TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Leaving and new cstoms situation

If leaving at 440 tomorrow. Any change in how fast to check in, through customs security etc. Is it faster or is 2.5 hours still needed?

It took us about 10 mins a few weeks ago, but that could change day to day. The passport scanning machines have reduced the time spent getting out of SXM though.

Perhaps I can shed a little light on those scanners. In early November we were changing KLM planes in Amsterdam on our way back from a vacation in Italy. The KLM Amsterdam terminal has a customs and imigration barrier between the EU travel area and the International flight area.

The passport scanners were very efficient at moving people quickly between the two halves of the terminal. We just inserted the picture page of our passports and looked up at the facial recognition camers and then got the green light to move on.

Perhaps SXM is a beneficiary of lessons learned at AMS?

Well, the kiosk program would really speed thing up but yesterday, my wife's passport scanned fine, mine did not. From what I saw some kiosks worked some of the time.

So. since we had no hard copy boarding pass, we stood in line and waited and waited and waited. Delta also had problems with their system so once more we had a circus to contend with (even though B&B has called it quits). We will request that our resort allow the printing (hard copy) of boarding passes(for a fee of course) from this point forward. Fortunately we showed up 3 hours before departure so things got worked out. More on our adventure home later.

looking forward to your trip report!

Why not just your boarding passes at the airport for free?

Flamingo and Royal palm print them for free. Have done that for many years.

We seem to generally have a problem with one or the other of our passports scanning, when we come back through Miami. The "X" lines in Miami take forever!!

As someone else said, if you check in at one of the kiosks there, the kiosk will print out a boarding pass. Of course if Delta had problems with their system, the kiosk probably wouldn't have worked either. It's always disappointing to have your whole 'vacation vibe' blown before you even arrive back home! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Mad.gif" alt="" />

I'm missing something. I never have a hard copy boarding pass. Just put my phone face down on the scanner.
???

Not everybody does it that way, even today not everyone has a smart phone.

Maybe I misunderstand your comment. The kiosk is the only way that I am aware that you can get boarding pass printed at airport. If kiosk is down or won't accept your passport your only choice is to stand in line, which is what I had to do but since Delta systems were having problems, line did not move.

Another excellent suggestion IF the scanner at kiosk is working properly.....They weren't. Attendants could not get them to work. "Stand in line please".

Thanks for the input. I will use as reference to Belair management.
I think they should remove $35/wk WIFI charge since internet connection costs them very little and more people are becoming aware of the gouging. They will lose that revenue anyway since guests will take phone or notebook next door to Divi and get WIFI free. Even a reasonable fee for printing boarding passes could save their customers a lot of time at the airport.

Actually, I think you are proceeding from a false assumption when you say that the internet connection costs them very little. Internet service on the island, when you're talking about enough bandwidth to serve the entire resort, is pretty pricey. Whether they should provide it free as a service, is a totally different question.

Even if it doesn't scan your passport automatically, isn't it possible to print or lookup by manually entering either name, passport number, reservation code, or maybe CC that made the reservation?

I watch people scan their phones and I tell hubby we're going to left out at some point if we don't trade our "stupid" phone for a smart one. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

I actually am in the process of getting a 'smart' phone and the reason why I'm getting it is so it can sink up with my car!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" /> My car is much smarter than I am, push button start, that kind of stuff, so I might as well have a phone that's smarter than I am too, I guess!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

My car has Bluetooth and syncs with my phone but I rarely use it. But I don't drive that much.
I find my phone incredibly useful at airport.
At kiosk I used to enter the CC I used to purchase the ticket. That printed out a boarding pass.
Cheers
irina

I was under the impression a couple couldn't each use the smart phone to scan....only one of you if reservation was made together? Or do I have wrong info?

You older people seem to adapt better than us youngsters! You will be way ahead of me with a smart phone!

Right, smart aleck!!

"Entire resort" in Belair's case is 70 apartments.
Limiting 1 logon per apartment with bandwidth that allows no photo attachments on outgoing emails is probably on the lower end of the provider spectrum.
We all know that "free" is make believe since it is recovered in some way but this year we learned that some Belair guests simply went down to Divi and paid 0 for strong WIFI with no restrictions.

You used to be able to have both boarding passes on one phone, and just swipe to the next one after the first one was scanned. I read somewhere recently that each traveler would have to have their boarding pass on their own phone in the future. That won't work for us, since David doesn't have a smartphone. I've never been able to check in online for international flights anyway; not sure why others seem to be able to do it, but I always get the message that online check-in isn't available for international flights.

Beach Kitten,
Only if kiosk is fully operational. Then options are available. If not, "stand in line please".

There seems to be some confusion in this thread. The first kiosks are for obtaining boarding passes, even if your passport won't scan you can log in your info and and get a boarding pass, if your checking bags I wouldn't even bother, unless domestic travel I always get a printed boarding pass. Just in case! The second kiosks are where you used to have your docs checked at the bottom of the stairs. There you scan your boarding pass. Then you proceed up the stairs and go through those kiosks if your a US or Canadian Citizen (I think only those countries), you scan your passport and then have your picture taken. Then you go through the security line. There is no expedited line. If you did not check in and have your "docs checked" go to gate attendant or they will call you up. Upon arrival at JFK yesterday (JetBlue), we landed at 7:28 and where at our car at 7:43. I do not have Global Entry and we did not have bags, but I downloaded the "Mobile passport", answered the questions while on the tarmac and scanned and off we went. If you have the mobile passport app you go to the same line as Global entry but you don't have to stop at the kiosks. Same when leaving customs, just scan your phone and off you go and same line as global entry.

70 connections is quite a few..

And to go to another resort next door to use their wifi free while not a guest of that resort is wrong. Someone is paying for it and not you Tom.

Does SXM have phone scanners for boarding passes? They did not last year. I am missing something here. If they do where are they in security or passport or both ????

Sorry Tom, when you mentioned kiosk, I was thinking of the E-gates they now use for boarding pass verification. Wasn't thinking you were already trying to use the kiosk to print boarding passes.

Easy, Scuba,
Don't want to make this another major dispute topic.
Never said it was right, just a fact.
My point was that (imo) our resort charges, while others bake into maintenance and advertise "free WIFI".

Regarding immigration time and machines at SXM, which was the question, right?

We went through twice in the last week.

As of 23 January (yesterday)
At the lower gate, you scan your boarding pass and then walk upstairs. No personal interaction except to guide you

Upstairs, you scan your boarding pass, then smile for the camera on the second machine This checks you out of the territory. Again, no person except to guide you

Next, you approach security. Laptops out, shoes off, etc. new scanners are the same as standard FAA style but you face left instead of right. Lots of people yelling what to do.

It took us :10. last week and :20. yesterday top to bottom

Once upstairs the usual blaring announcements rapidly fire overhead, all of it in high speed English that you may or may not comprehend. I like it but it can be hard to understand.

"Flight Fo-fo-chree non-stop service to St Barth now boarding"

Came back through Atlanta. Second screening after customs and immigration was a joke. :35. to get through the security part.

we left yesterday also but upstairs, we were asked if we were canadians and were told to go to the left and show our passport to an agent , no photo...I wonder why canadians did not do as all the other passengers...

Ok, I can't help myself. Tom and I have smart phones..they work on the French side but not on the Dutch. Can not scan boarding pass hence the need for a paper copy. Arrival at airport usually means we hit a kiosk to print out our boarding pass and then we continue on our merry way. The machine could not read Tom's passport so we were told to stand in line. The actual process to get all the way upstairs and to our gate did not take very long when we left on Saturday. Time was lost trying to get an actual boarding pass. I'm still in Island mode, so let's be kind.

Not sure who isn't being kind, but even if you can't scan your passport there are other options at the kiosks for boarding passes. My passport would not scan, I got my boarding pass by putting in my flight number, then had to manually key in my passport and all personal information. But then my husbands scanned fine, so
Strange but we both were able to get our passes. The first screen after you hit your airline will ask how you want to go about getting the boarding pass

We are getting off track on this one but think I said earlier that attendants could not make kiosk work either and we had all required info but were told to get in line for boarding pass. Some kiosks worked some of the time. Add that Delta was having problems with their system = please get in line.
Unkind? Scuba of course. Crack about using WIFI without paying. Can produce receipt for 3 weeks of Belair WIFI if that will help.
I suppose I should be used to this kind of response by now but sometimes frustration wins out.

I mis understood, I thought it was just that the passport wouldn't scan. Not that the kiosks weren't working at all. Sounds like you got caught up in that Delta computer blip that shut everything down.