TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin JFK or CLT

Looking to book our next trip to SXM. What is a better place to connect through going or coming back, JFK or CLT? Been a while since we've come back through JFK. Usually MIA or CLT which I don't have a problem with either one.

I've done both, and I actually prefer ATL. But, given the above choices I would go through Charlotte. Of course, this depends on the airline you are flying. American will fly through CLT, and this is typically okay ... especially when compared to Philadelphia which can be a borderline disaster. I would not book anything, however, with less than a 2 hour layover. Especially coming back. JFK can be fine if you go with JetBlue and possibly Delta. Got stranded at JFK once with Delta when they didn't have enough pilots for our connecting flight home that night. Wife and I slept in those hard airport chairs that night. Once again, give yourself extra time on the layover when you return because you'll likely need it if customs is backed-up. I would suggest a 2-1/2 to 3 hour layover coming back. Been there and done that. Hope this helps.

Looking only at American flights. Using miles one way and buying the other. Don't want this to become an American Airline bashing tread either.

Scuba,

We fly through JFK all the time, generally without any issues but we aren't connecting and I'm assuming you're looking at your regular May time frame so weather shouldn't be a concern at JFK.

If it's a matter of a stop one way or the other, and depending on the time of year, I'd probably do Charlotte, but that said, I've never connected there. Two fairly common problems at JFK can be the lack of available landing gates and/or a problem with baggage handling taking forever. Oh yeah! And then there's US C & I but I've read that can also be a problem at Charlotte.

Why are you booking flights almost 1 year out???

Always do. Best price and availability for FF mile flights. We already have our villa booked too. When we use our resort timeshare fixed weeks our dates are set in stone so why not?

Exactly. ....In snow season I would go with CLT. Any other time of year I would take either to connect

CLT certainly isn't immune from snow and in fact, can be worse sometimes in bad weather because they have a lot of ICE and NY knows how to deal with snow a lot better. For snow season, to me, Miami is the way to go.. Otherwise, I would personally go with Charlotte over JFK. Way too much air traffic around the NY airports, more chance for delays in the air and on the ground.

As CLT has grown over the years since I first moved there in 1995, it has lots of air traffic as well. We've never had a problem weather-wise in CLT (maybe just lucky), though we had lots with NY in winter. Having flown out of both multiple times, I'd say it's a toss up.

We will probably go through CLT depending on the flights going and not sure on the return as I will wait to see what is offered. Saw a SXM-MIA-SEA for a same day return that could work if it is still offered on the dates we need.

I prefer CLT over JFK.
Hope you're able to get your preferred flights. So much fun to plan.

LBI2SXM,
We have found in order to get our preferred flights in first class on the low mileage award tickets with AA you usually have to book when they come out.
Not to say they don't release them at various times but we usually have to watch and hope or take what is out there.

We also always book NOW so we can use our air miles with AA, although flights most likely will change between now and then.

Just booked to connect through SEA- JFK-SXM on AA to arrive Saturday May 11th. Needed 4 seats for FC/Business and could get them for 688.00 one way. The SEA-CLT-SXM only had 3 at that price so I jumped on it. Was able to use my 2 $500.00 vouchers I received from this last MIA-SXM FC bump so life is good. Will use miles to return. Countdown has started. YaHoo