Flight leaving San Juan

[cantgetenufcruizin]

If we have a flight leaving San Juan at 10:22 am after leaving the Summit, would be able to make it or is it too early? We are willing to carry our luggage off ourselves

[Lady Arwen]

This is very early, but in a perfect world it's possible.  Personally, I would not be comfortable booking a flight before 11:30.  Others will tell you to go for it.  Depends on your stress tolerance. 

[phoenix_dream]

I agree - in a perfect world where everything goes exactly according to plan you might make it.  I would never, ever book a flight that early in San Juan,  Once we had a flight out of FLL at that time (we had booked later and the airline changed our flight time), and we just barely made it to that flight and we did walk off.  We literally had to run to the gate and we literally were the last passengers boarding the plane.  The SJU airport is considerably further from the port than the one at FLL,

 

On these questions you will always get a few people who will say they made it with no problem so of course you can make it.  Caveat emptor.

[2theship]

In San Juan you must also go through some extra screening - your luggage must be scanned by the USDA before you check it. It doesn't take long but it's one more potential for delay.

[richsea]

Assuming no delays in Summit’s arrival, you should make it if you carry your luggage off. We have done it twice, and both times were off at 7:30, and at our gate at 8:30. SJU can be a zoo on getaway day, but if you get there early like we did, it is pretty empty, and you breeze though, even with the extra agriculture baggage check. 

Have a great cruise, & plan to arrive a few days early if possible to enjoy Puerto Rico!

Edited March 30, 2019 by richsea

[davekathy]

49 minutes ago, cantgetenufcruizin said:

If we have a flight leaving San Juan at 10:22 am after leaving the Summit, would be able to make it or is it too early? We are willing to carry our luggage off ourselves

We returned from SJ on 10 March from a RC cruise. We did general disembarkation, hired a porter to lug our luggage and through customs and hailed a taxi for us. Through Ag inspection, checked our luggage with delta, TSA pre check at security and at our gate at 9:40 for a 12:30 flight. We considered ourselves very lucky and would have never planned for that process to go that quickly. Especially based on past SJ experiences. A 10:22 AM flight is way too early for our comfort level. No way to go on a cruise and then having to worry about making a early flight. I suggest looking at other flight times. Too each their own. 

Edited March 30, 2019 by davekathy

[Atwell]

You can make a 10:22 a.m. flight, unless they delay disembarkation for some reason.  Suggest you use a porter when you get off the ship, but if you can carry off in the first wave, then not necessary  Porter can get you through customs and passport control faster.  Check the lines when you get down to the main hall and decide.  Take a taxi, not the Celebrity transfer.  If you take the transfer, the baggage goes separately in a box truck with several other buses worth of luggage, and then they dump it all in a pile at the curb at the airport.  You can wait quite a while for the baggage truck to show up.  That is unless they have changed the procedure.  Don't forget to take your bags through the Agriculture Inspection station at the airport just inside the entrance. 

[PelicanLvr]

Disembarked Summit in SJ in January.  Lined up at 6:45 to walk off and actually walked off with our luggage at exactly 7am.   Was about the 25th or so person off the ship.  Sailed thru immigration etc and got a cab to the airport.  

 

You do have to have your bags scanned by the USDA machine (no one else was there).  We went thru security and were sitting at the gate by 7:45am.  

 

It was a "perfect world" with no delays of any kind.  But that is how early someone can be at the airport if all goes well.

[phoenix_dream]

If you want to risk it, I would suggest you first check to see what other ships are docking that day.  If you are in port with one of the Mega ships good luck.  They impact immigration, taxi availability, and check-in.  I assume also you are talking a domestic, not international flight?  I would also check to see what options there are if you miss your flight.  Flights from SJU to the mainland USA are not as frequent as within the US.  If you miss a flight, the next one with empty seats could be late that day, or it could be the next day, or the day after that.  A lot depends on the airline and destination.

[varoo]

12 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

This is very early, but in a perfect world it's possible.  Personally, I would not be comfortable booking a flight before 11:30.  Others will tell you to go for it.  Depends on your stress tolerance. 

 

So true, and that is probably a major factor to consider in making such a decision.

Under normal conditions, cruise passengers should be able to catch that 10:22 flight out of SJU, but there is no way to predict when something will go wrong.

 

Another important consideration is knowing your backup options;  feasible alternate routing possibilities and your willingness to re-route if necessary.

 

For example, the last time we planned on flying out of SJU to DFW, we knew the  backup flights from SJU to MIA were full, but SJU-CLT had plenty of space available.

 

The more routing flexibility you can have, the easier such a decision becomes, including your willingness to spend an extra night in a hotel, should the situation require.

 

For some people, missing a flight and needing to re-schedule is a big deal, while for others it is only a minor inconvenience.

 

Edited March 31, 2019 by varoo

[alcpa1]

I would not book a 10:22 flight out of SJU.

We have cruised from San Juan at least a dozen times.

In addition to all of the above cautions there is one that has not been mentioned. In case of hightened security issues everything slows down. The normal 20-30 minutes airport security can easily increase to an hour or more.

When is your cruise and what airline are you booking because, as mentioned, additional flights may not be available.

If your cruise is more than 6 months away and you are on one of the top three you will probably have schedule changes which may or may not work in your favor. Delta, our airline of choice, dropped quite a few flights after the hurricanes. Which could be another factor.

I hate to hang around that particular airport. It's better than it used to be but I would never allow my desire to get home override a sensible itinerary.

[volk904]

We made a 10:20 flight off the Summitt with time to spare.   

 

Got in line to walk off at 6:45 am.  We walked off about 7:15 and were through customs before 8am.  20 min cab ride to AP.  You do have to go through the fruit an veggie check when you enter airport.  Took 5 min.   

 

The key key is you need to walk off or make talk to the desk and get your luggage tags for first group.   

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike981]

Of course everyone is different, but...I have flown out of SJU three times and I would not be comfortable with that flight time at all. As a matter of fact, I would be worried well before we even started packing.

I don't like SJU for a few reasons and actually avoid it as a port to embark.

[varoo]

Just want to add that having Global Entry/pre-check appears to help at SJU as we were taken right through on that line when the regular security lines were long.