# St Barts Forums > Getting To St Barts Forum - Airlines, Ferry Service, Charters >  >  Winair/USAIR

## andynap

Even if you buy your tickets separately, Winair will check your bags thru on USAIR so that you do not have to go thru immigration and can use the security next to the Transfer Desk. You must have your USAIR boarding passes tho.

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## tim

Did Winair issue your US Air boarding passes?

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## andynap

Yes but I had them already

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## EasyTime2

On our November return to the US from SBH Winair issued our USAirways tickets at Gustavia.  But, at SXM, the USAirways desk called our name and they re-issued us USAiways tickets with their name on the ticket rather than Winair.  Seems like things are changing all the time.

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## andynap

> On our November return to the US from SBH Winair issued our USAirways tickets at Gustavia.  But, at SXM, the USAirways desk called our name and they re-issued us USAiways tickets with their name on the ticket rather than Winair.  Seems like things are changing all the time.



Yes but since I had printed the USAIR passes already I didn't use Winair's so I don't know if that would have happened. I intend to print the passes myself in the future. You never know when Winair will stop doing it.

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## cec1

I'm eager to see for how long the interline agreement between USAir and WinAir will continue in the era of USAir as "the new American Airlines."

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## andynap

Going down, the USAIR crew really pushed their credit card hard and the "duty free" stuff they were selling. I was getting annoyed at all the announcements. Coming home not so much.

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## marybeth

Yes, it was like flying in a commercial.

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## cec1

I had the same experience recently on the SXM to CLT route . . . it was like the flight attendants had a commission-based compensation structure.

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## tim

They *do* get commission on those sales, thus the pressure.

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## cec1

Voila!  You've explained a lot, Tim!

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## tim

I don't care for the constant promotion during flights, but I think you can soon look for the practice all over the new A/A.

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## marybeth

> They *do* get commission on those sales, thus the pressure.



I don't know if that makes me feel better about it or not.  I guess at least the poor attendants will get something out of the hustle.

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## KevinS

There are many reasons that I wear Noise Cancelling Headphones and listen to my own audio in flight.  In-flight promotions is one of them.

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## stbartshopper

I found out a little trick. iI you don't pay for your bags on line when checking in to the US AIR SXM flight, WIN Air will check them all the way to your destination on US AIR with no charge. SHHHHHH!

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## stbartshopper

I too hate the inflight promotions- that long drawn out credit card spiel- ugh! and the duty free stuff! We also wear the noise canceling head phones but the noise is so loud that it often overrides the headphones. I think they turn the volume up!

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## GinaC

Thank you for the tip.  Did you book through US Air direct or another site?

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## katva

Gina----I've booked using Orbitz, and have had our bags checked all the way through, both ways, every time.  Others have booked directly with US Air (with some success, I gather)

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## leep75

Gina---I called USAir last week and booked my June trip.  I basically looked up all the flights I wanted online first, took note of the times/flight numbers and told them what I wanted and they booked it.  I did the same last year, and my bag was checked through both ways, which is great.

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## katva

Getting ready to book a trip for May----- Orbitz makes it so easy!  I'm sure going direct to USAir is easy, too.....but since I'm accustomed to using Orbitz, and it's worked like a charm every time, I'm sticking with it :) :thumb up:  :Triumphant:

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## NHDiane

> Getting ready to book a trip for May----- Orbitz makes it so easy!  I'm sure going direct to USAir is easy, too.....but since I'm accustomed to using Orbitz, and it's worked like a charm every time, I'm sticking with it :)



Kat - please let us know if this booking goes as smoothly as the last.  We may look into Orbitz for our next trip.

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## patchdad

Flew down on USAir on the 24th, we had booked separately, and USAir wouldn't put the bags through.  We actually flew through immigration in SXM, grabbed the bags and were back upstairs in less than 20 minutes.  We waited a little bit for our flight to SBH, nothing out of the ordinary and for the first time ever all our bags were in SBH when we got there!!
Coming home, our villa rental agency Happy-Villa printed our USAir boarding passes for us and brought them over, so when we went to the airport WinAir put our bags through to Philadelphia. Considering all the weather, equipment changes that USAir had to make with the snow, we really had stress free travel - certainly contributed to a great start on our vacation.

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## stbartshopper

Gina-
I always book our USAIR tickets and Win Air tickets independently as the cost is significantly less than booking all the way to St. Barth from Indianapolis. The downside is we have to collect our bags in SXM and check them with Win Air at the Transit desk but there is no charge to do so. On the return, we print our US Air boarding passes and Win Air in Gustavia checks them all the way back to Indianapolis for free- i.e. no USAIR baggage fee.

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## tim

One can also print Winair boarding passes on line as I discovered yesterday for my trip down today.

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## patchdad

Tim,
I printed the WinAir boarding passes too, when we left SBH I didn't even have to give the folks at the desk my passport, since all the info is in their system.  Needless to say, when we went through security to wait for the plane, the security guard asked me if I checked in, so I guess he doesn't see the paper-printed boarding passes too often.
Margie

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## andynap

I don't know if I would skip saying hello to the Winair desk even if I had Winair boarding passes. It's on the way to the Security area and I would want them to know I arrived.

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## tim

> I don't know if I would skip saying hello to the Winair desk even if I had Winair boarding passes. It's on the way to the Security area and I would want them to know I arrived.



That's what I thought to, but there were a couple of folks in line at the Winair counter, so we skipped it and went right to the gate.  The gate agents immediately put us on an earlier flight.

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## stbartslover

Out of Detroit last week I had a box I wanted to check through...done it many times.
Would not do it---they said since I had purchased tickets separately, asked for the supervisor----no way, new procedure.
HUGE hassle in SXM---said box cannot be checked at transfer desk, had to go to terminal for check in.
Fortunately, I had a friend at Winair who was able to accommodate me with tip so I did not have to schlep the box all the way through the terminal.
They said it was USair problem---none with WA.
As others have said it can change a little every time.

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## amyb

One of the huge benefits of this forum is that we can tell each other of these TINY changes and procedures. Nice to get the heads up and avoid as many problems as possible.

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## tim

Jeff,

Why did you purchase the Winair tix separately?  Were they cheaper or is there another reason?

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## andynap

I don't use Winair going down. I like SBC's flight times. Going home I do use Winair but there is no reason to buy the USAIR  tix together since Winair will check my bags thru regardless.

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## stbartslover

Tim
Yes, I fell victim to cheaper and a strict lady and her boss.
Grabbed a single last minute ticket on Expedia and looked for SBH flights.
I've always been lucky with different purchases getting a SBH tag slapped on bags or a box--- this time my luck ran out ---I was just another schlep dealing with the system.

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## tim

I'll be curious to hear if others have similar experiences to yours.  I bought some round trip Winair tix today from US Air for $211/person, certainly not cheap.

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## phil62

I just paid that for tickets in July. Based on what it's been costing over the last year or two, I thought that was pretty reasonable.

Phil

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