Handling flight arrangements for Nassau

[austinsailor]

So I've cruised, been to Nassau several times. By boat.

Now we're going to meet friends there who have a nice big catamaran. Going to stay a week, maybe 2, maybe 3. As I understand it, I have to have a return ticket when I get there. Setting up a return ticket when I don't know when I want to return is becoming a big problem. Trying to sail on a schedule is also a problem. As I say, we cruised.

How have you handled the return ticket? When I went to Bermuda some years ago I bought a cheap ticket to get there, and a much more expensive - and refundable - return ticket. Sailed the boat back to Annapolis, turned the ticket in and got a refund. Can't seem to find such a thing today. I'd just buy another cheap ticket when it was time to return, turn in the refundable again, be done.

Can you put up a bond? Are refundable tickets still around but my agent doesn't know? Got to be a simple solution, but figuring it out at Nassau customs and immigration seems like a bad plan.

[Snore]

I often fly in to pickup a boat. In my case I have my contract and a copy of the USCG docs. My crew has a letter from me. We both have a copy of the cruising permit.

In your case, have your friends send a copy of their permit and a letter advising you will be boarding their vessel for an indefinite period. And that you will likely leave the country in the vessel. If you scoot down the T&C you are covered, if you leave and come back you are covered. If you don’t leave on the vessel and fly home, you had a change of plans...

Immigration just wants to make sure your gonna leave.... saves building a wall

[redneckrob]

Southwest flies to Nassau and all their tickets can be changed as many times as you want for no fee.

[Dsanduril]

If you buy the ticket in the USA the DOT requires the airlines to give a full refund if you cancel within 24 hours of purchase and the flight is at least 7 days away.

Go to the airport with your one-way ticket. Buy a return more than 7 days away. Fly to Bahamas, show return to officials. Walk out of airport, call airline and cancel. If you can't get around it any other way (proof of funds, proof of boat transport, etc.) that usually works - you run into problems when long flights and layovers might take you past the 24-hour limit.

[austinsailor]

Thanks for the advice. I spent the whole afternoon on the phone, to various places, discovered Southwest is fully refundable as well. I think I have blundered into a solution.

I suspect the letter, cruising permit plan would work as well, but time would be an issue.

You guys are a great help. Thanks.

By the way, not going in our boat now - Hurricane Harvey took care of that.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by austinsailor

Thanks for the advice. I spent the whole afternoon on the phone, to various places, discovered Southwest is fully refundable as well. I think I have blundered into a solution.

I suspect the letter, cruising permit plan would work as well, but time would be an issue.

You guys are a great help. Thanks.

By the way, not going in our boat now - Hurricane Harvey took care of that.

So they're not technically "fully" refundable, they put the cost of the cancelled ticket into a travel bank you can use for future travel with them. Mild distinction but could be a big deal if you put down $500 a ticket for two tickets and were actually planning on using that $1,000 for food later that month. Note that if you have Southwest points and use them for a ticket they are fully returned to your account if you cancel.

[jmschmidt]

Snore certainly has all the basses covered but I have flown into the BVI and the Bahamas a half-dozen time on one-way tickets. Even if I'm flying both ways I almost always by two one-way ticket because they are almost always cheaper than the round-trip fares for the route. Example: I recently flew one-way Honolulu to the BVI $428.20. Delivered a boat to Puerto Rico and flew one-way home on a different airline for $407.20, total $835.40. The cheapest round-trip (called an "open-jaw" ticket) was over $1,500.

This also gives me the flexibility of not have to schedule the return until I'm ready if plans, or the weather, change and maybe having to pay a change fee. And yes, Southwest is great but they are not always the cheapest. The cheap-ticket internet sellers are also not always the cheapest. Sometimes you will find a great deal with these guys and go the same airline's own website and get an even better deal, especially for one-way travel.

I used to the crew letter thing but nobody ever asked to see it.

[austinsailor]

Well, to wrap this up, I called Southwest back this morning and found that as long as you don't get the cheapest flights, they are fully refundable, as long as you cancel at least 10 minutes before flight time.

So, I have a return ticket so they'll let me in and the flexibility to either change the Southwest flight (only 1 a day) or cancel and take another airline if it is a better deal or fits my schedule better. And I've learned of these other options, so all is good.

Going back again in December, so I'll make lots of use of this.

Thanks to all.

[Symphony]

I have flown to Bermuda, Bahamas and a few other Caribbean islands on a one-way ticket. I stated my purpose to get on a boat. No one ever asked me for a return flight proof. Bermuda made sure to collect the exit tax when I entered.

[austinsailor]

Thought I'd post the results in case it might help someone else.

In the end, I bought return tickets from Southwest. Unless you buy the cheapest fares, they are fully refundable as long as you cancel them at least 10 minutes before flight time.

We flew over on Delta. Nobody asked or seemed to care if we had return tickets, including immigration in Nassau. Got to the boat, called Southwest and cancelled the return. in about 4 days all my money was back in my account.

But wait, there is more! A couple weeks later we flew home, no complications. We were returning to the Bahamas 2 weeks later, and since nobody seemed to care, I bought no return tickets. Got to St. Louis to leave about 5 am and I couldn't get boarding documents if I couldn't show return tickets. It seems, although I'm not certain, that the airlines are inter connected enough that Delta knew I had Southwest return tickets the first trip, so nothing was asked. According to American, if we end up there with no way to get back they are fined big bucks. I'm not sure what happens if we had tickets, cancelled them and then spent all our money. But that is out of the range of my concern.

So I pulled out my phone, bought us 2 return tickets online right there, the American clerk clicked ok, off we went.

Got to Nassau, cleared in, went online with Southwest, clicked the "cancel flight" button and all is good. When we decide we need to go back I'll pull out my phone, buy return tickets from whoever is cheapest and we'll go back to ice and snow.

[Symphony]

thanks for posting the End of this Story.

[CarlF]

I always use the cancelable return ticket method you did (although I use JetBlue which offers the same arrangement if you buy the refundable ticket)

The cruising permit method works reliably IF you are leaving from Florida. The airline ticket agents in Florida all know about cruising permits and it goes fine.

But if you are flying to the Bahamas from someplace like Minneapolis with a connection in Florida, you check in for the entire flight in Minneapolis and the agent in Minneapolis has never heard of a cruising permit. If you are rushing for your plane that's leaving at 6:00AM, this can be a real headache because they may have to check with several levels of supervisors to get the OK to check you in. At that hour, supervisors can be hard to find.