jamiem4
SBH Insider
We made it Dennis! I'm sending a PM because I'm sure the forum doesn't wish to hear all about the experience. Tradewind was delayed and there were obviously some flight cancellations that was creating discontentment (to say the least) for some TW travelers. We got lucky and departed 2hrs late on one of the few flights to SBH so no complaints! The dogs were happy! Additionally I'm probably not posting in the correct area of this forum...please forgive me! I'm not sure if this post is related to T/S Jerry or not.
We landed in San Juan yesterday around 11:15am ET and made our way to the TW check-in. I will note for forum members flying through San Juan to the mainland USA that the USDA lines were the longest I have seen - even post Irma. The nice guy who helped us with our bags said that all scanners were down. There are two main scanning lines and a third if needed. He said that there was a shortage of personnel...and to make it more painful, previously other trained individuals would be asked to assist with the screening/scanning however that was disallowed as of Friday. Now every bag had to be manually searched. We observed two personnel doing this (taking everyone's stuff out basically and re-packing it) hence the line extended outside the airport for the USDA scan closest to Jet Blue/TW and all the way down to where the hotel is for the one across from the Delta/American departure. I don't have any idea if this was just a software issue of the day, or something else. We travel with the two little dogs so our main focus was on getting to TW passing by a sea of people waiting for the USDA bag check (both checkpoints were backed up.)
Tomorrow my husband flies back to mainland USA...He has to give himself at least an extra hour or more if the scanners are still down! At least he doesn't have the dogs and luggage to drag around! I'm sure more people are in the know but this would be my heads up to anyone flying from San Juan to mainland USA. Once through security, for folks who may experience delays, the new Escape lounge (across from gate B2) is open for AMEX folks if you have extra time. It sure is a much cleaner place to spend time and an improvement over the older Priority Pass lounge.
See you soon Dennis!
