Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Travel Forum

Hi,

My boyfriend and I are travelling to Bequia in February from Barbados via SVGAir. I am curious of others' experiences with SVG Air. Good, bad or ugly? I am also trying to determine if their flights from BGI- Bequia may actually involve island hopping to get us to Bequia. Should we change carriers? If so who do you recommend and why.

Thank You in advance!

A few years ago, SVG Air, Mustique Air and TIA decided to stop competing with each other and share facilities, planes and passengers. The result has been increased unpredictability of itinerary and much higher fares.

Sometimes things go tickety boo. Sometimes they are totally mucked up.

In my experience, the flights from Barbados to Bequia are significantly more problematic than the flights from Bequia to Barbados. The flights departing Barbados are frequently an hour or so late and will almost always land in any or all of Union, Canouan and Mustique (and perhaps Carriacou) before you land in Bequia. You will find out about these changes in the air. Not fun.

I have finally thrown in the towel and will, this year, be travelling by Caribbean Star from Barbados to St. Vincent and taking the ferry across to Bequia. Both Caribbean Star and LIAT have flights that arrive in time to connect with the 7 p.m. ferry and, with a bit of luck, the 6 p.m. ferry as well. Likewise, the return flights will connect with the 9.30 a.m. ferry from Bequia.

The CS flight is costing me $84US less than SVD - this savings is somewhat reduced by the taxi and ferry charges in St. Vincent, but these are nominal.

That said, there is something magic about being in a little plane swooping over the string of small island jewels. The larger planes cannot replicate this experience and- you should do this at least once even if there are frustrations.

This is a follow up posting regrarding my experience with Caribbean Star. The aricraft was super - comfy leather seats, uncrowded, juice and snack service, all departures and arrivals were on time. The downside was the ridiculous check in procedure in Barbados. Understand that I am used to the easy-peasy SVG Air process - where the airline staff collect your luggage for you in the arrivals hall, and you are taken straight from there to the in-transit area to await your flight, thus by-passing customs, immigration and security.

By contrast, with Caribbean Star, you had to go through immigration, find your luggage, go through customs, trek all the way to the far end of the departures lounge, check in at the CS desk, and then go through security.

And check-in is not easy either. This is because you can reserve your CS flight over the internet or by phone, but payment does not occur until you actually check in, even though they have already taken all your credit card details at the time of reservation. Instead, you have to resubmit your card, and the CS desk staff reprocess it.

The desk staff when I was there were utterly hopeless. It took them a good 40 minutes to process the transaction (including at least 5 attempts they screwed up). Ultimately, they had to give me a special escort through security and I got to the plane literally as the gangway was being hauled up. Lesson learned is that I will pay cash next time (US$).

That said, CS prices still make this a good deal...in fact on my next flight, coming up shortly, I am paying $150+US LESS on CS than on SVG, and about $30US less than on LIAT.