Originally Posted by formergr
I'm beginning to plan a trip to Martinique for late February/early March, traveling from ORD. It looks like United doesn't fly there, and I can't even get any codeshare flights to show up using UAL.com. Can anyone recommend a way to get there that ensures I'll at least get some miles for the trip (i.e. avoid flying AA)?
The only airline service between the mainland United States and Fort de France is on Air France. A320 service from Miami on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays with stops in Port Au Prince and Pointe Pitre. It is an island hopper service that is operated by a Caribbean-based A320 as a "service" to link the French colonies with the mainland US (and they throw in PAP to fill the plane). The routing is MIA-PAP-PTP-FDF-CAY and back.
American Eagle currently does not fly to Fort de France, but begins 4x weekly service from San Juan in two weeks.
The easiest way to get to Fort de France if you want to avoid AA or AF is to simply fly on United or US Airways to one of their Caribbean destinations from O'Hare and connect on to Air Caraibes on a seperate ticket. For example, try ORD-FLL on UA; connect to FLL-SDQ on US, then SDQ-FDF on Air Caraibes. Air Caraibes also flies from FDF to Barbados, St. Lucia/Hewanorra, and St. Maarten, though alot is a limited schedule or will require an overnight. St. Lucia is the best airport to connect to in terms of most likely being able to do a smooth, one day connection.