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-   -   Transit times in SJD and PVR (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mexico/2106686-transit-times-sjd-pvr.html)

TWA884 Jan 12, 2023 10:42 am


Originally Posted by Section 107 (Post 34918148)
Ah, I guess I got a little confused about your itin and thought your first arrival in Mexico from the US would be at MEX instead of PVR/SJD. As RFNJ said, someone with experience as an int'l arrival to PVR will have to weigh in on how long it takes.

The OP is connecting from a domestic flight within Mexico to an international flight to the US.

Need Jan 12, 2023 2:08 pm

My family and I just did roundtrip to/from SJD on 3 different itineraries between 1/4 to 1/11 on Alaska Airline. Every single flight (6 total) were delayed anywhere from 0.5hr to 1.5hr. It will probably be similar flying to PVR. The airport on both side were quite empty and flights are not full, so delay seems to be a normal thing. You will want to take that into account for scheduling your connecting flight. We arrived at SJD on 1/4/23 around 6:30pm and clearing immigration was fast (from plane to shark tank about 20 min including bathroom break). The amount of people waiting to clear immigration was about 1/10th of the length of the roped line they have prepared for the room. So I guess the wait could be up to 1.5 or 2 hours if it is super busy. FMM card is no longer a thing at SJD. They just look at you, ask if you are tourist, stamp your passport and you are good to go. But you will still need to get pass custom next after baggage claim. Custom is also super fast unless when you push the bottom and they randomly selected you to check your bags. 1 of our 3 groups got selected and it took a while for them to check thru the bags.

GallyChef Jan 20, 2023 7:31 pm


Originally Posted by Need (Post 34918891)
My family and I just did roundtrip to/from SJD on 3 different itineraries between 1/4 to 1/11 on Alaska Airline. Every single flight (6 total) were delayed anywhere from 0.5hr to 1.5hr. It will probably be similar flying to PVR. The airport on both side were quite empty and flights are not full, so delay seems to be a normal thing. You will want to take that into account for scheduling your connecting flight. We arrived at SJD on 1/4/23 around 6:30pm and clearing immigration was fast (from plane to shark tank about 20 min including bathroom break). The amount of people waiting to clear immigration was about 1/10th of the length of the roped line they have prepared for the room. So I guess the wait could be up to 1.5 or 2 hours if it is super busy. FMM card is no longer a thing at SJD. They just look at you, ask if you are tourist, stamp your passport and you are good to go. But you will still need to get pass custom next after baggage claim. Custom is also super fast unless when you push the bottom and they randomly selected you to check your bags. 1 of our 3 groups got selected and it took a while for them to check thru the bags.

I missed your reply--this is super helpful info Need! Curious as to how long it took you to get through security coming back into PVR (to try and figure out what to budget from "shark tank" back to departures hall)? And could you have possibly checked in online for your return trip to the US? Although I hold out hope that since we'll be connecting in PVR on the way back from MEX we could just walk off the plane to the AS gate and check in there...

Thanks again!

GallyChef Feb 13, 2023 3:42 pm

Alrighty: some data.

PVR requires all passengers to exit and re-clear security for connecting flights, whether domestic or international. International arrivals of course require customs/immigration clearance as well.

On a recent trip ex USA - PVR, our flight was scheduled to arrive on a Sunday at 13:25. We landed at 13:05, and it took us 15 minutes to reach the gate, plus another 5 to deplane (so we deplaned at 13:25).
It took 20 minutes to get past the immigration checkpoint, with a rather crowded/busy hall.
Finally, from there we needed another 15 minutes to get through the customs line, including a search (long, snaking line with mostly folks with luggage. We were randomly selected for a rather thorough search of our carry-ons).
It then took us another 10 minutes to get to security for our connecting flight, and another 10 minutes to get through it and on to the main international hall (gates 7+; only 5 minutes to get to the domestic gates 1-6)

All in all, that was 50 minutes from gate arrival to departure hall, on a rather busy day, going through customs/immigration, WITHOUT needing to reclaim or check any baggage.

On our return flight to PVR from MEX, it would have taken about 10 minutes from the gate arrival to reach the security line, and probably as many as 15-20 minutes to get through that line and get to the departures hall, again withOUT any luggage. While it was impossible to get a boarding pass online for the second segment since this was an intl flight out of Mexico, we were able to get boarding passes from the electronic kiosks (the first 2 machines failed to scan our passports; 3rd time was the charm).

In our case it turned out our flight back into PVR was so delayed that it wouldn't have mattered even if we'd left 2 hours for a connection: we knew we'd miss the flight and arranged to spend the night in PVR before returning to the US the next day. Since we were flying Alaska, we had great customer service and paid nothing to adjust the return flight (on a changeable Main class ticket with what would otherwise have been an added $100 in fare per pax).

I hope the above data is useful to someone in the future!


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