y7 B7 H7 K7 M7 L7 G7 V7 S7 W7 N7 Q0 O0 American MIA-CUR
Y7 B7 H7 K7 M7 G7 W7 L7 V7 S2 N0 Q0 O0 American Eagle SJU-BON

C9 D9 I9 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q0 K0 L0 U0 T0 Delta ATL-BON
C9 D9 I9 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 K0 L0 U0 T0 Delta JFK-BON

7 is the maximum AA shows in their "booking class" or "buckets", 9 for Delta. So that means the SJU-BON leg will be more expensive as soon as they sell those two "S" seats.



Frequent Flyer Alert:

We are within a week of the start of the hunt for that free ticket to Bonaire for these dates! Actually some savy FF folks may already have the 20th on hold, waiting for the 27th date to open...