TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands ACK! They changed my flights.+ Connecting in SJU

Ahoy all,
I've never connected through SJU before. We always flew into STT and ferried over before. Got a good deal on airfare into EIS this time. What is the procedure in SJU from American airlines to seaborn? Ticket was bought together through American. Do I have to claim and recheck luggage? Customs?

My biggest issue is return flight. My original itinerary had more than 3 hours in SJU to connect Seaborne to American. My new schedule shows a 15 MINUTE connection time! What will I have to accomplish between flights? Is it even possible? What happens if I miss my flight?

Thanks to all the experienced travelers for your knowledgeable answers.
Rick

Your outbound connex is simple. AA and Seabourn are on the same concourse. Your return is an illegal connex and impossible. Call AA and have them change the flight. On your return you need to pass thru customs and go to the AA counter for boarding passes -Seabourn at EIS does not issue AA passes.

The best we have ever done was 40 minutes to connect from EIS-SJU. This was with ZERO lines, walking FAST, and just a carry-on duffle. It will take almost 15 minutes to walk from the plane to customs.

Agree, it is a "illegal" itinerary.

Add to that, I have seen AA close the doors and deny entry 15 minutes before.

The last time we went, we did get our AA tickets from EIS Seaborne, but they did not have the TSA-Pre checkmark. Without TSA-Pre, we would not have made our connection.

Thanks for the help. Called American and fixed it. Now I'm back to a 3 hour layover in SJU. Much more comfortable with that.
If one of y'all could spell out the procedure for connecting, customs and whatever else needs to be done in SJU, going both ways, that would be helpful.

Also, how early do I need to arrive for a Seaborne flight from EIS to SJU (11 AM flight)?

Thanks,
Rick

We usually leave the moorings base 2 hours before our flight. This gets us there about 1.5 hours before the flight. That's on Cape Air though, not sure if you need a little more time for Seaborne.

As far as connecting in San Juan, we usually have about 2 hours. We fly Jet Blue and Cape Air, so it will differ, but we have in the past had to exit security and go back through - this may have changed? Typically doesn't end up being a big deal though, although we do have TSA Pre-Check - sometimes I have had to go get our tickets re-printed in San Juan though as that doesn't appear when we get them in Tortola.

With 3 hours though, you'll have plenty of time.

We occasionally come back via SJU on Seaborne to either Southwest or Jet Blue. The first few times (I believe during construction phases) we had to go outside and reenter, going through Dept of Agriculture?, prior to getting our boarding passes and going through TSA pre check. On our last flight in April, we noticed an elevator just past the baggage claim that leads right back upstairs to the ticket counters. So easy!