Jet Blue/Cape Air

Good morning all and thanks in advance for any help you can give....I am considering switching our flights for June, after reading several disparaging reviews from recent travelers on Intercaribbean.

Right now we are booked on American into SJU - and then on the last Intercaribbean flight that day to Beef. I would likely have to eat the IC flights - but after all we have been through trying to get on this charter? I am willing to do that to Increase our chances of actually GETTING there!

We can fly Jet Blue into St Thomas (assuming ports will be open by then...) and connect on Cape Air - the entire ticket can be booked via JB since they code share with JB - question is...would our luggage transfer to CA or do we have to get it from baggage claim and recheck with CA?

I am thinking about doing something similar. The Cape Air website states that bags will be checked through if the entire trip is booked together through the Jet Blue website. It warns that if you do not do that, you need to plan extra time to fetch and recheck your bags. It would be nice to have confirmation from someone who has actually tried it in STT however.

Be aware unless there has been a recent schedule change jet blue does not fly directly to STT. The flights go through SJU and might require a plane change.

We have has several instances of Cape Air leaving the checked bags behind when flying the SJU to VG route (back in the day) and the SJU to STT route. We did like their schedule but not having to worry about the bags.

Would Island Birds be an option from STT or SJU? Typically we can get such good fares to SJU, the cost for Island Birds is a wash.

Does Island Birds fly to/from SJU?

Yes, we used them many times between SJU and VG. Last year they started flying out of a private field more towards town. They offered us two prices, a lower one to take a taxi to the private airport and a higher one to fly out of SJU. We went out of thr private airport. (SJU jacked up their fees to a level Island Birds looked for other options)

The Cape Air baggage issue is a fact of life for any operator using the Cessna 402 and filling most of the seats. The new aircraft Cape Air has coming will make it a non issue. The same weight issues will apply to most light twins used by the charter outfits. Carefully ask them exactly how much weight you will be allowed. CapeAir will run a baggage only flight if needed to get the bags over at the end of the day. They get there just maybe not with you! The Piper Aztec that IB uses for their 5 seater does however have a excellent useful load and should be able to carry 5 passengers and 100lbs of luggage each. They tend to cube out before they weight out on short flights.
G

We had a quote from EIS to SJU for near $2k in December.

The small airport is called Isla Grande going through security is quick and easy, there’s very few people it’s about 15 mInutes from SJU towards Old San Juan

Isla Grande! I couldn’t remember the name. And yes, Island Birds asks for passenger weight before giving a baggage allowance.

On small planes weight is critical.
I used them when I had to outfit a boat in Tortola with a couple of hundred pounds of equipment and it came out cheaper then using a scheduled airline.

We have used Island Birds several times when returning home. We often have trouble getting ferry schedules and STT flight schedules to line up. Island Birds is by far the easiest and most stress free way of connecting to your flight. You get to set the schedule (they can make recommendations about how early you need to be at STT or SJU to catch catch your flight). They shepherd you through the process at Beef Island, help you schlep your bags at both ends and walk you through customs at the destination. Private charters are not cheap but in our case we have been able to extend the fun part of our vacations a half a day or more and were a lot more confident that we would meet our flights. The flight to STT is under 15 minutes and I believe San Juan is about 45 minutes.

If other air charter companies are operating right now they may be just as good but Island Birds is who we have used and they have always managed to take the stress out of making our connections.

We are going down in May for our first COVID era trip and so far I have not been able to make the scheduled airline connections work so I am sure I will be contacting Island birds soon.

If I could afford $2k, I would!