TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Flying AA in November? Check your tickets.....

They got me again!! Original flights cancelled and a proposed over-night in Charlotte? I don't think so.....

Our FF tickets were from our regional airport a half hour from home and sounded too good to be true when I booked them so I guess I should have known this might happen. But they sure did put a crimp in our plans.

Checking all our travel reservations today I discovered we were now leaving this area six hours later and over-nighting in Charlotte and arriving in SXM on a Sunday. I called and suggested this was not acceptable and they offered their plan B - HPN (our regional airport) to Chicago (REALLY?!) to Miami to SXM. We did ultimately find a reasonable compromise but it took a while, and sad to say, it requires the dreaded JFK which we had hoped to avoid.

As always, they worked with us to make the better flight arrangements and since these are FF tickets I shouldn't get too excited but my big concern is how many more times they might change their schedules, and that remains to be seen. It pays to keep a close eye on reservations made well in advance of your travel dates. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

We used to use AA as we get tons of mileage through work. We were often frustrated with availability and odd hours or overnights. We switched to Capital One Venture, 2 miles per $ on everything. We book our own tickets either directly with airline or a travel website. Buy what we want, when we want and are instantly reimbursed from Capital One.

We stopped using AA many years ago, due to exactly what your suffering... They seem not to be trusted. We now use only jet blue... Our choices are limited as we live in Pa. have to travel 2 hours to yes dreaded jfk... but they have seemed to be pretty consistant, that could change. Since the merger!!! they no longer get my vote... and we had frequent flyer miles for many years. Not worth it.. But that's just us. Good luck...

We turned in our AA FF miles for gift cards.

Sorry, many people thought Jet Blue was the greatest thing when they first came in, and lately they seem to be just like any other airline...

AA changed one of our flights in October from SXM to MIA with an 8 hour layover to DFW. I called them and said no and they came up with a plan that works. AA pulls something similar each year and then I have to put it back together including seat assignments. Other choices are worse because we are coming from Seattle.

Of all the airlines that serve my area (BOS/PVD) I would put JB as #1...AA near the bottom (right above Spirit). I fly JB maybe six times a year and the most I have ever had a flight changed was by less than an hour...ever. Small sample but I use what works.

Anyone can find isolated instances with ANY present day airline and just about all of them have made the news recently but them main issue I book on is schedule reliability....thus the elimination of AA a long time ago...and my brother-in-law is an AA long haul Captain

I would add Southwest as an equal for reliability...but it drops a notch because I can't have my "Extra Comfort" seat on JB <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Yup, agree. We have not had any issues with jet blue. Wondering if it has something to do with where you fly out of.. We use JFK. Reliability is the most important issue for us, and A.A. got real bad after merger... But of cource things happen, and when you fly frequently your bound to run into snags...that's life.

Will say I have flown AA to St. Maarten almost exclusively for the past 22 years. Other than one time missing a connection due to a late arriving flight, I have been well satisfied with their service. It has gotten more difficult to find low mileage flights but I have done so successfully for the past 15 years or so.

Living in a small market our best route is from Grand Junction to DFW on AA. Our other option is United through Denver. AA is our best gateway to the Caribbean. Other than lost baggage for one day AA has treated us fairly well.

For the record, we knew when we booked AA so early there was a good chance the flights would change as they usually change their winter schedules around then, as well as their low season schedules in late March or early April. We wanted to use our last few AA FF miles and in honesty, this worked out well for us in the end.

The AA rep, once she realized we were relatively convenient to so many metro airports, pretty much allowed me to choose the flight we wanted at the same mileage level even though the flight wasn't available at this level when I originally booked my FF seats so I really have no major argument with AA on this score.

If I had my choice, and if we were still dealing with the AA I knew BEFORE the USAir merger, I would still be flyhing AA as my airline of choice. But as things are now, we book whoever offers the closest thing to what we want at a price we deem reasonable and then hope for the best. Last September we flew First Class to Hawaii and back, all on FF miles and it was flawless and totally pleasant. Again, luck of the draw?

We've done JB and had great flights and we're booked to come home on them for our November trip - last April we actually flew JB MINT to SXM for not much more than the cost of an up-front seat and we absolutely love C & I in T5 at JFK.

But we've also had a few very unpleasant JB flights, too, so I think it's more or less the luck of the draw. A week ago, on 6/25, the JB to JFK 1:45pm flight was delayed several times and didn't leave SXM until about 8pm after they boarded and let the passengers sit in the plane for over two hours awaiting their departure. The scheduled 6ish JFK arrival got in around midnight......very happy we weren't on that one but it proves 'stuff' happens to all of them if you fly often enough. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

We have had good and bad experiences on every airline we have ever flown. However, Jet Blue takes the cake! We booked early and about a month out they sent a change. With the new schedule, our connecting flight would be leaving 30 minutes before our scheduled touch down on the first flight. The truly bad part was when i called Jet Blue, they would not do anything to fix the issue. Finally, we were given a refund, but by this time, the flights on other airlines were much much higher that they had been 9 months earlier. No longer a fan of Jet Blue, can't rely on them.

You are correct Pat. There probably isn't a great deal of difference between the major airlines. Most of the time things go well--on rare occasions there can be problems. Just wanted to say my experience with AA has mostly been positive over 20 plus years.

Actually, we are flying AA in Nov., out of PHL. It's a non-stop, booked directly with them. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Right on. AA has always been good to us.

Thanks for the heads-up Pat. Just checked our November flights, and so far, so good. Fingers crossed.