Grenada Flights
 

A trip to Grenada is on the plate for us next June and I'm trying to figure out the best way to get there. (I can't believe I'm planning this far in advance!) From reading the trip reports & looking at AA flights, it appears there is only 1 AA flight that goes in and out of GND? And it leaves GND at 6:15am?! *groan* :(

Any suggestions on a better route to get there? We're flying from Washington Dulles.

mymoosie, I'm afraid you've discovered the dirty little secret about getting to Grenada. If you're trying to do it on AA, you've got to cool your heels in the San Juan airport for about 5 hours, both coming & going, and you've got a late arrival and early departure, effectively eating up two full vacation days.

I don't know why Grenada has such an insane schedule compared to the other islands with American Eagle connections.

You could fly into & out of Barbados on American and then catch a LIAT flight between Barbados & Grenada. LIAT and AA have a ticketing agreement so you can book it all on one ticket through AA. Just not on their website, apparently. When my husband and I visited Grenada and Bequia this summer, we opted for the Barbados route.

For my next trip to Grenada I am actually considering flying Air Jamaica out of Boston, an airport I loathe, if I can get a better schedule...Good luck! Grenada is definitely worth it, in my opinion!

I discovered just how difficult it is to fly to Grenada....prompted by mymoosie's post.

EJ, Air Jamaica no longer flies from Boston. I keep checking, but as of tonight, still nothimg from Boston.

Marion

I am quite sorry to learn that AJ no longer flies out of BOS. Oh, well!

But at least the AA schedule out of Logan is better than the one I have out of Hartford. At least you have more than one flight on the BOS-SJU and SJU-BOS legs.

And to think that I would much rather have 10 hours to kill in San Juan than fly out of Logan. Marion, do you ever try to fly out of Manchester or Providence, or do you mainly stick with Logan?

EJ,

I often explore options from Manchester, but don't have much luck with flights to the Caribbean. Providence just seems too far.

I share your feelings about Logan ;-), but usually make the trip down the night before and stay in Boston. Being in my *hometown*, even for the night, helps take the sting out of dealing with Logan. And there's always the possibility of seeing my daughter for the evening :-)

Marion

Thanks ejcrowe. That is a great suggestion. I'll have to look into that. We could hit Barbados for a couple of days coming back. Wooo! :)

Looking at possibility of USAirways too. I have miles to burn there. If I can get tickets using miles on USAirways then just pay for Liat ticket that would work. Ok, off to look at their site. Thank you!

We always take AA to Grenada, even with their punitive schedule. Given the schedule, we usually break up the return trip into two days and enjoy a day in San Juan. It's such a contrast to Grenada, and provides a gentle transition back to reality.

Several years ago, I heard an "explanation" of why AA treats Grenada so badly. (Don't know if it's true, but I offer it for whatever its worth...). If you'd traveled to Grenada before the mid-90s, you'd have enjoyed jet service on AA to and from SJU -- in fact, the first time we went down, in 1992, we had a DIRECT flight (it stopped in SJU) from BWI. Since that time, AA apparently "asked" the Grenadian government to pony up several million dollars to keep up the jet service. The government refused to bite, and AA decided to punish them with the terrible scheduling and by forcing visitors to go via Eagle turboprops, turning the SJU-GND leg into a noisy, dark 2.5 hour trip.

Interestingly, if you're coming over from Europe, the flights are much better.

Calaloo, that's an interesting explanation and probably more likely than the one I had in mind, which was that it was a grudge left over after Reagan's "intervention" to make US visitors pay for using a communist built airport.

My husband and I are planning to do just what you suggest on our way home next trip and plan a stopover one night in Old San Juan. I wish I had time to do it in both directions, but that just won't work for my schedule. I'm already going to have to beg and/or ask for a leave of absence as it is!

We love OSJ and wouldn't mind doing a stopover there. It's the 6am flight that's painful for us. Looks like USAirways is not any better. They only have a flight on Saturdays in June. *sigh*

While planning our trip to GND last May I found you can fly AA to Antigua and change onto British Airways flight that continues on to GND. But I think they only do it once a week. We ended up doing USAir to BGI and Carib Star to GND and everything worked out very nice.

We have a similar problem going to Biras Creek in Dec.
We arrive in San Juan at 11:30 AM and do not take the flight to Tortola until 8:45 the next morning. We have been to OSJ twice but our last visit was 10+ years ago. What are the top 2 new or changed destinations you have visited in the past few years and what are the 2 best restaurants to have dinner at these days? We are staying at an o.k. hotel right near the airport so we would rent a car.
All feedback welcome.