TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Latest SJU>EIS Charter Flight Info

Hello,

We are headed to the BVIs during the first week of April. There are several flight options I'm looking at and some of them would require getting from SJU to EIS independent of our other flights. I can check flights for Silver and Cape Air but curious about the current situation for charter flights. We did a charter once and it was really nice - but that company is now out of business. Who are the current dependable operators and anyone have any idea of approximate price for the one-way trip with six passengers? I like having a rough idea of pricing before I bother them for a quote.

Also, are most people booking flights for April right now or waiting a while? The fares are decent, but not great and I've certainly seen better. We are flying from Portland, Oregon but might stop for a night or two in San Juan on the way down - or we might not.

Thanks for any insight!

Matt

Think about St Thomas and ferry..

When planning our trip, I consider both options.
When the price difference between flying directly into EIS vs the ferry drops below $200,
I start looking at the SJU-IES option. Jet Blue out of DCA managed to do this last year.

Right now, the (IAD/DCA)-SJU-EIS option for end of April 2023 is $300 pp more than IAD-STT (Ferry) option.

It's the ferry for us.

What do the numbers you are comparing include? Just flights? Ferry, taxi?

We have used Island Birds for many trips, mostly between SJU and VG and sometimes between STT and VG. Cost will depend on the size of plane you need.

STT is a nightmare of an airport to fly out of so there were trips we flew into STT and back thru SJU. Going private saves time and is very convenient as a rep meets you and handles the luggage.

Cleo - can you clarify where the rep meets you and handles luggage? We’ve flown IB many times between STT and EIS - they have handled the luggage on arrival at EIS (onto the customs belts) but that is the only place. We carry bags from STT arrival to gate 10 and then to the plane and from the plane to STT immigration and onward when re-entering.

At SJU.

During prior trips, they met us when we landed and drove us in a van to the main part of the terminal and handled our luggage thru C&I, thru USDA and to the check in counter. Last trip, they took us by van to the FBO terminal where we cleared C&I and then drove to the main terminal and again handled the luggage until we reached the check in counter.

At STT, we met the pilot at that gate at the end of the terminal. We do not fly home thru STT.

Agree.

We are currently on Sea Tiger and going thru San Juan. We had a 4 hr delay on morning flight from San Juan (beautiful weather) after overnighting in SJU.

Also return flight, after booking and several weeks before travel, our return trip got changed for departure from SJU to ATL to add an overnight stay in San Juan. Fortunately, my present schedule can allow this.

I would suggest STT (which we usually do) and perhaps overnight in STT if you choose. Water taxi for your group or ferry

For connecting in SJU - We have used Air Margarita - amazing customer service, husband and wife team. One call, They meet you at the gate, take you through the back way of the airport and each time we have been off the ground before our incoming flight was completely unloaded. They are great communicators and never left us hanging. https://airmargarita.com/rates

Call or text Carmen at 1-787-550-4294.

We have neighbors who fly in from the West Coast, spend the night in San Juan and charter from Luis Ribas, which is closer to the old town and cheaper.

The numbers are just for the flights. When doing a comparison, I include all the above.

Thanks.

Thanks for all of the info. Helped me look at and consider my options, but I am still in a quandry.

I'd be happy to fly into STT and take a ferry, but I think the earliest we could arrive at STT is around 3:00pm. It seems that the latest that ferries leave St. Thomas is around 4:00 to 4:30 which seems pretty tight even if our flights are on time. I'd hate to miss the ferry and then be scrambling for overnight lodging in St. Thomas. Plus not getting to Tortola that evening would probably throw a kink in our charter as well.

What about a private water taxi? Do they operate later into the evening? Are the savings usually worth it versus a charter flight from SJU? I'm thinking maybe I should just get quotes from Island Birds as well as Dolphin. Any other water taxi operators I should consider?

Thanks again!

What ferry schedule are you looking at? It is a 5PM ferry from STT, not 4PM. That gives you plenty of time if you arrive at 3PM.
Also, I think Aquatic Rentals is running a 6PM ferry.

If you do look at water taxis consider Island Time and Chillout. Lots of issues with Dolphin this past year - just search the forums and Facebook pages.

With 6 in your group, I would definitely be looking at flying into STT and taking a water taxi over to Sea Tiger. Like MIDiver said, call Island Time - we took them in April. Part of our group was delayed 2 hours - taxi and boat driver were monitoring the flights and talking with me while we hung out at the bar in the airport (I was the early/on time guy). When the rest of the group arrived, taxi was waiting, got to Red Hook, boat was waiting (with our BVI Customs forms pretty much all filled out), fast ride across to Road Town (we were late after all), and dropped off at the boat. They could not have made the trip over any easier or more convenient.

Another option to consider. Enjoy Sea Tiger!

Keep Smiling!!!

We used Island Time last year. Our flights got delayed and we didn't get to STT until around 9 pm. We were in contact with Island Time letting them know. They moved our water taxi to the next day. We called Kevin before we got to STT and he was waiting at the airport for us. We had a hard time finding a hotel and ended up in a rough area on the island. Motel was fine just a little rough around the edges. Island Time taxi picked us up the next morning. Great service.

OK, due to a myriad of factors I ended up booking tickets into SJU arriving on a Friday around 4:00pm. We need to get to Tortola by the next morning for sure, but would like to get there that evening and do a sleep aboard. I just sent an email off to Island Birds for a quote so I'll see what they come back with. However, I suspect that they are going to be pretty expensive as with six in our party I think we are one above the limit for their smaller plane. If they come back too high I'll look into Air Margarita as recommended earlier in the thread since they look to be able to accommodate up to six passengers, though the luggage limit of 30 lbs per passenger may be an issue as I am the only guy on the trip and the others are my wife and four teenager girls. Any other suggestions of charter airlines I should look at? Is FlyBVI still a well regarded operator? Though I think we might run into the same pax issue with them as well. I'll also keep Silver/Cape Air in my back pocket in case the charter flights don't work. And I am certainly going to buy travel insurance for this one.

If anyone cares, the reasons we didn't fly into STT were that we had a travel credit with JetBlue that we have to use up this next year as well as some miles but apparently they don't fly into STT. Other airlines into STT were very either expensive for our dates, or the timing was problematic. I also tried to book Jet Blue all the way through to EIS but we would not have been able to use our credit or miles because of the SJU>EIS flight on Silver. At least that was the issue I was having on the website and I got sick of waiting on hold to talk to someone about it. In the end, after using our credit and miles to get to San Juan and if we book an air charter from there I think we'll be at about the same cost as we would have paid to get to EIS on one ticket. I was certainly warming up to the STT>ferry route so maybe next time.

Also, not that it matters, but we are not on Sea Tiger - I think someone else that contributed to this thread is though. From what I've heard Sea Tiger is a great boat with great owners and charter company (we've used TMM several times), but we are actually on a brand new Nautitech Open 44 with Horizon this trip. We toured that boat at the Miami Boat Show and really liked it and are considering buying one, so this is our opportunity to try before we potentially buy. We'll be on the water April 1-11 so if anyone crosses paths with us say hi!

Matt