TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Realistic check-in time

What's a realistic time to arrive at SXM for an afternoon flight home? I don't want to arrive the perfunctory two hours in advance, and sit for an hour and 45 minutes at the gate, knowing that I could be at Sunset Beach Bar, enjoying a Carib.

How are the security lines on a September afternoon (carrying on; no checked bag)?

I heard of everything from hours to minutes depending on the day. I flew out on a Saturday in April, arrived damn near 3 hours early with carry on's only and was setting in the waiting area in like 20 minutes.

We arrived just a bit over three hours before our JetBlue flight on a Saturday earlier this month. We zoomed right through checkin, security, and immigration. However right behind us in the checkin line arrived what seemed like two plane loads of people. It seems like a matter of timing with regards to how many other flights are leaving in the same window and how many of them are with your airline. Sorry, like the poster above I’ve heard everything from minutes to hours... there doesn’t seem to be a dependable answer.

If you go to the airport early in the morning and print your boarding pass at the machines there then one hour before with carry on only is fine.
I used to do this so I could swim till last minute in the afternoon.

Don't know if the machines are still there since Irma.

I don’t recall seeing any machines a couple of weeks ago.

The machines were not in operation in March either. We got there about two hours before time.....and it took very little time going through the first line....the second line took a lot longer. Since most of the airport is still closed up....sitting is at a premium at the gates. I would NOT chance getting there any less than two hours before. They also close the door to the planes fifteen minutes prior to takeoff.

Back in April we accidentally allowed ourselves 2.5 hours for check-in with luggage to check. We were almost first in the JB line and the check-in took no time at all for that phase. But as we got down the hall and around the corner we could see the immigration maze starting to fill up and by the time we got through it, the wall of people was solid and non-stop. My only thought at that point was I was glad we got there early and were able to secure seats in the large multi gate hall. Those people twenty minutes behind us were not so fortunate. This, btw, was on a Thursday so it wasn’t even due to it being the peak weekend travel periods.

If there’s no heavy flights probably an hour would be more time than needed but I wouldn’t run the risk myself...And we did not notice any check-in kiosks in April either. Methinks not yet......