The Bahamas for a buck? Vision Airlines offers $2 round-trip flights
But there are plenty of strings attached to the offer, which comes from a Georgia-based low-fare airline launching nonstop service to Freeport from five U.S. cities.
Vision Airlines, a carrier that began by offering Grand Canyon charter flights in 1994, started twice-weekly flights to Grand Bahama Island this week from Baltimore/Washington, Louisville, Raleigh/Durham, and Richmond, with flights five days a week from Fort Lauderdale. The $2 promotion, good through March 4 if purchased by Dec. 11, requires a three-night minimum stay for two people at one of nine Grand Bahama resorts - and doesn"t include taxes of $120 per person, round-trip. (Bottom line for the cheapest three-night package from BWI: $943.45 per couple.)
Regular one-way fares to Freeport will range from $39-$189 and average $99, plus taxes of $60 each way.
C.A. Smith, the Bahamian ambassador to the United States, told the Baltimore Sun he hoped the Vision air service would help rekindle interest in Freeport, the main city on Grand Bahama Island and the second-largest in the country.
"The plan basically allows us to redevelop the tourism sector of the economy, and in order to do that you have to be able to have inexpensive airline seats," he said. "You have to make it convenient for people to travel."