TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Rotten end to a great trip!

Well, we're back home. Got back home at midnight last night. Our second to last day, our laptop crashed. In general, that wouldn't be a big deal, as it was old. But I had copied all my pictures from this trip onto the laptop and wiped my camera cards! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" /> So, other than the few pictures we uploaded here (smaller versions anyway), I have no pictures from the trip until the final day and a half.. We will try to see if we can resurrect the hard drive or not, but I'm not at all certain, since there's nothing else on there that's worth saving, so it's not worth putting a lot of money into.

AND...Miami was a freaking ZOO last night.. Our flight left SXM about 40 minutes late. Kind of weird, they held a TOTALLY full plane for 40 minutes, something about getting a medical clearance for someone to fly. We had no problem getting right to a gate and there is now a tram which took us from the gate to immigration, which was a very short walk. That's when things fell apart. The electronic kiosks weren't working right, as probably at least 1/3 of people were getting an "x" through their picture. Eric again was a lucky one and got the "x". Probably 15 minutes in the "x" line, and we waited maybe 20 minutes after that for luggage and then there was CUSTOMS. OMG!! We have never seen customs like that before. I honestly don't know how long we waited in the customs line but it was forever. It was 1 hour and 45 minutes from when our plane landed until we were through immigration and customs. Lots of people were missing flights. We were happy to 'only' have to drive 3 1/2 hours from there. The 'mobile app' thing was in place there, but I never actually saw anyone using it..

Well that all really does put a sad ending to an otherwise good vacation. Sorry to hear of all the issues but I guess you'll just have to schedule another trip to make up for it. Promise him anything, but give him frites fancais? Or you could always make them yourselves and I hear LGM has a great sale going on!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Yeah, I never did get those frites! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Smile.gif" alt="" />

Same Miami situation for us last week. The kiosks were working fine, but the lines were all long. We had the same 1:45 time from landing to immigration/customs clearance. Were you on the same 3:00 AA flight to Miami that we took? I'm thinking there must be a ton of international flights getting in....all around 6:00. At one point, I was even thinking it would be easier to go SXM to Charlotte to Orlando. Just to avoid Miami.

The kiosk seems to work great, fast, etc.

What appeared to be happening is that one person in the family would end up with the X, which then made everybody have to do the regular line. Saw very few families that made it to the non X line. Singles seemed to make it to the clear line fairly often.

I don't know what they were doing at customs -- as normally you walk up say Hi they glance at you and send you on your way. Last night they were actually asking questions of "everybody". Saw more people being directed to the additional section (additional baggage scan/duty payment area) then I have ever seen before.

That is where the hang up on the whole process was.

Yes, we were on the 3 PM flight. We were on that exact same flight in December 2014 and had no problems..

I wonder if it has something to do with the resent TSA scandal with immigration/customs putting more emphasis in screening people so as not to look complacent.

Customs is supposed to be for control of what people are bringing into the country, like drugs or meat or fruits, etc., not security per se. Last night was craziness though...

Maybe they were just flexing their muscles so not to be in the same boat as the TSA.

Once it was our turn.... getting through only took a few seconds. The problem for us was the long lines and the time it took waiting in them.

When we arrived at JFK from Rome June 10 I got the X. The line with people getting the X was LONG and they put me thru the third degree with questions. When I finally said we were visiting our son in Rome all was good. She wanted to know who he worked for and did he like it there. Go figure. She would love to visit Rome. LOL

Global Entry makes life a lot easier. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

We only travel internationally about two times a year now, so it probably wouldn't be worth our while, but one begins to wonder!

We are going via Miami on our return in a few weeks, with an overnight. Do they have a line for non US citizens? Would like to make it out of the airport and at the hotel in 90 minutes so we can catch a Miami Marlins baseball game

I believe the "x" machine is also for Canadians, so I think that won't help you. I don't know if the lines now are always as bad as they were last night, but last night, I was counting from when the wheels touched down until we were through immigration and customs and it was 1 hour 45 minutes. (Our plane was 25 minutes late landing, so I did not count that time in there.) Your mileage may vary. Before last night, we had often been through immigration and customs and out the door within around an hour. Last night we did have to wait for checked luggage, so without checked luggage, you could do it in 90 minutes.

We had the same problem in Miami last July on the way back from Curacao and then this past January on the way back from Port of Spain. We got the X the immigration lines went fast. When we went down to custom to pick up our luggage to recheck to Houston it was at least 2 hours wait. The lines were long and there was no order everyone was cutting and total chaos. We decided after that to get global entry it’s good for 5 years. As our route from Houston to and from the Caribbean is thru Miami .

Wow, 2 hours for customs??? Ridiculous!! In December, we didn't have much delay at all in customs, basically walked straight through and just maybe 5 minutes for the 'x' line, and we were all through in less than an hour from when we landed. If this is going to be the case for Miami all the time, we may go for Global Entry also.

What is the "x" line?

When you use the automated machine, you put your passport in, answer some questions, then you stand and have your picture taken by the machine. If your picture (or the whole paper, I can't remember which) has an X through it, you have to go through a more thorough screening line. If you have no X (which mine did not, but Eric's did), then you go straight through the immigration line. As Eric said, it seemed like almost every family, at least one of the family members had an "x", therefore of course, everyone would go through the "x" line, because they didn't want to be separated. I have no clue what causes a person to get an "x" on their form, but possibly it's totally random. So, if for instance, the machine randomly picks 10%, say, of people to get an "x", if there are 4 people in the family, now there are four people in the random pool, when they only intended 1. I don't know, it would be interesting to hear if it is a glitch in the machines themselves, or whether it is something to do with the camera or what, as to the reason why so many people are getting the 'x'..

There is a video playing on the AA screen before landing and, while I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it, I believe they said that foreign nationals who had entered the US two times in the past few years could use the automated system..

We only fly internationally once a year but domestic more than that. I know it's not a guarantee but we have always had TSA PRE on our boarding passes since getting Global Entry. 100.00 for 5 years is worth it for us.

Well, that's certainly a different issue, but a valid point. That has been stated here before, that pre-check wasn't guaranteed with Global Entry. But the video from the Customs and Immigration service which was playing on the AA screens sure seemed to say it was guaranteed.

I think that coming with the new changes for PRE that the airlines will no longer be able to issue it unless you have been vetted with TSA Pre or Global Entry.

I'll be using the app coming back from SXM on Monday though Miami. I'm just doing a quick 4 night trip.

Last Saturday's 8:30a.m. flight had the same problem. I got an "X", asked an agent near by and he told me to take off my glasses and try again. I did so and it worked fine.

I should have asked him how we could have shortened the time. Maybe if I took off my glasses it would also have been quicker.

Eric doesn't wear glasses, so that certainly wasn't it, as far as he was concerned.

I will be interested to hear how it goes.

Free advice is worth what you or I pay for it - not for nothing BUT several years ago I went thru the global entry, tsa pre-check etc - cost was $100 for 5 years Carol, or $20 per year or $10 per your bi-annual sxm trip - ya think you could justify $10 TO AVOID your mess in Miami - BTW Miami is what made me say it was the best $100 I spent in a VERY long time. I would easily pay $50 to avoid what you just experienced in Miami and call it a terrific bargin!!!

Before this trip, we had been going twice a year since 2006 (usually from Miami) and usually clear immigration and customs within an hour of when the plane landed. Before this trip, it has not been bad at all. And Global Entry has only been available for what two years?? Anyway, we will closely follow others' reports from Miami for the next few months.

And, as I said in the original note, part of the rotten end was the laptop dying and --as of now, anyway -- losing all my pictures from the trip. That is a far more lasting problem than the return home.

So sorry about the MIA hassles (doesn't make me look forward to Saturday morning when I'll be going through there) but am especially sorry about your photos. I'm downloading mine to my Surface daily but am not going to wipe my card until I get back home. A trip report from you without photos just won't be the same. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />

I am so distressed about the photos. I always seem to have a million copies of the same photos on the laptop and on my camera cards, so this time, I thought I would be more organized... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Mad.gif" alt="" />

Best wishes with your trip home. Sorry that we didn't get together on island.

Without any indication of what actually 'died' with the laptop, it's hard to say, but there are lots of programs available to pull data from 'failed' drives and even 'erased' memory cards.

Surely Eric has some ideas to try for recovery?

gary

Treat yourself to some of those big french fries this weekend.

Last month traveling thru Miami only three of the five kiosks were working, why does Miami only have five compared to Newark, Philly, BWI, CLT................. which have aleast ten!

In MIA there may have been only 5 global entry machines, but there were at least 20 of the other machines at our entry point. There was another entry point into immigration so assume they had the same number there.

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" /> I almost thought about making some here at home last night!

He thinks maybe it is just the power supply, which if so, possibly a fairly easy fix. However, will probably be at least the weekend before he can think about it.

Carol,
I believe the night before your arrival in Miami, there was extremely bad weather in the Northeast. You know that screws us up down here. Even Amtrak was shut from downed trees on the rails etc.
Sorry.
But I do think GE is worth it anyway.
Cheers
irina

I actually don't think that weather had anything to do with it, certainly not weather in the northeast US. Our plane landed without any trouble and we went straight to a gate and the other flights coming in were all international, mostly from the Caribbean. We were late leaving SXM, but that was because of the supposed medical issue with a passenger. I have no idea how security was and whether there were backups of planes leaving Miami, as we drove from there. As far as affecting OUR trip, whatever crap was going on was isolated to C & I.

If you want to minimize issues there are two failure points, customs and baggage claim. We do global entry and carry our bags, even for 2 weeks. I understand that GE costs money and carry on for that long just doesn't work for most people but we get through every time. It really helps to stay in a place with a washer and dryer, again not an option for everyone.