TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Warning:get to STT at least FOUR hours early,chaos

from a St Thomas Facebook thread ....one comment among many about yesterday's experience...

"I flew out on AA943 today. The captain delayed the flight 45 minutes and we still left over 60 people still in the TSA line. If you don’t arrive at least 4 hours prior to your flight for the next few weeks, you WILL miss your flight!"

I flew out of STT on the 11th and it was the quickest curb to gate time ever. Is this a one time issue or has something changed?

I have flown out of STT four times in the past 8 weeks. I made it through to gate in under 30 minutes each time. Twice on Delta and twice on AA. My last flight on 11/11 there was no line for C&I. Walked right up to the booth and less than 10 minutes for TSA. There must have been some kind of computer glitch yesterday because that is not the norm.

I'm not sure this should be surprising given the yesterday spoken of was the day before Thanksgiving.

According to an article in the VI Consortium the delay was due to a temporary relocation of the TSA passenger screening area while the damaged screening area is being repaired. It said the renovated screening area should be in operation by mid December. It also said that people should arrive 4 hours before your scheduled flight until normal operations resume. Good Luck!

I find it hard to believe AA would leave 60 ppl in line. That's over 25% of the aircraft. What a logistical night mare for AA, rebooking, hotel rooms.....

It's a bigger nightmare to miss connect 180 passengers on arrival and possibly delay 3 outbound flights at the US destination leading to more downline miss connects. Pilots, flight attendants and may all be working different flights out of the US destination and the airframe may be scheduled somewhere else also. Most major airlines have a control center that looks at the ramifications of a delay and tries to arrive at the least disruptive solution.
G

I read mold issues as well in the area where they are supposed to do the screening so that is another reason for the temporary area. This is a new development so yes, previous experiences would be different and it looks like going forward they expect issues...it's just crazy they decided to implement on the busiest travel day of the year.

I think we need more data points. On the 11th when I left STT the recommendation was to arrive 4 hours early. I had a bag to check and I still made it from the curb to the waiting room in half hour. I think one person's bad experience doesn't a new normal make. Next person to travel please tell us what happens.

George, I agree, but this FUBAR is blamed on TSA not communicating. 4 hours to check in 250 passengers is beyond belief. We were told the same B.S in St. Lucia 3+ hours early. We arrived 1 1/2 hours early and were in front of the the gate and hour and 10 minutes early.

The delays are well documented in the local papers but it looks like the construction issues will be resolved in a two weeks or so. I will be down again 12/4-12/10. I will update the real conditions then.

Apparently this was a "slowdown" organized to protest the "mold" and other conditions. Should just bulldoze the place and put the old WWII hangar back up with no air conditioning. Worked fine for years.

Latest post from 1/2 hour ago by a lady named Lenore who traveled today... (sorry I have to copy and paste, no way to link to these posts on FB)

Lenore: "Not knowing what to expect, we arrived five hours before our flight and it took a little over three to the gate. TSA was backed up, but were as efficient as could be expected under improvised conditions and large holiday crowds. They hauled passengers checked bags and processed us while we were still in line. Long wait, but we were impressed! "

This is from the VI Port Authority Facebook page. Looks like they will be using the temporary screening location for 8 days from yesterday (when they posted), so hopefully only until December 1st - then they can move back to the area with the scanning machines.

Passenger screening delays caused some passengers to miss their flights at the Cyril E. King Airport yesterday, announced Virgin Islands Port Authority Assistant Executive Director Damian Cartwright. A new temporary arrangement of the Transportation Security Administration caused hours-long delays for passengers entering the screening area. TSA employee shortages and manual screening of passengers in the temporary area further delayed the process.
TSA was relocated from a smaller area of the terminal that had machines to allow for repairs this week and was moved to the entrance of pre-clearance area where screening was being done manually. Cartwright said that this relocation was discussed with and approved by TSA officials prior to the move and VIPA was assured that it would not create any major complications.
Some delays were anticipated and we advised travelers to arrive as early as possible for their flights, said Cartwright. “It is unfortunate that people missed their flights and on behalf of the Port Authority, I sincerely apologize to all who were affected. CEKA was seriously damaged during the hurricanes in September and we have been able to reopen the terminal while we make repairs. However, in an active facility temporary relocations of services are necessary for us to facilitate these repairs and simultaneously allow travel,” he said.
He advised the public to arrive three to four hours prior to their flights to allow enough time for passenger screening. This temporary arrangement should last about eight more days before TSA is relocated to their normal area and utilize machines to scan travelers. VIPA plans to be able to resume normal operations by mid-December 2017, Cartwright added.

My Grandchildren were caught up in that mess on Nov. 22. They stood in line 6 hours. Arrived at the airport at 1 p.m. flight finally left at 7 p.m. Flight delayed one after the other. Good thing they are young, I would not have made it. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" /> They did make their connection in Miami. But still a very bad situation.

Today the situation was better. No line to check bags and got thru security in less than 15 minutes. Main part of the gate area was back open and it was air conditioned. Both the AA and Delta flights left on time.

And they decided to do on a high traffic day, of course.

I flew Delta on Saturday afternoon. Got distracted and was late .. got to the airport about an hour and 15 minutes prior to a 2:30 PM flight and was checked in and through security in less than 10 minutes...

Our experience today (Wed, Dec 6) was 20 minutes from Delta check-in thru TSA.