St. Martin ?

In article <6n4rivskooqsa8lfog0sk8rcq0eoq6behc.DeleteThis@4ax.com>,
donwiss.DeleteThis@no_spam.com says...
 > On Sun, 03 Aug 2003, Michael Higgins <mike_higgins.DeleteThis@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
 >
  > >I am going to St. Martin in September and would like to visit Saba for a
  > >day, or over night, what is the best way to get there.
 >
 > You can either fly on Winair, or take one of the two boats from Sint
 > Maarten. Their schedules are described on this page:
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.sabatourism.com/sagetto.html</font" target="_blank">http://www.sabatourism.com/sagetto.html</font</a>>
 >
 > Don <donwiss at panix.com>.
 >
Saba is fascinating try and stay for more than one night.
Be very careful if you use Winair there is some serious corruption going
on in their returned ticket policy. Pay by credit card.
Should you return unused portions of a round-trip ticket for credit; if
weather or overbooking prevented use etc. Get a receipt or refund on the
spot. Several people have never received their c/card refunds. The
tickets are then fraudulently used at a later date.
All correspondence to Winair about this matter is ignored. St. Maartin
police are not interested.
If this happens then your only option is to get a refund from your credit
card.
Winair will also bounce you in an instant even when you have a confirmed
and paid reservation (and are standing at the gate)!!
Of course you may be lucky!
As you can guess, we weren't!!
Pip pip

--
Chris Notton
Replace "nospam" with my surname to reply by email
Sostituisca il "nospam" con il mio cognome per rispondere
}<////(*><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: St. Martin ? 

 > Saba is fascinating try and stay for more than one night.
 > Be very careful if you use Winair there is some serious corruption going
 > on in their returned ticket policy. Pay by credit card.
 > Should you return unused portions of a round-trip ticket for credit; if
 > weather or overbooking prevented use etc. Get a receipt or refund on the
 > spot. Several people have never received their c/card refunds. The
 > tickets are then fraudulently used at a later date.
 > All correspondence to Winair about this matter is ignored. St. Maartin
 > police are not interested.
 > If this happens then your only option is to get a refund from your credit
 > card.
 > Winair will also bounce you in an instant even when you have a confirmed
 > and paid reservation (and are standing at the gate)!!
 > Of course you may be lucky!
 > As you can guess, we weren't!!
 > Pip pip

I don't know what you are talking about. In the last six months, when I
lived on St Maarten, I flew WinAir 23 times (roundtrips) to several islands
in the Caribean, including 4 trips to Saba (2 for work, 1 for hiking and 1
for diving).

I never had problems with overbookings or cash refunds. Once i should fly on
sunday, but i was the only one flying that dat to that certain destination,
so they tracked me down and explained it was too expensive to fly and they
offered me back my money or a ticket on another day.

WinAir is never overbooked, good service, friendly pilots and staff.

In the 6 months on the islands I nearly heard any complaints over the
company.

So you can easily fly WinAir. Look for some more information on
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.fly-winair.com" target="_blank">http://www.fly-winair.com</a>

On Saba you should try to stay in The Cottage Club
(http://www.cottage-club.com/) or in Ecolodge RendeVous
(http://www.ecolodge-saba.com/) , these are two of the nice resorts on Saba.

Friendly greets

RotterdamStudents
(back in Holland now)<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: St. Martin ? 

Don,

I think we'll take the boat! That runway on Saba looks a bit short.

Thanks for the link,
Mike Higgins

"Don Wiss" <donwiss RemoveThis @no_spam.com> wrote in message
news:6n4rivskooqsa8lfog0sk8rcq0eoq6behc@4ax.com...
 > On Sun, 03 Aug 2003, Michael Higgins <mike_higgins RemoveThis @worldnet.att.net>
wrote:
 >
  > >I am going to St. Martin in September and would like to visit Saba for a
  > >day, or over night, what is the best way to get there.
 >
 > You can either fly on Winair, or take one of the two boats from Sint
 > Maarten. Their schedules are described on this page:
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.sabatourism.com/sagetto.html</font" target="_blank">http://www.sabatourism.com/sagetto.html</font</a>>
 >
 > Don <donwiss at panix.com>.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: St. Martin ? 

On Tue, 05 Aug 2003, Michael Higgins <mike_higgins.TakeThisOut@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

 > I think we'll take the boat! That runway on Saba looks a bit short.

I thought the landing was fine. Not as scary as the landing on St. Barts.
And they know it. Winair makes no comments to the passengers before landing
on Saba. But they do warn the passengers about the steep approach before
landing on St. Barts. (It's steep as there is a mountain to go over just in
front of the runway.)

But then I'm not the type to worry. So any landing is fine with me.

Don <donwiss at panix.com>.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: St. Martin ? 

In article <bgl732$iqe$1@news.cistron.nl>,
nospamrotterdamstudents RemoveThis @willeboerm.op.het.net says...
  > > Saba is fascinating try and stay for more than one night.
  > > Be very careful if you use Winair there is some serious corruption going
  > > on in their returned ticket policy. Pay by credit card.
  > > Should you return unused portions of a round-trip ticket for credit; if
  > > weather or overbooking prevented use etc. Get a receipt or refund on the
  > > spot. Several people have never received their c/card refunds. The
  > > tickets are then fraudulently used at a later date.
  > > All correspondence to Winair about this matter is ignored. St. Maartin
  > > police are not interested.
  > > If this happens then your only option is to get a refund from your credit
  > > card.
  > > Winair will also bounce you in an instant even when you have a confirmed
  > > and paid reservation (and are standing at the gate)!!
  > > Of course you may be lucky!
  > > As you can guess, we weren't!!
  > > Pip pip
 >
 > I don't know what you are talking about. In the last six months, when I
 > lived on St Maarten, I flew WinAir 23 times (roundtrips) to several islands
 > in the Caribean, including 4 trips to Saba (2 for work, 1 for hiking and 1
 > for diving).
 >
 > I never had problems with overbookings or cash refunds. Once i should fly on
 > sunday, but i was the only one flying that dat to that certain destination,
 > so they tracked me down and explained it was too expensive to fly and they
 > offered me back my money or a ticket on another day.
 >

You were lucky! Glad to hear that things have improved lately. Probably
since they increased the size of their fleet. Winair have had a long
history of bouncing passengers and "losing" unused tickets. Just ask some
of the dive operations!! We haven't used them for about two years so
things may have changed. I am still waiting for my unused ticket refunds
from four years ago though!!! These were fraudulently used after we
returned from St. Maartin. I had to get my money back from AmEx.
I would always book on the ferry on the same day just to be on the safe
side.
Diving was great though & we loved Juliannas:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.julianas-hotel.com/" target="_blank">http://www.julianas-hotel.com/</a>

Y.M.M.V.


Pip pip

--
Chris Notton
Replace "nospam" with my surname to reply by email
Sostituisca il "nospam" con il mio cognome per rispondere
}<////(*><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: St. Martin ? 

  > > I think we'll take the boat! That runway on Saba looks a bit short.
 >
 > I thought the landing was fine. Not as scary as the landing on St. Barts.
 > And they know it. Winair makes no comments to the passengers before
landing
 > on Saba. But they do warn the passengers about the steep approach before
 > landing on St. Barts. (It's steep as there is a mountain to go over just
in
 > front of the runway.)
 >
 > But then I'm not the type to worry. So any landing is fine with me.
 >
 > Don <donwiss at panix.com>.

Depending on the weather both landings are very nice. The runway on Saba
looks short but most of the time the WinAir planes doesnt even use the whole
runway, but just 3/4 of it to land. Taking off on Saba is worse than landing
there, sometimes the plane just drives off the runway before it's taking
off.

RotterdamStudents<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: St. Martin ? 

"Don Wiss" <donwiss.DeleteThis@no_spam.com> wrote in message
news:n03uivo7jndssgttpejvregpp91ja3e1tt@4ax.com...
 >
 > But then I'm not the type to worry. So any landing is fine with me.

Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

Any landing where you can use the plane again is an excellent landing.

=========

Seriously, a seat-mate on American Airlines leaving St Maarten had come
across from Saba by boat. The sea was so rough that it broke at least one
of the boat's windows. I think he said the one in his party suffered a
broken bone.

I wasn't aware that Winair's fleet had increased. There may have been a
temporary overlap between disposing of an aging plane and its replacement,
but I think their fleet remains at 4 (or 5), all Twin-Otters.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: St. Martin ? 

Saba is fascinating try and stay for more than one night. Be
very careful if you use Winair there is some serious corruption
going on in their returned ticket policy. Pay by credit card.
Should you return unused portions of a round-trip ticket for
credit; if weather or overbooking prevented use etc. Get a
receipt or refund on the spot. Several people have never received
their c/card refunds. The tickets are then fraudulently used at a
later date.



Just finished a moderately nice holiday on Sint Maarten -- I wanted to
experience the best scuba and snorkling -- I hired a boat and they took
us to Anguilla.



The other major problem was the crime. My laptop was stolen from inside
**CHECKED-IN BAGGAGE** at the Princess Juliana Airport in the Caribbean
Sun holding area sometime between January 3rd to January 9th, 2004.



Caribbean Sun Airlines agents selectively bumped passengers ( 9 of
us that day, with confirmed paper tickets! ) after we had checked-
in our bags.



The passengers then fly without their bags.



Supervisor of Caribbean Sun Airlines ticket agents said flight was
overbooked -- but when we got to the plane there were empty seats.



My bags arrived in San Juan US Customs 6 days later without the laptop.



Bags were opened and visually inspected by security before checkin.
However, I think a greater security breech in these terrorist times is
that passengers fly without their bags.



So far, no response for my emails to police(at)sintmaarten.net. You can
try to report the crime at: http://www.crimestoppers-sxm.com/
however, the "Report a Crime" mailto page is currently broken --... no
response from Caribbean Sun either.


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com
 >> Stay informed about: St. Martin ? 

Michael Higgins <mike_higgins DeleteThis @worldnet.att.net> wrote:

 >I am going to St. Martin in September and would like to visit Saba for a
 >day, or over night, what is the best way to get there.

Fly. It's about $100 on Winair.

--
Ken Tough<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: St. Martin ? 

  > >I am going to St. Martin in September and would like to visit Saba for a
  > >day, or over night, what is the best way to get there.
 >
 > Fly. It's about $100 on Winair.

I Think in September it's only 50 US dollar

--
RotterdamStudents
-------------------------------
Dulce est despirere loco
(Horatius, "Oden" 4,12,2<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: St. Martin ?