We have flown American/Silver the last 5 trips and we had our first hiccup yesterday. We walked out to the Silver plane in Tortola to fly home and were about to board when they paused us. After a few minutes of crew and ground staff interaction, they announced to the passengers that the plane was overweight and only 10 carry on bags could be loaded. However, they had no idea how to accomplish this and of course no one wanted to leave their bags.

We pack a lot since we are on the boat for two weeks and we like things like our Mantus dinghy anchor - so we had 7 bags (4 checked and 3 carry on). I told them that I was fine with them keeping them all for a later flight so we didn't have to deal with partial bags in PR, but they ultimately loaded 1. As of tonight, we have no idea where our remaining 6 bags are and no one has called or emailed - even though we filed claims with Silver in PR and American when we landed at home.

Overall, we had a great trip and I'm confident that our bags will come, but we feel like Silver is deteriorating in quality. I typically book our flights as soon as they post, so I will have to decide between St. Thomas/Ferry and Beef Island over the next month or so. There are pros and cons to all the options, but our bags not making it on the trip down would suck.

I checked the dates one month prior to our trip next year earlier today and the STT tickets are actually $30 more than the EIS tickets - weird. I'll keep thinking and reading your responses prior to making a decision. I'm starting to think that we have just been lucky over the years.