Review of American Airlines flight from Saint Martin to Philadelphia in Economy

Hi there,

welome to a new translated serie from Guadeloupe to Seattle, WA. All reports are avalaible in french.

l'intro

I'll don't explain the construction of the routing, already avalaible in french.

The routing

At least, this routing allows me to discover Alaska, and Omaha airport. Also, it'll be 6 ,exclusivities on 7 for our data base.

Le vol

After an hour traveling by bus between Grand Case (SFG) we arrive at Princess Juliana Airport, Saint-Martin main's airport (located on dutch side-Sint Maarten). As you see, the airport suffered a lot during Irma, and only the left side of the airport is open, making chaos.

Outside, nothing excepted an expansive foodtruck

Inside.. judge yourself. Only the 1st floor is open, and on his left side, not entirely. 2nd floor is close.

The airport is just totally overcrowded. Jetblue flight to Ft-Lauderdale has been cancelled, passengers are waiting to be rebooked (Jetblue sent an other airplane from JFK).

Waiting for ou AA flight, we eat (food we brought from Guadeloupe)


Outside

I think that if you have a long time to wait, you can go to Maho Beach, but on other hand, we never really know when check-in begin.

At 1pm, the signs are changed (there is no electronic FIDS) and airport members call passengers for AAs flights. Problem is that there are 3 AA flights, to Charlotte, Philly and Miami…hundred of passengers are standing in front of the only door.. On the other side of the airport, Westjet flight to Toronto and Delta flights to Atlanta and JFK are also checking-in.

It doesn't move fast and at 1:30 pm, AA agents announce that they'll pass in priority passengers for Charlotte (flight in less than an hour). But there are only to check-in counters : one which only take PAX to Charlotte, and the other for priority passengers. However, after 30/40min waiting, (2pm) passengers to Philly strated to protest, our flight is in 40minutes…
The agent who is in charge of first/business accepts to take lambda passengers too, which is totally normal, some of us are here since 11am and being afraid of  miss the flight is unbelieveble with this margin.
Finally, nearby 2:15pm we obtain our BP (for Philly and then Omaha) and we run into customs, our flight is in less than 30min.

Against all, it was  fast because  Pifmen were very helpful, to fluidify. But they were not looking at anything : I crossed customs with a full bottle  of water.We reached airside at 2:25pm, it's the jungle as  u can see:

Everybody is stored in a small room usually used for Caribbean flights; international flights are boarding on the upper floor (as it was the case in PTP before the opening of Terminal 2, it's very common in our islands in fact,  because regional flights are boarded  in PAXBus), but here there is no upper-floor, so everebody's in here.

I wanted to buy a bottle of water (water is non drinkable in Saint-Martin), it was of course really expansive. And water was disgusting

At least, the airport is really spotter-friendly.
737 Sunwing going to Punta Cana then Montreal, QC

320 Jetblue which was supposed to operate the flight to Fort Lauderdale, cancelled.

A Delta 757 going to New York JFK. 3 757 today in SXM : Philly (AA) and Atlanta & JFK (DL).

Passengers still arriving in the room which is already full.

And then appears a 343 Joon. I didn't know that AF flights were operated by Joon

turn

coming on us

just in front of me

We're talking, but it's time to board!! finally! It's 2:35pm

But the unique PAXBus is in use for an other plane more far : it'll be a foot boarding today! love it

Joon

And our bird !  At the beginning when we book, the flight was supposed to be operated in 738, but then it changed; what else ?
Flights to MIA and Charlotte are still operated in 738 (with up to 2flights/day in some days to Miami)

Delta is departing for JFK, with an unknown plane on the left (and jetblue after)

Behind Jetblue plane, we can see a 767 Eastern Airlines (I didn't know this company) ,, from and to Toronto Pearson.

Delta in the background and behind WestJet

Again, what else?

Domestic first

ow

fuselage shot with my finger

After a warm welcome from the  crew, this is  the  "main cabin"

Pitch is excellent

but no logo

Clean carpet

chaplain

Safety card of a soon-former plane (but I don't know what is make now with the 737MAX, maybe they keep a little more the 757)

Joon views

You can see the rear  of the 767 Eastern Airlines

what a beautiful place to take-off

PSU

Then a Jetblue plane landed : I think that it was the plane they sent for passengers traveling to FLL

Delta taking-off heading New York, then it's gonna be Liat's turn, to Barbados

737 to Charlotte is pushing-back

1O min later, it's  our turn, it's 3:25pm..

JetBlue and Eastern

as you see, the 2nd floor is still destroyed, the footbridges are broke

757 Delta bound to Atlanta

ATR42 Liat

On the taxi-way

We waiting again, and then, it's our turn. We have an hour late
We're waved from Maho Beach, they are waiting for our take-off

Braking maximum, thrust maximum, and finally we're accelerating. Take-off are really short at SXM

We're just glued to the seat

Simpson beach

Rotation

We're taking some altitude over Simpson Bay

And then, we're turning on our right. It's typical of the SXM take-off, because of the hills just in front of the runway, planes are forced to make a tight right turn. In the lower right corner, Pelikankey, in the midde Caybay (with the hills) Koolbay on the left of the wing;  annd in the background, Philipsburg, Sint-Maarten (dutch side) capital city, inhabited by less than 2000.

We're still both turning and taking altitude

 Simpson bay, Pelikaankey et Caybay

Caybay

Main view, with SXM airport in the background

Still turning, overseas

Crossing clouds

South side of Saint-Martin island, so it's Sint-Maarten, the dutch side. On the extrem right, Philipsburg.

Big bay on the left is SimpsonBay (where is located the airport) the one on the right is Philipsburg bay

Philipsburg and its bay

We're ending our turn

Sea olor is exceptional here in Caribbean, and particularly Saint-Martin/Sint-Maarten

SXM. We were here a few seconds ago

We see Delta flight to ATL on the taxi-way

Sandy ground on the right (french side), in the middle it's Marigot, french side capital, and the largest city of the island.
At the bottom you see a rich borough of Saint-Martin frenc side, Terres-basses, which contrasts with Sandy-Ground which is (with Quartier d'Orléans) one of the poorest.

Grand Case (french part) and his regional airport where we landed a few hours ago

we are flying over Anguila after that; with the Rendez-Vous bay.

Capital city, The Valley, and its airport, J. Loyd

the Anguilla Channel, very tight between St-Martin (on the right) and Anguila island (below us)

Grand Case

Anguilla

beautiful little island

 reef

We're leaving Caribbean  area, by the north.

Trying to spot an R2R

And this, is Mika, the beautiful Creol dog of my front neighbor. He'll sleep during the entire flight ! He drooled on me a little, but nothing serious

At 5pm, catering is served, between salty and sweety I chose speculos, American are my favorite (even if they are made in Belgium!)

wiith many ice

Cabin is really calm. Wi-fi was proposed but without free access (except for t-momo customers)

nothing outside,

Sun is going down

WC are clean

More clouds

Views from an other time

Mika decided to come with us; he will be welcomed a few minutes before landing start

We're starting our descent over Philly nearby 7:15am, with strong turbulences

We're entering on US territory over Ocean City, south of Atlantic City

Atlantic City

Ocean City, and Atlantic city with the buildings

We're flying over  inland meawhile sun goes down

We're waiting to continue our descent. It's 7:25pm

New Jersey

Moon comes up

the approach on Philly is long

We see the Delaware River, which means that Philly isn't such far.

Highways

We're on final

We're passing by the south of Philly's CBD, and omg, what a  beautiful vie. I'm totally in fond of City center view from plane, the reason why I chose a right side seat .

Airport isn't far from city center

Quality isn't  good, but it was good!

Touchdown at 7:35am

Strong braking, we exited quickly the runway, other plane are waiting after us

American taking off

Our third flight of the day to Omaha (yes, from Philly to Seattle we have to stop at Omaha) is departing at 9pm, we just have one hour to cross US border and cross the airrport, it's gonna be short!

Flight Radar 24

Approach on Philadelphia

see u soon for the others flights, sorry for the mistakes I could make, Louri.