TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin AA screwed us again

We just found out that AA cancelled their December 12th flight out of SXM (#866) to Charlotte. They never contacted us about the cancellation. We found out about it when we contacted AA about an upgrade and they informed us we had no flight. We had received no information about a change in our flights prior to our contacting AA. If you have a flight scheduled, leaving SXM to Charlotte on a weekday, in November and December, I would check to see if the flight still exist. AA wanted to fly us through Miami and fly us into Charlotte the next morning.

That sucks!

A few days ago I got an email from Jet Blue about our March trip. After reading the changes there was a place to click to confirm I had gotten the change and had read it. I can't believe how many posts I read that say they were never notified by AA.

I did receive notification, I now have to overnight in Miami in December, which is ok. But the one day trips down and back from the midwest seem to be a thing of the past lately.

Our April AA flights are holding firm - at least for now - but in honesty, I’ve always gotten change notifications and it’s never been an issue for us. But now that others are talking about them, I’m gonna keep a much closer eye on things. Thanks to the OP for the reminder to pay closer attention.

Email notifications seem to be an issue with several airlines. Until the Boeing 737-MAX issue is resolved, I expect AA to continue to juggle their schedule around and it usually is not in the best interest of the customer with regards to SXM.

AA also canceled the Friday (Dec 13th) return from SXM to CLT. I guess I'm "special" because we got TWO e-mail notifications - I woke up to one yesterday morning and they sent another (identical) one overnight last night. They also changed our routing down on Nov 30th as well.

Our friends who are traveling with us on the same flight did not receive any notification of the change. We were originally on a red-eye from PHX to CLT, now we leave much earlier and have to overnight in CLT on the way down and MIA on the way back. Oh well, at least we still have a flight to our favourite holiday destination!

I agree that this all has to do with the 737-MAX taking longer to resolve than originally anticipated. It doesn't really matter if your flight is on one of those planes or not. The airlines are short of planes and will have to cancel flights somewhere.

I have always recieved email notices of changes from AA.

Maybe we should give AA a break here. When this many flights are cancelled or rerouted in makes perfect sense that some notifications will be missed. AA out of Philadelphia has always been a disaster. Now it appears they are well on there way to dragging Charlotte down as well. This is sad, because Charlotte Douglas International is otherwise an excellent airport. What I can't understand is why so many people keep booking these flights to SXM with this airline with all that is going on. Are there really no other options available that we must choose AA? What about Delta, Jet Blue or United? The first two have never, ever let me down when flying to St. Martin. If it's strictly a question of price, you must ask yourself is saving a couple of hundred dollars worth this kind of aggravation? And, are you really saving as much as you think when suddenly you have to have an overnight somewhere (like Miami)?

Non notifications upsets posted here have been going on long before the 737-MAX trouble. So, that is not the problem. It's the airlines. They charge outrageous prices, make terrible connections and expect people to check repeatedly to see if they really still have the flight.

I have also found email notifications hit or miss with AA, even before the Max issues. I have caught major changes a couple of times just by checking in on my flights often.

I suspect the vast majority of non notifications on flight changes are simply timing. As airlines make schedule adjustments they wait until they feel the new schedules are locked in before rebooking and sending notifications. Consumers who happen to see their flight canceled before the process is complete feel they were not going to be notified which is not the case. The fluid situation with the max is making the situation worse.
As a new delay on the max is announced those flights are pulled from the schedule. The airline then starts looking at options such as extending airframes planned for retirement, extending leases, sourcing additional airframes, deferring heavy checks ect.. It can take several weeks to get a final plan. At that point rebooking would be completed and notifications sent shortly after.
One last thing, check your junk mail. It can be surprising what gets pushed over to that inbox. A friend was enraged JetBlue did not notify him of a change. It was in his junk mail.
G

I have always gotten flight change notifications from AA.

We were on the same flight on December 15th, and AA cancelled with no notice to us as well. I travel several times a month for business, and when a change occurs on one of those flights I get an email from AA every time. I just happened to check as I've learned from previous experience with AA and flights to SXM, and I couldn't believe the flights they had replaced my original with. 3 stops, an overnight and 30 hours total. Basically couldn't get back to DTW on the 15th, so I got a refund and booked great seats on Delta out of Cleveland for less than half the price. For those looking for early December, I just checked and Delta out of CLE is still available in the low $400 range versus $800+ out of DTW.

Thanks for the input, Gomer. CLE is another airport often overlooked, but they do a good job with flights to FLL (Jet Blue or Delta), and then onto SXM via Jet Blue. Only caution about CLE is landing at Hopkins directly from a foreign country, such as Mexico. Customs and Immigration in Cleveland is a disaster. Undersized and horribly understaffed. DTW is far better when it comes to handling international flights, IMO.

P.S. -- You might want to consider replacing that Tigers logo in the near future.

It's the airlines in general. We're booked from SMF-EIS at the end of October and United has changed our flight 3 times now. The most recent I only discovered after I went online to inquire about upgrading our seats. The 737 Max issue continues to create issues with all airlines, in our case they've cancelled most of the Sacramento-East Coast non-stops and decided to have us fly from Sacramento-San Francisco-Newark-San Juan..... Of course we received NO notice of the changes but our flight now leaves 3 hours earlier!

No, AA at the moment gets no breaks. They are an operational mess without 737 Max issues. Several of my employees have had their trips blown up literally by not being able to check their bag for domestic flights. Happens at airports at home and nationwide. They have system wide process issues that they never had a year ago. And the employees really cant fix it. They better get a handle on it.

hey Sammy!!!
good call on replacing the tigers logo...

Why weren't they able to check bags?

Yes, inquiring minds..

My only thought would be they didn't make the time cutoff for checking bags.

Can't imagine why you would pay to check bags. Every AA flight I have been on the last 2 year sthey have begged folks to check bags at the gate for free.

The carry-on's are what they want to gate check....not regular sized luggage that goes into cargo.

There aren't enough overhead bins for all the crap people bring on planes these days!

I know I for one cannot travel by carry-on alone!

I so agree there are way too many big carryon bags people try to jam in the overhead bins where there isn't room. And then you have to stand there while they try to shoehorn them.

If the airlines would enforce the sizing rule that wouldn't happen. But they overlook many going through at check in.

My wife recently flew on both Allegiant and Delta and witnessed carry on size restrictions being enforced on both but it was done at the gate. As with many rules/guidelines, they are often ignored and abused and it is a negative impact on those who do follow said rules.

Just think, AA just retired the last of their MD-80’s today. I guess they could not be utilized temporarily while the MAX is grounded.

Something goofy in the process for already echecked-in people who are having to stand in giant lines at ticket counters and kiosks that is gobbling up all their time to get bag tags and then give to someone.

They waste so much time they cant get through security and to the gates. Multiple people, multiple airports, all seasoned AA travelers with lots of points who mostly have TSA-pre.

Im platinum on AA and never had problems.

Then you add the maintenance action. And 737 Max.

Glad to hear this. All airlines should enforce it. Each time the airlines change required dimensions on carry-on we buy new compliant bags but no one ever checks.

When we fly Alaska Airlines when you check in online when you print your boarding passes you can also print your luggage tags. Then you just have to drop them off at a designated station. Wish more airlines had this.

Referring to online: how to you attach them to your bags without the sticky stuff and I wouldn't trust printer paper to hold up when the bags are thrown into the cargo area etc. Printing tags at the self check in is not an issue...that works

boucharda--agreed, you need the sticky stuff and printer paper wouldn't hold up. Where are your employees flying from? Perhaps it's an issue at one airport?

With Alaska they provide large clear heavy weight holders with ziplock type closures to attach to your bag. You can pick them up at the airport at baggage drop of or have them mailed to you free of charge. When you make your reservations there is a place to request them and how many you want. Takes about a week to get. They are also reusable and make great ID tags to use on other airlines.

We have flown American Airlines to sxm for 20 years and rarely a problem. Certainly the airfares these days can be insane but not many places worth going to are cheap. It’s a business supply and demand dictates prices. All of the airlines operate nearly the same with schedules changes and policy. American airlines has supported and stuck with St Maarten through good and bad times for years and years. Some might not be happy or complaining more than others but generally don’t think they are screwing anyone.