One of the major airlines flying into the Dominican Republic announced that it will be filing for bankruptcy.

AMR American Airlines and American Eagle

AMR is the parent company for both American Airlines (AA) and American Eagle so problems affecting one of the airlines will be affecting both. AMR has stated that it has $4.1 Billion dollars in cash to pay to keep services going for the two airlines so at this time it would appear your tickets for American Airlines of American Eagle to and from the Dominican Republic will remain valid. That includes if you have frequent flyer miles under the AAdvantage program of American Airlines and OneWorld Alliance.

In the press release issued by American Airlines today it was stated that they and American Eagle “EXPECT TO CONTINUE” normal services, and flight schedules as well as make reservations, exchanges and offer refunds under its normal rules.

Thomas W. Horton, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of AMR and American Airlines, said, (more…)

If your plans for the DR are an extended staycation or you plan on moving here permanently something you should likely consider is getting a credit card that offers frequent flyer miles. Round trip tickets range from $650 to $850 from the Dominican Republic to California so the frequent flyer miles tend to add up quickly.

There are quite a few things to check out first to make sure that the card you are planning to use is really going to save you money.

Annual Fee: Most cards charge an annual fee of $65 to $85. Some will waive the annual fee for the first year if you make an eligible purchase within the allotted time.

Where and when the miles can be redeemed: This is a pretty big one if you are planning to stay in the DR. Choosing a card that the miles can’t be redeemed for flight to or from the DR wouldn’t be of much use.

Max number of miles: Some cards have caps on the number of miles that can be earned each year. While it is normally pretty high (100, 000 to 150,000 miles) that is something to consider if you plan on making many purchases or you are normally booking for larger groups (like you whole family). (more…)

When you are traveling in the DR, sometimes you hear stuff that is completely different than what you are used to. If you don’t speak Spanish, or at least not much of it, some of the following definitions will really come in handy.

“Dejame” Dejame is the word for leave me here. Especially useful if you don’t truly know where you are going and want to brave walking the rest of the way. Also heard “Me deja” and “Donde puede”

“Cuanto debe pagar” is as simple as could be, “How much should I pay?” It is better to ask someone else that is in the car with you then to ask the public car driver directly, usually if they see that you are white or from Spain, they will raise the prices to double, sometimes triple the usual cost.

“Al (city)” This is meant to be used when trying to find where to go after renting a taxi. For example if you are looking to go to Sosua, you can tell the driver “Al Sosua” or “To Sosua!” See below for more. (more…)

American Airlines has announce it will wave change fees for passengers affected by Hurricane Irene. This allows passengers to rebook their flights to specific location from specific dates.

Flights from these locations can be rebooked.
La Romana/Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic (LRM)
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (PAP)
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic (POP)
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (PUJ)
San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU)
Santiago, Dominican Republic (STI)
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (SDQ)
St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands (STX)
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (STT)
Tortola, Beef Island, British Virgin Islands (EIS)

These are the applicable dates. (more…)

Customers traveling through Tuesday, August 23 to/from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic may rebook flights through August 27 –

NEW YORK, Aug. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –

Due to inclement weather forecasted to impact the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico areas, JetBlue Airways (Nasdaq: JBLU) will waive change/cancel fees and fare differences for Customers traveling through Tuesday, August 23, 2011 to/from the following cities:

• Puerto Rico
  • San Juan (SJU)
  • Ponce (PSE)
  • Aguadilla (BQN)
• Dominican Republic
  • Santo Domingo (SDQ)
  • Santiago (STI)
  • Puerto Plata (POP)
  • Punta Cana (PUJ)

Customers may rebook their flights for travel through Saturday, August 27, 2011 by calling 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583) prior to the departure time of their originally scheduled flight. Customers with cancelled flights may also opt for a refund to the original form of payment by calling 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583). Original travel must have been booked on or before Sunday, August 21, 2011. (more…)

American Airlines affiliate American Eagle announced it will be resuming it’s flights to La Romana-Casa de Campo International Airport (LRM) from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan (SJU).

The flights are set for Friday and Sunday with the flight from San Juan Puerto Rico to La Romana leaving at 12:25 pm and arriving in La Romana at 1:25 pm and the flight from La Romana leaving at 2:00 pm and arriving in San Juan Puerto Rico at 3:00 pm.

This flight works out well if you would like to spend a weekend out of your DR vacation in Puerto Rico. You can Leave the DR on Friday and come back the following Sunday.

San Juan is known as “La Ciudad Amurallada” or “the walled city”. It’s on the Northern Coastline of Puerto Rico. Likely your visit would include some of the major points of interest like “Old San Juan” with its numerous plazas, parks and forts. One of the more interesting forts is “El Morro” an awesome looking 6 level fortress. There are also many museums of interest as well as other historical buildings. Many of these buildings were constructed in the 1500’s to the 1800’s.

Then of course there is the food. You will find food from all over the world here with great restaurants serving French, Italian, Asian, Greek, Spanish and German food.

Luggage thief has gotten bad enough in the Santo Domingo airport – Las Americas (SDQ) that two of the air lines have made a formal complaint. Air France and Jet Blue have both asked the Las Americas International Airport to halt the thief of their passenger’s luggage.

Although apparently this has gotten much worse over the last few weeks, this is a constant problem with DR airports. During my travels back and forth I have had many things stolen from my checked in bags. Having items that I have carefully packed to keep from breaking are unwrapped and put back in the luggage bag haphazardly so they will break is also common.

There are also the carryon luggage checks where items that have passed though several other checks are now considered too dangerous as you are heading into the DR. Very common complaints on that one are hair curling irons and Hair Straightener Irons or flat irons. Usually that means they confiscate the item.

Unfortunately there is no good way around this problem. (more…)

Jet Blue is adding two more flights from New York to La Romana, Dominican Republic stating Nov 16 2011. This makes jetblue only nonstop flight between the Dominican Republic’s third largest city La Romana and New York. La Romana built its international airport in 2008 to increase traffic to the nearby tourist destinations and golf resorts.

The proposed schedule is for Wednesday and Saturday with a flight leaving JFK at 8:36 in the morning and arriving at LRM at 1:31 in the afternoon and starting its return flight at 2:26 in the afternoon and arriving back at JFK at 5:26. JetBlue expect to be able to offer the flights on an introductory sale for as low as $99 for a one way flight.

This new addition will be JetBlues 5th destination city in the Dominican Republic, something that is good news to me. I personally prefer to travel with JetBlue due to the additional legroom offered in their planes. Other features like the personal TV for each passenger, better in-flight service and smaller lines are just icing on the cake! JetBlue is also very competitive with the other airlines and are very frequently the lowest priced.

A couple of months ago I was walking down the street in broad daylight and narrowly avoided getting accosted and robbed.

It was during the Semana Santa (the week before Easter that is the Catholic celebration to commemorate the last seven days of the earthly life of Jesus Christ), and there was little private transit on the road. Public transportation was scarce as well, so after waiting more than 30 minutes without seeing any buses or public cars, I decided to hoof it the few blocks that remained for me to reach my apartment. About three meters later, I heard something and turned around to see if it was perhaps that bus finally coming. But, it wasn’t. It was a pasola (a type of motor scooter popular in the area) with two guys on it who were checking me out as they went on by.

Normally this would be a passing event that was not worth noting, and would hardly be considered disturbing.  However, after being robbed several months back, I’d started being more observant of my surroundings, and noticed these guys were doing more than checking me out. In actual fact, it seemed more like they were taking an inventory of what I had on me.

At the end of the block, they stopped, and acted like they were fixing something on their bike, as they stole glances to check my progress. A heartbeat after that I had considered my options, and decided that I could make it back to a little house (where a Dominican family had been sitting outside) and safely wait there. Which, I did. They watched me for a second, probably judging their options, and then quickly jumped on their bike and sped off.

The Reasons Why

This is just one of several stories like it. When I came to the island, more than 14 years ago, there was little noteworthy crime. (more…)

Recently I made my yearly sojourn back to the United States, to visit the family and work, and flew out of the Santiago International Airport (STI). While packing, since I was flying with only carry-on luggage, I dutifully checked the latest list of items that are prohibited to carry-on the plane. Everything checked out. Nothing that I wanted to carry was on the list, so I printed out my handy dandy boarding pass and was ready to go.

Security Block
I got to the airport early the next morning, walked down to the baggage x-ray machine, and stuck my bags on the conveyor belt, where the nice gentlemen started them on their journey through the machine with a smile. We passed the time it took for them to examine my bags with some small talk and then I was on my way.

Walking past the long line of passengers waiting to check-in bags and get their boarding passes, I continued toward the gate, giving myself a mental pat on the back for having the forethought to carry-on my luggage and print my own get-out-of-the-line-free pass. At the gate I handed the boarding pass to Rafael the security guard, he took it, and looked at it like it was some sort of foreign object he had never contemplated before. Which, I guess he hadn’t since he directed me to go and get a real one from the American Airlines (AA) desk.

I looked at the expanded line and quickly decided I’d rather not. Just as I started trying to think of what other options there were to consider, an AA attendant passed nearby, and I flagged her down. I explained my situation and smiled smugly (I’m sorry to admit) as she attended me back to the security guard and reprimanded him for not reading the memo that was sent out last month about printed boarding passes. He let me through, and I continued without incident through immigration and on to security.

Everything was fine at security until they opened up my bags and took away my curling iron, flat iron, and my deceased grandmother’s crochet hooks of tremendous sentimental value. I stood my ground, and insisted that they weren’t on the list. (more…)