SJU Airport Connection Time
 

I am traveling from Tortola/Beef Island Airport arriving to SJU at 2:58pm on American Airlines, and I have a connecting flight on Delta leaving SJU at 5:45 pm with approx. 2:45 of time will I have any trouble collecting my baggage, getting through customs, and then checking in again with Delta? Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated.<BR>

2 hours and 45 minutes is great - you should have plenty of time for the connection.<BR><BR>We've found that only one hour is pushing it a little - better to have at least an hour and half.

Agree with Scubamon. 1.5 hrs is our desired connect time. We have made in in 30 min but that is with a quick bus to terminal, no lines at immigration or customs and quick baggage retrieval. <BR>You have plenty of time. SJU has also improved over the years with comfortable places to get food etc.

Just to double check -- am flying from NY to SJU to Beef Island -- have 1 hour 25 min layover in SJU -- should I be concerned about making Tortola flight??<BR>Any tips that would help?? Thanks in advance for your help

No problem. Going down you check luggage all the way thru. In San Juan you go from inbound gate to American Eagle gates. All the American Eagle flights leave from the same gates. You get on a bus that takes you to the plane. <BR>A Tip: they don't announce the departures well in the rest of the airport so stay close by. Also they call the flight in advance. If you show up at departure time, it may be too late. It can get quite crowded in the departure area. <BR>There are lots of flights to Beef Island. So not to worry. <BR>Coming back is the problem because you go thru customs/immigration in SJU and the American Eagle flights from Beef Island are often late. You also have to do the bus/immigration/customs/reclaimluggage/recheckluggage/security thing again. (that's why 1.5 hrs is key.

Agree with John re: coming back. We had a 1 hour 20 minute connection time from Anguilla to San Juan. American Airlines assured me that it was enough time. Our flight left Anguilla 20 minutes late and when we finally landed in San Juan we had 50 minutes to do the bus/immigration/customs/reclaimluggage/recheckluggage/security thing. We did make the flight...only after running like maniacs through the airport. Security was very very very tight in San Juan. They searched my carry-on like I was a criminal! If your flight is late and your connection time is less that 2 hours there is a good possibility that you may miss the flight. I think AA needs to look into their scheduling to give travellers more time to connect. PS The walk to immigration in San Juan is very very very very long. Wear comfortable shoes!

Thanks for your help -- I have 2 hrs on my return (Beef Island to SJU to NYC)so hopefully things will be okay. Thanks also for the travel tips!!!!

The key is that you will have to check in again with Delta. You should not try to cut it closer since you never know how busy the airport will be. If you are travelling on a Saturday or Sunday, you should be fine with a connection of that length. We went through customs in SJU and it took about 20 minutes to get through immigration (an extremely long walk through the terminal), then about another 20 minutes to get baggage and go through customs. Again, the day you travel will be critical. <BR><BR>But 2:45 should work no matter what day.

Thank You....ScubaMom, John, Chris, Nancy, and J....you just helped ease my sudden anxiety attack....Thank You All<BR><BR><BR>-Scott