TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Flights from San Juan to EIs

Getting desparate. This is our 6th charter but first since 2016. Flights are reasonable to get to San Juan but Seaborne is sold out and and Cape air wants $ 3000 for two couples from SJU to EIS. We have done this with all but one charter and I don't remember the cost being that high. Any thoughts/help would be appreciated. Flights are 10/14/19

Try InterCaribbean or Air Sunshine. InterCaribbean is showing $114 one way for 4 passengers for your date at 11am, 2;35pm, or 6pm.

What site are you looking at flights? Google Flights shows one way SJU-EIS starting at $89 and $226 round trip.

Whew! Thanks so much! That cut it to $800. Much better.

Looking at Seaborne and Cape Air websites

Not sure where you are looking but AA.com has two flights available that day at 128.00 one way. Where are you originating from? I strongly encourage you to book the entire route on one PNR. To do otherwise invites disaster.

First my apologies as I really didn't give you folks enough info to work with. We are originating in Central Texas which when going anywhere in the Caribbean is akin to booking a flight to the moon. Shortest routing is thru Miami and the fact we depart at 0530 still does not connect very well in SJU or STT without spending an extra night. Thank you all for the time and research. At this point, I think we are just going to take the ferry from STT.

Fly to STT and ferry. We fly from California, originally LAX and now SFO and gave up on San Juan years ago.

United --- flies Houston - STT would that work??

Can you walk me through that process? I've always been hesitant to go thru there due to how it sounds like STT is rough and inhospitable and the ferries sound undependable

Flying to STT is a non issue - book your flight to arrive in the early afternoon any day of the week - exit after collecting bags by going to the taxi stand - most taxi's (vans) will be going to the ferry dock for RoadTown - I think we paid 10 bucks a person in April. If you are there early check your bags on to the ferry when you pay your fare to Roadtown - about $50 a person - go upstairs to the Petit Pump Room and have a drink and grab a roadie - ferry takes you to road town and you clear BVI customs at the dock and then you are away to the races.

Can you walk me through that process? I've always been hesitant to go thru there due to how it sounds like STT is rough and inhospitable and the ferries sound undependable [/quote]
STT being 'rough and inhospitable' is a pretty unrealistic critique. Walk out the airport baggage claim door , tell the dispatcher you are going to Tortola Wharf, a taxi will have you unloading there in under 10 minutes, buy a ticket for the next ferry leaving, have a drink upstairs on the balcony if you have time to wait, fill out the C&I forms on the ride - about 45 minutes - deal with BVI Customs as needed on arrival. No STT rough,inhospitable encounters to worry about.
The ferries are dependable and running frequently every day. they are only going to Roadtown.

STT being 'rough and inhospitable' is a pretty unrealistic critique. Walk out the airport baggage claim door , tell the dispatcher you are going to Tortola Wharf, a taxi will have you unloading there in under 10 minutes, buy a ticket for the next ferry leaving, have a drink upstairs on the balcony if you have time to wait, fill out the C&I forms on the ride - about 45 minutes - deal with BVI Customs as needed on arrival. No STT rough,inhospitable encounters to worry about.
The ferries are dependable and running frequently every day. they are only going to Roadtown.[/quote]

I've had no problem going thru San Juan, all I've heard about STT is what I've read on this board, it hasn't been great. I am open to going thru STT just want some coaching

The only issue at stt is the 3 hour checkin on AA

We found the STT route to BVI is the easy part. No great rush, moves pretty easy because there's no pressure to reach the destination by a certain time knowing you won't get off the dock till the next day.

The issue is going back. The various lines are long, and the pressure of trying to make a flight gets pretty stressful. The other thing is how much luggage you're dragging. A cooler full of frozen food can be a hassle to drag through all that along with other luggage.

Not that flying through SJU has been stress free but it has become the norm. We'd be open to the STT again but be sure to leave a ton of time leaving BVI to get back through everything.

If it fits your situation, spending the night on St. Thomas before heading home has a lot of advantages, mostly related to being able to take your time and enjoy the end of a great vacation. That jumping off the boat and on to an airplane thing is a lousy way to go.

This year this is what we did - previously doing the BOS->SJU->EIS. I waited too long to book flights and ended up having to go thru STT and go a day early and stay a day late. Stayed in STT those nights and it was easy peasy. And we never found the return thru STT to be onerous. We flew back on a Thursday and it was not busy at all (though that Thursday thing might have been part of it)

STT to EIS and back was super easy. My sister and I had carry on luggage only, landed STT early afternoon, called Kevin Campbell, had him pick us up at the airport and drop at ferry. Paid $60 for the OceanDreams water taxi (fast ferry) to Tortola and went upstairs for our first of many Painkillers. With this ferry, sit down below decks in A/C comfort on padded seats for the 1.25 hr ferry ride to Road Town. Ingress to Tortola was EASY - have a pen handy and follow directions, pay your fee and off you go!

Coming back, we did the reverse and spent a night at the Green Iguana on St Thomas before heading to airport for our 4:30 pm flight home. Everything went off without a hitch - even caught standby on an earlier flight out of Charlotte back home. The ferry back to STT had no A/C so it was $50, ten dollars less, just FYI.

My sister had bought some ground spices in Tortola and STT's TSA sniffed her out and raided her carry on luggage so beware Mon!

Solution is not to fly AA.

Delta is ready when you are ;-)

A friend flew on delta into stt today.

Delta Flight crew asked them to be at the airport 3 hours early for their flight north.

We fly AA all the time to and from Chicago to St Thomas and arrive at least the 90 minutes minimum prior to departure if we have checked bags. Never a problem no matter what time of the year. We stop at Emerald Beach for lunch before heading to the airport.

Same here. I have never gotten to STT more than 1.5 hours before my flight. We do not take luggage so now just about an hour is more than enough. Also agree with lunch at Emerald.

It's been my experience that flight crews, regardless of the airline, always say you are supposed to be at the airport three hours before departure.

Delta every time. 90 minutes has always been plenty.

IFlyVFr, could you explain how to get the Oceandreams water taxi for $60? All I can find is between $475 to $575?

Sometimes Ocean Dream runs the Fast Ferry route. I'm sure that's what they are referring to.

Thank you, they did have "fast ferry" in parentheses

Is any company not the "Fast Ferry" anymore???

For those interested in SJU>EIS options:

Just booked six SJU>EIS RT tickets for early/mid December. Originally booked with Silver but ended up cancelling because the arrival at SJU on the return only left about 2 1/2 hours to make our connection and Silver's on-time record is not great. Ended up re-booking with InterCaribbean with an earlier arrival which will give us about 5 hours. Both airlines came in around $250-300 round trip. The ticket price for the InterCaribbean was on the higher side of that spectrum, but it included one piece of checked luggage per person whereas Silver was going to charge $39 per piece each way. After factoring that in InterCaribbean was the less expensive option as we will have at least one checked bag per person. I looked at Cape Air as well but they were over twice as much - maybe for a reason but multiply that by six and it adds up to a significant amount. I get a little nervous with the reliability of some of these regional airlines but I make sure to get travel insurance that will cover missed connections or cancelled flights.

We are flying JetBlue into San Juan (from Portland, OR) and then spending a few days there before heading to the BVIs as it's pretty much impossible to get to Tortola in one day. We are doing the return home all in one day though since we get an extra three hours of travel with the time change. I asked JetBlue about booking the return from EIS on the same ticket since Silver shows as a partner, but they couldn't do it. The only airline they could book on the same ticket is Cape Air - but at a higher price. I could have linked tickets on Silver purchased separately with my JetBlue tickets and then had my Jet Blue boarding passes printed at the Silver counter at EIS and my luggage checked through. However, JetBlue would not have been responsible for a missed connection since the Silver ticket was purchased separately.

I got the six of us round trip SJU>EIS for what I consider a reasonable price at just over $1,700 but it wasn't easy to coordinate everything. And I still have to be on the ball and keep an eye on schedule changes and cancellations. Not like the "old" days when you booked all the way through with American and they'd even let you layover in Puerto Rico for a couple days.

$1,700.00 total for 6 people???

Yes. Is that good or bad? Based on what I've read and seen recently I consider it to be reasonable, but then again I haven't flown into Tortola in probably five years or more so I have no idea. In any case, it was the best we could do at this time so it is what it is.

That’s more or less the RT rate.

Agree as to normal rate for that time of year after fees having flown IC, Seaborne, Cape etc...6x

If it gets higher you may look into charter which is what we did in May for 9x to reduce hassle factor...Island Birds. My mistake was not appreciating entry/exit taxes NOT in price of charter. Lesson learned.

Wholeheartedly agree with you on Island Birds they get you through TSA at the charter gate which takes less then a minute and have you in EIS within the hour.