emcash

Can someone tell me what some of the better known airlines are in the caribbean? I know about caribbean air and Liat. My DH wants to take a trip beginning in Puerto Rico for a few days and then on from there. I thought we could get to T&C or Barbados from SJU direct but that doesn't seem to be teh case. I'm wondering if i'm missing something? TIA

Weadles

American Eagle is one of the biggest carriers. They do ( or did) fly to a lot of the islands from San Juan.

emcash

Thanks weadles, but they don't fly to T&C or barbados from SJU.

blamona

I don't know about Barbados, I did fly American Eagle from SJ to Barbados.

I do know there is no direct flight from SJ to T&C-the closest connection is back through to Miami.

emcash

blamona, when i put in sju to barbados, it redirects me from miami. I think maybe AA is cutting down on its flights from sju.

SAnParis2

There is Win-air, but they are horrible to deal with.

doug_stallings

Barbados, Antigua, and Jamaica are actually the biggest hubs for Caribbean-based airlines, not Puerto Rico. Liat is the biggest Caribbean-based airline, and it does offer a few nonstop flights south from there but not north.

You'll find more connections within the Caribbean if you fly from Barbados. But if you want to go to Puerto Rico first, there are still some possibilities. You can fly on Seaborne or Cape Air to the Virgin Islands. American Eagle still has a lot of connections throughout the Caribbean from Puerto Rico, but I doubt that any of them are to the Bahamas.

Santo Domingo is also another hub where you can fly to the French islands and other Caribbean destinations on Air Caraibes.

Winair doesn't fly to San Juan at all.

Air Jamaica is the other airline that has a fairly wide network, obviously, through Montego Bay and Kingston (mostly MoBay).

mymoosie

When we flew AA this past October we were routed via Miami. AA cut a lot of their SJU flights so that route may have been a victim of the cuts.

blamona

Since you seemed interested in T&C, yet it's pretty hard to travel SJU to PLS without overnight and connections, would you consider Anguilla? The have daily flights from SJU, and the island is stunning. Airplane code is AXA.

RoamsAround

emcash - your planned trip(s) is a perfect example of "you can't get there from here".

First off, you can't get to the T&C's from SJU without first going back to Miami, regardless of which airline you fly.

American/American Eagle is cutting back on flights from SJU to many Caribbean island. SJU is just not as big a Hub for American as it use to be. AA/AE no longer flies direct or non-stop from SJU to Barbados.

Winair doesn't service SJU or Barbados so that suggestion doesn't work for you.

To reach Barbados from SJU your only viable options are:

1)fly LIAT but they don't offer non-stop flights. You'll have to connect either through St. martin or Antigua.

2) Go by charter.

3) Fly from SJU to one of the larger islands in the Southern Caribbean such as St. Lucia or Grenada and then fly a "local" carrier to Barbados but that would probably entail 2 or 3 different hops and staying overnight while enroute.

You will find it infinitely easier to get to Barbados and/or the T&C's from Miami rather than SJU.

emcash

Thanks everyone- I appreciate the responses, and at least am glad to have a final answer - which is we can't do it the way we wanted to! on to plan B!

Blamona, we LOVE Anguilla! we went there about a year and a half ago, so we wanted to try something new this time around. we've been wanting to attempt sandy lane and I've been trying to tempt DH with T&C. DH loves Puerto Rico- mostly b/c of the food. and we don't want to spend a whole week in one place, so we thought we'd try to mix it up a bit. Seems like our plan isn't do-able though.

Thanks again everyone for your imput.

xkenx

American/Eagle does fly SJU-BGI, just not every day.

emcash

xkenx- thank you so much! that was very helpful.