myTobago – your questions, review and comment about Tobago

Tobago is becoming increasingly popular (not that we wish to claim any credit?) and I’ve just received some exciting news that Golden Caribbean are to introduce a third, Friday, flight to the island from London Gatwick.

This third flight will only operate during the peak high-season months – from 19th December to 23rh April 2004. The outbound flight will provisionally leave Gatwick at 10:30 hrs, stopping at Grenada before arriving in Tobago at 18:15 hrs. The direct return will leave Tobago at 20:15 hrs and arrive at Gatwick at 09:00 hrs the following morning.

Golden Caribbean is also launching a service to Barbados from 15th December, to supplement their services to Tobago, Grenada and St.Kitts.

I look forward to giving our personal review of the new Excel, having recently booked tickets for our next trip with them. If the new Excel Premium Economy service is anything like the old Monarch Premium Economy, it will undoubtedly remain our personal preferred and recommended means of travel to sunny Tobago, offering a wonderful balance of price, space and service.

Full details of all flights to Tobago, including this new service, can be found on our main Air Travel pages.

Steve,

Great site - thank you. Only an infrequent visitor to Tobago but my wife loves it. Normally stay up north but the company is inviting us down to the Hilton in November with wives / girlfriends etc. for 3 days.

I am still looking for flights and to see if you have tried or can recommend the new Excel flight yet? At the moment it seems the BWEE flights still have the best seating but at nearly 2,500 euros for a flexible one way seems a little high.

Is the immigration easier at Crown Point than Piarco?

Thanks for the site - I think I have found more information on the island in one place than in all my other searchings on the web.

Jon

Hi Jon

Even as I type, the first Golden Caribbean Excel Airways flight is winging it's way to Tobago (assuming it left on schedule an hour or so ago). Good luck to them, but obviously its too early for any comment on how the service and accommodation compares to the previous Monarch flights.

The BWEE flights seem to get very mixed comment. I've flown with them inter-island in the Caribbean in years gone by and have mixed views. They do seem very expensive.

I can only say that for a little over €1000 you could travel in Excel's new Excel One first-class equivalent, with 45-inch seat pitch reclining leather seats and priority embarkation/disembarkation plus all the other goodies. I believe that the Excel One service is trying to reproduce the old and highly popular Highland First service offered by British Calendonian on this route some years ago.

Finally, don't compare Tobago with Trinidad in ANY way. They may be associated legally and politcally, but I could name a dozen or more other Caribbean islands that bear closer resemblance to Tobago than Trinidad, in every way imaginable. This applies to Immigration, etc. at the airport.

Steve,

I'm booked to fly with Golden Caribbean/Excel Airways on the 1st Jan '04 and am looking for some help or advice.

A bit of History:

I met my partner Clare 9 years ago but we only saw each other for about a month as I was not in a position to give her what she was looking for due to the fact I had recently come out of a heavy relationship. 9 years past without either of us knowing what had happened to the other, that is until 8 months ago! I tracked her down and it turned out that she was in the process of divorce and had been in a pretty negative marriage.

Since then neither of our feet have touched the ground and I have booked a holiday to Tobago which she is beside herself about with excitement!

I plan to ask Clare to marry me on the flight out to Tobago (the ring is being bespoked as I write this).

With the holiday and the ring (Christmas looming etc.) I simply do not have the budget to upgrade our seats and as you can imagine I'm trying to make this as special as possible. I have spoken to Excel on the 0870 1677 747 number and they have put a note on their system to explain what I'm going to do and whether I can upgrade on the day of travel. My problem is, I don't mind asking on the day, but how do I go about this without letting the cat out of the bag infront of Clare? Is there a seperate desk for enquires for Excel/Golden Caribbean or will I need to ask at the time of check in, in front of Clare?

Steve, I understand that you may have contacts within Excel/Golden Caribbean, is there anyone you can possibly introduce me to or speak to on my behalf, better still pull some strings?

Here's hoping

Tim

Hi Tim

Golden Caribbean are the main charterer (is there such a word?), but Excel handle the entire operational aspect. Sadly I have no contacts at Excel. I don't think there is a separate enquiries desk. My only suggestion would be to get there early and sit Clare down with a coffee while you go to the loo, get a book or whatever – when actually you nip down to the Excel desk and see what can be arranged. One other thought: have a word with whoever you booked the ticket with. They can pass on the request beforehand and may be able to use some influence.

Good luck. Sorry I can’t be more help.

Steve,

Thanks for the reply.

I called Golden Caribbean themselves an hour or so after I recieved your reply and was put on hold for a moment, when they came back they mentioned that they had already recieved a call about this from a guy called "Steve Wooler - MyTobago.com"!

The answer was the same - 'No'.

Thanks for your kind efforts anyway.

Tim

PS. Great Site & Forum, v-Professional.

PPS. I hope to return from Tobago with a chip full of digital stills... I'll send any that are worthy for your perusal.

Hi Tim

Thought it worth a try. As Golden Caribbean will have explained to you, your booking doesn't appear to be through them - you must have gone through a package tour operator. GC are the main charterers (??) but effectively share the flight with other tour operators. and have no direct involvement in the flight/service logistics. If you'd booked direct, it might have be different, but I guess they don't want to step on toes.

Have a great trip and good luck!

Oh the fun we had with Excel and our holiday - read more in the Accom - Turtle Beach forum.

We could not get an upgrade straight from Excel, getting through at all was somewhat of a marathon and some tour operators don't seem to have the ability to upgrade either.

We are now booked on Premier Class (Excel One is just a tad too much more).

We are trying to book an upgraded flight for next summer but our agent says that Excel are not able to do so at the moment. I thought that the travel industry wanted us to book early and I'm happy to do so as I have very little flexibility when it comes to holiday dates. I've not been to Tobago before and similarly I've never had trouble booking early. Is someone trying to tell me something, or are others in the same boat?
Kind regards.

Hi Neil

I'm a little confused by your message. You say you're trying to book "an upgraded flight". Does that me you are trying to book new tickets, or that you are trying to get an upgrade for tickets you have already bought?

Remember that the Excel Airways service is a Charter flight - you are paying less than half the cost of the Big Boy scheduled flights, so they have to cut costs somewhere and it is true that they may possibly be less flexible than scheduled services in some respects - but you pays your money and takes your choice.

I think Golden Caribbean are still probably working out their schedules for next summer. They split the year up into two 'seasons' - summer and winter. The 2003/2004 Winter season finishes at the end of April 2004. As far as I know, the Summer 2004 schedule hasn't been published yet, so they won't be accepting bookings until it is.

Hope this help.

Dear Steve, Thank you for your prompt reply. It's new tickets we're trying to get, and your comments probably explain why we're not getting anywhere at present. Thanks again, Neil.