After a very short night, which made for a very long day yesterday, I arrived SXM about 3:15 yesterday. We got out of DAY early and landed in ATL almost 1 hour early. A very smooth flight with just a little turbulence at the end. This made for over a 3 hour layover, the plane was boarded and full and ready for departure about 10 minutes early. I heard some announcement about security (after the doors were closed) and then sat at the gate for 40 minutes. No idea what that was about. I was on Delta coming to SXM
I was in regular coach and was next to a couple from SD who were first time visitors. They had a lot of questions and were surprised when I told them to NEVER leave anything in the car unless they were with it or could live without it. We continued our conversation while in the long and ETREMELY slow line for the kiosk where you scan your passport. A conservative estimate would be LESS than 10% of the arrivals had filled out the form ahead of time and were painfully doing it then. It was excruciating to watch as what should have taken us less than 10 minutes took about 40. Once in a while you would see an arriving passenger scan their passport, get a photo and get a green check mark and proceed in a matter of a minute or so. That is how it is supposed to work.
I got to a kiosk, and it scanned my passport successfully but would not take my photo. An agent assisted me (when she was not manually doing the entries for the clueless who had not done the form online) and finally told me to proceed to the next line to see an agent. This moved very fast. My luggage was waiting and my friends who had arrived on Friday met me in front of the airport.
I am with my usual March travel group, with the addition of a young man who is making his second visit to SXM. We have a 3 bedroom penthouse unit at Royal Palm. A great view and nicely appointed as it is a wholly owned unit and not rented as a timeshare.
After some unpacking it was off to Lee's for me while I dropped the others at The Greenhouse. I had a couple of drinks and an excellent Mahi with rice and fried plantain. Service at the bar from Val and Germaine and a visit with Lee who made an appearance. He looked very good and was a pleasure to talk to. I walked to the Greenhouse to meet the others, who were just finishing their meals. Both Lee's and The Greenhouse were very busy, with The Greenhouse being at full capacity.
After a couple of glasses of water on the deck, it was time for bed.
I will attach a picture of the Mahi.
If you know anyone arriving, stress to them to fill out the arrival form online. It will make things so much easier for everyone.
Also, please excuse any grammar or spelling issues as my spellcheck is not working for some reason.
It's just incredible to me that they don't have a separate line for those who have not completed the entry form. Until there is a consequence for not filling it out in advance, I believe the behaviors will not change.
So, here's the question. If you don't come here to TTOL or other social media sites, how do you know you are supposed to fill out the form? The only reason I knew is because of coming here. The airlines need to do a better job of informing people as they are the ones that know people are going to SXM.
As for a separate lines, That might happen in like 10 years!
So, here's the question. If you don't come here to TTOL or other social media sites, how do you know you are supposed to fill out the form?
When I reviewed my trip itinerary on Delta's website there was a message at the top that said something like "you have travel documents to review". One is to verify your passport and the other is the link to the entry.sx website. I don't know what other airlines do. But I did know about the form from TTOL.
So, here's the question. If you don't come here to TTOL or other social media sites, how do you know you are supposed to fill out the form?
When I reviewed my trip itinerary on Delta's website there was a message at the top that said something like "you have travel documents to review". One is to verify your passport and the other is the link to the entry.sx website. I don't know what other airlines do. But I did know about the form from TTOL.
Sounds like you are off off a great start. I always like Lee's for my first night and you can't beat Greenhouse for food, service and value. So glad they are so close and walking distance to our home resort. Enjoy.
Air Transat from Toronto also has a link on their website to fill out the entry form. When we checked our bags in Toronto we had to show a hard copy or the approved entry form on your phone or you weren't getting on the plane. Plenty of people were filling out the form at the airport. For those pax that didn't check bags they were called up to the gate attendant to show the completed form and again people were scrambling to fill out the form. I said to my wife that a completed form was not necessary to get into SXM as you could still go through customs as before. But now realize that Air Transat was trying to speed up the entry process when arriving. No completed form and you are not getting on the plane. Maybe all the airlines should be following this procedure.
Unfortunately many people who travel are not to up to date on the ins and outs of what to do. Now most of the people here at TTOL are seasoned travelers like myself who take pride in knowing the ins and outs to make the travel process as smooth as possible we are the exception to this rule. I spend about 6 months out of the year traveling for work all over and I see many people totally clueless on travel practices and etiquette. So if you only have to deal with this at SXM consider yourself lucky
Obviously, since JD came in on Delta, they are not requiring that the form be filled out ahead of time, unlike Air Transat. One issue at this point is that, unless something has changed, the official word from the current tourism minister is that the form is NOT required to be filled out ahead of time. Theoretically the airlines shouldn't be able to require it to be filled out ahead of time. SXM airport officials have created the problem and the problem will not be resolved until SXM requires the airlines to require the form to be filled out ahead of time. And if it is not filled out ahead of time, those people need to be in a separate line and ENFORCE it. Even if there is NO line in the other line, unless it's filled out ahead of time, you have to wait in a different line.
The program which was created to handle this has had MANY bugs in it. Perhaps that's the reason they are not requiring it to be filled out yet, as they can't seem to fix them. As far as I know, there is still no option to actually PRINT OUT the form, only the option for a screen capture. That is just a simple fix in the computer program to allow that. Should have been an option from the very beginning.
There IS a separation for those who have and have not filled out the online form...Passport Control with humans (on the right side) is supposed to take those who haven't done the form before arrival BUT that gets rellay overwhelmed and they then divert everyone to the kiosk line which, as mentioned, then backs up both areas...
WIth the plethora of social media sites and TTOL, I am amazed that lack of people knowing about this. Even the first time visitors I met from SD knew about it.
Delta did indicate to be "fly ready", one had to do the form. When I did the online checkin, I noted that I had done the form. There were more then Delta passengers in the line.
Regardless. It is a flawed system that needs attention.
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