Tradewinds -is this the norm?

[sem]

This was our first time flying via SJU with Tradewinds. Aside from the lovely private waiting lounge en route to SBH, our return trip was was great, Thanks to our personal Tradewinds concierge. We were escorted to customs, and Stephanie bypassed EVERY line with her trusty badge. Printed all of our tickets (we were on two different airlines) and even took us all through the priority tsa pre check gate. The SJU airport was packed, mass chaos, and lines were huge, so we were all but hugging her when she left us at our gates.
ive been thru San Juan airport before , and have never seen it so crowded.

Is this the usual customer service for Tradewinds? If so I'm hooked.

 

[JEK]

I've never had the boarding passes printed by them, but going to the head of the line and an escort to the Pre Check is standard. I think the concierge is a new feature as the pilots did all the escorting previously.

 

[stbartshopper]

We have nothing but good about Tradewinds!

 

[rivertrash]

Same for us. And now on the SJU-SBH flight you don't have to clear security.

 

[MantyPam]

We tried Tradewind for the first time this year, and now we're hooked too! You can't beat the personal service and avoiding the hours-long line to clear Customs at O'Hare will keep us coming back! The only time I felt uncomfortable was when we were escorted to the front of the line, essentially stepping in front of a gentleman with disabilities. Luckily we were waved through and hopefully didn't inconvenience the family traveling. But I must say, we felt like rock stars!

 

[PIRATE40]

We just came through SJU with Tradewinds....the pilots walked with us up to immigrations, but we waited at least 15 minutes in line.....then another 10 in line for the agriculture scan....We were not taken to the front of any lines, and came pretty close to not making our connection. Is the escorted service an extra to be purchased???

 

[JEK]

Global Entry will help on the first line. Nothing can be done on the scan and then TSA Pre will help on the TSA front.

 

[MantyPam]

Is the escorted service an extra to be purchased???

We purchased the VIP service, which included the escorted service. It was well worth it in our opinion.

 

[shihadehs]

I think the VIP service is for the way down, which we have used when we have had checked bags and didn't want to leave security.
On the way home we have never encountered any lines in customs and after waiting for agriculture scan have been escorted to our check in. And then having TSA precheck helps for security....

 

[Petri]

We just came through SJU with Tradewinds....the pilots walked with us up to immigrations, but we waited at least 15 minutes in line.....then another 10 in line for the agriculture scan....We were not taken to the front of any lines, and came pretty close to not making our connection. Is the escorted service an extra to be purchased???

That was the case with us as well, so I guess one has to purchase escort service to get something better. After leaving the arrivals we were on our own, SJU airport was such a mess, queues pretty much everywhere and it took about 1.5 hours to get from the Tradewinds arrival to the AA departure gate. The staff everywhere seem to be more interested to talk to each other than do their job.

I don't plan to fly through SJU again, I rather do SXM.

We flew with Tradewind from Antigua in April and then we were met on arrival (before Antigua immigration) and escorted all the way back to the departures, no Tradewind lounge as such but we used Priority Pass to access the generic lounge there. Overall the process at ANU was easy but we arrived with AA from MIA at the same time as some big planes from Europe that caused pretty long queues for the immigration, on return from SBH there were no queues anywhere. We had not purchased any escort service.

I can consider using Tradewind again through ANU, the flight from ANU to SBH is also shorter (~30 minutes). The Pilatus is a nice plane but it's still a small plane..

 

[PIRATE40]

It was a pleasure to meet you Petri and to ride with you to SJU.....Rosita made sure I had to meet you....

 

[JEK]

This was our first time flying via SJU with Tradewinds. Aside from the lovely private waiting lounge en route to SBH, our return trip was was great, Thanks to our personal Tradewinds concierge. We were escorted to customs, and Stephanie bypassed EVERY line with her trusty badge. Printed all of our tickets (we were on two different airlines) and even took us all through the priority tsa pre check gate. The SJU airport was packed, mass chaos, and lines were huge, so we were all but hugging her when she left us at our gates.
ive been thru San Juan airport before , and have never seen it so crowded.

Is this the usual customer service for Tradewinds? If so I'm hooked.

I think you paid for that service!

 

[Petri]

It was a pleasure to meet you Petri and to ride with you to SJU.....Rosita made sure I had to meet you....

Oh, you sat on the front row? Next time we'll try to say hello, we're always a bit lazy to meet and greet people Rosita knows everything