Airtran Discontinuing Service to Freeport, Bahamas

[Liv7301]

Here is an FYI on Airtran. As of Labor Day weekend Airtran will discontinue flights into Freeport, Bahamas. (FPO) My husband and I have a Blackbeard trip booked for November (I have a thread here on the forums about it) and were using Airtran as a convenient way to fly in from DFW. We were notified in early July via email that they would be discontinuing service and gave us two options: change our tickets to other destinations without a fee or get a full refund. We ended up getting a full refund and then rebooking for tickets from DFW to Ft. Lauderdale, which conveniently were about $210 dollars cheaper. However, we will now have to book separate tickets from Ft. Lauderdale to Freeport via either Continental or BahamasAir. When it is all said and done it will end up running us another $300 more than originally planned even after the savings from rebooking, which isn't bad, but is annoying nontheless.

I wanted to put this out for public since there are so many nice diving opportunities and liveaboards in that area and this is a big change in how many of us will get there. There used to be a ferry from Ft. Lauderdale to Freeport but that ended in 2005. (Just to fake you out though the website is still up.) There is an inter-Bahamas ferry that will take you from island to island but does not connect to Florida at all. One option would be to try and fly into another airport, like Nassau for example, and then take the island ferry. That didn't work for us because times and locations didn't work out to get us to the boat on time for the start of the trip, but it is a general possibility.

[DPJ]

This is bad news. Delta was running some very good fares to Freeport due to the competition. They will soon be back to $500 round trip. Did you look at American connecting through Miami?

[Liv7301]

I did. Largely the schedules didn't work for when we wanted to fly out and get there. Actually there are some nice sale fares going on right now to the Bahamas and Carribean but since we are traveling during a holiday season those rates weren't available.

[namabiru]

Hey, thank you for posting about the ferry being discontinued. I am trying to see if I can find a cheap airfare to Freeport, as I'm considering joining the September trip, but I'm having trouble finding something that won't run me $1000 for airfare...

[Liv7301]

I hear ya. It's kinda nasty now. We booked cheap Airtran tickets to Ft. Lauderdale that were about 650 for the pair. We still need to add the flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Freeport, which will be another 400-500 more. Since we are flying out DFW maybe that helps us. Where are you departing from?

[namabiru]

Ha ha. Well, in theory, I should be flying from Missoula. But the airport is closed that week because they're redoing the runway. So I'm pricing other airports in the region.

Check out Continental. Serious.

I think they must be doing a special of some kind. I can fly from Seattle to Freeport, round-trip, for $450. So if I add on my small commuter flight and go to Spokane, it will only cost me $560 or so. Add on gas, plus I'll have to stay one night in a hotel in Spokane (park and fly package), and about $670. Which is what it would cost me to go from Missoula anyway, so I suppose it all works out. Even pricing from Great Falls would add on $259 for the commuter flight, so $709. The connection times are better from Spokane, so I'm better off flying from there.

If you're going from Dallas, I bet you can get a bang-up deal with Continental. Even if you have to take a commuter flight to Houston (surely Continental runs some kind of commuter service to Dallas) and then go. Unless you want to stretch your trip out, drive to Houston (a bit far, perhaps better to just fly it...), do a park-and-fly deal, and go.

Check out http://www.parksleepfly.com too, for a deal like that.

'sides, then your python Fluffy can accompany you on your journey. Perhaps you can even train the python to drive, then you can sleep from Dallas to Houston. The python certainly wouldn't do any worse than some of these yutzes I see running around out here...

[quarrydiver]

what a drag, we do delta to freeport a couple times a year and the prices have been OK. Guess it's time to budget a couple hundred more.

[uzzell20]

it stinks there discontinuing service, this was how many of my friends travel to the bahamas

[quarrydiver]

thanks for the heads up on the ferry service. I had no idea they stopped running

[porsche060]

Its not the cost of the plane ticket which pisses me off when traveling international, it's all the damm taxes..