TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin AA Flight Changes--You may be able to cancel NOW

They didn't cancel it or notified me by email but since there were no flights in or out until May 6th and since I had to cancel a hotel booking in Anguilla in order to get my deposit back, I just called AA and she gave me some ticket numbers and went to the refund site and voila!

No they didn't cancel or notify me. I just called them first and was directed to the refund site.

whoops..sorry for double post, thought something odd happened

Or not!

Very brave and admire your resolve but methinks its a little risky. what if restaurants, shops etc still closed, or an outbreak happens whilst you are there and you cant get out, etc, etc...

However, thats very negative thinking on my part and you have plenty of time to see the progress.....hope it works out for you though.

On our May 2020 SXM trip my ticket numbers were on my original confirmation email I received when I booked in Dec. 2019. Do the ticket numbers change when AA makes schedule changes?

Hi Bran, What if the restaurants are open, but just not crowded? What if we have to use Emma:
https://www.fabulousfeasts.com/locations/st-martin-f-w-i/st-martin-food-to-go/

What if Orient Beach isn't crowded, and we have it all to ourselves?

What if we get stranded here:
https://www.skyluxuryrentals.com/vacation-rental-home.asp?PageDataID=72339

What if I cave to fear, and miss the best St Martin vacation ever???

Life is an awesome, amazing adventure! A little risk makes it sweeter!

Why don't you come join us? There are a few seats left on the 22nd!

No idea but you may be able to look up any new ticket in your online account to verify the number. Just a guess on my part, but if just a schedule change was involved and a new ticket was not issued, the number would likely stay the same.

I just went into my Delta account and under "Account Activity", I could find my past tickets and the corresponding numbers. Not sure if AA has this feature or not. I am going to try and find it.

AA appears to have the same feature. Log into your account and it is under "Activity" and does show the ticket number. You should be able to verify this way.

Jaybird--I think the ticket number is the ticket number. Don't think it ever changes. If you want to request a refund, you could try the ticket number you have on your confirmation and see whether it pulls up your itinerary correctly or not.

freedomfighter--I could be wrong, often am, but based on what was in the Daily Herald the other day, I think that Juliana will be CLOSED until at least June 1.

If so, we'll go the first part of June! You can rebook and join us!

freedomfighter--well, I guess we will see what happens. Since Eric and I are both in a high risk category, even if the island reopens around June 1, we won't be there, unfortunately.

If so, we'll go the first part of June! You can rebook and join us!

Carol, in the back of my mind, I thought I read that article to say that the airport has the available liquidity to survive a 2-month hibernation under one scenario and a 6-month closure under a different analysis.

Correct

AIRPORT ARTICLE APRIL 1

The article deals with liquidity, construction AND operations. Granted, things could change quickly as they did when this ordeal started but as I read this, I would NOT expect any flights other than those indicated to happen for at least 2 months.

And a couple of paragraphs of interest:

"Mingo said the airport will go into a “hibernation period” because of the crisis, which has put an almost complete standstill to air travel. The terminal building will be secured and closed, with operations moving to the smaller fixed-base operator (FBO) facility. During this period, only cargo, medical and relief flights would be possible, said PJIAE Financial Advisor Leo van der Meiden.

Airport officials have planned for two separate scenarios, one in which the airport is shut down for two months and the other in which the airport “hibernates” for six months."

I was just getting ready to post that same link here. I had already just posed it on another thread.

I saw that. We don't need the same links on multiple threads. Thanks.

What people need to do is read the ENTIRE article and not just bits and pieces and cherry pick something. As I stated above, things CAN change but my guess would be IF they do, it will not be with moving dates forward for visitors but moving dates back. The article clearly states as I noted above, "cargo, military and relief flights". Nowhere do I see anything mentioned about AA having a flight scheduled for sometime in May arriving. AA might have it on their schedule but as SXMWendell stated in another post: "Where are they going to land" if the airport is closed?

I like your positivity FF. Hope to meet you on OB first part of June!

"Where are they going to land" if the airport is closed?"
Skydiving in?

Hey Scubaman, The only thing that is certain right now is uncertainty.
We live in Manatee County, Florida. We are under an emergency 11 pm to 5 am curfew. It did prohibit all gatherings of more than 10 people.
After threats from the local chapter of the ALCU, our county commissioners voted yesterday to allow gatherings of more than 10 on private property, but not on public property.
Two weeks ago, the head of our local emergency management team closed all our boat ramps. Our county commissioners voted yesterday to overrule, and reopen our boat ramps on Monday.
If there is that level of confusion and disarray here in America, I'm sure that it's not a lot different in St Martin. Time will tell...., but I'm hoping to be posting current pics of Orient Beach before the end of May!

In Washington State all Fishing and hunting is closed through May 4. People were going to Oregon to fish and Oregon closed all nonresident Fishing and hunting to curb Washington residents from going there. Some people don't get it. Stay at Home means Stay at Home.

I am not in SXM but 6 miles away in Anguilla.
There is not a level of confusion and dismay here as the people realize the restrictions are necessary to restrict the virus from either arriving on the island or spreading from someone already here.
Actually most are wanted these to remain until there is confidence by our health dept that some or all internal restrictions can be restricted or relaxed. We do not want our ports open till there is a way to know who will enter and their virus status.
I am sure the health people in SXM believe the same and hopefully the people will support rather than challenge them as you indicated was going on in your county.
Hope you get to SXM but at the right time and do not believe it is anytime soon.

FF..sending you a PM soon.

On the one hand, the airport is shut down except for cargo and emergencies, etc and yet didn't a poster notice yesterday that a private charter left for the US somewhere? So rules for some and not for others?

That's kind of the way it always is, if you have enough money, rules don't apply.

I believe that was a recovery flight which supposedly will be the last one.

Most countries will make arrangements for recovery flights.
Not a problem with people leaving.
Just don’t want anyone entering until we have a way to show they are not a danger to spreading the virus back into the country.
Really don’t need people there that do not want to be there.
Not about money.

Scubaman--I saw the plane on the webcam. This was a small private jet, maybe 15-20 pax or so. POSSIBLY a medical evac flight, but not a recovery flight, I doubt.

Thankfully I can afford to and happy to take the airline credit...not so sure I would take a cruise line credit but maybe. The airlines will get bailed out if needed especially in an election year. These hotels, airlines and travel companies are all fighting for thiers life's and thousands of employees future and personally I just think trying to get cash now vs credit is just aggravating and adding to the problem.

This is exactly what should happen with private flights:

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/private-jet-turned-back-cannes-france/index.html

I remember on Facebook one of the major posters was organizing a charter flight for people wanting to leave SXM about that time and some people took the offer. I assumed it was that flight.

If it is the flight and person I am thinking of, it never happened as far as I know.

forever--well, everyone has their point of view, but considering what the airlines have done to the travelling public over the years, I would much rather have the cash in my pocket than theirs.

Makes sense...better to have cash AND a choice of airlines than being stuck with one

That is sure how I would approach it.

Obviously the airlines make up hundreds of thousands of generally great hard-working employees ran by a FRACTION OF A PERCENT of greedy management and leadership. They have already gotten their millions of dollars in bonuses and stock options so bankruptcy is not gonna affect them. As in the past they will just go on to form and run new airlines doing the same old things. A bankrupt airline which I don’t think you’ll see many of , will just allow the airlines to get out of employment contracts pensions and other benefits so many families depend on. I’ve never been an airline employee but in my opinion ....Fewer Airlines will just lead to even higher fares and fees and worse service. To me it’s not a risk at all. Time will tell. By starving them of cash I’m not gonna give them any more excuses to bail out on hundreds of thousands of employee families. But to each his or her own. 😊

Wow

Not SXM flights, but AA domestic flights that we (not AA) canceled. When we canceled them, we were told that we could call to rebook anytime before the end of 2020. Once I saw this thread, I went ahead and requested the refund online. It took about three weeks, (Correction: only eight days, lol. Just seemed like 3 weeks) but we received notice that our refunds would be applied to our credit card. One small downside, and I'm not sure I'm even going to worry about it, is that we had applied $300 in vouchers that we had gotten for severely delayed flights last year, and those were not reinstated. Added note: it's possible that AA actually canceled the flights after we canceled our tickets, as I did try to find them on Flight Aware, and couldn't. Not really sure if the flights flew or not, but we did get our money back.

Wow, three weeks is a long time, but glad you got your refund. We cancelled our SXM tickets on Friday, and as of yesterday, our refund was still 'pending review', but I assume it will be issued soon.