TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Jet Blue Daily From Ft. Lauderdale

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Hope it continues and will help eventually have a positive impact on fares from other cities.

The article states the daily flight arrives at 11:55 A.M. but that isn't necessarily true. When JetBlue announced that flight I booked it for our June trip and found that I could get RT airfare under $400. The fight left FLL at 7:48 and arrived in SXM at 11:55 and the return flight left at 12:55 and arrived at FLL at 3:42. I booked an overnight stay at the beginning of the trip because it's a 3.5 hour from the west coast of Florida to the east and with the early departure I thought I'd use the parkflysleep option. About a month ago I got an update from JetBlue. The flight now leaves FLL at 10:54 and arrives at 2:05 and the return flight leaves at 3:05 and arrives at 6:24. Initially I was elated because even though we are flying on Tuesday we would be arriving before the masses came in on the early afternoon flights. Now we are coming in with the masses. (Luckily we are flying on a Tuesday so I am hoping that will mean less congestion). Then the return flight has created a conundrum because the arrival time is almost 7:00 and then the deplaning and customs means probably not getting out of the airport by 8:00 then the shuttle to the hotel and the 3.5 hour drive home means we won't get in until 1:00 or 2:00 A.M. That makes for a long day so I guess we'll be staying another night at the end or getting up at 0 dark-30 for the drive at the beginning of the trip.

deputy-- sympathize with your situation, but when they first announced that schedule, I went "Are they CRAZY??" The original schedule ensured that pretty much NO ONE could connect to that flight. I figured they would have to change the schedule sooner or later. Since it's a significant change of schedule, if you wanted to, you could cancel and get your money back. However, this shows once again that Jet Blue is just like all the other airlines--it's all about THEM and what makes THEM money and what is convenient for THEM. And the original schedule was going to be a total loss leader for them and would lose money. Thus, the schedule change.

I thought about canceling but the fare was too good to pass. For what I paid for the two of us would be just one from Sarasota not to mention Delta would require SRQ to ATL before ATL to SXM. AA would require SRQ to Charlotte then to SXM. At this point I am thinking about the 0 dark 30 departure day and the overnight at the conclusion. Just really a P.I.T.A. because my wife still works so she may have to take an extra day off which really isn't too bad One more day of vacation for her

I feel your pain, but it's pretty normal for us to get back from SXM to our house around 1 AM.

Make lemonade out of your lemons! Stay in Lauderdale By the Sea at Beachside Village Resort with Dave & Luckie. Best place ever, walk to restaurants, free munchies & drinks on Friday nights. Best little walking village in FL, lived there 60 years!

The flight times for the JetBlue FLL-SXM non-stops change as of May 1. The new schedule is that the FLL-SXM flight times are dep 10:51 arr 13:57, and the return SXM-FLL flight times are now dep 14:57 arr 18:10. There are variations of a few minutes on the days which I spot-checked, but that's the general change.

And, just curious, do the fares go up after May 1?? My bet is that they do. They couldn't fill the plane with that early schedule. But now, people can connect to the flight so many more people will be interested in it.