what have you heard about caribbean sun? I have heard from several people that it is a nightmare. or,maybe it was caribbean star...not sure...but i haven't heard good things about one of them.
I flew on them once (well, twice, a roundtrip, in June 2004). Flew PHL-SJU-SXM-SJU-PHL instead of the nonstop PHL-SXM so that I could get on the 330 PHL-SJU and back. And I enjoyed it. They're certainly a bit unorganized and laid back, but no more so than the other island airlines. (For that matter, US's operation at SJU isn't the most organized thing around!) And they successfully interlined the bags without a second thought or any trouble at all, so they're not incompetent, just different. Just not necessarily what you'd expect from a US- or Europe-based airline when checking in or whatnot. I have indeed heard a few other people complaining about them, but they seem to be generally the types that'll never be happy about anything and seize on anything that's a little different as an opportunity to find fault. We did have to walk pretty far across the hot tarmac at SJU to get to immigrations, but that's really the airport layout's fault, not Caribbean Sun's; and besides, I like walking around on the ramp anyway. Wonderful flight attendants on the not-quite-an-hour-long Dash 8 flights. We got a full beverage service, the whole (mini, IIRC) can, and several items from a snack basket that puts US's F snack basket to shame, like bags of Doritos and such. I'd certainly fly on them again.
(As for the relationship between Caribbean Sun and Caribbean Star, they're both owned by the same man who holds dual U.S. and Antiguan citizenship. That way, Caribbean Sun is a U.S. airline based at SJU, and Caribbean Star is an Antiguan airline based at ANU. The reason for this is to be able to take advantage of (and not be hampered by) the various bilaterals that provide different route opportunities, including many fifth-freedom routes, for airlines of different nationalities.) They are really run as de facto sister airlines, though. Since it's much easier to codeshare with a fellow domestic airline than with an international one, US only codeshares with Caribbean Sun right now, and not Caribbean Star, though they're both members of US Airways' GoCaribbean Network, and one can earn and redeem Dividend Miles on both Caribbean Star and Caribbean Sun. (This I believe is the complainers' biggest bone to pick; at some stations, Caribbean Sun (or Star) only gave out paper boarding passes, so the miles wouldn't credit, so people had to mail in their boarding passes to INT. Certainly nothing I'd lose sleep over, but to each his own; in any event, I don't believe its a problem any longer.) US currently uses WINAIR as its international codeshare partner in the Caribbean, who has a great deal of overlap with Caribbean Star. And I'd imagine WINAIR to be a step down in most people's minds (though again not mine, though I've never flown them) from Caribbean Star since most (all?) of WINAIR's flights are on Twin Otters and the like, aircraft without flight attendants. Previously, I figured that US would still end up codesharing with Caribbean Star whenever they could be bothered to get around to it, but I think you'll agree that a largely-duplicative codeshare with a regional Caribbean carrier is considerably less likely under the new management, the Caribbean being East of Tempe and all.
And it goes without saying nowadays, that, while US used to issue press releases like
this one talking about placing its code on Caribbean Sun's flights to SVD, Tempe hasn't bothered to issue press releases mentioning the Caribbean Sun codeshare to the much larger and more important market of STI, or the US codeshare on WINAIR's flights to MNI, where WINAIR was the first (and still only) airline to return to Montserrat 8 years after a volcanic eruption destroyed much of the island, a great opportunity for some feel-good press. Perhaps that's why people aren't aware the flights exist. Heck, Tempe didn't even mention that US codeshares with Air One *at all*, even though Air One provides such important things as year-round VCE service for US customers, and access to TRN, which is only the host city to the Winter Olympics right this very minute. Oops, there I go being a whiny, selfish customer again, even though I'm not actually whining, since none of this affects me.
OOH! That just got me remembering. I've got a few pictures from that trip up on one of my websites. It's
http://www.jesuisbern.com/sxm.htm if anyone wants to see them all, several related to airlines but none of them terribly exciting, but the pic I was thinking of was of the flight attendant's uniform, on this little Caribbean Dash 8 carrier. It just has so much life in it, and it's really cute, unlike the drab ensembles we've been looking at for US/HP recently.
Here it is:
More information than anyone wanted, I'm sure...
