Other Ways to Get to St. Croix

Since I've sworn off American for now, I've been doing some research on how to get off the rock (aka St. Croix). I figured this info may be useful to people trying to get to St. Croix, too, so here it is... Note: All the prices are estimates based on August 2008; I'm sure they will change quite a bit through the year.

LIAT Airlines: This is a Caribbean-only airline. They fly to pretty much all of the islands. From St. Croix, you can get to St. Maarten directly (see my note about AirFrance below for getting to/from Europe!). Here is a great map of LIAT's destinations. I've heard that they are never on time, so book extra time if possible. 20% of their flights are late, and 9% of them are excessively late, according to www.flightstats.com. About $90-$110 each way from St. Croix to St. Maarten. Delay statistics from STX to SXM

Delta: Delta flies to St. Croix direct from Atlanta every Saturday. If you are coming and/or going from/to a major city on a Saturday, chances are you can connect through Atlanta and get to St. Croix with just one hop. Prices run about $521 round-trip from Atlanta to St. Croix.

Cape Air: You can get tickets from St. Croix to San Juan ($120-$170 one way) or St. Thomas ($85-$100 one way). It's a tiny Cessna plane, and I've heard people call it "Cape Fear", but they're professional and I've heard lots of good things about them as well. From San Juan or St. Thomas, you can catch flights on a whole bunch of other airlines. The obvious ones (United, US Airways, Continental, etc.) are available through Expedia and other travel websites. But there are a few good airlines that aren't covered by most of the travel websites, so I've listed them below.

Seaborne Airlines: This sea plane has lots of flights between St. Croix and St. Thomas or Puerto Rico. They are not at the airport, so you will need to take a taxi if you are connecting to another airline. In St. Croix, they leave from Christiansted. Between St. Croix and St. Thomas, fares run $70-$115 one-way. St. Croix to San Juan: $115 to $170 one-way.

Jet Blue: From San Juan, you can fly to lots of other cities on Jet Blue. Check around for specials; sometimes you will see fares as low as $100 each way from San Juan to Boston or other major cities.

Spirit Airlines: From San Juan or St. Thomas, Spirit flies to Ft. Lauderdale. From there, you can take Spirit to lots of other US, Central, and South American destinations. You can also hop on one of the many discount airlines that fly to Ft. Lauderdale. Flights are reasonable, but they tack on dozens of nickel and dime fees, $10 for aisle or window seats, checked baggage fees, etc. However, they often have a "Big Front Seat" available for a reasonable premium. It's a first-class size seat, but at much cheaper prices than you'd pay for first class on other airlines (there is no additional service; just extra room). San Juan to Ft. Lauderdale usually runs around $125 one-way for regular seats or $140 for the big seats.

AirTran: From San Juan, you can get direct flights to Orlando, Atlanta, and Baltimore, and from there you can get to many other places. With web specials, you can get to Orlando for as cheap as $90 one-way. Normal flights seem to be about $100-$260 depending on how much advance notice you give.

Getting to/from Europe: From some of the other Caribbean Islands, you can get flights directly to European cities for decent prices. For example, you can get from Paris to St. Maarten on AirFrance for around 1,000 Euro. Sometimes this is cheaper than going through Miami or Boston. Just be careful if connecting on LIAT because I've heard their flights are never on time. Also, to book the other direction (from St. Croix to France), you have to book on their French website: www.airfrance.fr. Hope you speak a little French. I haven't actually completed a ticket, so I'm not sure if you need a French address to buy a ticket there or not.

I haven't looked in much detail for other European flights, but I believe there are some other direct flights to Spain and/or England from the Caribbean.

Hope this info is helpful to someone!