Dominican Republic-based low cost carrier Arajet has finally started accepting bookings to a number of destinations out of Santo Domingo (SDQ).
To celebrate its booking launch, the airline is offering significant discounts on all its routes during the introductory period with some base fares as low as US $1 each way if you book the airline’s cheapest “Smart” fare (taxes and other fees still apply separately). Round trip tickets with the bottom tier class between Santo Domingo and Cancun or Aruba for instance run for just $150, but at the expense of flying with just a personal item only. Let’s get into the route network first and then break down the fare options.
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Bookings have now opened, with the first batch of scheduled flights expected to depart Santo Domingo from September 15, 2022.
Bogota was also expected to be part of the initial batch of destinations, but was not available at the time of publication. Flights to North America, Jamaica, Costa Rica and addition cities in Colombia are expected to be added to the schedule in October 2022. Initial plans also included routes to Cuba, Trinidad, Guadeloupe and Haiti, but it is unclear if and when those will come on stream, or if they will remain as charter destinations.
Like other low cost carriers such as Easyjet, Ryanair, Spirit and other names, Arajet offers plans to suit various low cost budgets. The airline will offer three options: Smart, Comfort and Extra.
If you travel low cost, the categories seem all too familiar. Annoyingly the Comfort fare favors checked bags over carry-on bags, which only come free if you book the Extra fare. Once the discounted period is over, we will truly see what Smart fares are like compared to the two higher tiers. After a bit of playing around, Extra fares were about US $100 more than Comfort (so far).
The allowed carry-on bag size seems to be more generous than major U.S. airlines, sizing up at 22 x 18 x 10 inches, thanks to the larger overhead bins on their 737 MAX 8s. For comparison, American carry-on bags are limited to 22 x 14 x 9 inches due to varying overhead bin allowances across its fleet.
[Featured Photo: Arajet/Facebook]
