I am putting this here instead of travel section because I think it might get seen by more folks. I have a trip to Saba coming up. I was aware of the twin otter flight from Sint Maarten and have taken such planes many times. I frequently have to pay excess baggage charges for the camera stuff and that is fine. I just was on the winair site and am confused about their rules. In one spot on their website they talk about excess baggage charges but elsewhere they seem to say passengers are limited to one checked bag. If that is true, I need to rethink my photo plans. Generally, I have one piece of checked luggage for clothes and gear, another for photo stuff and then a small roller bag and a "personal item." I am thinking this might be a problem for winair? It sort of looks like one checked bag and personal item only? I will call winair, but I suspect I may not get reliable information. And it is too late to switch to the ferry.
Anyone able to help me out?
Hi,
I live on neighboring St. Eustatius and travel on Winair frequently with lots of UW camera and dive gear. You can check an extra bag in addition to the one that comes with your ticket. The charge is USD 25 one way. However, since the twin otters have limited luggage capacity, sometimes not all luggage will make it on the same flight. If you check two bags, chances are that one bag will come on a later flight. Usually that's the same day or the next. Just make sure to hold on to your luggage tag to present at the airport the next day.
As for carry on: the Winair gate agents will never check or weight your backpack if it's not too big. A small carry on roller bag is often weighed at the gate. While the Winair website says it can only be 6 pounds, mine is always at least 15-20 pounds and I've never had any issues. It's not a guarantee, but that's been my experience after dozens and dozens of Winair flights over the past 12 years. So you are totally fine bringing a backpack and carry on roller bag with you. The roller bag will be put in the hold once you get to the plane, and will be taken out first so you can collect it as soon as you deplane.
I hope this helps!
Yes, thanks. There are two of us so we get two bags. I think we will put dive gear and a day's worth of clothes in one bag, photo stuff in a second and then additional clothes in a third. If one bag has to stay behind I will try to have that be the extra clothes instead of photo or dive gear. That may get me to a safe place luggage wise. Thanks for the input.
Well, winair just cancelled flights on the scheduled day and the day after and has reduced its schedule drastically, so I had to cancel all flights and am now trying to trying to rebook the whole trip, but at this late date I'm having problems with flights and prices and there are no rooms at the hotel if I go more than about 3 days out form the original schedule. I only found out because a friend meeting me there was notified of his cancellation and called me. I was not notified and only found it by "managing" my booking online.
This will be my last experience with winair.
21 minutes ago, Draq said:
This will be my last experience with winair.
Sadly this is all too typical for flying in this region. I've organised a dive trip for a largish group on a liveaboard in May out of Provo, TCI. Flights are becoming a nightmare. One booking (InterCaribbean) was cancelled a couple of weeks ago "for COVID reasons". I'm looking at alternatives but there is a complete lack of certainty and, as you say, rates just go up and up. Our schedule should include WinAir too!
I'm slightly surprised though that flights to Saba are a problem. I practically live on the Sint Maarten runway and flights are heading there every few minutes. There's also a ferry ("Edge") to Saba - known as the vomit-comet. I think it goes once/twice a day. But you said it was too late for that?
Do you need accommodation in Sint Maarten? I could make some enquiries here if you have dates/numbers. Sadly my apartment is a bit small......
I am told that a Canadian airline has cancelled or cut back flights and that has reduced demand, which affected Winair. Not sure I buy that, but I do know that Winair has reduced the days they fly and times they fly on those days. of course they also go to several other islands, so I am sure there is still a lot of winair flights going in and out. We had to change schedules around and pay extra charges, but got things rebooked. Taking sabaferry back and forth because of the edge schedule and according to SeaSaba, the Edge has been randomly cancelling ferries when there is insufficient demand. Know nothing about the ferry company except that when i called they answered and were helpful.
Travel in covid times is a new adventure.
Tim: Will now be spending night on St Maarten each way to accomodate ferry. Would be happy to buy you a drink if you have time. Send a PM.
One last update on this. Although i had canceled my Winair flights already, a friend meeting me there had booked the ferry but not yet canceled Winair. He just got word that they have now canceled the return Winair flight as well and re-scheduled him to some future date. Good thing he did not change his international flights and hotel and dive op reservations around based on Winair's prior cancelation, he would be doing it again.
