TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin 72 hours before flight testing

I scheduled our tests about 71 hours before the 2nd leg of our flights. Is there any info on what would happen if the flight times get changed?

There was plenty of availability later in the day.

Schedule a few hours later than departure to allow for late take off. Example 3 pm departure. Test @5 pm 72 hours in advance 👍

Give yourself a 2 to 4 hour cushion for delayed flight. I read on Facebook just recently a passenger was denied their flight after the flight was delayed. Had to get retested and reapply for a later fight.

I moved the testing back 4 hours. Now, I'm sure I'll be scrambling on the back end to get the info entered

That is very unfortunate and not at all within the person's control. Of course, when we flew from Miami (no connection) they literally did not even look at our Covid stuff, just asked if we had it!

Same here in SEA and CLT. Never even asked fr ours.

Is it within 72 hours of flight departure? Or within 72 hours of landing on the island?

It's 72 hours from when your LAST flight leaves the US, bound for SXM. So if you start off in Boston and then connect to Ft. Lauderdale to SXM, it's when the flight from Ft. Lauderdale leaves.

Thank you for the clarification, Carol.

One more question, please. We are scheduled to leave on a Monday in a few weeks. I'm wondering about getting the results over a weekend in addition to getting the approval from SXM over a weekend. Has anyone had experience with this? We could look into changing our departure date to a Saturday, if necessary, for peace of mind. Thank you!

Wow Phyllis! I basically just asked the same question in a new thread. Looks like we have the same worries! I have faith TTOL will provide us with good information!

That's funny, Karen and Rick! Thought I posted somewhere else too, just haven't found it, it's such a busy board. Let's exchange info as soon as we get it.

As far as getting approval over the weekend, yes, they work all weekend..

And what SXM locations administer the tests for entry back into the US, and is there a fee? Thank you.

Thank you!

I have been worried about the 72 hour rule but then my husband pointed out (and showed me) that the written results he got for a previous trip do not have any sort of time stamp. Any thoughts or explanations for that? How will the airline know what time I was tested?

my understanding is if the time stamp isn't on test results it would be rejected by EHAS.

UGH Scubaman! is the rejection no matter what (if there is no timestamp) or if i am tested on a Saturday for a Monday departure (which is obviously less than 72 hours) do you think it might go through? Whatever your thoughts are I'd like to hear them. Thanks.

i believe i got the answer to my own question... I called the urgent care where I would be tested and where there is no timestamp on the emailed results and was told that although there is no time stamp on the emailed results there is a timestamp on the results that the urgent care receives. They said if i need a timestamp they can either email me what they have in their system with the timestamp or I can come in (2 minutes from my house) and pick it up. Boy this is nerve-wracking! Thanks for your insight Scubaman.

Good luck. Hope it all works out.

When we were tested for SXM in January (120 hours then) we had the test at 11am but the test time was listed as 530pm (time received at lab)...actually gave us more leeway