Just an FYI - If you're booked on the American Airlines nonstop flight from JFK to St Maarten you may want to check your air reservation. I'm not sure what date it starts, but American Airlines is in the middle of doing schedule changes which has resulted in decreased service from JFK. Their nonstop flights, for the month of August for example, now only fly Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

For the past 20 years I have been flying down to St Maarten on a Saturday in August and that nonstop flight is always full due to the typical Saturday timeshare arrivals. Although the airlines are having 'financial issues' as well, why they would cancel their nonstop on the one day it is most profitable is beyond me.

My recommendation? Go to the American Airline website at www.aa.com, click on the top right hand corner 'Contact Us', then click on 'Customer Relations', 'Customer Relations' again, and then 'Email AA Customer Relations' and request that their reinstate their daily service of AA 667 (JFK to SXM) and AA 660 (SXM to JFK). The more airlines that fly nonstop, the better the competition, the lower the fares.

Show your support for St Maarten and the AA nonstop.

Karin,

Sadly, this is old news. We've been booked for an April trip since last summer on the Sat. n/s on AA - 667 and returning on 660 the Friday after Easter and had the same news given to us.

To make matters worse, they cancelled the nonstop and put us on horrible connecting flights which would have cost us almost the entire day on Friday. I know to many why fly to St. Maarten that would be the norm but for those of us used to the nonstop direct flights, it was a real bummer.

When I realized what had happened I asked to be changed to the Thursday n/stop and the reservationist at first informed me there would be a fee involved to change our dates of travel. I went momentarily ballistic, but after I regained my composure and went through the whole thing with him, we were ultimately changed to the Thursday nonstop flights at no charge to us, as should have been the case in the first place since they were the ones who necessitated the change and since I'm also losing a full day of my vacation.

We did send the e-mail and got a very standardized reply - basically saying, "Oh, well.....that's the way it is."

I can see why they might cut/change/rearrange flights and schedules but to eliminate Friday and Saturday flights to a timeshare island during a high season holiday and island Carnival time just totally blows my mind.

So, they may know why we fly but I don't think they get that we also now have alternatives. Or more than likely they do, but just plain don't care.

Respectfully,

pat

hey pat
why not go another airline if you are so unhappy. jetblue flies direct from jfk and i am sure is much cheaper and i know there is much more leg room..plus they have snacks free and no charge for luggage

Pat,
AA is a totally arrogant corporate entity. They do not care about us or their staff. I for one go to great lenghts to get where I need to be WITHOUT flying AA.
Remember when I came home to SXM from back surgery and the attendant refused me a wheelchair? Said I didn't need it, plus I had a Dr. note.
Yuck
irina

Pat - The airlines have a rule that you may have heard mentioned called the rule 240/80. (240 covers the US, 80 covers international flights). The airline is required to protect you on either the same day or if you prefer one day before or after as long as it is available in the same ticketed cabin class. Regardless of how discounted the fare was that you were on. I'm glad AA finally realized that as it would have been a shame if they charged you for that change.

Having always flown AA, having frequent flyer miles w/AA, I still prefer AA - yes, I know, I'm one of the few. JetBlue is not always the least expensive option. My AA flight to St Maarten was $400, whereas JetBlue is $624. I have nothing bad against JetBlue. It was their arrival to St Maarten that made AA drop their fares dramatically. I just agree that it makes no sense with the dates AA chose to keep their nonstop flights. Flying Fri/Sat/Mon would be financially a better option for them flight load wise. This way they get the timeshare flyers, those looking for a weekend getaway, etc.

Karin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just an FYI - If you're booked on the American
> Airlines nonstop flight from JFK to St Maarten you
> may want to check your air reservation. I'm not
> sure what date it starts, but American Airlines is
> in the middle of doing schedule changes which has
> resulted in decreased service from JFK. Their
> nonstop flights, for the month of August for
> example, now only fly Sunday, Tuesday, and
> Thursday.
>
> For the past 20 years I have been flying down to
> St Maarten on a Saturday in August and that
> nonstop flight is always full due to the typical
> Saturday timeshare arrivals. Although the
> airlines are having 'financial issues' as well,
> why they would cancel their nonstop on the one day
> it is most profitable is beyond me.
>
> My recommendation? Go to the American Airline
> website at www.aa.com, click on the top right hand
> corner 'Contact Us', then click on 'Customer
> Relations', 'Customer Relations' again, and then
> 'Email AA Customer Relations' and request that
> their reinstate their daily service of AA 667 (JFK
> to SXM) and AA 660 (SXM to JFK). The more
> airlines that fly nonstop, the better the
> competition, the lower the fares.
>
> Show your support for St Maarten and the AA
> nonstop.

Hi Pat !
I just booked Jetblue April 29th to May 4th for $ 194.00 plus tax and more leg room and total came to $ 349.85.

my daughter is coming down from NYC for carnival
April 28 - May 4
Jet Blue
$289.00 round trip!

[barcann.livejournal.com]

Because this happened to us last year we decided to fly non stop out of Newark on Continental this past October. We didn’t like Continental or the longer drive so decided it’s not an option for us. AA changed the flight times too often for us on past trips and with the addition of having to use more FF for a free trip we are using Jet Blue going forward. As early as last week AA still showed non stop out of JFK on a Friday and returning on a Sunday for October. A few days later it only offered connecting flights. We are using JetBlue this coming April and hope to use them in October as soon as you can book flights that far out. What I don't like about Jet Blue is that you can't book as far out as you can on some of the other major airlines.

Anonymous User Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> hey pat
> why not go another airline if you are so unhappy.
> jetblue flies direct from jfk and i am sure is
> much cheaper and i know there is much more leg
> room..plus they have snacks free and no charge for
> luggage

Where to start?

I have to say - I've been flying AA to St. Maarten for the past 25 of my 36/37 SXM years and in all fairness, I've only had two or three issues with them over all those years and all those flights so I don't personally think I'd characterize my attitude as being that unhappy with them, although the more recent changes don't thrill me anymore than they do anyone else. In fairness, though, if you listen to all the tales of flying woes these days, I'm personally inclined to think the only way flying will be fun again is to own your own private aircraft, and sadly, I don't think we'll do that - at least not this week!!

I'm well aware that JB services the island, but as others have pointed out, unfortunately with JB you aren't able to book all that far out and quite truthfully, for the dates we're flying, JB was and still is a couple hundred dollars more per ticket so I'll deal with the AA inconveniences. Couple that with the fact our FF mileage has always been with AA and to date we've been pretty fortunate in obtaining seats and upgrades using mileage, so there's really been no reason to change to date.

But let me add, given the way AA now changes their schedules and the fact they've eliminated many of the Friday and Saturday JFK to SXM n/stops, I'm seriously planning to check out JB for future trips once I've run out of AA FF miles.

And congrats to those of you who were able to get those awesome prices with Jet Blue - for our weekend flights around Easter unfortunately JB didn't come remotely close to AAs prices so we went with the better deal that met our needs. Who knows, perhaps next year we won't need to be on such a rigid schedule and we'll be able to pick and choose our dates around JB's great fare deals, too.

Respectfully,

pat

Point of correction . Extra leg room cost $ 30.00 each way and only the first piece of luggage is free on Jetblue ! Been there and done it !