TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Preclearance coming for SXM?

I thought that I saw new scanners under plastic on the left before immigration in SXM? Did/Has anyone see(n) them their also?

There were new machines there under plastic in June this year, in immigration. ...which wouldn't necessarily have anything to do with leaving SXM...

Leaving Aruba last june (wife owns a piece of a hotel there, so "business trip") we were advised by the airline (SW) to be at the airport 4 hours before departure since it was a Sat, having done this trip frequently but never on a Sat we did get there 4 hours early. We breezed thru the Aruba departure, entered the US preclearance side and were sipping a cocktail in minutes. It used to really suck but we did C+I at a machine being guided by an agent. If SXM does it right it could be wonderful, lets hope they learn from down island. BTW, I was over served at the bar and slept the whole way home, another huge plus.We carry on so that surely saved some time but it sure beat JFK when we lived in NY.

For all the years we've traveled and returned to the country via JFK, , other than the sometimes incredibly long walk from the plane to C & I, we never really had much of an issue clearing there. Last year, the kiosk rejected my passport and we had the pleasure of standing in line for almost an hour and a half before we worked our way up to the desk. At that point we were basically waved through but I swore NEVER to do that again, thus obtaining GE became a priority. And I agree with Marybeth in that it will probably be quite a while before they have preclearance up and operational in SXM.

upstairs where they check your ticket against your passport, there is some work taking place to the right of where the 2 people sit to check the above out....must be dedicated area for those or some other machines

I have read some posters say they never fly on Sat. I am planning a trip to fly into SXM on Sat and leave on a Fri. Any problems I should consider or foresee and plan for. I prefer these days as wife and I will have only a week, but could vary arrival and departure one day if it avoids massive headache. (Near end of April if month matters)

If you have GE, which we do, (and which I strongly recommend to everyone) then I'm not sure that pre- clearance would help you. In fact, it might slow things down.

I would much rather see a TSA pre-check line. This would be much easier to implement and would relieve the backup in security thus helping everyone.

Saturday will be the busiest travel day of the week followed by Friday and Sunday as that is when most timeshares start/end. It is not that big of a deal, just more people and more time needed and that will depend on how many flights arrive/depart around yours.

We arrive on Saturday, and depart on a Friday. The main reason we do that is so that we don't have to be concerned about checking out of our timeshare early, as it's ours until Saturday. The other reason, of course, is to avoid the Saturday chaos at the airport. We find both to be worth the lost day. That said, we are on the island for three weeks; if I were only there for one week, I wouldn't do it.

We also arrive on a Saturday and leave on Friday - but we stay for 2 weeks so the loss of one day isn't an issue for us. Plus our flight leaves later in the afternoon so we get to stay in our timeshare till it's time to go to the airport. Not having to leave the timeshare at 10am is a plus for us. The Friday airport is busier than a Thursday but not at all like a Saturday. Having said all this, if I had only 1 week on the island I would probably choose a Sat. departure just to get the full Friday. The time of your return will influence how early you need to be at the airport to check your luggage and go thru security.

We stay for four weeks and do the same. Arrive on a Sat and leave on a Fri. Since we have our timeshare through Sat its a nice cushion if our flight is cancelled or has an extremely long delay. I usually give my extra day to an employee to use which is always appreciated.

They were still under plastic on Monday.

Timing is, and always has been, everything.
Preclearance will no doubt be approved around the same time that the Pearl of China completely consumes Little Bay and traffic through Belair and Divi Little will be like I95 during rush hour.

I am in the Aruba Airport - they now have Global Entry.

Thanks and have fun or hope you had fun.

One or two using it -unfortunately we were not one of them, lol A note for Carol-French Steakhouse is no more - now it is called The Chophouse and is at the same location at Manchebo - we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner there, take care J.D. and thanks.

We flew back nov 12 it took us 18 min to go from the place passport control get our bags and clear customs and meet our driver , it took another 20 min for him to get his car and meet us JFK jet blue is great ,Miami sucks I hope I never have to come back through there again.