We always leave SBH saying it’s a long way down. Things become dramatically different when we leave. Crowds. Food. Airports. Weather. Lol
Our trip home was a cluster_____.
We grabbed a sandwich from Maya’s TG for the trip and arrived at the airport at the designated time, 1130 for our flight, per guidance from premium IV. On arrival, we are informed that the 1200 winair flight we booked months ago no longer exists, and handnt in some time. No one informed of us this until that moment. We were told our bags were going over already - they had been picked up at 1030 - otherwise wouldn’t make our 2pm flight to BOS. We were told we were on the 1220 winair flight, which would hopefully be enough time.
As we sat sat in the terminal, we get an overhead announcement that our flight was delayed to 1245. Several of us became concerned about making connections. As we sat and sat and sat, we saw our bags sitting on a dolly on the tarmac. We emailed premium IV and got an out of office message. Yikes.
We finally started to board at 1245 and several of informed the pilot of our connection issues. We accepted that our bags would be delayed. The pilot informed us he would alert “ops” of our lateness. This we would learn never happened.
We landed at last, deplane, get carryons, get on bus, get off bus, several of us in a panic, and the rep from premium IV greeted us and then asked us to stop and give him all our contact info. We said we’d email it later to arrange how our bags would get home because we didn’t have minutes to waste. And there’s no WiFi in sxm so we could just quickie email it.
We go to the transfer line line and it’s long. And not moving. An SXM guy is asking everyone about connections. At this point we have 20 mins before the doors close at 136 (per boarding pass). We tell him we are going to be late, he assures us we are fine and won’t be late. Something happens in immigration and the line stopped moving. After several anxious minutes we are told “everything is working again” and the line starts to move. We go thru security and into a long rat maze to get to immigration staring at my watch, minutes ticking by. We are separated and agree that my partner will get thru first and run to the gate to get us on the plane. It’s 130. One of the three immigration agents uses this minute to leave her station and go on a break with no replacement. I get thru and run to the gate, not easy in flip flops. Lol. I get to the gate at 135 to see the stairs being pulled back from our plane, and the JetBlue agent saying “you’re too late.” I had a meltdown. Over the next 40 minutes, the agent works to find our bags, we turn on cell service and call premium IV who doesn’t seem to recognize our name, and have them find the rep to get our bags onto our new flight. Somehow it all worked at we got on the 230 flight to JFK, arriving there around 6, and waiting there until 11 to get home to Boston at midnight. We have to pay additional bag fee. We have to pay a change fee for the ticket. As I get into the boarding line, I’m called over for secondary screening. I have never seen someone be so thorough and so slow with doing this.. opened every pocket, my wallet, my passpprt cover. Everything. It took 15 minutes. I get on my seat to find a bulkhead thing in front of me, so uncomfortable. Go to security to use our global entry and the machines stop working while my partner is doing his. We go to the transfer desk and discover we don’t have extra leg seats (I’m 6’4”) and pay the fees to get those. Thankful for the choice of Restos at JFK, had a long dinner with drinks and a bottle of wine. Got to BOS, and our bags took forever. We collect them to discover my RIMOWA case has a giant dent in it and a broken handle. Wtf. We walked into our place just before 1am. Exhausted and annoyed.
When we add up the cost of the winair tickets, the premium IV service that didn’t help, the cost of the meal, the change fees, the seat fees, the bag fees, and the lost hours, we have seriously re thought about how much sense it made to not use tradewimd from SJU this year. The total cost savings end up being $500 and I’m not sure it was worth it at all. In fact I know it wasn’t worth it, lol. Morals: don’t trust winair flight tickets. Check them. Don’t trust people who are supposedly helping you to have any intel that the flight is a problem (really? Isn’t transit a major part of the service?) don’t trust the sxm staff and let them ease your fear. Fly any other way than thru SXM. NO ONE seemed to care, it was all a “laid back” “it will be fine” hands in the air, “what can I do?” attitude. Give your JetBlue gate agent a hug for helping you get home. (There’s only one flight a week sxm-bos).
Its a long way down.
Our trip home was a cluster_____.
We grabbed a sandwich from Maya’s TG for the trip and arrived at the airport at the designated time, 1130 for our flight, per guidance from premium IV. On arrival, we are informed that the 1200 winair flight we booked months ago no longer exists, and handnt in some time. No one informed of us this until that moment. We were told our bags were going over already - they had been picked up at 1030 - otherwise wouldn’t make our 2pm flight to BOS. We were told we were on the 1220 winair flight, which would hopefully be enough time.
As we sat sat in the terminal, we get an overhead announcement that our flight was delayed to 1245. Several of us became concerned about making connections. As we sat and sat and sat, we saw our bags sitting on a dolly on the tarmac. We emailed premium IV and got an out of office message. Yikes.
We finally started to board at 1245 and several of informed the pilot of our connection issues. We accepted that our bags would be delayed. The pilot informed us he would alert “ops” of our lateness. This we would learn never happened.
We landed at last, deplane, get carryons, get on bus, get off bus, several of us in a panic, and the rep from premium IV greeted us and then asked us to stop and give him all our contact info. We said we’d email it later to arrange how our bags would get home because we didn’t have minutes to waste. And there’s no WiFi in sxm so we could just quickie email it.
We go to the transfer line line and it’s long. And not moving. An SXM guy is asking everyone about connections. At this point we have 20 mins before the doors close at 136 (per boarding pass). We tell him we are going to be late, he assures us we are fine and won’t be late. Something happens in immigration and the line stopped moving. After several anxious minutes we are told “everything is working again” and the line starts to move. We go thru security and into a long rat maze to get to immigration staring at my watch, minutes ticking by. We are separated and agree that my partner will get thru first and run to the gate to get us on the plane. It’s 130. One of the three immigration agents uses this minute to leave her station and go on a break with no replacement. I get thru and run to the gate, not easy in flip flops. Lol. I get to the gate at 135 to see the stairs being pulled back from our plane, and the JetBlue agent saying “you’re too late.” I had a meltdown. Over the next 40 minutes, the agent works to find our bags, we turn on cell service and call premium IV who doesn’t seem to recognize our name, and have them find the rep to get our bags onto our new flight. Somehow it all worked at we got on the 230 flight to JFK, arriving there around 6, and waiting there until 11 to get home to Boston at midnight. We have to pay additional bag fee. We have to pay a change fee for the ticket. As I get into the boarding line, I’m called over for secondary screening. I have never seen someone be so thorough and so slow with doing this.. opened every pocket, my wallet, my passpprt cover. Everything. It took 15 minutes. I get on my seat to find a bulkhead thing in front of me, so uncomfortable. Go to security to use our global entry and the machines stop working while my partner is doing his. We go to the transfer desk and discover we don’t have extra leg seats (I’m 6’4”) and pay the fees to get those. Thankful for the choice of Restos at JFK, had a long dinner with drinks and a bottle of wine. Got to BOS, and our bags took forever. We collect them to discover my RIMOWA case has a giant dent in it and a broken handle. Wtf. We walked into our place just before 1am. Exhausted and annoyed.
When we add up the cost of the winair tickets, the premium IV service that didn’t help, the cost of the meal, the change fees, the seat fees, the bag fees, and the lost hours, we have seriously re thought about how much sense it made to not use tradewimd from SJU this year. The total cost savings end up being $500 and I’m not sure it was worth it at all. In fact I know it wasn’t worth it, lol. Morals: don’t trust winair flight tickets. Check them. Don’t trust people who are supposedly helping you to have any intel that the flight is a problem (really? Isn’t transit a major part of the service?) don’t trust the sxm staff and let them ease your fear. Fly any other way than thru SXM. NO ONE seemed to care, it was all a “laid back” “it will be fine” hands in the air, “what can I do?” attitude. Give your JetBlue gate agent a hug for helping you get home. (There’s only one flight a week sxm-bos).
Its a long way down.