The Insiders' Guide to St. Barths: SXM Departure Tax REFUND

A How to Do Report--

We flew USAIR and before we left I was told by the International Agent on the phone that I had to complete my trip before they would consider a refund for the Departure Tax I was charged by USAIR.
So when I got home I sent the following letter on my legal stationary:

February 19, 2008

US Airways Passenger Refund Department
4000 E. Skyharbor Blvd.
Phoenix, AZ 85034

RE: St. Maarten Departure Tax Refund

Dear Sir:

On February 3, 2008, my wife, Phyllis, and I flew USAIR flight 1209 from Philadelphia to St. Maarten. On the same day, both of us flew from St. Maarten to St. Barth on St. Barth Commuter flight 239.

We returned from St. Barth to St. Maarten on February 10, 2008, on St. Barth Commuter flight 232 and left on the same day for Philadelphia aboard USAIR’s flight 1036.

When I obtained my tickets from USAIR I was charged $30.00 for each ticket for a St. Maarten Departure Tax. St. Maarten only charges a Departure Tax if the person is staying overnight in St. Maarten and not if he/she is Intransit. There is a $5.00 Transit Fee for Intransit travelers.

I am enclosing copies of the following:
1. 2 Invoices from USAIR showing the $30.00 Departure Tax charge;
2. Our Boarding passes from USAIR- PHL/SXM & SXM/PHL;
3. Our E-tickets from St. Barth Commuter;
4. Our Boarding passes from St. Barth Commuter- SXM/SBH & SBH/SXM; and ,
5. The face pages of our Passports and pages from our Passports showing stamped dates from St. Maarten and St. Barth.

Please refund me $25.00 for each ticket for a total of $50.00

Very truly yours,"

I did not hear from them for 2 months so 2 weeks ago, I emailed the customer service rep
Henrí Dawes (Ms.)
Director, customer relations
4000 E. Sky Harbor Boulevard
Phoenix, AZ 85034
(866) 523-5333

and attached a copy of my letter. I heard nothing.
So yesterday I emailed the Executive Office
at executive.office@usairways.com

Voila- today I got the following response:

Dear Mr.:

Please let me start by apologizing for the delay. When I first received your email from Ms. Dawes I forwarded over to our refund department for their handling. They had stated that they were going to refund the departure tax per ticket. I had assumed it was taken care of by their departure.

I have contacted the manager of the refund department and she has issued the refund. The refund was processed on May 12, 2008. Please allow 7-10 days or 1-2 billing cycles to post to your credit card statement.

Again I apologize for the delay. We appreciate your business and look forward to any opportunity to welcome you aboard.

Sincerely,

Sharon Baker
Executive Liaison
US Airways "

I will admit this was an obsession and a matter of principle- St. Maarten was NOT going to steal my money.

By the way- I got all of the email and phone numbers and postal addresses from this site:

http://www.elliott.org/help/us-airways/

--------------------
Andy -
St. Barts- where no day is ever the same and one day is not enough