Advice on booking a flight to Belize
 

I feel so out of touch. I've only flied JetBlue in the last 10 years as I regularly go to places they fly. I'm finally going to someplace I've never been, Belize, and JetBlue doesn't go there.

I find the choices to book flights overwhelming. I have an agent, but she's located in Belize and doesn't book international flights. I tried the ancient sites, i.e., Expedia, but I find the prices no different than going directly to the airlines site.

To be a little more specific, I want to fly from EWR to BZE roundtrip around May 10 for 8 days. Nothing complicated. My dates are flexible, but need to pin something down so I can make hotel reservations and I need to return by May 24. I'll fly coach, or from what American told me, it's called main cabin now. The only extra I'm looking for if I can get a reasonable price is extra legroom. I also want to minimize travel time. All flights require at least one stop.

Thanks for any advice!

I think this might be a good fit for the FT Information Desk.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Only EWR or can you fly out of LGA/JFK?

Airline pricing unless using a consolidator doesn't vary too much anymore and belize isn't quite the hot spot for consolidator purchasing. I suggest using google.com/flights to look for any cheaper dates as it gives a calendar view.

Advice on booking a flight to Belize
 

FT is not a travel agent or a substitute for one. Is there a reason you can't get one that does book international flights?

Thanks for the responses.

Sorry to seemingly use the site as a booking site; that really wasn't my intention. I am looking to get the best search engines and/or best way to search flights. I honestly haven't done this for a very long time. Anyway, it doesn't appear I missed much; google flights seems sufficient. But there seems to be a lot of legwork. I am not familiar with new airline rules, like who charges what for luggage, carry ons and other misc. stuff. I suppose it's somewhere on the airline sites but it's easier to call them and ask, though it's still a pain. But such is life for the uninitiated. -) However, ask me about JetBlue, and I'm a walking encyclopedia!

As for traveling from LGA or JFK, I sometimes do that but it adds quite an expense (to get there and back) plus I have to be very careful not to depart or arrive during traffic or else the ride is time-consuming and that much more expensive. It seems EWR has its share of flights.

My agent has already done a significant amount of work and she's one in a million. It wouldn't be practical to change agents at this juncture.

Thanks again.

Advice on booking a flight to Belize
 

I guess the question is what are you looking for here? Someone to walk you through all the flight options, present you with all the fees for each flight? That's really an unreasonable expectation.

If you have specific questions, we can help.

I thought I was clear. Perhaps not.

Most of the flights seem to be American. I have read negative things about AA. Should I avoid them if possible?

Just get a travel agent to book flights for you. It's pretty simple. I do believe you're making this more complicated than it needs to be.

There is no airline in existence with which someone hasn't had a bad experience. Since AA is huge as airlines go, it probably will have (by count) more travelers who have had bad experiences than most other airlines. People who have had bad experiences tend to post about them much more than people who have had good ones. You can read negative things about any other airline too. (My informal sense of the overall tone of FT posts is that UA tends to get more complaints than average, DL fewer, with AA between them - but they all fall within the same bell curve.)

Bottom line: I can think of no reason to avoid AA if it has the best fares and schedules to BZE - or anywhere else you want to go in the future.

I personally prefer booking directly with the airline unless there is a significant discounted price out there from a reliable Travel Agency. Using Google Flights find a flight schedule & price out here and then click on the link to something like Travelocity. Under the flight details section it will tell you the fees for baggage. If it says unavailable go to the airline's website. As you're flying internationally (though not across an ocean) you will get at least one free bag on most airlines servicing Belize).
AA is a fine airline but it has its own share of bad experiences. Understand about preferring to fly to/from EWR if you're from that general area and the fares all seem to be about the same anyways so no reason to travel to JFK to get to Belize.
You'll be fine & enjoy the trip. Next you could fly your beloved B6 to LIM via FLL.

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"I have an agent, but she's located in Belize and doesn't book international flights."

:confused:

How does she make a living? I can't imagine that there's a whole lot of money to be made booking domestic flights within Belize.

:D Touché

I have flown from BWI to BZE with no problems (I'm pretty low maintenance). The only issues I had was I had to go to CLT because there was nothing direct. Which makes senses seeing that CLT is a big hub for them and not alot of people are flying to BZE from BWI. The total time for me was about 7 hours which made for a long day. If you are flying JetBlue then you probably won't see much of a difference when you fly AA. Do it and don't worry about the horror stories. Do it and come back and write a trip report for us.

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"As for traveling from LGA or JFK, I sometimes do that but it adds quite an expense (to get there and back) plus I have to be very careful not to depart or arrive during traffic or else the ride is time-consuming and that much more expensive."

Depending on where you live (and how much baggage you will be traveling with), there may be ground transportation options to get you to LGA (NJ Transit to NY Penn Station, LIRR from Penn to Woodside (a 10-11 minute train ride), and then the Q70 Limited bus (or a taxi) to LGA. From LGA, you'd have the option of flying Southwest to BZE via HOU. All fares on Southwest include two free checked bags, but I don't think that there are extra leg room seats. Check fares at southwest.com.

Here's a simple answer without all of the judgmental comments posted above. My own experience is that kayak works well to get a good idea of what is available. It is relatively simple to use. Once you identify the flights you prefer, go to the website of the airline you want to book and book through them rather than through a third party website. Just my opinion.