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Re: St. Maarten Airport experience.
[Re: sandytntn]
#186921
03/11/2019 01:32 PM
03/11/2019 01:32 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,472 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,472
Central Florida!
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Sorry you had that experience, but glad at least that you made your connection. One should always plan on around a minimum two hour connection going home.
I know someone who flew in yesterday, with checked bags, and they were out of the airport in 20 minutes. Go figure.
How was the rest of your trip???
Carol Hill
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Re: St. Maarten Airport experience.
[Re: sandytntn]
#186923
03/11/2019 01:46 PM
03/11/2019 01:46 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,666 MIA
irina
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,666
MIA
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Poor flight management? Are you an ATC? I know the ATCs there. That airport is the second busiest in the Caribbean after SJU. It's really a rough job and those people are great at it. My friend was approached by Raytheon to train the ATC here. Cheers! irina
Last edited by irina; 03/11/2019 01:47 PM.
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Re: St. Maarten Airport experience.
[Re: Carol_Hill]
#186958
03/11/2019 04:25 PM
03/11/2019 04:25 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 17,476 Ohio
ruralcarrier
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 17,476
Ohio
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Honestly, with a very small staff, I was in and out within 20-30 minutes and most of that was waiting for checked luggage. I came in on Sunday and probably would avoid Sat. if possible but I am coming back on Sat. in Nov. I expected more people working and lines open but with pretty much the only plane in, it was EASY.
J.D.
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Re: St. Maarten Airport experience.
[Re: sandytntn]
#186967
03/11/2019 05:20 PM
03/11/2019 05:20 PM
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Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 705 South Coast of MA
SXMBND
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 705
South Coast of MA
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Do you think that maybe your flight showing up early might have had an affect on the entire schedule? What about the other flights that were slotted in that time frame?
Last edited by SXMBND; 03/11/2019 05:22 PM.
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Re: St. Maarten Airport experience.
[Re: sandytntn]
#186968
03/11/2019 05:27 PM
03/11/2019 05:27 PM
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Joined: Nov 2015
Posts: 410 the Long Island
the captain
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Nov 2015
Posts: 410
the Long Island
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Arrived Presidents week, on that Sunday.... quick through immigration. We arrived on JetBlue at ....1 pm. Left on the Sunday 3 pm flight. We were advised to get to the airport 3 hours early. Honestly, I wish we cut that down to 2:15 as it wasn't as bad as we expected in the terminal at all..... That said, its tough to assign blame here. Too many variables could have played a role which may not be the fault of ATC or PJIA. . Just because the wx looks good here doesn't mean other variables weren't at play. Delay flying out and in apparently is due to one runway and no place to park planes. Source? On our arrival, there were a dozen jets on the airfield near Marys Boon. They all cleared out by Tuesday. There is plenty of space. Sorry to hear your experience wasn't that positive.
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Re: St. Maarten Airport experience.
[Re: sandytntn]
#186983
03/11/2019 06:35 PM
03/11/2019 06:35 PM
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Joined: Mar 2018
Posts: 25 Michigan
Clifford
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Mar 2018
Posts: 25
Michigan
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Airport has a problem. People fly at 6 am to hit one of the 7 hubs serving St Martin. Those flights all show up at 2pm. Same for flights from Europe. On the way home people want to hit their connection destination by midnight. This means all the flights have to leave around 3pm. That's not the most efficient way to run an airport. The airport experience wasn't that great before Irma. Best flight I had then was the 9am flight from St Martin to Miami. There's no crowd at 8 in the morning. Those gray walls in the terminal are temporary. When the airport is finished it will be better. Jetways from the 2nd floor make a big difference. We flew in and out in the middle of February. It was better than experiences before Irma, but we flew in and out on Wednesdays. The air conditioning was better especially the fish-tank departure area.
Last edited by Clifford; 03/11/2019 06:46 PM.
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Re: St. Maarten Airport experience.
[Re: sandytntn]
#187006
03/11/2019 09:57 PM
03/11/2019 09:57 PM
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Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 201
AUCspouse
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 201
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I took the flight from SXM to Charlotte today (Monday). Everything in St. Maarten was smooth -- the airport departure lounge wasn't crowded, and lines weren't long. Of course, it's not a Saturday.
Charlotte is a different story. After U.S. immigration, there was a very long line for everyone to be re-screened by security before we were allowed to make our connecting flight. So U.S. airports have problems, too.
Last edited by AUCspouse; 03/11/2019 09:57 PM.
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Re: St. Maarten Airport experience.
[Re: sandytntn]
#187050
03/12/2019 09:15 AM
03/12/2019 09:15 AM
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Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 178 New Hampshire
Hdrdr911
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 178
New Hampshire
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Have to say our recent experience at the airport was one the best we've had in over 30 years of vacationing in SXM. These folks at the airport are doing a great job under trying conditions and dont get nearly enough credit Frankly most any issue we've had has been with an airline screwing up.
If the phone doesn't ring .... it's me
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Re: St. Maarten Airport experience.
[Re: sandytntn]
#187136
03/12/2019 04:11 PM
03/12/2019 04:11 PM
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Joined: Mar 2017
Posts: 363 The Villages, FL
deputydog1157
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Mar 2017
Posts: 363
The Villages, FL
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I am not a world traveler and really just a vacation traveler.
Many years ago I had a part time job as a limo chauffeur in New York and a lot of the jobs were at JFK, LaGuardia, Newark, and sometimes a private jet at Teterboro. Those airports were always busy, especially the international arrivals terminal at JFK, which could take up to 3 hours to get through.
I then moved to New Hampshire for a job transfer and would use the Eastern Airlines Shuttle (Wow that's showing my age) from Boston to NY on weekends because my family was still there. Once the family came up we would go to Logan for travel.
All of these major airports are always a P.I.T.A. because, let's face it, you can only fit so much water through a funnel.
We once used the Manchester airport but it was a really small airport and no modern conveniences. The buildings were more like quanset huts and you had to walk out to the plane. Fast forward many years and we flew from Tampa to Manchester via Southwest to attend the wedding of old friends' daughter. That Airport was upgraded and modernized and it was a breeze.
Last year was our first trip to SXM on a plane so we didn't get to experience the pre-Irma terminal. The temporary terminal, while not panacea was satisfactory for what they were trying to do. Again you can only put so much water through a funnel before it overflows. I only hope the airport authority continues to improve its ability to serve the traveling public with better facilities. I believe that our trip in June will be a better experience than last September but really not too concerned after seeing what the island was dealt in September 2017.
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Re: St. Maarten Airport experience.
[Re: sandytntn]
#187334
03/14/2019 01:38 PM
03/14/2019 01:38 PM
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Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 90 Port Huron, Michigan
KitKat
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 90
Port Huron, Michigan
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We didn't think our Sat. March 9 flight out of PJIA was much worse than it used to be before Irma, but our experience in Charlotte was definitely worse. We had a 3 hour layover there before our final flight to Detroit, because AA changed our flight time a few weeks back. Our luggage took over 1/2 hour to come, then turn it back in, go through security, check our gate to Detroit, only to discover it is delayed an hour, from 12:15 am to 1:10 am. After waiting more time for our luggage in Detroit, plus a half hour for our shuttle, and 1-1/2 hour drive home, plus the time change that am, we arrived home at 5 am!!
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