Sage

This question is for the frequent Flyer, so please help.

My husband and I booked a flight last year to Nevis, and went through American Airlines.
We were able to fly to Nevis without having to overnight in San Juan. Three weeks ago we were checking prices and found the same exact flights as last year, one day to Nevis no overnight. Now we went to book it and the flights were suddenly overnight, only, in San Juan. They for some reason changed the time on the Dallas/FortWorth to San Juan flight to a later time and it wouldn't arrive in time to make the Nevis connection. We were curious if in a month or two they would change the time back. You can currently get one day flights to Nevis and are availible all the way up to mid December, then after that they are not listed. They reappear in April. So the hang up is in the flight times, not being booked up. Do you think the flight times will be readjusted the closer we get to January(our intended travel) to make the flights one day to Nevis?

We were also curious when is the best time to get good prices on flights? We plan on going towards the end of Januray. Is best to book early or late for the best prices.
So far there are a ton of seats left on the flights we are looking at. Should we wait?

virginia

hi sage, if you don't get any answers here try reposting on the airline forum. some savvy flyers over there.

A_Traveller

I can only tell you that we travel DFW/SJU/NEV 6 to 8 times a year and sometimes we can do it in one day and other times it requires an overnight. It's the way the schedule the DFW/SJU leg. In 8+ years we've never seen them change schedules so an over-night trip became a single day trip.

Getting good prices is also very difficult as there is not much competition between DFW and SJU and AE is the only game in town between SJU and NEV. All that makes it a "sellers" market. You've got to keep checking prices and be prepared to buy when you see a good one as prices fluxuate. Hint - sign up for fare alerts and if you are flexible with your travel dates you can get a lower fare.

doug_stallings

It's very likely AA just changed their flight schedule. I don't think there's anyway of knowing if a flight will reappar suddenly. AA is doing a lot of adjustments right now.

But this doesn't mean you don't have options. AA flies to St. Kitts from both MIA and SJU, and you can take a ferry to Nevis from there (or fly on Carib Aviation).

Winair flies to Nevis from St. Maarten, so you could fly there on AA and then transfer to Winair. They have pretty frequent flights (up to 8pm), so that's a viable option.

LIAT also flies to Nevis, from both St. Kitts and Antigua, so you could fly AA to Antigua and then switch to LIAT. I think they have an early evening flight (around 6pm).

These are a few options, but you have to book LIAT and Winair flights separately from your AA flights, but both airlines have web sites.

A_Traveller

Sage/Doug - AA doesn't have non-stop or direct from DFW to SXM so that is not usually a viable option as it means taking at least 3 flight (DFW to MIA, MIA to SXM both on AA and finally Winair to NEV) to reach NEV - too many chances for delays or missed connection.

Same holds true for flights to Antigua. As the old saying goes you can't get there (Antigua) from here (DFW). To reach Antigua you have to connect through SJU or MIA (I think AA still has a flight to Antigua from MIA but not sure if timing allows an easy connection from DFW). In any event, doing so means at least 3 flights.

Connecting through SJU is easiest but sometimes does require an overnight stopover. Second best is trying to connect in SJU to SKB (St. Kitts) on American Eagle then take ferry to NEV. Trouble is sometimes during the year AE flights between SJU and SKB are scheduled close in time to the NEV flights so the inbound flights from DFW arrive too late to make same day connections.

So, if you want to make the DFW/SJU/NEV trip in 2 flights one can only check schedules and hope for the best. As I said, we've been doing this route for 8+ years and sometimes we just have to bite the bullet and overnight in SJU. FYI - there have been occasional times when we've booked a layover flight pretty far in advance only to find a few weeks before the flight that AE has added a flight that makes an easy connection time. They have let us reschedule to that flight - sometime with no charge, sometimes with a change fee. Also, once we were scheduled for an overnight stopover in SJU but or inbound flight arrived early enough for us to catch the last flight of the day to NEV. We were put on that flight with no extra charge. That happened only once (we had 45 minutes from the time we landed to take off) and we were doing only carry-on baggage.

As I tell people, it's not always easy to get to Nevis.

Nevisian

Are you beginning your flight at Dallas/Fort Worth or just connecting through DFW? You should fly into St. Kitts. You will find connections more frequent and easier. There are two reasons I believe the flights differ: The U.S. has daylight savings time. You move your clocks back in the Fall. This affects international schedules. Secondly plane schedules are changed for high/low seasonal demand.

Nevisian

Try the 6oam flight from DFW to Miami and connect to flight 2299 to St. Kitts which arrives around 2:30 in the afternoon. You will have plenty of time to get to the ferries. Check with your hotel on Nevis for their suggetions. As for when to book your flights: you are coming at high season. Book a.s.a.p. to get what you want. Expecially since you have so few choices in direct travel.

shoediva

Definitely book soon, as options dwindle and prices go up as we get out of hurricane season and into winter travel season! St. Kitts is a good option. The ferry across to Nevis is an enjoyable ride. Taxi drivers at the SKB airport are used to pretty much everything, so will have no problem getting you over to the Ferry terminal in a hassle-free and efficient manner.