Canadian flights

Well airtransat cancelled our January flight they didn't notify us I went online to check to see if our times changed. Surprise no flights that day. I phoned & she couldn't believe I didn't get an email. They don't know the airport is open to commercial flights. So,I'm explaining to an airline that yes it is open.
How are other Canadians getting there? I've never flown on US airplanes or into their airports. Frustrating to say the least! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

WestJet is cancelled until the end of April,likewise for Sunwing and appears also for AirCanada

Sunwing makes sense, most of their passengers are going on package vaca's, pretty sure the same for Air Trans

WestJet and AC carry more travelors and less vaca package passengers, but I think they based the decision on the lack of spaces to stay

Maybe they will change their minds as conditions change?

Count us as two Canadians not going to St Martin this coming winter. Plus Sprimbarth cancelled our Orient Village reservation and refunded our deposit. [Thankyou Jim Ruos]

We'll see about winter of 2019

J&B

I booked our Air Canada flight back in August . After seeing other posts re cancelled flights ! I just confirmed via Phone call with Air Canada rep that our Sxm flights Mar 31 to April 21 are still scheduled .
So we r good to go , as of today !

from what airport ?

I believe most chose to wait as it allowed them to make more flights available to destinations not affect by hurricanes.

Phoning then may be the best option [though WJ and SW are for sure done till end of April at this point in time]

With AC you cannot book online any SXM dates until May, so good idea to phone - hopefully the inability to book on line means the flight is sold out!

Have a good trip
J&B

, our flight is from Toronto on mar 31 ...when I asked the agent why it wasn’t avail on line , he said it was sold out ....really ! I have been checking this flight since Irma hit and believe me it was no where near sold out . Perhaps 40 seats booked as per the seat plan . I plan to follow up . Not convinced we r flying ! Here’s hoping !

Jeepers.....the easiest way is AA all thru to SXM, early from YYZ US customs at our airport to MIA, then the baggage is automatically transferred to on going flight in MIA....you stay in secured area so you don't have to thru customs again..then on to SXM....kate <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/canada.gif" alt="" />

We had WestJet tickets. The refund was quick when they cancelled. We booked quickly thereafter on Delta. We are on the west coast so we have a bit of a milk run (but almost always do). I think we booked at the right time, though, because we went from regular seats to Delta Comfort seats for $500 less per person that our original WestJet tickets. I have looked and it seems prices have gone up significantly on Delta since we booked.

We also lost our mid Feb WestJet tickets and booked on Delta for less than the WJ tickets had cost. The penalty is an hour and a half in Atlanta, but that's okay. This thread has got me a bit worried about my kids' separately-purchased AC tix though. I'm gonna have to check.

Try Jet Blue out of Buffalo

There's no problem with my kids AC rouge flights in mid Feb according to the agent.

For kicks I just looked up a mid-Feb flight from Buffalo. On a Saturday to Saturday trip it's $2,050 US! Mondays thru Thursdays look like a fraction of the cost.

Ritchard.... I also spoke to Air Canada re the rouge flights ...the agent once again confirmed our schedule .She said flights resume dec 19 ...when I asked her why there r no rouge flights online avail for 6 months , her answer included , perhaps they r sold out , perhaps Air Canada vacation has blocked fights and oh ya lots of flights r sold by Expedia ... and call Air Canada vacations ... I hate to say it but I am not convinced that Air Canada is flying prior to April 29 . I will continue to watch Air Canada web site daily... good luck

First westjet cancelled us then 3 weeks ago I booked airtransat. I called airtransat Tuesday night as I couldn't see it online. She said it's sold out that's why. Hmm I says to myself. Next day I phone & say I want to check my flight online & she says we made the decision Friday not to fly there. Me thinks it wasn't full Jet!!
It appears all the airlines are trying to figure it out. We are going to let the dust settle a bit & watch & wait & hopefully get some reasonable flight for early January.
Only time will tell if any Canadian airline flies there before April. I hope so it's easier for us & non-stop.

I was just on Air Canada's Website. If you scroll down you will see a post on the right hand side saying "Suspension of flights to St. Maarten. Click on it and it says the following:

October 27, 2017

Due to the impact of Hurricane Maria on the island, Air Canada has suspended all flights to St. Maarten for the 2017-18 winter season.

A goodwill policy is in place so affected customers can obtain a refund.

If your travel is affected, contact Air Canada Reservations (1-888-247-2262). If you purchased your ticket with Aeroplan&#59648;External site which may not meet accessibility guidelines. or Air Canada Vacations,please contact them directly.

Yes thnx ....saw that today ...I guess on the phone they weren’t allowed to disclose this information .

Well let the confusion continue . I just spent 25 minutes on the phone with Air Canada and the agent with help from several others advising me that my Mar 31 flight is still scheduled to Sxm . I referred the agent to Air Canada winter cancellation notice for the winter season . He said if my flights does get cancelled Air Canada would contact me directly for a full refund . That said ....Are we travelling to Sxm ? I am not convinced !

Well, this lack of clarity at AC is sort of concerning me.

The cancellation includes all departure flights until April 2 2018. My 5th communication with Air Canada revealed the truth . It is like pulling teeth

I think everything is up in the air with all airlines right now <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> or on the ground

So RBC travel now tells me that the AC flights I had booked for my kids are confirmed as cancelled, but that their only option at this point is re-booking with AC at a later date. That doesn't really work for us, so I have to see if they do full goodwill refunds over the next couple of days.

Huhm, under US law, if your flight is cancelled, they have to give you your money back. Canada does not have a similar law?

All right, now I tried AC, just to see what would happen. They show me that the flight is still going, that it has NOT been cancelled. This is ridiculous. I guess I need to call again.

The RBC travel agent told me that they hadn't got to refunds *yet*. Suggested that so many were cancelled that it might take a while to work through notifications and refunds for everyone. It leaves me in a bind.

So next I reached out to AC by Twitter direct message. They say they will be back on track as of Dec 19. I am finding all this hard to believe, and its getting frustrating. I just want a family vacation.

I also reached out to the rental agent in SXM just in case we can't get tix for the boys, can we have a more modest apartment. They have now offered a refund that they weren't prepared to do some weeks ago. BUT WE STILL WANT TO GO!

More re: Air Canada. The Twitter person says that the cancellations mentioned on the website are for SJU, not SXM, though it clearly says St Maarten. My head is spinning.

Ritchard I have had the same responses as you have listed. It appears the online agents are not up to date on the latest publish policy .

Here is my latest response ....Upon verification, our actual goodwill policy applies to all flights for departures until April 2, 2018. We invite you to contact our Reservations Desk at 1-888-247-2262 to review your options. Please accept my apologies for the misunderstanding. /cp

The story continues ...

Air Canada said it was more proper for me to deal with RBC Travel as they were my booking agent. I have decided to "let it ride" for a couple of days.

Well, the Email just arrived from RBC travel that I HAD TO CALL RIGHT AWAY!

RBC says, yup, your flights are cancelled. We can only rebook different dates. I tell her different dates don't work, we have to go on University reading week. She says you'll have to call Air Canada.

I call Air Canada, the agent there says she cannot process a refund, they can only pay back the Agent, RBC travel. This doesn't really work for me either.

I put Air Canada agent on hold, ring up RBC again, tell the story for the umpteenth time, then conference call the two agents, AC and RBC. I am sitting here listening to the two of them speak in secret Travel Agent language while they figure me out. You can type a pretty long post while on hold with these folks.

Looks like I will be getting a cash refund, rather than the AVION points I bought the tix with. I think the points are actually a more valuable currency than cash, but whatever. **No wait, it's turning out to be some magical combo of cash and points.

Now I'm not really sure what to do. Do I use this refund to try and get the kids some more tickets, or do I just go someplace else and give up on my beloved SXM for this year? I keep wanting to be optimistic, but I am exhausted by all the changes and uncertainty.

Well I hope this is the final chapter in this particular part of our adventure.

It took another day for me to confirm slightly different dates and times that would work for my boys. After dinner I went to work on the RBC travel site sorting out some flight options. Looks like for us, Delta is the only way to get to SXM. Boys travel down together a couple of days later than anticipated. One stays a week, one can only stay for 6 days having to get back to school.

I call up RBC Travel for help booking because two related trips/travellers with slightly different dates is a booking challenge. As well, I still would like to use the points that I have saved up and had used for the now-cancelled AC flights, and are now in points refund limbo. After all, that's why I pay these credit card fees year after year.

After being on hold listening to that awkward music for a while I am amused to get connected to the same agent that dealt with me on Tuesday - the one that I ended up conferencing in with the Air Canada agent. She remembered me, and even remembered the name of the agent from Air Canada. She told me that she was going to set up a special credit note for the points such that when they were credited to my account for the cancelled Air Canada flights, I could later use them to refund the cash that I would have to pay for these Delta flights that I have picked out for the boys. She couldn't book the flights for me though, for some reason I could not understand in my growing exhaustion with this matter; I have to call Delta to book.

I call Delta and get the nicest, most patient agent one could hope for. It was a bit tricky booking these flights for the boys with different dates, first purchasing one boy's trip, then the others, then getting them seated together on the way down, then getting the one boy home alone, and the other one seated with us on the way back. Turns out there's only one reasonable set of flights YYZ>SXM on Delta, same flight numbers every day connecting in Atlanta. We're all on the same set of flights, on several different days.

I was on the phone with Audrey the Agent for an hour and a quarter, during which time we became pals. I have always said you get more flies with honey; if you're nice, patient, and friendly with customer service people on the phone, you often get service that exceeds expectations. I eventually got all the flights just as I needed them, all slightly upgraded to Delta Comfort+, and it all came out a little less money than I had thought it would based on my online shopping of earlier in the evening. It was crazy how the prices of the boys tickets bounced around $50 or $60 up and down as we kept slightly juggling the options. I told Audrey I'd buy her lunch when she finally realizes her dream to visit Canada.

So this trip to SXM has been a pretty big pain-in-the-neck so far with all of our flights having been booked, cancelled and re-booked. After all this we are excited to get back to this place that we enjoy so much, and with our boys. We're thinking this may be our last family trip together for some time as at least one will be striking out in his own after school ends in April. And really, I can't complain too much about the pain-in-the-neck; this inconvenience is really a first-world problem. In then end, I still have a house and a business, something that so many on SXM cannot say right now.

I keep wondering what Orient Village/Beach is going to be like by the time we get there in a little less than 4 months. Daily reports of things re-opening is quite encouraging, but it is still going to be nothing like the place we have grown to know so well.

Ritchard--glad you were finally able to get it all worked out! Hope you enjoy your trip.

Back in May, I purchased Air Canada tix RT YYZ/SXM/YYZ for March/April 2018. AC called yesterday to advise that our flights have been cancelled and that full refunds will be applied to my credit card.

This call was not unexpected as RCI had previously cancelled our exchange accommodation offering no options, an indication that few resorts will be ready for guests this high season.

Will try again for spring 2019.

Well our Daughter was coming via that flight , however we told her about the cancellation ; hence she coming home with Delta. Our Daughter has to be home with us.