TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Here I sit in departures

Jet Blue is late AGAIN. Every bloody year.
The departure area is ok but it is WARM. There is AC but it is inadequate
Supposedly we will have a jet bridge. But since my flight is more than 2 hours late, we shall see.
I used wheelchair assist fearing long lines. But the lines were not too bad
I didn't know that the wheelchair guys also had to remove shoes etc. and my guy got chosen for secondary screening. Very odd.

I am thankful to have been flying Mint with Jet Blue. The lines for non mint service were LONG. There were only three attendants.

We stopped at Sylvain's Le Champagne for lunch before we came
Really good food and service. The French fries with my burger were excellent Carol.
Michael had Tuna tartare which was delicious

And BTW, there is free wifi here for half an hour after watching an ad.

What’s your gate?

Can't blame it on the BOS weather....88 minute departure delay

They are holding flights enroute to SXM in an attempt to alleviate the congestion at arrival. But this will then cause missed connections on the return. What a great system the SXM airport has going.

JD--Yes, that is stupid. I wonder how that is happening. The airlines are deciding to do that on their own, or the airport is not giving them clearance to come in, so that's why they are leaving the US late? And is the airline going to be responsible if people miss connections and have to spend the night somewhere??

All good questions that I have no answers for. I would "guess" it is instructions from SXM ahead of time to let them know they will not get clearance to land and will have to meet the schedule SXM sets. Just speculation on my part. There is usually close to an hour of "fluff" built into the SXM schedules but you get delayed more than that or have a very tight connection to start with and you are toast with regard to getting home. The airline will be as responsible for as little as they can be.

Looking at the PJIA arrival schedule for today, it looks even heavier than yesterday. At least 10 big ones within a 3-hour window. Nothing new on the PJIA site or facebook page.

Below is what TTOL member JeanneB posted yesterday.

"I’m on the plane in CLT now. We “departed” on time, however, after we pushed back the pilot announced that we were going to be sitting here (on the tarmac) due to the “flow” in SXM for an hour and 10 minutes…."


BTW, has anyone seen or heard from Brian Mingo of late?

She posted that her flight was around 30 minutes late arriving but got through everything in around an hour..not bad at all

Correct and rather surprising.

Overall, yesterday was much better overall than Friday, from reports. I guess we'll see how today goes.

Brian Mingo? Isn't he running for office in SXM? I'm pretty sure I saw that name on one of the signs.

After we got on the plane, we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes because apparently, one of the ramps that they used to offload passengers was sitting behind the plane....and they obviously needed someone to move it. And it took 45 minutes.
THEN, we had to wait to get re-routed because of all the holiday traffic.
All in all, we were about 3 hours late returning home.

Brian Mingo is the airport CEO. There was another Mingo on the island that was involved with the harbor and I believe was involved in some shady dealings.

3 hours late, what a mess.

Brian Mingo is running for office; I saw his signs when we were there.

I thought so GaKaye! Great! He would be fantastic in office </sarcasm>

We have taken to staying at the airport hotel the night we return too. Just because it is easier for all involved. My cat/dog sitter doesnt have to wonder if we are actually going to make it back home.

It could be it is someone else with the same last name, as JD said, there are other people on island in positions of power (or were, anyway), with the same last name.

At least you didn't miss your connection going home, but I have to assume there were several people on your plane who did. Travelling around the holidays is a major crap shoot.

Mark Mingo. Mark and Brian Mingo are brothers.

And of like minds and behaviors?

Thank you for the correction!

Mark Mingo was at the harbor. He was acquitted on appeal in the case which involved Theo, after being sentenced to four years in jail originally.

A fine family legacy. NOT