TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Airport Arrival Yesterday: Triple Cluster

We arrived yesterday on AA from Miami at about 4:20. Flight was delayed due to weather and then we waited on the tarmac in SXM because there was a suspicious passenger holding up immigration .

5 planes landed ahead of us. We were told this was the 3rd worst day for arrivals at the airport since the temporary arrival facility launched.

Other flights had been delayed or rescheduled for various reasons.

When we finally arrived at the gate I could see that the immigration line looked like it went out to "infinity and beyond."

On a VERY POSITIVE NOTE, AA contracts with Accessible Adventures for wheelchair escorts. Were it not for the amazing service of Accessible Adventures, we may still be waiting in line!

We breezed through immigration!

Now the luggage cluster began. You just have to adopt the mindset that you may be waiting....that's what I told myself.

It was fairly cool but people and bags everywhere. One very angry french gentleman started kicking the conveyor....as if that would help. The bags got damned-up but thankfully the baggage handling crew was able to prevent the bags from falling off the conveyor.

Since we were last to land, our bag was last to come out. Across the way was Deepti from DK Gems who came over to greet us.

About 2 hours later we were on our way but I think it would have been 3-4 hours were it not for Accessible Adventures.

Our rental person said that if you don't arrive on Mon-Wed by 2 pm, these delays can be expected.

I can tell you that the islanders are very upset about this, too, since it makes such a poor impression on the tourists. Since we are regulars, we may have been more patient, but newbies were rightfully fed up.

The baggage handlers work their butts off, so be kind to them, thank them, and slip them a few $$ for all their troubles.

Today, the ocean sounds and looks even better than before! We will laugh about this....soon!

Put it all behind you and enjoy your time on island. Could be worst. You could still be home.

Indi--wow, sounds horrible. I don't understand how the wait times got SOOO much worse, just yesterday. Hopefully you have a long time to enjoy yourself on island.

I heard there was a lot of equipment and computer failures, from someone working on it at the airport.

All brand new systems, never been tested or used, makes sense they would fail.