diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index c8aa002ca..00b2e2357 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -90,8 +90,7 @@
   "dependencies": {
     "agentkeepalive": "^2.2.0",
     "chalk": "^1.0.0",
-    "lodash": "^4.12.0",
-    "promise": "^7.1.1"
+    "lodash": "^4.12.0"
   },
   "repository": {
     "type": "git",
diff --git a/src/lib/transport.js b/src/lib/transport.js
index 9735e5449..038828f02 100644
--- a/src/lib/transport.js
+++ b/src/lib/transport.js
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ module.exports = Transport;
 var _ = require('./utils');
 var errors = require('./errors');
 var Host = require('./host');
-var Promise = require('promise/lib/es6-extensions');
 var patchSniffOnConnectionFault = require('./transport/sniff_on_connection_fault');
 var findCommonProtocol = require('./transport/find_common_protocol');
 
@@ -101,6 +100,13 @@ Transport.nodesToHostCallbacks = {
 };
 
 Transport.prototype.defer = function () {
+  if (typeof Promise === 'undefined') {
+    throw new Error(
+      'No Promise implementation found. In order for elasticsearch-js to create promises ' +
+      'either specify the `defer` configuration or include a global Promise shim'
+    )
+  }
+
   var defer = {};
   defer.promise = new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
     defer.resolve = resolve;