TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands EIS flights

We’re heading back in May for our umpteenth charter. After looking at many options we’re leaning towards flying from SFO to SJU and then taking the hopper plane from SJU into EIS.

What’s the latest word on the SJU to EIS flights? Are there any airlines to definitely avoid?

I think you are thinking of AA from Miami to EIS.

On AA you can leave SFO just after midnight for Miami and be on Tortola at 2pm. If you fly through SJU, connect on Silver, Cape Air or Tradewinds; avoid InterCaribbean.

Yes, you are thinking of AA from Miami to EIS.

2cd the vote for SFO to MIA to EIS on American

Thanks for the input. The. SFO/MIA/EIS flight is certainly one of the ones we’re considering. But if we decide to go through SJU, what’s the latest news on the inter-island hop between SJU and EIS. Has reliability improved on Silver? Is is still prudent to avoid Intercaribbean?

Silver Airlines began operating in the Caribbean around 2018 when it acquired Seaborne Airlines which began its San Juan based operation in 1994. Since that time, both Seaborne and Silver have constantly had a spotty record of reliable on-time performance. Considering their record has essentially been unchanged for 30 years I doubt you can expect to find significant changes any time soon. Like most of the Caribbean commuter airlines Silver has a relatively small fleet of planes so if a particular flight encounters any type of delay be caused by weather or mechanical issues it causes a ripple effect across their entire operation. When it comes to on-time performance the airline has it's good days and bad days and you'll never know in advance which type of "airline day" it will be the day you are scheduled to fly.

Once again all this reinforces why I stick to the ferry out of STT...

We arrived via SEA-MIA-EIS yesterday, landed from the east and portion of passengers had been bumped, but it still makes for a much easier trip when things work out.

We have had good luck with Silver, and their new planes are great. Lately we've been taking American through Miami and that's terrific. With Global Entry two weeks ago we were through Immigration/Customs in Miami in less than a minute. The last times we went through USVI Customs by ferry the wait was very long, and then you repeat it at the airport.

agree with RW...lately with their new planes they are doing well by us

We arrived via SEA-MIA-EIS yesterday, landed from the east and portion of passengers had been bumped, but it still makes for a much easier trip when things work out.

I dont want to be " a portion of the passengers bumped" especially returning to SFO and missing my SJU connection...ferry for me.

Just flew the MIA-EIS flight. Bags all made it going down but one persons bags did not make the return. Both flights we had crew on were late but everyone made their connections. The bad was on arriving MIA we did not get an international gate. Had to deplane to ramp and bus to customs. For reasons I can’t understand they drop you at the furthest possible point from the customs checkpoint. Longest walk I have ever had in an airport and I have been in a lot of them! The good thing was with global entry never had to even stop going through customs. Facial recognition and just walked through. Even with that took 40 minutes from arrival to exiting customs. Had we not been able to use the priority line would have been closer to a hour.

We must have arrived at an international gate in Miami - no bus, but the walk was very long. It may have been one of the "D" gates - although not the wretched D60. Highly recommend Global Entry, which includes pre-check.

We're taking the Miami route again this week. Will be curious to see if our four 70-lb. bags arrive. Keep thinking we couldn't possibly have more stuff to take, but it never happens.

Miami is rough, which is why I always use wheelchair assist. The lines are horrendous, but at least I am sitting down.

Last year, with a tight connection and the train kaput, we asked for transport assistance, thinking we could hop a golf cart. Instead they sent wheelchairs, which we declined.

When we landed in Tortola, there were two wheelchairs at the bottom of the stairs. I asked who they were for, but she wouldn't tell me. No one used them. I had this vision of another passenger seeing me in a wheelchair, and then seeing me leap onto our Whaler!

I should add that we passed two wheelchairs in MIA that appeared to be self driving!

So just when I was complimenting Silver they delayed our EIS to SJU flight 2 hours and the only reason we caught the SJU to IAD flight was that flight was delayed 30 minutes and we both had facial recognition with global entry...