TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin AA Just Cancelled Our Flights in December

Heads up to anyone who took advantage of those great fares to SXM back in February, outbound through CLT, and home through MIA for December 2018...just checked on our flights as I do every few weeks, and found that all our flights had been cancelled. We're now outbound out of DTW, to SXM thru MIA, arriving at 4:13pm, CLT flights are gone. Coming home, they dropped the 9am flight, and had us overnighting in MIA, with a flight getting into DTW at 4:30pm the next day. I called AA, and was able to get home the same day, but with 2 connections now. Might want to check, as they didn't send any type of notice about the changes.

Becomming common for AA ...Bait & Switch....(my opinion)

If you have to pay to stay overnite, which adds to the trip cost maybe consider Detroit to Toronto to SXM - Tor to SXM is a non stop - possible possible to entire trip in one day
and the Tor to SXM portion you would pay in Cdn dollars

Just a thought

J&B

I don't think it's a bait and switch. They are working around flight demands and what inbound and outbound flights SXM can handle in it's present state.

I don’t think it’s a bait and switch situation either but as another who is sort of caught up in it, it really irritates me. We thought we had great flights and times and into our regional airport less than a half hour from home, no less. Now they’ve got us doing three legs over a 27 hour travel span. I’m just cooling my jets until the dust settles and hoping they may reinstate some additional flights to make things a little more palatable but if not, I’ll cancel and take my refund to use on another carrier, if there is one........

Maybe...but this issue is definitely not new to Irma....repeated similar changes for quite some time before that event.... If it walks like a duck.........

There are quite a few airlines booking flights (limited) to SXM (United, Delta, JetBlue just to name three) and the only MAJOR issues seem to be with AA, ..they start with a decent price and connection...suck you in and then change it to a cluster connection or an overnight....

EVERY airline has an issue occasionally but usually not repeatedly. Only way I would trust AA would be for a fare booked 1-2 months in advance...otherwise odds are you won't get what you booked


My observations only...

AA has been changing its schedule twice a year for at least the past ten years but the Irma situation exacerbates the problem because there are so few slots available. We had our Easter flights changed a couple of times because of these change issues. I’ve just come to accept the changes as the norm when booking way in advance on AA. And it does happen on other carriers although seemingly not with the frequency of AA.

But on another note, we just flew AA to ANU without a hitch and on flights that were booked last September in response to SXM cancellations.

It appears that the AA CLT non-stops have been canceled from August 23, when they were due to start, until December 19. At present, there are only flights in the system for a 3 week period, up until January 7.

UA has also been doing strange things with their SXM schedules. They've been cancelling their flights from DC.

It all boils down to how many flights SXM can handle and the quantity of passengers that want to take a specific itinerary. Airline are a for profit business and have to account to shareholders for their bottom line. Hard to stomach but that's the way it is.

We have been following AA direct flights to SXM from PHL. Rates have been pretty good but we don't usually book our Dec/Jan vacation until July or August. Your experience has convinced us that it's likely better for us to wait as in the past. Booking this early and then getting the bad changes you described is a double insult. They have your money for most of the year and then deliver poor service. I know all airlines are in business to make $ but seems to me that AA has gone too far on this one.

As I posted on another thread yesterday, we've had the same experience twice now. However, I truly don't think it's a bait and switch tactic. I believe they scheduled the resumption of their flights from CLT in good faith, and that the SXM airport is simply not going to be ready for the increased activity. We switched our May flights to Delta, and saved a few dollars over what we had paid AA. The available fares for our November dates are much higher, as it appears demand is increasing. Until the airport is fully restored, I expect the uncertainty to continue.

Just had our 9.00am sxm - mia in november changed to a 4.14pm!

I too have had my AA flights from Washington (DCA) rerouted through MIA instead of CLT. I am willing to put up with the changes because I got my R/T tix for 27,000 AA miles when I bought in January. By the way, United is selling its Saturday to Saturday IAD-SXM-IAD non-stop for <$500.

Thanks to all of you I just checked our December trip and AA has us participating in some type of time travel experiment on our connections. Our connecting flights in both directions are all leaving several hours before the incoming flights land! Like others, there was no notice. It is always a little challenging to get to SXM from upstate NY but this year will be particularly interesting.

AA did the same thing to us also in Dec. Our MIA. flight landed 5 hours after our connection to PHL. It was the final straw that made us change our plans all together. Its has since straightened out, but still went from a 6-7 hour trip to a 21 hour trip.

OMG! The way you describe that is too funny.

I spit coffee. lol Time travel experiment. Good one.

We book ours as soon as they come available for best prices. We know schedules will change but those changed schedules would be the same ones that would be available anyway if booked later. As far as them using my money, big deal. What could you make in the market anyways for such a short time? You'll make more just from the difference in ticket prices.

Thanks for the heads up. We had confirmed tickets from Wilmington to Charlotte to SXM, leaving November 24th and returning the same way on December 13th, and we had never received any notice that the flights have been changed. When we looked on line, it says the flight exist, but our online reservation says there are schedule changes. When we looked at the changes, it has us leaving the 25th but now through Miami and we would have to overnight in Miami for the flight on the 26th. Again, thanks for the heads up so we could adjust our flights to get there on the 25th. Our flight back now requires an overnight in Charlotte.

And I understand that this is all the result of the damages caused by Irma, but I still hate the fact that AA doesn't send you adequate notification that there are significant schedule changes. They did say that there is a chance that direct flights from Charlotte may start latter in the year. I am not holding my breath.

Do you have email notification checked in your profile? If not, do so.

I have that checked in my profile with AA but I don't actually remember getting any such alerts. Although we almost always do the nonstop from Miami and there are very few changes on that route.

In a somewhat related note, people talk badly about Frontier all the time, but they changed my flight to Indiana in May by half an hour and I got THREE email notifications from them that the schedule had changed. One would think that AA could send at least one email with any schedule change, especially ones like are being described here, regardless of whether you put it in your profile or not. Just sayin'...

We had that set up and we still didn't get notified. Under the be notified section , on the AA web site, and we did not get notified.

Strange. We have always received the change notifications. On Gmail we have our emails divided with sections for Promotions and Social in addition to regular mail. Sometimes they will show up in Promotions which is not a fault of AA.

Thanks for the heads up. Just checked my August/September flights and return through Charlotte is now a return through Miami. I have unhappily ran through many airports and thus scheduled a 4 hour layover in Charlotte. New flight is 2 hour layover in Miami. We have never gone through customs in Miami. Should I expect a memorable experience? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Karen

We have made our connection with a 2 hour layover in MIA.
We have global entry and do carry-on only.
MIA can be a madhouse depending on the number of flights but more often then not our flights out of CLT have been delayed. Just our experience.
Good luck.