TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Couple tips

Just got home last night and will do trip report later but two items fresh in my mind that I wanted to pass along.
1. One of the biggest complaints from a number of people is that current information printed in brochures and magazines is not accurate about restaurants being open. This includes hours of operation and phone numbers that are out of service. These publications are all dated 2019 so check before you venture out.
2. Departure at airport was crazy. No serious delay going through security/customs/immigration. But then the fun begins. Waiting area more than filled to capacity. People milling around waiting for a seat. Good news is that there is a bar and a couple food places but you could end up eating on the floor. Next, don't try to go to Boarding Area downstairs until they announce your flight. You will be prevented from moving to that area until your flight is announced (yes, they will check your boarding pass). When you do enter Boarding Area, you will join the mass of wall to wall people packed in like sardines, all trying to get to their gate. When given the OK, you will board buses to aircraft, again packed to maximum. Forget any priority boarding status, more like "mob boarding".
Advice?
1. We will never travel to and from SXM on Saturday or Sunday again. Whatever the cost to change our timeshare weeks will be worth it.
2. Getting to airport earlier than 2-3 hour recommended really gains nothing.
3. Knowing the situation in advance may help prepare you, as will additional rum or whatever else will work.

Good observations.....thanks for posting.

Hope it improves before our May trip.

Thank you for this information. We leave next Saturday and I’m dreading it from the stories I’m hearing. These are great concise tips. I will be sure to pack my patience!

Hi Tom. it was great to meet you and the family last week. We'll be checking to see if the Bears are playing the Patriots next fall!! Roz and I ended up flying out Friday to beat the snow/ice storm foretasted for the Northeast Saturday night - no big deal as it turned out - AA waived all change fees and we kept our upgrade to our surprise. Clearing check-in and security took less than ten minutes at 12:30p, but we watched the boarding area fill to capacity by 2:30 when flights to Amsterdam, Charlotte, Philadelphia, and JFK were all attempting to board about the same time (plus a few WinAir's). We also discussed checking Thursday, Friday, and Monday flights in the future. Unfortunately for us, the future is now 50 weeks from now.

Tom--thanks for the note. I am kind of confused though, where the food and bar is, is on one level, and then you go down one level to actually board the busses? I thought everything was on the bottom level?

Sounds like the good old days when everyone waited in a 10 x 10 room for the planes to come to the two gates. So many people standing (so few chairs) that you became intimate with strangers.I remember people out in the open area aside of this room trying to get the last rays of sunshine.

Before the storm, as we all know, some flights boarded from jetways coming off the 2nd floor where all the stores and restaurants were located. However, for some flights you went to the far right of the terminal and down some stairs to a waiting room for loading onto buses. At the far right of that lower area was a slight ramp going upward for arriving passengers coming off buses. That lower area is now the only boarding area. The area at the top of the stairs is where the food is located. It is about 1/1000 of the space formerly being used as the retail area on the second floor. It will be packed with people. Many think it will be to their advantage to sneak by the women checking boarding passes at the top of the stairs and escalator. Wrong......you will move into the sardine area.
If you are boarding group one, you'll be the first out the door, the first into the bus, the last out of the bus and the last into the plane!

Thanks...looking forward to next Sunday...NOT!

OK, for some reason, I'm still not getting it, I guess because I've only had one cup of coffee. But there is an escalator to get down to where the boarding area is? If so, that's good.

Carol, it changes almost daily it seems. My daughter left on 1/1 and said she used a jetway. My husband left 1/6 and went to the lower level (stairs and a ramp) and had to take a bus. I left 1/9 and went to the lower level and walked to the plane.

OK, I have a long time to go before we go anyway..

Sounds almost like a worse situation for departure than in the tents. I departed in the tent area in December and it was very organized and lots of seating area. My arrival and departure was on Thursday so your plan to travel through the week is definitely a much better plan.

It’s pretty orderly all things considering.

Have to listen for your flight as they are all in the same area downstairs.

It was pretty packed on a Friday. So weekends I imagine worse.

I’ve lived worse at airports throughout the USA.

1st world inconveniences.

Carol,
No escalator (that we saw). Steps and ramp with folks at the top checking your flight info.

Your start for departure is almost same as before. We had to get boarding pass with AA desk since no advance boarding pass was possible. You can check in on line but no boarding pass is issued until we got to the airport. This may have been an AA restriction or Airport restriction, don't really know but it adds some hassle.

After you get boarding pass you move toward escalator after both boarding pass and passport are checked (rat maze for immigration and customs checking your papers). You then go through security on 2nd floor.
Yes, a few places to get food or drink on 2nd floor waiting area. Not many. As stated there were no available seats. Some gouging, Heineken pony $3.50, President $7.00.

When you hear your plane announced (you will hear) since there are speakers in ceiling about every 2 feet apart at full volume.
When you get to boarding area you need to get as close as possible to your announced gate (think there were 4-6 gates). For us there was no Priority Boarding. If it was announced it was ignored and groups 1-7 all lined up at the gate. Your boarding pass is again checked before you are permitted to go to bus, one bus at a time, all jammed with people. As we boarded plane we had to show seat # before actually entering the plane.

I hope all understand that I know air travel is no fun but a few actions (priority boarding, group # boarding, additional seating in all areas, less redundancy in process) would improve situation.

Tom--you say no escalator then 'move toward escalator', but I guess I'll figure it out..

Their is an eacalator to go up from check in to go through security on 2nd floor. To go back down to the gates i remember stairs a ramp. Cant remember an escalator down. Maybe there was. Id bet there is an elevator down if not.

It was so bad Id do i t every week if someone wants to buy me 52 tickets.

OK thanks

Memory check. Yes up to 2nd level. No, not from 2nd level to boarding area, to my knowledge.

OK thanks

Carol:

It's the same escalator that was always there, going down to the gates which were used for boarding of remotely parked aircraft. Now, those are the only gates.

OK, I think we may have gone out of those lower gates maybe once in all our trips. I knew there used to be an escalator there, but wasn't sure if it was working now. I currently have a lot of problems navigating stairs.

You are so right on that Sat. Departures