TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Feb '25 trip planning - AA to EIS

I am also in the camp of "the more options the better", while certainly respecting and appreciating Malcom's position and experience and approach to things.

It's been nearly 10 years since our last trip down, so not sure when we will be able to make it down again, but hopefully we'll be able to make it somewhat routine again as our kids (ages 5 and 2.5) are approaching the stage where we can realistically bring them along and start sharing the beauty and blessing that the BVI is with them. Selfishly, I'd just as soon tell you all that this route is a miserable experience to be avoided.

We just flew the route for our recent trip April 27 to May 7 - with very mixed results. I do not think the MIA-EIS leg had much to do with our issues. We are flying out of JAX, so JAX-MIA-EIS and reverse was the plan. I'll start by saying that our flight back from EIS-MIA yesterday afternoon was fantastic, close to perfect. I think the only frustration was that they started boarding before the time that they even announced over the loudspeaker in the airport. We were grabbing some chicken fingers outside security with plenty of time, then they announced they would begin boarding about 20 minutes or so early (and then boarded even earlier than they had announced). Net-net, by the time we got through security, we were late to board with our group (we were group 5 and didn't get in until group 7) and had to play some bag Tetris to get our two carry ons to fit in the overhead bin at the front of the plane (not first class but first 2-3 rows behind first class) where we were sitting. Not a huge issue in the grand scheme of things. Plane was boarded and doors closed quite early, but then sat on the tarmac waiting for another plane to land and ended up leaving only slightly early. I have to give credit, the AC on the plane was quite cold, even without the engines running. It was very comfortable relative to some other experiences we have had on the tarmac in the past). Excellent flight and we landed a few minutes early at MIA. The plane and seats were comfortable and the service was excellent. We had some turbulence on our flight, but not too bad and overall it was a very enjoyable experience.

Following our particular flights on flightstats.com, it seems that the flight takes off and lands ahead of schedule more often than not.

Now to the flip side. And I knew this was a risk ahead of time and should have changed our plans accordingly. Our original itinerary allowed for only a 45 minute layover in Miami on the way down. Instead of taking the 8am from JAX-MIA, we absolutely should have gone ahead and taken the 6am from JAX-MIA. We did book seats right up front on that leg and even decided late to upgrade to first class to be sure we would be the first off the plane at MIA. Unfortunately, we were awoken at 4am on the morning of our flight down to notifications that our flight would be delayed. We pretty much spent the rest of the day scrambling to get to the islands in whatever way we could. AA initially rebooked us to the same flight the next day. We eventually ended up taking our original delayed flight from JAX-MIA, and making it to the gate well in time for the later flight to EIS which would have gotten us in by about 3pm. Despite the fact that we had been bumped by AA's issue, and that there were others on that later MIA-EIS flight willing to give up their seats and accept the $1,200 vouchers, AA still put those people on the plane and told us there would be room for us, but eventually shut the doors without us because of weight restrictions. We finally made our way on to a flight that got us into STT around 4pm and took the cab over to the ferry dock at CA and had some wonderful drinks and AMAZING fried chicken before catching the 5:30 Bomba Charger to RT. Then had to catch a cab to pick up our Hertz car rental at EIS, thanks to Diane who stayed late to get our car to us along with someone else who had a late flight coming in. Also, need to shout out to the good folks at Heritage Inn/Bananakeet who once again stayed open just for us for a late dinner after a very long day.

All of the extra hitches certainly cost us a good amount more money, including tips for the several people who went out of their way to help us out, but at least we got there on the same day, eventually.

Net/Net, I would recommend this route, but allow extra time and additional connection options. The JAX-MIA flight had a very strong track record of being on time for the few weeks that I followed it before our trip, but I got queezy in the stomach about a week out when I noticed that the Saturday flight that we were on was also an hour late the week prior to our trip. While our plane was supposed to be on the ground at JAX by 9pm the night prior, due to "mechanical reasons", that previous flight didn't actually get in until Saturday morning. No idea if the previous week thing was a coincidence or something that tends to occur. Long story short, we should have known better and taken the earlier flight. If we had, we would have had no issues, or worst case would have had a backup option that could have gotten us to our original connection on time. While we hoped if we missed our original connection that AA would have found a way to get us on the later flight, given the weight restrictions, that turned out not to be the case.

Lots of detail there, but hope this is helpful to OP and perhaps others.

I will add that our takeaway was a reinforcement that we very much prefer flying into EIS, clearing customs at the airport and picking up a car there, vs the taxi shuffle, the ferry experience, and especially the customs ferry dock experience. Perhaps that is the wrong lesson to learn, but I think if we had just taken the 6am flight out of JAX and accepted not hugging and saying goodbye to our little girls the morning of and having the 3 hour layover at MIA, we would likely have had a very smooth and premium travel experience, and arrived on Tortola much happier and better rested.