My SXM sAAga

Tiffany

Senior Insider
We just spent the most beautiful week on St. Barts only to have it end with one of our worst travel experiences ever, and we’ve had some doozies!

We were scheduled to go home to Norfolk through Charlotte, but when the winter storm started developing, we switched our return to go through Miami. Our Winair flight was 2 hours before the CLT flight, but 4 hours before MIA and we couldn’t get a later flight on Winair without cutting it too close. We headed to SXM with the mindset that we’d be spending 4 hours there. No biggie.

Well, 10 hours later, yes TEN, we finally boarded our flight to MIA. AA kept delaying the flight in 10 to 30 minute increments to what ended up totaling a more than 5 hour delay. Our 5 pm flight finally left at 10:40 pm. Missed our connections, spent 2 hours in airport hotel last night, and now waiting at MIA to board a Delta flight at 6 am through ATL to get home. AA couldn’t get us home before Tuesday, and practically the whole plane was in the same connection predicament.

Ironically, had we stayed on the CLT flight we would have slept in our own bed last night and not 30 minutes in airport hotel one...it was 2 am when we got to the room and they told us to be back down at 4 am. Uuugghhhh.

By the time we left SXM, only 1 toilet in the ladies room was working and the place was freezing. I actually bought a blanket in the SXM airport as did many others. Who would have thought???? They were making a fortune off of those $20 blankets.

If you are traveling through MIA, beware. The attendant at the hotel here in MIA said they’ve had a lot of delays lately on the SXM flight resulting in missed connections. AA said our issue was mechanical. Who knows. When it finally landed in SXM, everyone was screaming “the plane, the plane.” Lol. Fantasy Island it was not, but St. Barts is and that’s why we’ll risk subjecting ourselves to this again and again.

On a positive note, Le Bistro in SXM has half bottles of Minuty for $20! They probably need a day or two to restock after yesterday, ha ha.
 
I feel your pain Tiffany. Our sentiments exactly, whatever is necessary to enjoy the beauty and tranquility of our beloved Paradise! Welcome home.
 
Andy, I thought about that too regarding A/A in and out of Charlotte. Just praying we have no snow for our flight down on January 5th.
 
Because of the connection risk, we always fly to Charlotte the night before so we know we will be on the flight to San Juan the next morning to connect to Tradewind. We gave up on SXM several years ago. It has been a ‘breeze ‘ ever since. The early morning flights most of the time are the first flights of the day so the weather risk is local but there is always the potential for mechanical. Ahhhhh! St. Barthelemy!
 
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