With the FAA closing airspace in the Eastern Caribbean on Jan. 3 because of the U.S. military operation in Venezuela, travel advisors scrambled to accommodate clients with canceled flights during a busy period of Caribbean travel.
Airspace reopened on Jan. 4, but many travelers were unable to return to the U.S. right away due to flight availability.
Julie Lanham, president of Vacations To Remember in Evans, Ga., woke up to the news of the military operation. “My immediate thought was to check on clients that I had traveling in that region, since I knew this would somehow affect travel,” Lanham said.
She was right: clients in Puerto Rico and many other islands were facing canceled flights. Hundreds of flights were canceled in the region on Jan. 4, with Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Aruba, Curaçao, Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Maarten heavily impacted.
Lanham was far from alone. As the morning went on, post after post appeared in travel advisor groups on Facebook talking about flight cancellations in the Eastern Caribbean.
The airspace closure posed a significant challenge for airlines already handling high-volume traffic at the end of the holiday season. Compounding the difficulty of the situation: many of the airlines’ U.S.-Caribbean routes only operate on the weekends, so travelers who couldn’t fly home on Jan. 3 had to spend a few more days at their destination or book a regional flight to San Juan, the Caribbean’s main hub, then a flight to the U.S. mainland.
Lanham said she rebooked clients leaving Puerto Rico for Atlanta and New York’s JFK Airport later this week.
“They are taking it well,” Lanham said, adding that one client eager to return home joked, “We can only drink so many pina coladas.” Kids are missing school and parents are missing work.
Lanham said a client in Puerto Rico declined travel insurance and didn’t bring passports, limiting their options to get home.
“They learned a valuable lesson on both fronts,” she said.
Extra flights to the Eastern Caribbean
U.S. airlines were flying extra aircraft to and from the Eastern Caribbean on Monday, working to serve customers left in the lurch by the airspace closure.
American Airlines added 43 flights to the region, including nine roundtrips. Of note, American and wholly owned regional carrier Envoy Air created two special interisland flights connecting Anguilla and Beef Island in the British Virgin Islands with San Juan. The interisland flights gave more customers access to American’s extra flights scheduled between San Juan and Miami. American is using the airline’s largest aircraft, the Boeing 777-300, on the extra San Juan-Miami flights.
Delta also increased its Caribbean flying with 2,600 more seats added on Monday. The airline said it is working to ensure all affected customers are re-accommodated by Tuesday, Jan. 6.
Delta warned customers about possible delays for Caribbean flights on Monday as a result of upping its capacity in the region. It recommended that flyers arrive at the airport at least three hours before flight time.
United, meanwhile, was operating three extra one-way flights on Monday, connecting Newark to San Juan and Aruba. Those additions follow the 14 one-way flight legs that United added on Jan. 4, connecting San Juan, St. Kitts, Bonaire, St. Thomas and St. Lucia to its mainland hubs.
Southwest Airlines added eight roundtrip flights to Puerto Rico on Monday to help get travelers home.
JetBlue, a large Caribbean operator, was less specific, but said it will continue evaluating where it is able to provide additional capacity with additional flights and larger aircraft.
Guidance from ALG Vacations
Vacation packager ALG Vacations issued guidance over the weekend for travel advisors with clients in the Eastern Caribbean or heading there. It recommended that customers work directly with hotels if they are unable to return home. Hotels may offer “distressed rates,” ALG Vacations said.
The company also said it was requesting a waiver of hotel penalties for clients who canceled their stay or were late to arrive.
Indeed, Sandals Resorts International said it offered reduced rates when extended stays were needed until flights resumed. Sandals also said its team worked closely with guests on flight changes and waived penalties for missed nights or delayed departures. Sandals resorts in the affected Eastern Caribbean region are in St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, Antigua and Grenada.
If a flight is canceled and a client is unable to reach their destination, ALG Vacations recommended a cancellation of the booking in VAX VacationAccess and that the traveler submit a post-travel form for airline refunds.
Staff writers Brinley Hineman and Christina Jelski contributed to this report.
Courtesy of Travel Weekly
