SXM Arrival still chaos

I travel multiple times through the year to the island.
After the November 15 soft opening of the new departure area, the arrival area has suffered.
I arrived on Thursday, November 23 on WestJet from Toronto at 2:55 PM
Unfortunately, we did arrive after Air France, Delta, JetBlue and a Spirit flight.
The majority of passengers from the flights are still being loaded onto buses to take you to the arrival area, which has changed since November 15.
Passengers were loaded into isles of waiting areas underneath a covered area with no air conditioning. After not moving for 30 minutes, someone was having a discussion with an airport employee, and it was determined if you did not have check on luggage, you could proceed directly to immigration. That was my case as well. So I proceeded past hundreds of passengers directly to immigration.
Once inside immigration, which is the same area as before the change, Things moved along much quicker. To summarize, if you don’t have check on bags, ask or proceed directly to the immigration area.

There needs to be far more organization and training for the arrival area and staff. Just basic stuff so that passengers and vacationers don’t feel herded like sheep Into an area where they have no idea what’s going on and they are standing still for an hour or more.
If there is a positive to the soft opening, the departure area seems to be working OK. My guests who left the same day I arrived had no issues going from entry of the airport to the second floor departure gate in roughly 15 minutes.
I don’t want to be negative, I would rather be positive, so I am hoping for this to be resolved, and this is a temporary issue.

Drphilsxm

And a really sad thing is the airport, the SXM government and the airport CEO, Brian Mingo have basically been silent on this. Other than a brief facebook post by the airport, indicating to arrive earlier for departures, it has been silence. Pretty sad after the videos they put out touting this fiasco.

Based on the experience of my guests who left the day I arrived, November 23, their departure experience was OK. 15 minutes and they were at the gate upstairs on the second floor.
When they arrived on November 16, the day after the soft opening, their arrival process took three hours.
They need to work on that. Probably an understatement, but especially because that is the first impression tourist get when they come to SXM.

Drphilsxm

Correct. I have read of several instances of first-timers arriving and facing 3+ hours while someone was waiting on them. NOT a good first impression but a lasting one. As long as people keep coming (and the likely corruption with this project continues), nothing is going to change.

You also had the situation with airlines (Delta for sure) notifying departing passengers to show up 4 hours early versus the usually recommended 3 hours, only to find nobody staffing the check-in area. Very poor communication and another bad taste in people's mouths.

Phil--I am curious, what happened when you just went past hundreds of people? i would assume you got some sideways comments? Or a staff member took you past the crowds? For sure, there needs to be better organization. Allegedly, there are supposed to be improvements coming to the arrival process, but I have no idea what they would be.

As far as departing, I'm not at all sure that issue has been resolved either. Could you tell if all the jetways were being used? While there have been several good reports, there continue to be reports of people waiting several hours to depart. And as JD said, why are airlines telling people to be there 4 hours before, when there are no airline personnel there to check them in? Of course, the airlines bear responsibility for that, or should I say, the company that contracts the personnel for the airlines. Some of this stuff isn't rocket science.

The arrival mess is a solvable problem. It is not going to be perfect in the temporary building, but more immigration staff to check passports and more staffing to process the luggage is possible. It is not like they don't know how many people will be arriving. Although it is a temporary building, 8-12 months is not a "temporary" situation. That is quite a long time to have visitors subjected to this fiasco. For those that think the new arrival facility will be done sooner, they haven't met a deadline yet.
Having said all that, we just booked another trip for the end of January. All 4 of my children are coming, along with spouses and 6 grandchildren.
Scott

We arrived Tuesday 21st around 3pm. They seemed more organized on our arrival. There was at least one plane ahead of us. We waited outside for about an hour. They had several line started but went in order of arrival. We did not have checked baggage so we skipped that portion. I was expecting the worst, so I have to say we were happy that the wait to immigration was only an hour. Sounds like they are adapting if they are now letting those without check baggage skip through to immigration. We leave Wednesday and I'll give an summation of that experience when we get home.

I don't understand what checked luggage has to do with anything when ARRIVING.
That is the last thing you do.
Why would they let you go through immigration before the others? I agree with Carol, you must have gotten some looks.

Exactly...

Once you get through immigration you can just leave the airport if you only have a carry on. Otherwise you'd have to wait around for your checked bags to be ready for pick up.

Correct....EVERYONE has to clear immigration THEN you can skip the rest if you do not have checked bags...but to pass everyone waiting to do the same thing (immigration) is kinda lame

Right !!!

I probably didn’t explain the point I was trying to make.

Other people were escorted with the staff to immigration from the waiting lines. When I asked why, the arrival staff told me they did not have any check on baggage to claim. I said I do not have any check on luggage and they said come with us. So, to be clear I was only complying with the airport arrival staff . My point is that they are not trained well enough to answer questions from the arriving passengers. I do not know why they escorted me (and others) just because I told them I had no luggage to claim . That is an unanswered question.

I would never randomly jump ahead of others who have been there longer. That would be rude.. On the other hand, I comply with airport staff.

Carol, to answer your question about the jetways, we arrived after several others, so we did not use one. There were other aircraft using the ones that were there.

Drphilsxm

Phil--I understand. You followed directions. Staff should be trained better.

"question about the jetways, we arrived after several others, so we did not use one"
Jetways are only being used for departures and not arrivals.

Phil--thinking about this now, the organization is off to begin with. IMMIGRATION should always be before luggage claim. If the temporary arrival facility is set up with luggage before immigration, that is wrong to begin with.

From what I'm reading immigration is before luggage claim.

Yes, you wait outside in a designated line and they only let a singled line enter into the immigration hall. That is due to arriving aircraft order, then once you are let inside you wait in the immigration line. After that you go to the single luggage belt/claim if you have any checked bags, then you leave. I guess they can also do the random bag screening after that point if they really want to slow you down.

Thanks Bro and it's two easy ways for some of our clients uses , only carry on luggage or some pay for V.I.P service . No enforcement , just my contribution to the general hassle that arriving Tourist are experincing to our Island.

OK, well, I'm still confused, if immigration is before luggage claim, which line are people going around??

Just wondering....so how just does the VIP service work?

We have one of our regular Lady that leaves tomorrow to head back to Toronto where our two children and first Grandson lives , uses this service and will get back to you on the details.
Thanks a bit pricey but one , two three and you are out.
Plus she owns her Condo not far from our home in Beacon Hill.

They’re skipping the outside line and going straight to the immigration line. The outside queue is because baggage claim is the bottleneck. But there isn’t room inside after immigration to have people wait. So if you don’t have baggage apparently you can go right to the immigration line inside. If you have checked bags you need wait in the outside line until it’s your flight’s turn because they only load in one plane of bags at a time.

Well THAT makes zero sense....as was mentioned, everyone arriving has to go through immigration...checked bags or not. EVERYONE is going to the same place until after immigration.

You pay a fair amount of $$ (depending on what services you enlist) and are supposedly taken to the front of all lines I have read elsewhere some good reviews and also some less than stellar reviews. It was also mentioned that as of Nov. 1, the airport had stopped allowing the service. I have no idea if that is accurate or not. It is an independent person or company that does this and is not (supposedly) directly affiliated with the airport itself.

It actually makes perfect sense. There are lines outside by flight. Then there is a line inside for immigration. They don’t let the flight specific outside line in to the immigration line until your bags are ready to be loaded on to the belt. If you have no bags you don’t need to wait in the outside line, so by not checking bags they’re cutting off what could be an hour-plus wait.

So the plan should be to say you do not have checked bags, go to the front of the line, and then hang out inside and wait for your bags. Eliminates the outside issues and moves it inside

Edit: I will add that we arrived in AUA at 230p Saturday...four other aircraft parked but no clue when they arrived. Walk to Immigration where there was maybe eight LONG Disney-like back and forth rows....and four people in front of us...zero wait. THe eight agents working definitely would handle an aircraft's passenngers quickly

After talking to a few more people here on the island, it appears as if the last couple comments are pretty much on point.
What they are trying to avoid, is congestion around the luggage/baggage claim area, which can’t handle that many people at once, and would not have all the luggage from the arriving flights. So they are trying to reduce the lines outside by sending those directly through immigration who do not have baggage to claim.
That would be an explanation. It would be preferable to have arrival staff to explain that to the arriving passengers.

Drphilsxm

I don't know, I still don't understand it, but I am hopeful that all this BS will be over before we visit again. Probably wishful thinking.

Keeping my fingers crossed for May. But if not will make do as I know what is in store for the next 3+ weeks on island after I get my bags.

Yeah, it is nice when someone has such a long trip to look forward to. However, someone with a week or less, it can screw your whole trip.

Only when you let it mess with your trip. 1 or 2 extra hours going through PJIA with a full week ahead of you shouldn't ruin the whole week.

Except, this fiasco has been going on for 6+ years and will likely be 7 (or more) before actually finished and a smoothly functioning facility. Same people in charge and the same results.

I suppose this is a foolish question, but does anyone know if there is WiFi in the temporary arrival facility? We have friends arrivig and we will be picking them up. It would be helpful if they could text us when they get to the baggage belt so we don't have to wait outside for them for hours.

Leagle--I certainly wouldn't count on it. They should be able to get regular US cell service, depending on who their provider is, so it might cost them, what, a dollar? But I wouldn't even worry about it. Honestly, with as f*ed up as this facility is, just have them get a cab. You are at Simpson Bay Resorts, right? A quck cab ride for them. Pay them back for the cab, if you want, but rather than you waiting around for possibly 2 or 3 hours, not having any idea when they would be coming out, do yourself a favor. I think your friends will understand. I have heard tales of other folks who went to pick up people at the airport, waiting 3 hours and more. And I never know how people do that anyway, pick up people at the airport, as you can't park in front of the terminal for any length of time.

We were able to connect to WiFi in the baggage area when we arrived October 22.

pandp- wasn't that before the new arrivals area opened?

No the new arrivlas area was there when we arrived. We were lucky that Westjet was several hours late so we were the only plane arriving.

pandp--ok

Thanks Carol!

Leagle--best wishes to you and your friends.

I wouldn't call it chaos; it's actually pretty well-organized. Our AA flight on Sunday was about an hour late landing because of a tire problem in Charlotte. When we landed, we were bused to the temporary arrivals area, and directed to a specific line. There were already three full lines when we arrived, so we knew they would go before us. We waited about 90 minutes before our line was allowed in. After that, immigration moved fairly quickly, and our checked bag was on the carousel as soon as we got there. As long as you understand and accept the process, it's fine. There is only one luggage carousel, and the area is very small, thus the reason that people are only being admitted as their flight's bags are brought in. That is also why passengers without checked bags are allowed to go out of order. It's not an ideal situation, but we're here, and the problems of getting here are a distant memory.

An excellent summation of the process. 👍👍 I agree 100%. It's getting there and it will be wonderful when it is fully finished.

👏👏👏Well explained. Have a wonderful time on island.