Rapid Travel Chai

Colonial ties and modern tourism have network of hopper routes in the Caribbean. I previously covered British Airways Caribbean hopper routes that can be redeemed for awards with Avios.

Now let’s turn to SkyTeam + Virgin Atlantic. Air France and KLM flights be redeemed as awards from their own FlyingBlue program and across SkyTeam partners such as Delta. Virgin Atlantic partners with Delta as well but is not SkyTeam, instead having its own partners. These flights sometimes show on delta.com. Watch out for Air France’s many codeshares with local airlines that won’t work for awards.

Potentially a great use of these flights is combining with trips to Europe, or other regions where there are award chart sweet spots, such as the FlyingBlue Hawaii-Caribbean region found by Travel is Free.

In this series:

• Caribbean Lesser Antilles Island Hopping Itinerary
• US Bank FlexPerks Flight Booking Battle Tales
• Grenada: Everyman of the Caribbean
• Dominica: Pirate’s Cove of the Caribbean
• Montserrat: Volcano Island
• Antigua: Nelson’s Resorts
• Barbados: Flying Fish, Grounded Concorde
• St Vincent & The Grenadines: Gateway to A-List Hedonism
• St Lucia: End to End and Cruise Ships in the Middle
• Caribbean Island Hopping in the Tropical Storms
• Is LIAT the Worst Airline in the World?
• British Airways Caribbean Hopper Routes on Avios
• Caribbean Hopper Routes on Air France, KLM and Virgin Atlantic
• Caribbean Tip – Don’t Let Your Phone Auto-Adjust the Time

Airport taxes are high throughout the Caribbean so many awards have a significant cash component. Always compare to buying a revenue ticket and against local carriers. For instance, Air Caraïbes and Corsair operate many of the same routes, with much more frequency, as Air France.

Many of these flights seasonally change frequency, are generally not daily and do not always fly both ways between cities, so verify schedule before hunting for awards.

Air France:

Paris flights to:

• Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (PUJ)
• Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (SDQ)
• Cayenne, French Guiana (CAY) to Paris-Orly
• Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadaloupe (PTP)
• Port-au-Prince, Haiti (PAP)
• Fort-de-France, Martinique (FDF)
• Sint Maarten (SXM)
• Miami, USA (MIA)

Hopper flights:

• Cayenne to Fort-de-France
• Cayenne to Pointe-à-Pitre
• Pointe-à-Pitre to Cayenne
• Pointe-à-Pitre to Fort-de-France
• Pointe-à-Pitre to Miami
• Pointe-à-Pitre to Port-au-Prince
• Port-au-Prince to Miami
• Port-au-Prince to Pointe-à-Pitre
• Fort-de-France to Cayenne
• Fort-de-France to Pointe-à-Pitre

Keep up to date at Air France destinations.

KLM:

Amsterdam flights to:

• Aruba (AUA)
• Bonaire (BON)
• Curaçao (CUR)
• Sint Maarten (SXM)
• Paramaribo, Suriname (PBM)

Hopper flights:

• Sint Maarten to Curaçao
• Aruba – Bonaire – Curaçao (some are codeshares operated by InselAir)

Keep up to date at KLM destinations (note this page has numerous errors on these routes)

Virgin Atlantic:

London flights to:

• Antigua (ANU)
• Barbados (BGI)
• Grenada (GND)
• Havana, Cuba (HAV)
• Miami, USA (MIA)
• Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ)
• Tobago (TAB) from 29 March 2015
• St Lucia (UVF)

Hopper flights:

• Antigua – Bardados (seasonal)
• Antigua – St Lucia (seasonal)
• Barbados – Antigua (seasonal)
• Grenada – St Lucia
• St Lucia – Antigua
• St Lucia – Grenada
• St Lucia – Tabago (from 29 March 2015)

Keep up to date at Virgin Atlantic destinations.