TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Today's Arrival - Not Too Bad

I guess it's all in the timing. We arrived at the far end of the terminal and had to be bused to the new arrival building. We got off the bus and walked right through the line up area into Immigration and no one was in there so we made it to the luggage carousel area in about 12 minutes. The luggage from our flight started to come through right away, we grabbed our bags and got into the customs inspection line. This is where the bottleneck occurs because everybody's carry on, checked bags, purses. laptops and anything else you are carrying has to go through the x-ray machine. I noticed people being escorted to the front of the line by airport staff because they had connecting flights but not because they had carry on only. That might apply if there are multiple flight lines outside. Now of course there were a few people that grabbed their bags and meandered towards the front of the line, but they were called out and told where the end of the line was. They shouldn't be called out by passengers and the airport should have someone maintaining the order here. From the time we walked down the stairs to get off the airplane to meeting Lesley for our car was about 40 minutes! Not too bad at all. Now if you arrive between 1:30pm and 3:30pm that would be a different story.

Glad you had a pretty smooth arrival.

You didn't say what time you arrived, but glad it was good for you.

Carol - We arrived at 11:50 SXM time which is an hour ahead of our time at home. We were about 20 minutes early landing and it was a hard landing. There was no doubt the wheels hit the runway to which the pilot announced "We're Here" The good news is that this flight lands early in the day. The bad news is that it is a 6:30am flight out of Toronto which means we have to be at the airport at 3:30am, which means we were picked up at our house at 2:30am, which means I'm running on about 2 hours sleep. A good night's sleep and breakfast at SMYC should put me back on schedule.

Yes Gary it was very nice and a great pleasure seeing you Folks out one two three .
Enjoy your vacation and will see how we can hook up to introduce you to Baby Zion Ira So ,before you leave !

Lesley - That would be awesome. Let's do that!

Okay Gary probably by CocoVa close to our home by formerly El Zafiro .

We didn't experience the x-ray machine when we arrived last Sunday; walked right past the customs desk.

Luggage scanning is an occasional roadblock and most times it won't happen. We have onlt had to endure it once in all of our visits,

Sounds like a great arrival otherwise. We are arriving on a January Sunday at 545p so not clue what will be going on then

They seem to like to run the x-ray machine when Canadian planes land. It's understandable.

I found it to be whenever a Copa Airlines flight lands and one landed just before the AIr Transat

What does that mean?

It means; that it is often run when Canadian flights have landed, a common occurrence.

O boy. Talk about batting a hornets nest. 🤣

Whale Tail--yes, landing before the crowd of planes is always a good thing. And we drive 3.5 hours to Miami normally, so we often have to get up in the middle of the night, so I get you, for sure.

Canada legalized marijuana so Canadians may bring some in. SXM still strict on pot.

Perhaps on bringing it in via your flight but they don't seem to be too strict on it once you are there. Take a whiff, you will smell it many places.

Many people comment that Customs and the x-ray machines are scanning bags when a Canadian flight has landed. I, personally, don't understand the correlation but there must be some reasoning.

Yes, pot is readily available in SXM. Authorities, however still rigidly enforce law if they find it.

I don't think so. It has never happened when travelling on Westjet. When planes land from South America, they are looking for drugs.

Just a year ago, a whole lot of drugs were confiscated that came in on a Westjet plane.

Antibiotics?😊

Elizabeth-- Yes, we all know you Canadians are a bunch of scofflaws!!

I have found all the reports so inconsistent at the arrival area. When we arrived on Saturday, Dec 2nd on AA1912 at about 4:15, we waited in the outside lines for 40 minutes. Immediately after lifting our checked bag off the belt, we walked right out the door. Absolutely no x-ray machines or officials involved at all.

My understanding is that it depends on how many flights land in a short amount of time. Maybe the crowds from the earlier flights had cleared out by the time you arrived?

Robitussin

I should have been more clear. I find the procedures being followed at the arrival area inconsistent, not so much the length of time. Sometimes they follow them and sometimes they don't. Such as some getting bags x-rayed and some don’t.

I couldn’t begin to guess how many SXM arrivals we’ve made over the years - probably in excess of a hundred I’m thinking - and we have never had our bags scanned upon arrival to the best of my knowledge. Does anyone know as fact why this is apparently done so?

I don't have nearly that many trips, Pat, maybe 50, but I do not know of any occasion when our bags were scanned either. Obviously, they are looking for SOMETHING. Logic would indicate that they are looking for something illegal, and most likely it is drugs, but it could be something else that is illegal. In some cases, it could be knock off goods, perhaps. My guess is that in most instances, they have a tip to look for something specific, and that's why the scan. I have heard that they routinely scan the Copa flights, in those cases looking for drugs in all likelihood. But facts? I doubt anyone here would be in possession of facts, as I doubt anyone in a position to know would actually say for certain, except as to one particular incident in the past.