Book Connecting Flight Prior?
 

My husband and I are traveling to Vieques at the end of May for 10 days. Our flight lands at around 9AM on a Saturday. Should we arrange for a connecting flight beforehand or wait until we arrive? I was nervous about pre-booking in case our flight is delayed for any reason out of Los Angeles. Also, do you know what kind of prices to expect for the connecting flight and which airline do you think is best/safest? Thank you!

Best to book your flight before you arrive. Those planes are very small -- sits maybe 7 or 8 passengers and can easily sell out, especially if you are going Memorial Day weekend.

I'm not up to speed on which airlines fly to Vieques these days. I'm sure someone will come along shortly with some info.

You can find a schedule and contact information inside http://www.vieques-events.com

I have previously flown Air Flamenco, Vieques Air Link, and MN Aviation and have never had a problem with these. I have flown on Brittain-Norman Islanders and Cessnas seating between 9-11 people. Cape Air has at least one 5 seater Piper.

If you miss your plane, you will not get a refund but they will help you get a flight over. Allow plenty of time, but definitely do make flight arrangements ahead of time, especially for a weekend. It will be cheaper if you book a rountrip ticket, and also cheaper if you fly out of the San Juan municipal airport rather than SJU.

What airline are you flying to Puerto Rico? If it's American, you can get a seamless connection at the San Juan airport and go straight to Vieques now. You're probably going to have to pay something like $250 round-trip, but perhaps less. You have waited very long to make your airline connections to Vieques, so if you have problems getting a flight, it's possible you'll have to transfer to San Juan's local airport or even take the hop over from Fajardo. Neither is such a taxing thing, and both are usually cheaper than getting a flight from SJU, though certainly less convenient. Several airlines make this connection, including all those mentioned by eaf2007, but I think all the airlines that fly to Vieques fly now from SJU, and flights are fairly frquent. If you're worried about transfer times, give yourself about 3 hours between flights.

Doug, is the American terminal in Vieques open now for certain? Last I heard there were indefinite delays.

Since I wrote this yesterday, I'm now getting different information. I'm not sure the connection is going to be available for you. It's not so much the terminal as the flight schedules. The Vieques flights have disappeared from the American Eagle schedule as far as I can tell, and I don't think Cape Air does interline baggage service with American (they do offer codeshares with JetBlue out of Boston, but I'm not sure if Vieques is in the mix there). Anyway, I don't think that's a major problem for you. Just allow plenty of time to make a connection in San Juan and switch over to one of the smaller airlines, which definitely serve San Juan, and if the prices seem too high, it's not horribly expensive to get a taxi to Fajardo, where you can get a $50 flight to Vieques.

Thanks for all of your help. I am going to book the connecting flight ASAP. Too bad about American, that's what we are flying!

American Eagle does not fly to VQS. The story I heard is that for AE to land, the runway had to be clear for 30 min. prior to and after AE landing. During daylight hours, there is a plane landing at that airport at least every 20 minutes!
Go ahead and book your flight. Cape Air and VAL will put you on another flight if you cannot make the scheduled one...no charge for changing. Just call them as soon as you know.
Just to put out a good will story...last May when we were due to fly back to Boston, we bought tix from Air Flamenco, well the rain was heavy and the Air Flamenco plane did not arrive from Culebra. So we went and bought tix with VAL, in the end they did not fly due to rain either and we had to fly out the next day. One year later, about 2 weeks ago, I still had these unused tix for AF. I called them to see if we could still use them. They no longer fly out of VQS, but made arrangements to stop at the VQS airport to pick us up on the way to Isla Grande airport in San Juan/Isla Verde. No extra charges, great customer service on that one!

Air Flamenco once helped me out of a tight spot that way too. We had missed our VAL flight, and Air Flamenco had a plane headed to Culebra stop in Vieques to drop us off. I second their customer service!

You can book Cape Air online via either Expedia or Travelocity.

I had used SJU as our "hub" for multiple trips to the islands and connecting is not problematic. However, that being said you do have to claim your luggage and go through security again. If you have two hours you should be fine. Be mindful that signage is not very good at the airport and basically upon claiming your lugguage you need to walk out of the terminal and re-enter through a different entrance.

Don't be afriad to book in advance. Like what the previous postings had indicated those planes to Vieques are small twin-prop Cessinas and can only fit 7 or 8 people. Do not over pack because the planes are small.

I believe Cape Air has flights out of SJU early in the AM, at noon, and then another one in the afternoon.

Good luck.