TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin JetBlue Discontinuing flights from San Juan

Hi guys,
We received an email from JetBlue to inform us our May flight has been cancelled. All flights from SJU to SXM will discontinue after their last flight on May 3, 2016. I called to find out reasons why, and the representative indicated low interest in flying the route.

So now we need to book flights on another airline from SJU (we're staying there for a week before our SXM stay).

Could you guys recommend an airline? I've checked flights on Air Antilles and Liat. However we have no experience with either of these airlines. Any other suggestions, besides swimming!!!!????

Thanks

Never flown that route but great success with Seabourne for sju to tortola.

Low interest in flying the route?? Say what?? Bullsh*t.. Every one of those flights that I have been on has been full. I am flying that route again in March and my plane appears to be full, both ways.

Regardless, under NO!!!!!!!!!!! circumstances, go with Liat. Frankly, I would probably just cancel, get my money back and re-book with someone else.

In low season, load factors have been around 60%. I think B6 will return to SXM one day from FLL.

Load factor has no real correlation to if a route is profitable. The yield computers will adjust pricing to fill the seats trying to reduce the losses. What the route yields per ticket is the key. In addition this flight is known as a non revs dream flight. I flew it once and there were 38 non revs standing by to get on. Non revenue travelers are just that even though the flight seems full.
G

Hi Carol,

Thanks. That was exactly my response to the JetBlue rep. Every time we've flown that flight from SJU it was full. I was just on the phone for 1hr 45min getting my AX travel points transferred back from JetBlue to my AX account. What a nightmare of a call. But the JetBlue rep was excellent and stayed on the phone with me the whole time to complete the process. I asked her the same question about why they discontinued, and she said they never really tell them why.

Thanks for your heads up on Liat. Has anyone had any experience with Air Antilles?

Thanks

Don't know about Air Antilles. I don't suppose you have a choice of Winair? There also used to be another small airline that Jet Blue did a codeshare with, from SJU to SXM. Can't remember the name of it now. Seabourne maybe??

OK, I don't understand a lot of what you said, but when I look at my flights, there are almost no seats available, and pretty much have been whenever I have flown JB. Which wouldn't seem to be the case, if there were not reservations, but only stand-bys??

We were also one of the "fortunate" ones who had our flight from San Juan to SXM cancelled for May (as well as our return flight in June). I was not happy, but I will say that the customer service from Jet Blue was fantastic. We booked back in October for Tampa/San Juan/SXM (we fly Southwest from Austin to Tampa & overnight with our son who lives in Tampa). After about an hour on the phone with Jet Blue, they got us Austin/JFK/SXM with no overnight!! We are happy campers.

I flew JB from FLL last year and refused to do it again this year. AFter they cancelled my later morning flight to SJU where i only had a 90 minute layover, they changed the flight from FLL to like a 7AM flight, where there was, and would've been again next month a FIVE HOUR layover in SJU. The entire flying time is only three hours.....and surely was NOT going to wait FIVE hours in SJU...and I know plenty of others that refused to go this way again also. JetBlue used to be a GREAT airline, but lately they are just like most of the others. Ridiculous schedules....no longer cheap prices....additional fees for checked baggage, higher prices to change flights, tougher restrictions on air miles....etc. etc. etc. It really is a shame that they continue to shoot themselves in the foot.

Found Air Guyane Express and Seabourn on Kayak with 1 hr flights from SJU to SXM. $81 and $84, respectively. Good luck!

EdB there's always Spirit!

They are in business to make money. If the route were successful for them they would continue to fly it. Looking at the fares people are posting I don't see how they would be making money. SJU to EIS is almost half the distance and over twice the fare.

I agree to some extent. But I don't think comparing SXM to EIS is a fair comparision. As EIS I don't think can even handle the plane at this time. But JB evidently decided to use SJU as a hub to some extent. So they are competing with the NY area airlines that are flying direct or a stop in like MIA or CLT. They have been using SJU as the stop for their other flights in the caribbean, for their profit I would think. Competition is good and bad at the same time.

OK, so we booked a flight on Air Antilles, SJU to SXM through CheapOAir (yeah, we used them). Tried to book through Air Antilles web site but it said book through their reservation agents. We have never flown on this airline, though we've watched them land over Maho. I actually caught myself saying out loud, "I hope they are dependable, oh wait, JETBLUE discontinued our flight!" We'll just hope for the best.

You'll have a great flight, Lancer. Think positive. And if anything does go wrong you'll probably have a shorter distance to swim, lol.

The story is in the Daily Herald today. Jet Blue