We have a family charter in early May and my son's girlfriend will be joining us midweek. She will be traveling to SJU on US Air and on a separate ticket, continuing on Cape Air with 1 hour 20 minutes between flights. She will be traveling carry on only. Can she go directly from gate to gate or does she have to check in with Cape Air outside of the secured area?

Cape Air is in terminal A, I believe USAir is in D. If construction doesn't force her outside,she can check in at the desk at A1.
Lots of construction going on, and I was only in Terminal A&B last week, so not sure if she will have to go outside.Hopefully someone who has recently flown USAir will chime in.

Aren't American and USAir almost merged, with most flights codeshare? AA and Cape Air are partners. I would have her show both tickets when she checks in and see if they can't check her all the way through.

United codeshares with Cape also. They didn't issue boarding pass at Newark, had to go to Cape air upon arrival. same with flying out of EIS, checked in with Cape but had to get United passes at SJU. Probably has something to do with the antiquated computer system Cape Air uses.

She can go directly to Cape Air. If she goes outside security she will not make that connection. Cape Air will check her in at the gate.
G

We did a similar connection 3 weeks ago. She should be able to stay within the secure areas, more on that below.

Even if she is on the same ticket/code share, she will still need to check in at the Cape Air desk at A1. This is within the secure area. Check-in was at a snail's pace so I would recommend she get to the desk first to check-in before food/bev or bathroom stops.


At the check-in desk, they will weight her carry-on as well as getting a body weight (verbally).

We arrived on US Airways in Terminal D and had a 1 hour, 20 minute layover as well. The signage sucks and my husband (an experienced, relaxed traveler) was convinced we were going the wrong way.

I used this description, which I copied from another TTOL post. I printed it off with a copy of the airport map.

“I asked about that when I booked my flight last Nov and it was confirmed. About 2 weeks out from my trip I did some double checking and found that I would be arriving in D instead of the original C, so I re-asked the question. I got mixed reviews but someone PM'd me and confirmed that it can be done. The website for the airport has a decent map, but it wasn't clear about security. I arrived at D12 and headed down the concourse. On the map, it shows a corridor taking off to the left and wrapping around to A. I walked right past it because the signage for it says it is for gates Cxx-Cxx. I don't recall the numbers, but basically, hang a left for C. I didn't hang a left, but should have. I caught myself before exiting security though, did an about face, took the corridor to C and continued. As you walk to C (I believe this is correct), you start walking into the side of a security checkpoint. It looks like you're going to walk into the scanners themselves. THe signs are mentioning a right turn for security, but this would take you to the head of the line. Be patient, and keep walking straight. You almost get to the machines when a very narrow corridor opens up to your left. The marking is unclear about where this takes you. It may mention terminal B. We took this and continued along the maze all the way to A. Our flight to SJU was a little late, so we were very tight on time, but made it with time to spare.”

The bolded part is important, we also messed up at this junction.

You will walk past the Maragittaville restaurant and along the shops quite a ways until you see the signs for the C Terminal. Then you go thru a long corridor that is completely empty and it feels eiry and weird to be all alone. Keep going until you reach the next terminal and turn right, follow signs to a terminal a and b. The b terminal was blocked off in areas and we picked our way around caution tape. It looked like they were getting ready to polish the floors so maybe it will be open by now.

It was a 10-15 minute walk at a good clip to get from D to A. It wasn't until we were far on the way past D, on the way to C that we saw signs. The signage is terrible. .(this was our 10 or 12 trip with a SJU layover, we are familiar with the airport and we still questioned the path.)


Here is where I found the map -


http://aeropuertosju.com/mapas/

The corridors/connectors are the blue lines with the double arrows.

That was a great explanation! Even I understood it the first time...

Things are always changing in SJU these days. I just got an email from Cape Air stating that starting tomorrow (March 3), Cape Air's departures are moving to Gate C23. Here is the email:

Change is in the air at the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan! Here's what you need to know before you go...
Departures from SJU
Effective Tuesday, March 3, 2015, Cape Air's departure gate will be moving to Gate C23.
For customers who are originating in San Juan, please check in at the Cape Air ticket counter located in Terminal A. After check in, please proceed to the gate through one of two security checkpoints – the checkpoint at Terminal A or the centralized checkpoint at Terminal B. Please allow yourself adequate time when checking in for your flight.
For customers who are connecting from another airline and do not have luggage to claim, you may go directly to gate C23 to check in with a Cape Air representative.
Arrivals at SJU
If you are arriving from St. Thomas or St. Croix, you will arrive at gate C23. Checked luggage can be retrieved at Carousel #2.
If you are traveling from Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Nevis or Anguilla, you will arrive at gate C22 or C25, and will be taken directly to Immigration.
Passengers arriving from Mayagüez, Vieques or Culebra will be taken directly to the baggage claim area at Carousel #8.

Thank you all for the very detailed information. I saw on the airport map the small corridors that is between the terminals at the gates. Was not sure what side of security they were. If Cape Air is still at Gate C 23 when she travels, that will reduce the distance by half.

Thanks Again

Yes it will.

I am pleased to hear about the gate change. We are considering a Cape Air connection in June and this may sway me to do so.

One caveat for Cape Air customers. Should your flight be changed at the gate for any reason, such as to an earlier/later flight, confirm with the desk that ALL the weight entries have been transferred to the new flight, personal weight and baggage. We were moved to an earlier flight, and while walking across the tarmac our group was stopped. After 15 minutes of wondering what's going on, my wife and I get pulled back in. We ask what is going on, they say go up to the desk. Go up to the desk, girl looks at me and asks why I'm there. She has to call downstairs to see why they sent me up. Turns out the weights of the bags were not entered onto the next flight in their computer system. Less than 70 lbs between all the bags. If you watch their antiquated computer system, they have to go through multiple pages to complete a check in or change, so the possibility of missing a required entry is there, even though the system will spit out a confirmed seat boarding pass. Got to cool our heels for 3 hours waiting for the next flight.
Of course they never considered looking at the weight tags on the bags, that would have been too easy.

Yep, baggage/weight is an issue with that airline.

For our flight to VG, all checked bags for all nine passengers were left behind. Ours came 24 hours later.

For our return to SJU, our flight was delayed 4+ hours and we were told that our bags wouldn't make it no matter what.