Montreal to Curacao through Newark
 

Looking for feedback on a travel plan that makes me uncomfortable. My 20 year old daughter has the opportunity to join a friend for a week at a time share in Curacao, next February, and is putting pressure on me to make her air arrangements to match those of her travel partner. That means leaving YUL at 6:35 AM on a Colgan Air (Continental partner) turboprop, arriving EWR with a 1 hr 15 min. layover, then departing for CUR on the once per week Continental flight. My discomfort stems from several aspects of this plan. First, the YUL-EWR flight is a non jet flight on a new travel partner for Continental with no available history of on time status for this flight. They are flying in the winter from montreal into an airport with a history of flight delays, making that 1 hr. 15 minute layover look mighty short. There is no other Continental flight to put them on if they miss their connection, and a Continental rep. has told me that if delays are due to weather, Continental has no responsibility to rebook them on another airline, although they could. Such rebooking, if there were seats available, would require many, many hours of sitting around at several different airports. And finally - the YUL-EWR-CUR combo costs over $1100 RT - the EWR-CUR leg is $550, meaning I am paying over $550 for her to fly 350 miles on a propeller plane. My suggestion that she fly in the night before (on a jet, thank you), also doesn't work. If my daughter is at EWR for the EWR-CUR leg of travel, (easy to do since we live on LI) and her friend (already booked on the Colgan/Continental combo) doesn't make her connection, then my daughter is either going to have to bail on her ticket, or fly off without her friend - not likely since the friend is the one with the time share.

So - am I right to say that this is a bad plan and I am not footing the bill for it (I was going to fly her home for her winter break anyway, and we were going to split the cost of the EWR-CUR leg)? Or am I being an overprotective mother who doesn't understand the realities of air travel (we travel only occasionally - the friend's family travels frequently and is very comfortable with the plan)? Should I just shut up and let her go?

Are there better, and cheaper, flights into Aruba -- there are several inexpensive daily flights between Aruba and Curacao (maybe a 30 minute flight)?

Delta through Atlanta gives her more time for connection and has a scheduled arrival at the same time as the CO flight. Not sure why the airlines all just show once/wk flights - perhaps they just haven't scheduled the daily flights this far out.

The Continental rep i spoke to said they never flew more than once per week. Is that true? Does anyone know if they flew daily flights this winter?

Unfortunately, alternative flight plans through different cities won't help, since the friend is already booked on the YUL-EWR-CUR route. I'd rather have her stuck here in the NY metropolitan area where I can just bring her home if the flights don't work out, instead of somewhere 1000 miles away. The non-stop Continental flight from Newark definitely wins out over any other choices with non-direct flights. It's the coordination of the flight from Montreal (on the turbo prop aircraft) and the short layover time in mid winter that is the greatest issue.

So - my question is - is that YUL-EWR-CUR route with a 1 hr. 15 min. layover in winter a bad idea? And what about flying on turboprop aircraft?

I arbitrarily put in a Feb. 2 departure and return on the 10th on expedia, and found you could connect on American at JFK or Miami. That might be an option for you.

In answer to your question about the once a week flights to the ABC islands...Aruba has more flights but Curacao and neighboring Bonaire usually have only weekly or twice weekly service.

At 20, I guess it is more important to be with a friend than to be sure you make your connecting flight. Perhaps they can both take a better flight to EWR to get them in earlier together?

My experience with many flights to Curacao and Bonaire over the years is that they overbook these infrequent flights, so if you aren't early to the gate there is a chance of being bumped, too.

You could always book a safer itinerary for your daughter and then pay the change fee and difference in fare price for your daughter's friend so that they fly together--I'm sure that's a lot of money, but it is a possibility.