We set the alarm for a little after 7am in order to make sure we had time to walk to the patisserie and get ourselves a nice French breakfast before heading out to the airport for a 10am flight. Check out was easy and we left the apartment with a fully loaded Kia Picante. Everything was pretty easy, as was check-in for our Tradewind flight. It was only us and one other passenger. Because the few small stores in the airport were closed for the season, we will leave St Barts without souvenirs, though we did get some t-shirts from the Tradewind site — one in a sort of mid-century modern travel poster style showcasing St Barts. Two other passengers didn’t show by the check-in cutoff, so we left almost 20 minutes early.
Takeoff was a bit of a rush. Given that the runway is quite short, they launch using a static takeoff meaning brakes set, full power, and release! The shoreline flew past us as we cruised overhead at low level. Nicole briefly thought the plane was going down because they are required to do a quick bank left to avoid rising terrain in the other direction. Beyond that, it was an uneventful flight that touched down in Puerto Rico ahead of schedule. We were the only people going through customs once again and found ourselves through security and at our first attempted flight in about 10 minutes total. Not bad for an international transfer.
Pretty much all flights going anywhere out of Puerto Rico looked bad for the entire day — and the next one. We were bracing ourselves for the worst, and since we arrived early figured we might as well try the first available flight to Orlando on Southwest, even though it looked bleak. We didn’t get on, but it seemed closer than the numbers indicated. Every flight is essentially oversold with 10+ standbys. Whereas our Caribbean experience thusfar has revealed empty beaches and hotels, everyone and their madre is apparently in Puerto Rico. San Juan acts like a regional hub similar to St Martin. But with no direct flights to most destinations in Florida from St Martin, we figured we’d still roll the dice with San Juan.
After Southwest, there were about three flights leaving at the same time from different terminals. We stopped very briefly at a priority pass lounge, but it was very small. It allowed us to grab some bottles of water instead of paying the airport prices, and we were on our way out. Anyway, we had to roll the dice on which flight to choose and hope for the best. We went with JetBlue, though we debated Frontier even though it showed oversold by 5 and was asking for volunteers to give up their seats. Frontier always seems to find more seats. It’s like a clown car in there. Anyway, against all odds, Nicole and I got seats (separate and not equal) on JetBlue. It helped that several standbys ahead of us never showed up. Three hours later we were touching down in Orlando — parking at the new Terminal C. It was a long walk to the exit where we found SALT, everyone’s favorite senior travel couple waiting for us. Our plans from here on out are undetermined as of yet, but I shall commence working on the long-awaited reflections post. À bientôt.
passports & pepto bismol 