TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Returning via Miami vs Charlotte

So United Airlines has screwed around with their EWR/SXM flights that we've been using for the last half dozen years in May. We can fly down non-stop on any day of the week we want to go for a reasonable fare, leaving at 8am and arriving around noon. The problem is the return flight home the next week. United only has Saturday flights for a horrendous fee.

So the choices for our return flight both seem to be on American Airlines, First is a return through Charlotte with a 1 hour 56 minute connection; the second is a stop-over in Miami with a 2 hour 45 minute connection.

Are either of these doable, and does anyone have any comments about either of these Airports and the above mentioned connection times, including clearing customs and rechecking back in.

Thanks,

Scott

Wife & I flew through Miami once & will never, never fly through Miami again. Charlotte is awesome & you're layover time should be fine for customs etc. Just my thoughts.

I can only chime in on Miami as we went through there on our return in October. We were to have a 3 hour layover and it took almost all that time to get through imagration and customs. Imagration's computer system was down and thousands of people were lined up. Many planes came in at the same time and it was pure Hell. We bypassed said lines by downloading the mobile app and even then the kiosks for that line were spitting everyone out with an X. My suggestion is go through Charlotte which has a smaller operation. In the end our flight to New Orleans was delayed by 2 1/2 hours. Not a fun day. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/smashpc.gif" alt="" />

Problem solved... flying home SXM to JFK direct on Jet Blue... now to find the most reasonable way to get from JFK to home in Jersey City during Friday Night rush hour.

Fly home direct on Delta or Jetblue. No rules that you need to fly roundtrip on the same airline. Vote with your wallet and pick the airline that works best for you.

Uber.

I'm glad you solved your problem, but for the benefit of others who may be viewing this thread, we have done both. And Charlotte is the better way to be routed if you can. Miami is a nightmare of an airport. There will still be long lines at customs, etc. in CLT, but since it's a smaller airport it's easier to get to your connecting gate. We avoid Miami like the plague; in the good old days when we could connect through San Juan, that was the best. Charlotte comes in second.

For our last several trips, we've only returned thru MIA usually on the morning flt from SXM on a Thu or Fri. Had 3 hr layovers and usually took about 45 mins to clear customs and immigration each time. Have read comments from other TTOL folks about Charlotte indicating sometimes its great but other times not so much (long waits on tarmac or not enough personnel manning the customs and immigration lines). Suspect its all about which day and at what time you'll be traveling thru.