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Topic starter
There's good news and bad news today.
Good news, JetBlue is coming to STX: http://www.dailymarkets.com/stock/2011/06/16/jetblue-puerto-ricos-largest-carrier-to-add-two-new-intra-caribbean-destinations-from-san-juan-st-thomas-and-st-croix/
Bad news: 1) It's via SJU. 2) the JBLU flights seem to be replacing the afternoon AA Miami flights. 3) The price isn't all that low, I came to $512 round trip to JFK for a trip leaving 12/21/2011 and coming back 1/3/2012.
Looking at the AA website for these same dates the Noonish flight from MIA-STX is gone and the 4pmish flight from STX back to MIA is now gone on the return. The new morning flight out of STX is still there and the late night arrival into STX is also still there though.
Jetblue and AA have a partnership so it doesn't surprise me to see some coordination of their schedules. I will most likely end up on the early flights out of here and the late ones back so on AA anyway. But losing a direct stateside flight for one to SJU is a loss in my book. I wouldn't be surprised to see further reduction in Eagle's as the SJU-STX flight on Jetblue picks up some of the load.
Not exactly what I hoped for, it doesn't seem like fares will be coming down at all and it seems like we don't gain service.
Sean
Posted : June 16, 2011 7:46 pm
Topic starter
I found one additonal upside,
STX-SJU is coming in at $98/round trip on the dates I mentioned above plus tax for a total of $107!
Sean
Posted : June 16, 2011 8:10 pm
seems like JetBlue is picking up the slack after AA shut down their AA hub. Hopefully the San Juan flight prices now go down.
http://investor.jetblue.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=131045&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1574773&highlight
Posted : June 16, 2011 8:47 pm
I don't know which web site you looked at but AA.COM still has the daily 12:55PM flight MIA-STX and also the daily 6:30PM evening flight....all the way through the end of the year and well into 2012!!!
Same for the returning flights to MIA from STX!!!
Jet Blue is only adding to their SJU existing service, they will fly their own Embraer regional jet (100 passengers) SJU-STX (and also SJU-STT) in connection to the SJU to the states service in AirBus 320 equipment.
Jet Blue doesn't do SJU to MIA, they go to Fort Lauderdale @ $626.00 as posted on their site for December 16, 2011 and return January 3rd.
They had other flights to FLL, but they were listed at over $900 and went STX-SJU-JFK then finally to FLL!
They also had a few listings tying Cape Air into their connection in San Juan...more than the $626 quoted price.
I'll stick with AA and American Eagle...they easily connect throughout the states from Miami, plus they fly Boeing equipment.
BTY, AA's quoted price was $426.00 for the same travel period and I would not have to take TriRAIL from FLL to MIA!!!
Posted : June 16, 2011 9:11 pm
Topic starter
Landlord, I used AA.com yesterday to check. But today they have reappeared so maybe a glitch in the system when I checked. This would be great news then if we don't lose anything and instead gain an RJ to SJU with connecting opportunities on Jetblue from there on.
Unfortunately, as both of our dummy bookings have show, other than for the STX-SJU $98 fare it's still not appearing to be any cheaper to go on Jetblue right now than on AA.
Sean
Posted : June 17, 2011 1:55 pm
I had been watching this but most of mine come up with the final leg being cape air, not that cheap but it does allow me to fly from a closer NY airport that AA pulled out of. Either way more options=good.
Posted : June 17, 2011 5:06 pm
It should be noted that the "discount" ticket sellers do not show all the flights of the airlines that they list...this lack of all flights is now in Federal Court as a huge law suite by the air carriers against the internet sales companies.
I do not use the web discount groups for tickets...I use the direct airline site, in this case AA.COM.
I have found in the 250,000 or so miles I fly each year that AA.COM is generally less expensive from the start than the other airlines.
I expect that JetBlue will raise their rates shortly when they think that they are the top carrier.
AA keeps surprising me that they have some really great fares if you search for them.
Posted : June 17, 2011 6:05 pm
I believe aa.com did have some glitch in their site this week. Earlier today, I searched R/T, STX-MCO (Orlando) for 6/21 return 6/29. Got $193+ each way. That's the cheapest I've seen in a very long time. While searching, however, I changed the return date to 6/30 and got a whole string of "no flights" for about a week out. So...then I tried just MCO-STX, 1-way on 6/30, and got flights available (at about $421 one way!!). I was afraid I might have lost my great rate, but when I went back to 6/29 I still got it.
Posted : June 18, 2011 12:40 am
It wasn't a glitch--AA had a fare sale this week from St. Croix to a variety destinations, including MCO. Sign up for their weekly Net Saver Fare emails that arrive each Tuesday and summarize any sales. Usually there are no sales out of STX, and so the email suggests sale flights from MIA. But this week STX was on sale!!
Posted : June 18, 2011 8:09 am
Topic starter
Glad I wasn't the only one who had some difficulty finding flights on AA.COM earlier in the week. Jetblue and AA partner on some routes but it sounds like they are behaving very much like competitors with Jetblue now sort of rubbing it in AA's face that they are the biggest carrier at SJU etc. Competition should be good for us consumers though!
Sean
Posted : June 19, 2011 6:55 pm
It should be noted that the carrier leadership is based upon number of available seats, not the number of flights!!!
This is even noted in the news postings for Jet Blue rise in SJU!
Eagle flies ATR aircraft...40 to 50 seats, while Jet Blue will be using Embraer 190 aircraft which seat 100 persons!
It takes two+ flights of AE to match one flight of Jet Blue....
AA, USAir and Delta will go all the way to the states (MIA, CLT & ATL respectively), Blue will always go to San Juan.
It is all advertising BS...
Available seat at an affordable price is my criteria, nothing more and nothing less + not going through SJU is a major "star" for the other carriers...I avoid SJU at all costs.
I will still like AE toSJU (although I don't use it)...Jet Blue will go to SJU then on to Fort Lauderdale, JFK or Jacksonville...none on my list of cities.
So if you have 100 flights a day to where you never will go...how good is that for you????
Besides...AE has two flights a day to SJU, Blue will have only one...and that is in the last half of December.
Cape Air also has the flight books...reasonable prices if you plan to fly several persons several times per year!
Who know now what will happen 6 months from now!
Posted : June 19, 2011 9:32 pm
Topic starter
Actually the ATR's hold more than you'd think, 64 passengers: http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/American_Airlines/American_Airlines_ATR72.php
I'd much rather be on an E190 RJ though then one of those ATR's. But all else equal I will be on AA for frequent flier/status reasons.
One upside of Jetblue is that friends/family who travel Jetblue and have frequent flier points with them can now use them to come visit!
Sean
Posted : June 20, 2011 5:39 pm
