SVG Air or Liat

Okay, so I know this is a loaded question for some, but:

Difference in price for SVG Air is about $150 more for two of us round trip from Barbado\s to St. Vincent and back, with better times than Liat (if they fly instead of cancelling!)

I'm tending to think that it might be a better way to go since I have had some luck and no luck with Liat in the past.

I know that Seth from Barefoot recommends them, but just wondered if anyone had any experience with them - good, bad, indifferent.

Thanks so much!

We were a bit put off by the SVG Air cost back in 2010 when we chartered with Barefoot out of St. Vincent. The differential you quote does not see bad, however.

Sooooooo, if you've got the clams I'd think it's the way to go.

I'm not a big fan of LIAT. We booked two extra days into our trip to accommodate for expected problems with LIAT. It turned out that they lost one bag on the way down, and we got it 24-hours later, so that extra day was fortuitous. They also lost a bag of our crew who flew in a day later, but thankfully the bag showed up at 10pm that night. Kaishawn (Barefoot's Taxi driver) saved the day by fetching it for us from the airport late at night! It had all of Lisa's clothes, so she was sweating it big-time! Kaishawn is a great guy. Also, it turns out that we enjoyed our extra two days and the more relaxing pace for travel that it afforded. However, all-in-all, booking two extra days for the trip including hotels is probably more expensive than the additional cost of the SVG Air charter flight.

On our recent trip we used SVG Air after having used Liat (uneventfully) on previous trips. This was for reasons of scheduling convenience at higher cost. In our opinion it was well worth it and we would do it again with SVG.

Be aware that the plane will make a few stops in each direction which was not obvious to me from the web site/schedule. On the way to St. Vincent from BGI we stopped in Union and Canouan. On our return to BGI, we stopped in Bequia. In all cases this was for 5-10 minutes maximum. It was really interesting to see the islands from the air. We will take SVG on our next rip for sure.

One thing to be aware of is that when you get to St. Vincent, you might have to find an Immigration Officer as they did not clear us in on either previous stop and the people in St. Vincent thought they had. We could have easily bypassed immigration but thought it prudent not to.

Bob

Is there any difference in their baggage rules? I can't readily tell by the SVG Air website.

we used SVG last month and were pleased with the service - we flew to St Vincent and returned from Canouan. Below are baggage regs for SVG (no problem for us we like to travel light as we were sailing)
Luggage allowances on Shared Charters:
FREE CHECKED BAGGAGE ALLOWANCE IS ONE (1) BAG, 20 KGS (44 LBS) PER PASSENGER (INFANTS INCLUDED).
A BAG THAT EXCEEDS 20 KGS (44LBS), UP TO A MAXIMUM OF 32 KGS (70 LBS) WILL BE CHARGED AT A RATE OF US $1.00 PER LB.
THE CHARGE FOR A 2ND BAG IS US $50.00 PER PASSENGER.
THE CHARGE FOR A 3RD BAG IS US $100.00 PER PASSENGER.
THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF CHECKED BAGS ALLOWED WILL BE THREE (3) BAGS.
ONE (1) STANDARD PIECE OF HAND LUGGAGE PER PASSENGER IS ALLOWED - NOT TO EXCEED 6 KGS (13 LBS).
There are weight restrictions on all aircraft. Should luggage be left behind, the airline will assist you by forwarding it on the next available aircraft
"Soft" cases are recommended since the luggage compartments on these aircraft are small.
Due to flights operating into unlit airstrips, passengers are advised to travel with overnight essentials in their hand luggage

SVG Air is essentially a private charter. (full disclaimer, I have not used them). svgair.com

If you talk to them in advance about your baggage needs they will accommodate you.

LIAT, on the other hand, is an airline that books seats. If the plane gets too heavy they will bounce your bag(s). When your bags show up will be anybody's guess. Hopefully the next flight. It might be later that day, of maybe the next day.

If they don't have enough people on a flight, they will cancel the flight.

You won't know any of this until it's "too late."

Planning close-connections between planes, or between planes and boats is planning to fail.

So yes, there's a big difference between them.

The safest way to go, with LIAT, is to add 1-day buffers in your travel with them.

I added a buffer on the way down, but not on the way back... (who cares if I get home on time, I don't! LOL)

But still, I think it's worth the extra bucks, and will be travelling fairly lightly - but we may need to rearrange our luggage in Barbados, since we normally only carry-on, but it usually weighs more than 13lbs!

Good point about the return home. Getting stuck in paradise ain't all that bad.

On our trip down to SV&G I had to check in for Jury Duty THE NIGHT we were supposed to get back, with possible jury duty the next morning. I had these visions of getting stuck in St. Vincent or Barbados and having to call the courthouse and cry for their mercy. Fortunately, everything went like clockwork.

Don't worry about the 13 lb carry on limit they state - ours were both well over that. As long as it can fit under the seat easily you will be OK. There's no overhead stowage.

A friend of mine missed his connection in Barbados, flying liat from Grenada to St. Lucia in February; they put him up in a hotel and told him to order anything he wanted off the menu for dinner. I just booked a flight from St. Maarten to St. Thomas for Wednesday, direct so hopefully it should be OK. We were going to planning to sail Great Escape up there tonight, but if you've been following my SXM posts you know how that turned out <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />

LIAT lost our luggage last year flying from SVG to SJU so we vowed never to fly them again. We used SVG air from Barbados to SVG in January. They were very accommodating, never weighed our carry ons, and didn't charge us for overweight and extra bags. I would definitely fly SVG again! When we flew, the fare was comparable to LIAT's fare.

Gail,
Sent you a PM regarding Gaiamar ?

for all the others thinking about liat:

two of us flew liat in feb... sxm to antigua and then to dom... next leg, dom to slu.

just a note: liat waited a whole hour for a passenger to come running up to gate. we were in absolute awe as our plane was about to board. this worried us since they were still at our loading gate.

there is no rhyme or reason to their schedules (or who that lady was for that matter!)

we left for antigua, deborded and went thru the entire immigration process though we weren't allowed to leave the airport loading area.

all in all, we and our checked baggage arrived every time on time.

liat also indicates how many available seats on flight to assist in flight selection. we got great last minute fares.

forewarned is forearmed.

have fun! or rather good luck to everyone else thinking about liat...

Definitely would use SVG Air again. Although we ended up on the "Island Hopper" flight from Barbados to St. Vincent via Bequia, Canuoan, & Union, and the reverse on the return, I still would choose SVG Air over LIAT any day.

They did not weigh any of our bags nor give us a hassle with carry on. WestJet charged me an additional $50 for an overweight bag - I could have checked one for $20 had I had an extra... Grrrr

The price difference was well worth it to know that the flights will leave on time and get you there when they said.

Pleasant staff, and a lot of fun seeing most of the islands from the plane!