and another thing...

Our flight from PHL to SXM on AA was slightly late in arriving yesterday due to a detour to avoid Hermine.. we landed at 2:10pm instead of 1:49pm but since our SB Commuter flight was at 3:15pm we figured no sweat, as we had only carry on... so we were a bit surprised to find the agent from SB Commuter very nicely waiting for us in the arrivals area before the transit desks with our boarding passes in hand... the thing was, to our surprise, there was a long line at the transit security line, where usually there are very few people.. I'd say there were 30 to 40 people in line... turns out that Air France has made a baggage arrangement with Winair, so all the passengers on Air France from Paris no longer have to clear customs to transit to St Barth or other islands.. so I'd leave a little more time than usual if you are planning to transit through SXM, more people than before are using that line...

Oy.

They've sussed out our secret. They SXM checkpoint agents on that duty must be pissed - they actually have to work now! (OK, in all fairness, the SXM checkpint agents at that location did their job completely and competently when I last transited that checkpoint. I forget what they busted me for, but they busted me.)

Ellen, thanks for the "heads up".

Let's hope Delta, American and US Air can make the same arrangements with Win Air that Air France has! Does anybody have any news on this?

that would be nice. It is now a selling point for Air France, direct baggage transfer to St Barth.

Delta used to have it. we miss it!

and -- Ellen - thanks for the heads up!

Just something to keep an eye on... since in high season most of the tourists do not come from France, things might not be as hectic as on Saturday when many folks from France were hurrying back for school which started today and the end of vacation for a lot of workers... but it is different with the new baggage agreement for sure!