Saving a little airfare and luggage tips

stbartshopper

stbartshopper

Senior Insider
We used to buy our plane tickets all the way through from Indianapolis to SBH. We found it was quite a bit more expensive then buying IND- SXM and then SXM-SBH. The downside is you have to claim your bags in SXM and recheck them to SBH but there is a transfer desk just near the baggage area. Also for those transferring, you are able to cut in front of the security line and go thru pretty quickly. One bag is free per person so don't let Win Air charge you for baggage. Think about your luggage- soft vs hard and where you pack things in it. Win Air shoves (crams) them with force into little spaces and we have had luggage and things inside our luggage damaged not by US Air but by Win Air. Finally, Us Air and Win Air have an agreement that allows you to check your bag from SBH all the way to your final destination but of course you have to claim your luggage for customs purposes upon entry to the U.S. Does anybody know if American and Win Air work together as well? In bound, some US Air agents will check your bags all the way to SBH and some won't- I guess it depends on the cycle of the moon but it is worth asking.
 
Without an agency to get you thru and with checked luggage, you can't bump the immigration and security lines. The airline and SXM protocols change so frequently that what is good today is not good tomorrow. That's why we update these tips throughout the year all the time.
 
AA does not have an interline baggage agreement with WM. I don't know what the status of the existing US agreement will be when the merger is completed.
 
American does not presently have a baggage agreement with Winair, but that could change as US Air and AA continue their consolidation.

Phil
 
Agree with Andy, things at SXM change frequently. This January there was an immigration line for TRANSFER ONLY (on the far left side facing the luggage carousels) which saved us from having to wait in the longer general lines. And it was policed, too. Some people followed us to this shorter line and an agent asked them if they were transferring and then had them move to a different line.

I don't recall having seen this line before, but we haven't traveled in high season for a number of years.
 
Andy is right...things change and change back without notice.
Ongoing renovations at the Princess Juliana Terminal can complicate matters as well.
I was there September, November, January and April---each time a little different.
Note: do not depend on the kiosk by the transfer desk to print boarding passes
A couple of weeks ago, without checked bags it was a return the former procedure...past the transfer desk, through security and up the elevator to the WA gate.
 
stbartslover said:
Andy is right...things change and change back without notice.
Ongoing renovations at the Princess Juliana Terminal can complicate matters as well.
A couple of weeks ago, without checked bags it was a return the former procedure...past the transfer desk, through security and up the elevator to the WA gate.

Note: there are ways, regardless of "formal" baggage agreements to get them handled and transferred to SBC or Winair.
Click to expand...


And without hiring an agency those ways are......​Jeff???
 
This was the first year I did not travel with carry on since 2005. United checked our bags from EWR to SBH. Coming home, my bags were checked from SBH to EWR, but I could not print a United boarding pass for an international flight. I tried again from the In Transit kiosk in SXM, but there was no option for United. So I went through immigration and security... No big deal at all.
 
US Airways code share agreement

stbartshopper said:
We used to buy our plane tickets all the way through from Indianapolis to SBH. We found it was quite a bit more expensive then buying IND- SXM and then SXM-SBH. The downside is you have to claim your bags in SXM and recheck them to SBH but there is a transfer desk just near the baggage area. Also for those transferring, you are able to cut in front of the security line and go thru pretty quickly. One bag is free per person so don't let Win Air charge you for baggage. Think about your luggage- soft vs hard and where you pack things in it. Win Air shoves (crams) them with force into little spaces and we have had luggage and things inside our luggage damaged not by US Air but by Win Air. Finally, Us Air and Win Air have an agreement that allows you to check your bag from SBH all the way to your final destination but of course you have to claim your luggage for customs purposes upon entry to the U.S. Does anybody know if American and Win Air work together as well? In bound, some US Air agents will check your bags all the way to SBH and some won't- I guess it depends on the cycle of the moon but it is worth asking.
Click to expand...

Just and FYI to everyone, US Airways no longer is a code share partner with WINAIR so you can NO longer check your baggage all the way through to SBH when flying US Airways.
 
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