San Juan to Antigua?

We (family of five) are chartering out of Antigua next June. As we typically do, we are planning on spending a couple nights in San Juan before the charter so I am looking for the best way to get us from SJU to ANU. It looks like Liat and Seaborne both do that route on a regular basis. I've heard negatives about both airlines, but from what I can tell they are the cheapest and most direct options. However, we don't want our charter to be held up due to lost luggage or delays in our flights. A private air charter would be ideal, but probably more than we want to pay. Any other ideas? If we end up taking one of the two above airlines, which one would be preferable?

Our other option would be to spend the two night layover somewhere else besides San Juan. Maybe somewhere in Florida, or even New York would be a good stop. In any case, we prefer that the flight to ANU from the layover location be nonstop to minimize the chances of delays. And of course we would like the tickets to be reasonably priced.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Matt

From my experience, Seaborne has a better record than LIAT. I've flown them several times and always took off within 15 minutes of scheduled departure vs. LIAT that is almost alway unreliable. So I'd use that option if you want to layover in San Juan.

A charter flight will probably cost you around $3,000 to $5,000 for a small prop plane and double that for a small jet. If that's within your budget do a google search for "San Juan to Antigua Charter Flights" for links to various charter companies.

Thank-you Fletch. I will probably book with Seaborne then. They have a slightly better schedule for us as well.

As much as I'd like to do an air charter, it would cost at least 3-4 times what we'd pay for the Seaborne flight. Just doesn't make sense for such as short flight. We did an air charter from SJU to EIS last June and it was fun with some nice views. however, the best part for me was being able to skip the SJU security lines which can be brutal if you are going through at the wrong time.

I also looked at various other options for the layover such as Miami or New York and either the flights weren't direct or the cost when all is said and done would be a lot more than going through SJU.

Thanks again!

Matt

Antigua has Jet Service from several major US hubs. But would go Seaborne over Liat.

Antigua is great sailing area. Hopefully you are using Horizon out of Jolly, that is a great place to start with great people.

Thanks kneafseym. I checked all sorts of major US cities (at least ones that we'd want to spend a couple days at) for flights. Either they aren't direct and the travel time is too long, or they are too expensive. Part of the equation is that I can find tickets to San Juan pretty inexpensively (often as cheap or cheaper than flying to most major US cities). When you factor in the PDX-SJU ticket price with the $160-170 flight to Antigua, it is tough to compete price-wise. Especially considering I have five tickets to pay for. Price isn't everything, but we find that San Juan usually works well for us for a 2-3 day layover. It gives us some time to acclimate to the heat as well as a nice transition from the busy home life to a more relaxed pace. Somewhere different and new would be fun, but there just don't seem to be many options.

We have chartered through Horizon before in the BVIs and have always been happy with them so I did take a look at their Antigua fleet. However, Dream Yacht Charters had the perfect boat for us and it is brand new, so we went with them for this trip. We just chartered with DYC out of the BVI for the first time this past June. Overall seemed like a good company and responsive to our needs.

Matt