In the second week of January 1996 there was a major storm not unlike what is happening now. If I remember correctly, the east cost airports were closed for about three days. We were staying at the Pelican and were scheduled to leave the island on the first day the east coast weather broke. This was just by chance. When we got to the old terminal there was a three day backlog of people tryin to get out. It was utter chaos. It would have taken a fleet of Airbus 380s to fly out all these people. We were lucky because this was our scheduled departure date. Our routing was suppose to be Liat to SJU, Delta to SLC then SEA, GEG. Great! We got to the Liat gate and no aircraft. Airline employee "Don't worry we will get you to SJU in time for your flight out." Time passes and it is quit obvious that we will miss our Delta flight. I was getting ready to ask the Liat representative what they were going to do to get us home when an American Airlines employee asked the Liat woman if she could ask the people on our flight if they would give up their seats so the could get more of their back log of disgruntled passengers out of SXM. The answer was yes. Now it was quite obvious that the airlines serving the east coast were not going to get all their backlogged fliers out to day and we would be among them fighting for a room. I asked the AA person what kind of a deal would they give us for our three seats. The answer was a night at the Maho, (back when it was almost first-class), Meal chits for where ever we wanted to eat and a one-stop flight to GEG the next day. Deal! Had an extra day in paradise, a couple of great meals, and a quicker trip home. So that is the story of the end of my first trip to SXM.