tim
Moderator
Reged: 06/18/03
Posts: 5966
Loc: Vélo, Virginia, Vitet
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I saw a post on Greg's site about Terrance at www.airsxm.com arranging shared private charters. Does anyone know how it works, whose airplanes Terrance uses for these charters, and what is the cost?
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stbartslover
Reged: 02/09/03
Posts: 864
Loc: Ann Arbor. Flamands Blue
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Tim, We've used them along with our rental villa Guests, with excellent, although limited results thus far. It may have been Terrence (one of the co-owners) who arranged your shared charter over in December when you and others were stranded by Winair. AirSxm is a broker of charter aircraft to the islands. Advantages: the plane is waiting there for you, and you can deduct what you might pay for one of the baggage handling companies since they do this as part of their service. Prices comparable or less than SB Commuter, and like everything St. Maarten: USD's instead of Euros, AND if you don't fly--they don't get paid. As one who worked in air charter in an earlier life, I found the staff to be absolutely first rate. Jeff Late day, Caroline and I were hurrying, schepping boxes through Princess J to the aircraft van. Getting in, I remembered not paying, or even making arrangements. I got out and yelled back, response: "get to your plane---we'll bill you later." Imagine that with one of the others?
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tim
Moderator
Reged: 06/18/03
Posts: 5966
Loc: Vélo, Virginia, Vitet
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Jeff,
Can these shared charters be arranged in advance? Whose planes are they using?
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stbartslover
Reged: 02/09/03
Posts: 864
Loc: Ann Arbor. Flamands Blue
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Yes, they are typically arranged well in advance, via the airSXM website. Aircraft: Winward Air, Air C., Air Anguilla, or new Air Antilles based SBH. Winair does this as well, brokering charter aircraft from others to meet demand for reserved seats. For some reason that did not happen as much this season, one of the reasons for their chronic late-day overbooking.
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GayleR
Reged: 11/18/02
Posts: 1200
Loc: Toronto, Canada
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We were delighted with the service Terrance provided for us in December. We really didn't want to stay overnight in SXM. Terrance and I had been emailing for a few weeks prior to our departure and the night before we left he emailed to say he'd be waiting for us and was quite confident he could get us over to the island the day we arrived in SXM.
Terrance actually works with any airline he can get seats on for you, as well as people running charters. Prices vary wildy depending on the arrangements. On the day we arrived he was working with Air Caraibes and got us two seats, had Rolando transfer our luggage and escorted us personally. It cost us the Air Caraibes seat costs + their mark up ($135) and an additional $60US to transfer our luggage and "handle us". It saved us having to overnight in SXM but I was unable to get a refund on the $250 hotel room. I am still trying to get a credit from Winair for our flight which was scheduled the next day and we cancelled the day prior. Interesting that our Winair flight the next day was supposed to be at 10:05 a.m. but when I went to cancel the seats we were booked on a 4:00 p.m. I took copies of all the agent's print outs and am hopeful I will eventually get a credit.
IMO it was absolutely worth it and Terrance was professional, responsive and a joy to deal with.
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MartinS
Reged: 05/25/03
Posts: 766
Loc: Anna Maria Island, Florida.
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Gayle, Don't let it go too long. I ended up having to dispute an Air Caraibes charge that I was waiting for the credit on, and am I ever glad I did. I'm sure it was pushed way back to the background of their stuff and I never would have seen it otherwise. I waited 2 months and several e-mails (unanswered) before I went that route though. J
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