PSA: Those Caribbean JetBlue same-day turns might not work out

I’ve spent the past couple of days picking up the first few airports as my family chases the 25 airports to complete the JetBlue 25 for 25 promotion. Part of our early plans involved very cheap same-day turns on Caribbean routes from San Juan to St. Thomas and St. Croix. After barely making it in St. Thomas, we cancelled the same-day turn in St. Croix, realizing that it just wasn’t possible.

Flights between San Juan and the US Virgin Islands are among the cheapest in the JetBlue network

Along the planning process for our JetBlue travels, I stumbled on the fact that JetBlue operates some Caribbean routes out of San Juan with very attractive pricing.

Blue fares between San Juan and the US Virgin Islands are among the cheapest I’ve seen, with San Juan to St. Thomas and St. Croix as inexpensive as about $75 one-way from San Juan. It sometimes costs a bit more in the opposite direction, but given the very short distances/flights (San Juan to St. Thomas involves a flight time of about 16 minutes!), these look like a great way to pick up several airports in a very short period of time.

Keep in mind though that JetBlue sells tickets both for JetBlue-operated flights and Cape Air-operated flights between the islands. However, the Cape Air flights do not count for 25 for 25. There is just one JetBlue-operated flight in and out St. Thomas and St. Croix each day. The same plane arrives and turns around to go back to San Juan.

Since it’s the same plane, these flights look like the perfect opportunity to do a same-day turn (in other words, to fly to the destination — in this case, St. Thomas or St. Croix — and turn back around to fly back (to San Juan). Since Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands  are both US territory, I assumed this would work like any domestic flight. I envisioned getting off the plane at the gate and just standing there for a few minutes until boarding began to get on the flight back to San Juan.

However, I probably should have been tipped off that a same-day turn isn’t a good idea when JetBlue told me that I couldn’t buy it . . . .

As you can see above, when you try to buy a “round trip” ticket, JetBlue says that the flights overlap. Google flights makes it look like this round trip can be purchased.

I thought maybe the system was just programmed to disallow less than an hour between directions because in most such situations, any delay would make the return impossible to make. However, in this case, I figured that there was no real cause for concern since the flights are operated by the same plane — if the outbound were delayed, the return would be as well. I went ahead and booked the legs separately. That’s when I learned why they didn’t allow this….

The US Virgin Islands are in a separate customs area

When we arrived in St. Thomas, we disembarked down a staircase on the tarmac. To my surprise, the only entry point to the terminal was to baggage claim. All passengers need to exit the secure area of the airport.

That came as a surprise to me — as did the fact that, to get to the gate area once again, we had to pass through not only airport security but US Customs also. I later learned that is because that while the US Virgin Islands are part of US territory, they are not part of the customs territory of the United States. All travelers pass through US customs on the way out of the Virgin Islands.

Still, as we had about an hour between arrival and departure, I figured that we would probably be OK. We got through the customs line relatively quickly and the security line didn’t look unmanageable. However, it moved slowly. As the minutes passed, my wife’s anxiety just about reached a boiling point. Our flight was already boarding by the time we got to the TSA officer and the line was moving very slowly to get to the scanners.

Thankfully, we made the flight — getting on eight or nine minutes before the boarding door was scheduled to close. As it turned out, the door didn’t quite close on time as the flight waited for a few more stragglers, so we got on with time to spare, but not nearly as much time to spare as my better half would have preferred.

The next day, we had the same-day turn booked to St. Croix. However, I cancelled it when I learned that the same situation would repeat, but with even less time between flights. The St. Croix flight was scheduled to land 12 minutes before boarding would begin for the flight to San Juan. The Internet suggests that the security line at St. Croix moves particularly slowly in the afternoon. I didn’t think it likely that we’d arrive, get out of the secure area, and make it all the way back in time to board the flight to San Juan.

We didn’t have the time to change our return to San Juan to the next day, so we abandoned plans and simply flew home from San Juan.

I’ll note that it might be a little faster if you have TSA PreCheck (we don’t, but now I wish we did!). Still, I would highly recommend planning an overnight on both islands if you plan to pick them up en route to the 25 for 25 milestones. St. Thomas has a few Wyndham properties and a Marriott along with a Hampton by Hilton scheduled to open in the coming months. St. Croix has a Marriott that can sometimes be bookable with a Marriott 35K certificate. It’s easy enough to plan an overnight — save yourself the stress and plan a night between flights.

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