TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin MIA GE/Customs

On our Thursday SXM departure it took us 2 hours from landing to the connecting gate in MIA. Sure glad I had a 3 1/2 hour connection instead of the shorter possible 1 1/2 hour connection.

We deplaned near D1 and had a long trek ahead of us to Passport Control. After clearing, they dump everyone into one line for connecting flights. At least they let Pre-checkers keep their shoes on and electronics in the carry-ons. The line was very long.

At GE it happened so fast. I might have missed something. No passport needed at GE. I think they did a retina scan, took your picture, and then sent you to the agent, where he asked you one or 2 questions. Absolute simplicity. Shocked me, for sure. Regular people then proceeded to bag claim. Oh, BTW, they want friggin' $8 for a cart rental!!! Not any takers that I saw.

One of the questions asked was "do you have anything to declare". I said yes, about $3300 of purchases. In the past they would ask what it was, rub their chins, decide the paperwork wasn't worth it, and send you on your merry way. Not this time. Got in another line, got asked a bunch of questions, sent to 2 different desks along the way in a kind of no-mans land, and then down the stairs to customs baggage inspection. Had to wait for an agent to serve us, despite numerous folks around there. He quizzed us, made me fill out that old-times customs form, checked the receipt for Mrs. Cruzer's nice bracelet, didn't care about my new watch purchase or anything else we bought, and then sent us to the cashier to pay our $39 in import duties. This entire process was another long walk and lots of waiting for the officials to deal with us, despite us being the only folks there at the time.

So, it appears to me that escaping import duties on small overages might now be a thing of the past. The duties really don't bother me, it's just the administrative hassle. Maybe they can smooth this as well as the rest of the GE process. I still won't like MIA, but I won't be cursing under my breath as much.

Oh, and another pleasant surprise with AA in-cabin service. Ok, so it was up front, but shortly after we took our seats the FA asked if we'd like a drink. As one of the choices was wine or beer, I was shocked--shocked I say. I asked if this was something AA is reinstating, or an MIA perk, and she responded "No, that's my way of serving you". And after our 9:30 PM departure for DFW, she was constantly throughout the cabin, offering and refilling drinks, passing out snacks, and just seeing what her passengers needed. My previous experience with late night flights, is they pass out a big bottle of water, dim the cabin lights, hang out in their flight seat, and hope to not deal with you again until arrival. This kind of made up for the hassle at MIA. I have to send AA am attaboy for our FA.

Another fine trip to St. Martin comes to an end, but we'll be back in the middle of December for 4 weeks. I hear a White Christmas is a high probability this year, or so, that's what the casinos there are saying.

Hi. I'm confused, you were in first class? If so, why wouldn't you expect alcohol to be served?

Thanks again for all your reports on island!

Carol, they haven't served it on the ground in ages--at least on my flights..

Oh, on the ground.. I'm used to be being in 'cattle car', where you can barely get a sip of water during the whole flight!

Was that way for us in first class this last May.

on our return from europe a few weeks ago, we declared we were bringing back some cheese as we do every year....everything seemed fine until the agent locked our passports in a bright yellow case, and directed us to the bowels of DFW for additional inspection....we were asked several questions about visiting farms and whatnot, and then put our bags through a special scanner....but never asked us to open the bags...10 minutes later we were on our way to our connection

and AA also impressed us on the leg from dallas to houston, a short 35 minute flight, we were actually served 2 rounds of drinks while waiting for take-off...any alcoholic beverage was available, not just the crappy tiny glass of "sparkling wine" they've been offering on international pre-flights

It's funny, we generally bring cheese back from SXM and generally they don't ask ANY questions about it. We just say we have a big HUNK of cheese and they let us go. Although in June, I don't remember them even asking us anything, we just kept walking.

I always bring back a box of 10 DAS (not Cuban) cigars for a friend. Am I supposed to declare that?

You are supposed to declare all purchases that you are bringing back with you.

You can import up to 100 non-Cuban cigars Duty Free. You should declare the total value of everything that you're importing, but you don't need to break it down unless they ask you. We rarely bring back much more than a few new t-shirts these days, so we have no concern about going over the duty free threshold.

"A bottle of rum, cigars and cheap souvenirs" - memorize it and say the same thing every time. You never know when you're going to get a new/overzealous customs agent and it sounds a lot more honest than being unprepared or saying "nothing".

Our friends buy waaaaay too much jewelry every year and they declared it once not knowing any better. After wasting a bunch of time and scrambling to find $39 or whatever like the OP (they would only take cash) one of the agents whispered to them saying not to make a declaration like that ever again.