TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin wondering

Sitting here in snow wondering how many people (lucky, in my opinion) are stranded in SXM because of closed airports stateside?

Probably no problem getting accommodations since lots haven't made it down as yet.

Wish I was...I'm looking out my back yard at a solid 8" of snow

No snow here in southern Ontario ...which is not the norm...strange .....congrats to our American neighbours who did a nice job managing a bad situation ..... 68 days and counting ... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

I'm here in Toronto (very near Lake Ontario) and there are only small bits of snow here and there. Hard to believe we're coming to the end of January. 16 days for me!

Surprisingly, here in Rhode Island only 3 or 4 inches. As long as it doesn't snow March 12th when we leave Boston for SXM I don't care how much it does before that.

I'll chime in since we just got back from SXM last week (timing is everything). I spent the weekend snow blowing and shoveling 28 inches of the fluffy white stuff that was supposed to be 8-14 inches.
I was in sales for most of my working life and we were accused of being less than honest and accurate. How come everyone loves the weatherman?
Truthfully, it is beautiful and I love the essence of Winter in PA.

In the second week of January 1996 there was a major storm not unlike what is happening now. If I remember correctly, the east cost airports were closed for about three days. We were staying at the Pelican and were scheduled to leave the island on the first day the east coast weather broke. This was just by chance. When we got to the old terminal there was a three day backlog of people tryin to get out. It was utter chaos. It would have taken a fleet of Airbus 380s to fly out all these people. We were lucky because this was our scheduled departure date. Our routing was suppose to be Liat to SJU, Delta to SLC then SEA, GEG. Great! We got to the Liat gate and no aircraft. Airline employee "Don't worry we will get you to SJU in time for your flight out." Time passes and it is quit obvious that we will miss our Delta flight. I was getting ready to ask the Liat representative what they were going to do to get us home when an American Airlines employee asked the Liat woman if she could ask the people on our flight if they would give up their seats so the could get more of their back log of disgruntled passengers out of SXM. The answer was yes. Now it was quite obvious that the airlines serving the east coast were not going to get all their backlogged fliers out to day and we would be among them fighting for a room. I asked the AA person what kind of a deal would they give us for our three seats. The answer was a night at the Maho, (back when it was almost first-class), Meal chits for where ever we wanted to eat and a one-stop flight to GEG the next day. Deal! Had an extra day in paradise, a couple of great meals, and a quicker trip home. So that is the story of the end of my first trip to SXM.

I forgot to mention the $650 per person vouchers that AA gave us. It was all the incentive we need to go again next year.

Great story

The essence of winter in PA is wearing thin on me. The 31" we have here in Amishland is more than my snowblower can handle. I'm waiting for a snowplow to open one lane in my driveway so I can make it to the doctor's to have these darn kidney stones removed. Of all times for it it snow.

We had a somewhat similar experience all the way back to1985. John and I were bringing our two daughters for one of their earliest trips and we were using a friends two bedroom villa at Mullet Bay. We were pretty naive travelers back then and had basically no clue as to what might happen if we arrived late since there was no credit card holding our reservation and this was the first time we'd actually used his place.

It was the Saturday before Easter and we were a party of four, and all of us were holding pretty nice seat assignments. The flight was way oversold and the AA gate agents were about at the point of begging people to give up their seats. Did I mention they were offering cold, green spendable dollars and the offer kept climbing? Three hundred! Four hundred! Four hundred fifty! Five hundred! Five hundred fifty.....do the math? Twenty-two hundred dollars cash for our family of four with an absolute assurance we'd be on the next plane out. He was good to go! And then there was practical Patty.

All I could think about was WHAT IF they didn't hold our reservation? WHAT IF, when we didn't arrive on the appropriate flight, they gave our suite away? And worse case scenario - what if we ended up having to pay the full $450.00 a day rate for the ten days of our trip?

Needless to say, we didn't give up our seats and we arrived on AA #667 on time. In the course of checking in, DH asked what would have happened if we'd not arrived on the scheduled flight they had in our reservation record. You wouldn't have wanted to see the look he gave me when the desk clerk told him, "no problem, Sir, we would have held the villa open for the full ten days since that's what the owner reserved!"

DH finally started talking to me again about day three of our trip. We never had that high an offer again and all the future over-sold trips we encountered, they were offering travel vouchers instead of spendable US dollars. Oh, well, live and learn...... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

We remember that storm and were also in Sint Maarten when it hit. We returned home to find our driveway and walkways plowed and cleared by some very kind people that were part of a business that I had just started the year before.
We will always remember our good fortune and new friends.

When will wives start listening to their husbands. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

I commiserate with you for I'm going through that now. Good thing it didn't flare up while you were in SXM!

Wish you well.

And vice versa. Similar as Pat upon return from Jamaica flight to Miama delayed. Arrived with 10 mins to get connection told customs guy most of us were on that flight. They let us thru in bulk. Ran to gate to find they had started to give seats away. You'd think an airline would think there was a problem when 60% hadn't shown.

Anyway, we were offered money, hotel and out first flight next day. I raise my hand immediately and was chosen but hubby said no he MUST get to work so I told them never mind.

On flight to Prov. with a stop in Hartford the CT airport closed due to storm. Didn't get home until next day. Hubby reported to work and got a "laid-off" notice along with 5 others.

All I said to him was "next time listen to me."