sammiilove

We had planned to spend the month of January in San Juan. The condo is booked, but as I was looking for flights I came to the realization that the Governor closed all public beaches in Puerto Rico last week until at least Dec. 11th. Obviously a month long stay in PR is no good if you can't even go to the beach. The owner of the condo suggested waiting until Dec. 11th to see if the Governor revises her order before booking our flights. I usually plan vacations in advance, and have never waited until 2 weeks before a flight to buy a ticket. There's only two direct flights to SJU from PHL on 12/31, and our preference is to fly in business class. Are the odds good that business class seats on those flights won't be sold out up to two weeks in advance? Will there be any extreme variations in the price?

Oof... I haven't been on a flight since March and I don't even know how this works anymore lol.

mvoight

How many seats are left now? Restrictions aren't going to be lifted on Dec 11 while we are at record levels of COVID here.
In any case, if you book the seats now, then you can get a credit good thru the end of 2021, if you need to cancel

nachosdelux

I agree with this. Doubtful that PR will lift restrictions any time soon. I'll be down there in Dec also, not really looking forward to it if I'm stuck in my hotel room.

The prices for business class have remained pretty steady even up until day of departure, unless they are down to the last seat or 2 (and only "J" class is available)

dsftm

If AA doesn't cancel the flight, the odds are highly in your favor. You'll most likely be fine even up to one day before the flight.

platbrownguy

I've been to PR at least a dozen times and went in July/August during covid. A few things:

- you can still walk on the beaches when they are "closed," you just can't sunbathe or congregate, and even this is a YMMV situation (they were closed in August when I was there, but there was no enforcement at the St. Regis against those guests who set lounge chairs out on the beach (on their own, that is) -- obviously still not ideal if you're looking for relaxing beach time)

-the governor actually has done a lot of off-and-on shifting of the rules. Your problem isn't whether there will be a new order on Dec 11 (there almost certainly will be). Rather, it's that it will likely only go for 2 to 4 weeks before there is another order, and so forth. If numbers go down, the regs loosen, and vice versa

-there is plenty of room to have a good time within the bounds of the regs, but I would strongly advise booking elsewhere if your Spanish is weak or if you're not a reasonably well seasoned PR traveler. My big city friends have not enjoyed their covid-era PR trips as much as, say, their Aruba trips (Aruba is very well packaged up for novice Covid travelers, btw)

-all that said, if you're game to give PR a whirl, just book the tickets to save your seats (and to get the 20% off black Friday AA promo for future travel). Then if things don't work out with the regs, switch gears to something easier (with covid, I personally haven't booked much more than a week out, but I respect that you're not accustomed to that). I sure as heck wouldn't book any lodging that can't be canceled on short notice (and there's no reason to; there's ample supply, and there's a nonzero risk that there could be a 7pm curfew etc by the time you go). Based on your post, Aruba really does seem like a likely good fit... just a thought!