Cost of a flight to the Caribbean over the peak Christmas travelling season compared.

The question is how practical is it to use an alternate carrier who will first fly you to their hub airport (KLM/Amsterdam; Lufthansa/Munich; Aer Lingus/Dublin etc) with their much longer in-transit times.  Surprisingly, it could be worth considering especially if you have to factor in journey times to Heathrow/Gatwick.

In Summary cost comparison as follows -

Cost of BA flight (LGW to POS) per passenger - 1011
Total taxes, fees and surcharges per passenger - 388.08
Total flight per passenger - 1399.08

Cost of KLM flight via AMS and SMX (BHX to POS) per passenger - 746
Total taxes, fees, and surcharges per passenger - 397.52
Total flight per passenger - 1143.52

Choosing the KLM Booking savings come to 1399.08 - 1143.52 = 255.56 per passenger

Now here's the rub - The first leg out of BHX to AMS arrives at 2025-12-19T23:00:00 and the connection to POS out of AMS departs at 2025-12-20T10:40:00 i.e. the next day! So unless you're willing to overnight at AMS - the booking becomes problematic. Of course, waiting it out at the airport terminal would be a resonable option considering check-in time for the onward leg would be around 7:30 the next morning. In-effect the lag time between the two legs would be roughly 5 or 6 hours hardly worth the bother staying the night in a hotel. (Individual circumstance of course, dictating...)

Consideration in detail -

For a party of 3 as part of the above booking the basic flight is £3,033.00. The total with taxes and charges as itemised below come to £4,197.24

Charges applied to a typical flight on BA

Now consider one example of the xml returned from an api call using Amadeus' flight search service.

(amadeus) [ec2-user@ip-172-31-12-162 amadeus-flight-booking-django]$ python api/flight_offers_search.py | sed  s/\'\/\"\/g | sed s/False/\"False\"/g | sed s/True/\"True\"/g |jq . |more

[

  {

    "type": "flight-offer",

    "id": "1",

    "source": "GDS",

    "instantTicketingRequired": "False",

    "nonHomogeneous": "False",

    "oneWay": "False",

    "isUpsellOffer": "False",

    "lastTicketingDate": "2025-12-19",

    "lastTicketingDateTime": "2025-12-19",

    "numberOfBookableSeats": 4,

    "itineraries": [

      {

        "duration": "PT25H10M",

        "segments": [

          {

            "departure": {

              "iataCode": "BHX",

              "at": "2025-12-19T20:45:00"

            },

            "arrival": {

              "iataCode": "AMS",

              "at": "2025-12-19T23:00:00"

            },

            "carrierCode": "KL",

            "number": "1050",

            "aircraft": {

              "code": "E7W"

            },

            "operating": {

              "carrierName": "KLM CITYHOPPER"

            },

            "duration": "PT1H15M",

            "id": "1",

            "numberOfStops": 0,

            "blacklistedInEU": "False"

          },

          {

            "departure": {

              "iataCode": "AMS",

              "at": "2025-12-20T10:40:00"

            },

            "arrival": {

              "iataCode": "POS",

              "at": "2025-12-20T17:55:00"

            },

            "carrierCode": "KL",

            "number": "775",

            "aircraft": {

              "code": "332"

            },

            "operating": {

              "carrierCode": "KL"

            },

            "duration": "PT12H15M",

            "stops": [

              {

                "iataCode": "SXM",

                "duration": "PT1H20M",

                "arrivalAt": "2025-12-20T14:55:00",

                "departureAt": "2025-12-20T16:15:00"

              }

            ],

            "id": "2",

            "numberOfStops": 1,

            "blacklistedInEU": "False"

          }

        ]

      },

    "price": {

      "currency": "GBP",

      "total": "3430.56",

      "base": "2238.00",

      "fees": [

        {

          "amount": "0.00",

          "type": "SUPPLIER"

        },

        {

          "amount": "0.00",

          "type": "TICKETING"

        }

      ],

      "grandTotal": "3430.56",

      "additionalServices": [

        {

          "amount": "129.60",

          "type": "CHECKED_BAGS"

        }

      ]

    },

    "travelerPricings": [

      {

        "travelerId": "1",

        "fareOption": "STANDARD",

        "travelerType": "ADULT",

        "price": {

          "currency": "GBP",

          "total": "1143.52",

          "base": "746.00"

        },

        "fareDetailsBySegment": [

          {

            "segmentId": "1",

            "cabin": "ECONOMY",

            "fareBasis": "KGQ0ABLA",

            "brandedFare": "LIGHT",

            "brandedFareLabel": "ECONOMY LIGHT",

            "class": "K",

            "includedCheckedBags": {

              "quantity": 0

            },

            "includedCabinBags": {

              "quantity": 1

            },

            "amenities": [

              {

                "description": "CHECKED BAG 1PC OF 23KG 158CM",

                "isChargeable": "True",

                "amenityType": "BAGGAGE",

                "amenityProvider": {

                  "name": "BrandedFare"

                }

              },