TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Canadians recent experience airports

Well, here we are 10 days away from our scheduled return to sxm via airtransat from toronto after 2 years. Wondering how the airports are handling people distancing in line? Can't think they are with the large numbers flying. It appears french st. martin isn't doing reporting for their covid active numbers or daily. It appears it hasn't changed in a month. We are watching airline app daily to see if flight is still there. Still there this morning. It is so hard to decide especially with the travel advisory. I don't think it will become a ban for canadians internationally as that would tank the airline industry once again & I don't think anyone wants that to happen financially for any country. We think we are still going. We are vax boosted & friends with all 12 couples in the condo building we stay at & they are vaxed as well. thoughts? I do realize everybody needs to decide their own comfort level. Ours is fairly high. Thanks. Hopeful.

Anything can happen. We have friends that stayed in a villa in Cabo San Lucas over Thanksgiving. All 12 were Vaxed and 8 got Covid. One needed hospitalization but could not get admitted so they brought Oxigen to him. Just be aware it can happen to anyone anywhere.

Hey there, also Canadian traveler out of Ontario. I have been to St Maarten twice in the last 2 months for a few weeks at a time. The rules change and as of January 1st they change again for entry to sxm. Toronto Pearson Terminal 3 was no big deal a couple of weeks ago. Keep printed records of your qr-code vaccine info from Ontario. Also your qr-code from EHAS which you will be able to do within 72 hours of your departure. They will also prompt you to buy covid insurance for $15. You will get a copy of that when you get your ehas q r code pre-entry approval. I am surprised that you are flying Air Transat which is generally a Sunday flight. My flight was supposed to be Air Transit on
January 23rd and was cancelled a week ago. I am now flying down on the 20th of January. I have a residence in Maho so I am there frequently over the winter. If you have any specific questions I could try to answer or there are many on this forum who have lots of knowledge. Try not to worry.

DrPhilsxm

We were in St Martin earlier this month. It was an excellent trip and if your time is spent on the beach during the day and in outdoor restaurants like those in the square in Orient at night your only risk will be during travel. We found Pearson T3 to be extremely well managed though we got there early and sat away from the crowds. Security was relatively light when we went through.
The only congested area in our entire trip was SXM arrivals as 3 flights arrived at the same time and we stood in line in a long narrow hallway for almost an hour waiting to go through immigration. There was minimal separation. Saint Maarten should be managing this part of a traveller's experience more effectively.

We went to St. Maarten at the end of November for two weeks. We flew from Toronto Pearson on Sunwing on a Thursday with no issues or big lineups. Landing at Princess Juliana was another matter. I echo the poster's comments above. Arrival was horrible and we were the ONLY plane to arrive at that time. We were packed onto a bus to be taken to the terminal (can you even call it that right now???) and the bus driver wouldn't leave until he was sure we were all packed like sardines. Then we waited in a huge line with our fellow passengers that took forever to get through. Our EHAS docs were checked and then we went through customs. I would say we were there over an hour. Just over 180 people coming off a little Boeing 737. I feel so sorry for the passengers arriving on a jumbo jet on Saturday or Sunday. Can you imagine what they go through?

Even though we were leaving again on a Thursday, we gave it three hours to check in at the airport. We had to clear at least four separate lines and checks to get into the waiting area. And no one was social distancing. When we got back to Pearson there was no one in the Terminal 3 arrivals area. Never seen that before. We whizzed through Customs and then waited over 45 minutes to get our luggage. No one else in the arrivals area - what happened to the baggage handlers?

We got back home just before Omicron hit so not sure what it's like now but Dr. Phil SXM has been a big help to all of us Canadians (thank you so much) we really appreciate your posts!

After all the hassles and headaches - would we do it again? Yes, we're booked for another two weeks in February because we've been coming to the island for years and love it even with all its flaws. We're vaccinated + boostered so we remain cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to go again. Fingers crossed.

appreciate everyone's responses. We are the first major airline arriving Sunday at 12:15 st maarten time. I'm a wreck right now. I hope I won't have a problem with the ehas form as my passport has a first initial then my name I go by & last name. My vaccination certificate has all three names in full. Thoughts on this?

Not sure about Ehas .But my vaccine certificate was issued incorrectly . I contacted the place where I received my shots. They said it was typing error of my name .The error was corrected and I was able to access and reprint my QR form .. within the hour . Good luck

My personal experience is passport must read the same as Airline ticket. It's created problems in the past for us until we changed our personal info on Airline page before buying future tickets.

my passport exactly matches my airline ticket but my passport info doesn't exactly match my vaccine info. My birthdate will match but my first name is in full on vaccine certificate & first initial on passport. Am I worrying for nothing?

I would think it would be K but all depends on who is checking.