Report on USA 3000 From Newark

Apr 26, 2002
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Just did the Newark-Santo Domingo roundtrip on USA 3000 airlines (Brendan Airways). USA 3000 is affiliated with Apple Vacations, though for the EWR-SDQ route, it is operated like a regular scheduled airlines. They fly to Santo Domingo at odd times when their planes would not otherwise be in use carrying college kids to Cancun or their parents to Aruba.

All in all, I could call the service acceptable for the price. Importantly, though, that price is CHEAP. $375/roundtrip for the heart of Christmas season, and considerably less now. And that price includes all taxes, including the $10 departure tax that the airlines make you pay upon departure.

What do you get for that money? The check-in at Newark had a 45 minute wait when I arrived two-hours prior to departure. The line was well organized by airlines staff. The airline appeared to be suprised by the quantity and weight of the baggage being checked and carried, and this seemed to contribute to the delay. However, they handled the problem the same way all of the other airlines do during Christmas season - they intentionally delayed some of the baggage - and I suspect that they won't be suprised next year if they continue to operate the route.

Upon check-in, they oddly make you sign a baggage tag that essentially waives any rights you have to your bags. I modified it before I signed it.

Due to the check in and baggage problems, departure was delayed by about 30 minutes. It was then delayed another 30 minutes due to the airline staff's inability to get the boarded passengers into their seats. The airline needs to be a little more forceful on these matters when dealing with Dominicans.

The plane is an Airbus A320 in an all-economy class configuration. They squeeze 200 passengers into the thing. I think that the guagua to San Cristobal has more leg room. If you're over 6'1" or so, stay away!!!

Upon arrival about an hour late, the flight attendants could not keep the passengers in their seats during taxiing. Again, more forcefulness and more knowledge of Spanish needed.

As often happens during Christmas, my baggage did not arrive, but USA 3000 uses Swissport as their local baggage handler, and they were reasonable to work with. My baggage arrived three days later on a guagua from Punta Cana. However, no offer of compensation was made.

For the return, a similar situation - about 45 minutes wait to check in, and then a further delay of unknown cause for take off. Departure was about an hour late (in fairness, American Airlines also has 45 minute check-in waits during peak hours). Coming into Newark, the plane descended at an oddly fast rate.

As for food, the good news is that they give you some. We'll leave it at that.

The flight attendants were somewhat friendly, but they seemed also somewhat overwhelmed. The crew was obviously accostomed to taking middle class gringos to Cancun and Punta Cana, and didn't know quite how to deal with Dominicans and Dominican Yorks of various classes. These are folks that don't always do what they're told. Again, more Spanish and more cojones ought to do the trick.

In sum, if you're willing to sacrifice your own time and are flexible in your scheduling (USA 3000 only flies to Newark on Tuesday and Thursday, and then at odd hours), then the service is reasonable for the price. Though I don't think that USA 3000's very limited and oddly scheduled service will create any real price competition for the big boys, it's still nice to have A TRULY LOW PRICED OPERATOR out there for the New York market. I hope USA 3000 sticks it out.
 

Eddy

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Jan 1, 2002
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How where the washrooms? The last trip I made (AA) with mostly Dominican Yoks on board, was a total disaster. They had to shut down 3 out of 4. Just before landing, the only place I could have a leak was in the sink in the only open washroom. Talk about filthy travellers. Pampers and "caca" all over the place.
 
Apr 26, 2002
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Bathrooms

How were the bathrooms? Well, did you ever see the movie "The Mariachi", where Quinton Tarantino gets taken into the men's room at Cheech Marin's bar? Sort of like that.
 

HeatherS

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Jan 4, 2003
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Unfortunately... they just cancelled all of those flights until March 4th. I found that out the day I logged in to buy my flights for the 13th and the 20th of Feb for my Honeymoon. Now I am stuck trying to find another round trip ticket. When I called, they said "we just did not have enough people travelling"
 
Apr 26, 2002
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Too bad, they were the cheapest option out there from New York. I wouldn't bet on them re-starting scheduled service, then.
 

HeatherS

New member
Jan 4, 2003
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latinaviation:

Yes I cam going to SDQ... but I am in WAS (Washington DC) I was willing to drive to Newark (about 4 hours) because there were 3 of us travelling to SDQ to save that much. On AA from WAS to SDQ the cheapest quote I am getting is $525
 

HeatherS

New member
Jan 4, 2003
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I got lucky. We got them for $452 a piece from American Airlines... I woke up one morning checked there web fares... it had dropped $75 per person, so I snatched them up. Although my friend Mari found at onetravel.com airfares going for $450 - $470 per person all day long.
 

latinaviation

New member
Jan 6, 2002
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I don't know if they USA 3000 flights are still canceled from EWR-SDQ. I just checked, and they're still showing in Sabre for February on a Tue/Thr sched with A-320s. Maybe they reinstated them, or are just late at pulling the sched from the CRS'.
 

carlos

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 29, 2002
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I have been checking their site also and they are allowing you to book the flight. If you check the flight timetable, they have the Tues/Thurs schedule fixed until April. The only bad thing is the hours.

One thing I will tell you from past experience, USA3000 can compete with any major airline such as AA.

I took a charter to Punta Cana from Newark and have no complaints at all. They were courteous and even served a meal.

I cannot say they are handling the commercial flights the same way, but if they do it as well as with the charters, they should be ok.
 

HeatherS

New member
Jan 4, 2003
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I was willing to try them to save that much money. Unfortunately once they cancelled, I gave them 2 weeks to come back up and nothing surfaced, so I had to book elsewhere. :-(