If you're booked with American...

Check your reservation. My February flights were changed & I was never notified. Just checked my summer flights... changed from what I booked. Again, no notification from AA. On the return, later departure which is fine w/ me. Later return home, too, obviously.

Getting to JA... I'm less thrilled. I'm leaving 2 hours earlier & arriving in MoBay 1 hour later than originally planned. My 1 hour layover in Miami is now 4 hours. (Math discrepancy due to time change. It really is a 4 hour layover.)

I wonder how many more times it will change before my actual departure date??? Anyone else have this happen lately?

I have a four-hour layover in Miami, too. There are worse places to be, but time is money!!!

There should be a mojito bar near your departure gate at the Miami airport where you can waste a few hours. We had a long layover there for our last trip and were feeling no pain whatsoever when we boarded our flight to Montego Bay.

Wow, thanks for the info. We're leaving the 21st on AA. Will definately be doing some checking before going.

My flight time changed but they did tell me

Yvonne - our flight times changed too and we didn't get any notification either!

its getting much harder to get to Jamaica, along with expensive $$$
time to look to a different compass direction I'm afraid :(

Cands.......
No more jerk in Byron, or have you noticed already???

Rambo - I noticed back when he closed. It was a sad day for me...........

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gerryg123

I have a four-hour layover in Miami, too. There are worse places to be, but time is money!!!

---

I've had more than my share of 4+ hours (up to 8+... all AA flights) of layovers in Miami the last 10 years. I can't think of worse places. (My nickname for MIA is hell.) I purposely booked to AVOID the 4 hour layover. AA took that choice from me, again. Not thrilled. The later arrival really irks me. I can wile away hours w/ reading but would much rather be on my way to Jamaica.

Yvonne, even though we live in Clearwater, we now travel to Orlando just to take the direct flight on JetBlue. We hate Miami and Fort lauderdale for layovers too, and we have had some serious issues with Spirit and with American Airlines. The direct flight on JetBlue rocks and the drive there is not too bad, definitely worth the on time flights, the no layovers, the ease of customs and the good prices!

Rambo - when I went through Byron many months ago, I saw a sign that said the Ja. Jerk stand had moved to a place on the outskirts of Byron as you're coming from Rockford on Rt. 2. Has it closed after that move?

How long ago was that Nurse Marcia? I will have to do some investigating.....

Our flights changed but they did send an email.

marley9808...it's 5:00 am and you've already ruined my day :(

BTW..this is our first post...greetings all!!!
We live in Clearwater too....never thought of Orlando (duh!!!!)
Booked last month out of Tampa on AA.....$943 RT for both with 1 hour LO in Miami....just checked JetBlue out of Orlando....$545 RT non-stop....:mad:
Non-refundable tickets....ouchie....I would certainly drive back and forth to Orlando for $400...as they say, live and learn. How much is it to park over there for a week??
I have been through customs once in Miami on way back from Cayman...what a nightmare...many times came back in to TPA from Cayman and was quick and easy.
What "serious" issues have you had with AA if you don't mind telling???? This trip is for our wedding in August and we would like to be as prepared as possible.
I am glad we found this board, as with people like you with many trips to JAM, you have tons of experience to share.
Thanks for any insight and information you can provide and best wishes on your trip!!!
L&M

Sunbrnd! Welcome aboard neighbor!!

Don't beat yourself up about this.....you did exactly what Raul and I did! We got married October 2010. We booked our flight in january on AA along with my parents, flying out of tampa, layover in MIA. By the time ALL of the rest of our guests booked their flights JetBlue (AND Airtran) were offering cheap rates on non-stops from Orlando and every single one of our local guests flew out of orlando on non-stops! I was PISSED! lol I think we paid around $350 each or so and they were getting $250 non stop flights.
Most all of my issues with American Airlines are simply that they change flights and times a lot and they ALWAYS seemed to be delayed. When we flew out of Tampa for our wedding we had an hour layover in Miami which I thought was great.....that is until out flight in tampa sat on the tarmac for 50 minutes before taking off. I was FREAKING OUT, we were going to miss our connecting flight in Miami....to our wedding, this was not happening! And of course the flight from Tampa to Miami is not long enough to make up that much time. The whole flight I was on edge (and if you know the back story of my wedding, I really didn't need any more issues at that point). Well we finally land in Miami, I did nothing short of push everyone out of the way, and low and behold our connecting gate was literally the very next gate, we got off and got right on and headed to Jamaica. So in the end it worked out but not without a lot of stress and frustration. Coming back home we spent longer in Miami than we were supposed to but at that point we didn't really care. So overall my issues with American are not nearly as bad as with Spirit (my advice, don't EVER fly Spirit) at least when things go wrong American *seems* to care about helping....Spirit, does not!

So anyways, you can do what we did. Fly American for your wedding and then fly JetBlue for your anniversary trip (because you WILL be back). We flew Cayman air out of Tampa for a non-stop flight to Cayman Islands and we got seriously spoiled. I used to fly whoever had the best ticket price as I just accepted that a layover in Miami (or FTL) was inevitable, but since we found out about JetBlue direct flights in Orlando, we have never looked back. Can't say enough good things about them. Free checked bags, free movies and music on board..they even give you drinks and snacks (FREE) lol. Also, Orlando customs is a breeze.
We drive over the day of the flight (giving ourselves plenty of traffic time) and we park at a place called Park, Bark and Fly (funny name I know). It's about 5 minutes from the airport, you can reserve online and it is $6 a day for parking, but you can find coupons online all the time, plus they email coupons regularly too. The will bus you to the airport and then you just call when you land and they pick you up and take you back right to your car, can't beat it.

We are heading back to Negril in 17 days (YAY) so if you need us to check anything out for your upcoming wedding while we are there, just let me know, we can surely do that. Or if you have any questions about anything wedding related or otherwise just ask.

Oh and one last thing.....Congrats on getting married in Jamaica! You will love it!

All the best,
Shauna (aka Marley9808)

The 6-7 weeks of parking plus the gas & hotel room would make a trip out of Orlando more expensive than leaving from Tampa. I wouldn't want to leave my car unattended in an unfamiliar place that long. I prefer having it under the watchful eyes of my neighbors.

This is the 3rd time in a row AA hasn't notified me of the flight changes, only the first time since they declared bankruptcy. I've been a FF for years & they have every possible way in the world to contact me including my JA cell #. I'm flying 1st class round trip in the summer, not that that should make any difference on notification. Used to be they'd send me an e-mail when there was a minor change in flight times (under 5 min. change). I guess some things just go by the wayside when they cut 20% of their employees.

My big gripe w/ AA is the 4 hour layovers. On the way back, it's always more. Last year was the exception when I tried different flight times to arrive back home earlier. On time but barely enough time to make the connecting flight. Tried Spirit once. Never again.

Y'all are scaring me. I'm on AA for my flight back with a layover in Dallas (I was avoiding Miami like the plague!) so hopefully I don't have any problems. So far everything seems to be right on schedule.

We flew to Jamaica on AA from ORD on March 23. Our flight was to leave at 8:05am. We were delayed. Want to know the reason for the delay? Someone forgot to schedule a pilot for our flight to MoBay. Actually, it's funny when you think about it. How do you forget to schedule a pilot?

could be, I usually never go that way, to many speed/radar areas.....hope he hangs around

I've been on AA flights, including one to Aruba many years ago, where the MIA departure delay was due to waiting for a new crew to arrive because the current crew reached the maximum # of flight hours for whatever period they use to track these things. I've also been delayed waiting for a plane to arrive & then take us on to MoBay. One time, based on the airport the flight was arriving from, they actually could have made the trip to Tampa twice in the time we were delayed waiting on the plane. Sheesh. I know stuff happens but it NOT happening is the exception on AA. I wish that was an exaggeration but it's not. Boy, I really miss the days of NWA's non-stop flight from Tampa to MoBay.

BTW... even though I've only flown through Dallas-Ft. Worth once & it was on AA (a non-Jamaica trip). No problems, everything on time. Nice airport, too. Still keep checking on your times though. They can still change.

Max2 we are also flying out of ORD on AA 8:00AM hope we leave on time~

Thanks for the info Shauna (aka Marley9808) and the reply!!! Lucky you for your very soon trip back to Negril!! You must really like the place. That gives me a warm fuzzy that we did a good thing in choosing JAM as our destination wedding. We are doing this alone with no guests or family. Just us....and preacher. We didn't want a big deal. Just a nice vacation place and a simple ceremony.
Congrats on your 2010 wedding also!!! Where did you get married??
To say we have questions is an understement. I am really glad we found this forum.
We will just hope for the best as to AA. I really hate that there is a layover in MIA on what should really be a short flight from TPA to JAM but that's the way it is.
BTW, here is how we ended up with a Negril wedding....as luck would have it.:)
We got engaged after a year of basically living together this past Xmas (2011). We really didn't set a date and left it open ended. We told all our family and friends and left it at that.
Well, in Feb. on one Sat. evening, Margot said she was going to run down to the little store on the corner for something or other, Ok I said, and gave her 2 $1 bils and told her to get 2 $1 scratch off's. Allot of times we have dinner and scratch off tickets after while having an after dinner drink. I scratch one area then pass it to her to scratch and she passes it back..till it is done. We can spend 15 minutes on each ticket with this "entertainment". We do one ticket...nothing. Ok, next one. I tell her to do the whole ticket. She gets to scratching and is done. She looks at me and has this funny look on her face. She hands the ticket to me and asks what this means. One of the little areas had "4 THOU" onder it....and it matched the prize area...4 THOU!!!! What did it mean???.....I told her it means we just just won $4K!!!!! Whoa!!!!
Well, we go over to the lottery office in Tampa and cash it in. They give us a check for 4 grand we we go home. Well, Margot being the thrifty one, wants to use the money to pay bills....BS I say....we are using this money to buy memories!!!.....A wedding!!! But where???.....well, having been to Cayman many times I knew I wanted Carribean somewhere because I love the water down there. We have really nice beaches here but the water here is like a sewer compared to the clear blue of the Carribean. Jamaica immediately popped into my head as I had never been there. Cayman is nice, but it is just a very flat rock sticking out of the water. Great for diving but not much scenery. Jamaica has mountains and is "lush". Ok, where in JAM???? Well, we got on computer and started looking.....Sandals, Couples, etc. popped up....bunches of AI's..nice but too touristy if you know what I mean. I knew I wanted a sunset wedding. That means you gotta be on west side of the island.....OK, what's on west side?? Well, stated looking and Negril immediately is the destination to be. Where though??? Looked at all the beach places. Devoured TripAdvisor. We have plenty of great beaches 1 mile from here at home.......Cliffs!!!!!! We don't have cliffs here in FL......I want CLIFFS!!!!! Well, we looked at all the places on the cliffs....we got down to a short list of Catcha and Moon Dance Cliffs and another place I don't remember now. We sent emails. MDC was the only one that replied to us with any kind of information. They were great about talking with us and what we wanted and could easily handle our simple wedding. We had wanted a late Sept or early Oct wedding but MDC is closed all of Sept. They were also booked from Oct out to end of the year (we wanted the one bedroom villa Ponsianna). As it turns out, we could get in last week in August so we set the date....AUG 27!!! MDC is also unique in that you can book either AI or non-AI. Well, the price difference for us was a no-brainer as we eat very little (most times just one meal). So we are booked for 8 nights there with a wedding in the gazebo...it is really cool looking on their website.
So that's how luck put us in JAM:cool:

Wow sunbrnd.....talk about luck! That is awesome

And what you said about how you narrowed it down describes my reason for loving the cliffs to a T.
I have lived at the beach my whole life, every town I have lived in has had the name Beach in the title. My Dad was air force but lucky enough we always had beach locations. Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach, Cocoa Beach, Ewa Beach (Hawaii), Melbourne Beach, Panama City Beach and now Clearwater (this move I made on my own). So I have always lived near the beach, and I love the beach of course. However, when we lived in Hawaii I could not get enough of the cliffs. And the cliffs and the ocean together I thought nothing I had ever laid eyes on was more beautiful. Negril reminds me a lot of my time in Hawaii.
So I am 100% a cliff person too and I think you will LOVE it

Our wedding story is a long one so I will pm you my email address and we can discuss more....maybe we can even meet you guys out....like at say Rumba (If you haven't tried that it's a restaurant on Gulf to Bay and Keene-very close to us and it is a caribbean style place, we love it). If you couldn't tell.....I LOVE talking about Jamaica
We were supposed to get married at Catcha Falling Star but a tropical storm changed our plans for us and we ended up at Negril Escape.
Catcha is our favorite place on earth and that is where we normally stay, it is where we will be in 16 days! Yay.
But Moondance Villas is a beautiful place too, you did REALLY good for someone who has never been, I am impressed.
It took me several years of visiting Negril to find Catcha
So well done......and also I wholeheartedly support the "Just the two of you ceremony"
You are WAY smarter than we were! LOL

I will send you my email and we can discuss. I would be more than happy to help with any questions you have.
Talk to you soon!

Thank for posting this.....I just checked my AA out of MIA and my 1:45 arrival to MBJ is now 2:55pm...they never sent a notification.

Yvonne~Check into renting a car and leaving it at the airport. Then picking one up when you return. One-way rentals are a bit expensive, but not bad. We do this when we travel to Negril so we don't have to pay airport parking for five weeks. We don't have the option of flying out of the local airport! And in Florida you certainly have more rental choices than we do in Iowa.

Yvonne - What are your summer dates this year?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jamerican71

Yvonne - What are your summer dates this year?

---

6/11 - 7/14. When will you be there?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yvonne

6/11 - 7/14. When will you be there?

---

I'll be there Aug 6 - 12. I will be on a cruise round-trip from Miami from Aug 2 - 6 so that's why I'm on AA out of MIA. I was supposed to land at 1:45 but the change now puts me there at 2:45

Our dates are getting closer so maybe one day we will reconnect in Negril.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jamerican71

Our dates are getting closer so maybe one day we will reconnect in Negril.

---

My TS weeks are early/mid June to mid July so that keeps me to the June-July timeframe.

I noticed that - on the AA reservations page showing your reservation - there's a notice that there have been changes to your flights. I guess that's their new notification system. The customer has to check vs AA communicating w/ the customer directly as in the past.

Jim-Donna,
Yup, that's the flight we were on. We arrived in Jamaica about two hours late. I guess, that's not as bad as it could have been.

When we got a pilot on board the plane he announced that the delay was not his fault. He said that he gave up his day off to get us all to Jamaica. Thank heaven for that pilot.

Actually, everyone on baord seemed to take the delay well and the mood was good. My only wish is that they did not board us and then tell us that we were delayed. Planes are small and uncomfortable enough without spending an extra few hours on board.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by max2

Planes are small and uncomfortable enough without spending an extra few hours on board.

---

Yeah for that pilot!!!

My first plane flight - age 17, from Chicago to San Francisco - we boarded, then sat on the plane for hours. I don't remember how long exactly but I do remember that my sister was sitting in the airport in San Francisco w/ her 5 month old waiting to pick me up. My flight didn't leave Chicago until after the time it was due to arrive in SF. My poor sister. Me... I was young & on an adverture so I wasn't too upset, just concerned that my sister was stuck in the airport for hours waiting for me.