TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Question for upcoming trip

We are scheduled to travel to SXM next Friday the 29th. We need to go on this trip!

Question for those in the know about COVID travel. We have a short layover in Atlanta. Like 45 minutes. We will have been tested within 120 hours of this flight departure as required. What would happen if we missed the connection and Delta had to move us to Saturday after an overnight stay
? We would be outside of our 120 hours.

My guess is they do a test for us or SXM makes and exception. I noticed todays flight through Atlanta was on time and then left about 25 minutes late. My guess is that with the near empty fights combined with the problem I described they may have waited for a passenger to connect thus delaying the departure.

Any info very much appreciated.

Transport between terminals is pretty quick via train. We landed in terminal A and had to get to Terminal E (International) and it took maybe 15 minutes...but....we were seated right near the exit door and the tram wasn't that far away...Delta will know your status and adjust so prob not a biggie issue re: missed flight (we had 55 minute layover)

Now cancellation is another issue....if your testing place is getting results in 36-48 hours maybe get tested a day later....not ideal but would cover you. There were over 100 empty seats on our ATL-SXM flight....and it went

I asked this question when we boarded our AA flight in Minneapolis, and was told that because the EHAS approval letter was for a specific flight, if it was delayed and we were outside the 120 hours we would have to fly back AT OUR OWN EXPENSE and would not be able to board. That shocked me, as delays are not typically due to any fault of the passenger!

Delta's policy may differ, this is just what we were told by AA. Also - we too had a 45 minute connection in CLT, the flights and airport were not at all busy so it was not an issue.

Sounds a tad extreme but who knows. All I can say is that the Delta gate agent looked at the negative test report and made sure we had the EHAS form and passport and we were fine. Maybe 15 seconds and did not read the EHAS form....just looked at the "Approved" but your experience may vary. It DOES sound a bit out there that they would refuse departure/entry because of a flight number change though...

I did tests two days in a row, just to avoid any snafus that come from traveling. I did not have the results of the 2nd test when we boarded, but I could have gotten them pretty quickly if we would have been delayed.

Our "date of testing" was on the second page of our negative Covid tests. So, I doubt a gate agent would have noticed if we were outside of the 5 days. What a pain!

AA in Miami actually took a highlighter and highlighted the type of test, date and time taken and the result.