[scubasamurai]

spirit was a great ride didn't have a problem and it was cheap. i call them the southwest airlines of the caribbean! i did a trip like yours. we landed from st marteens in ffl . they had a separate area to claim your bags which was very close to the place you got off the plane. and than it was US CUSTOMS we had to wait for to have everything checked again to enter the country. than after we were cleared customs, we headed to the separate ticket counter in that same terminal to check our bags and get our tickets for our connecting flight from spirit, this was really quick. after that we proceeded to pass through security checkpoint and get cleared to board our local flight. we did this within an hour. it sounds like a lot of running around, but all the stations were close together. remember if you buy and liquior in the airport they will let you carry it on the plane in the foreign country but than you will have to check that bottle at the ticket counter with your checked bags in our country.

so to answer your question, spirit has a separate area to get check in after you clear customs, no waiting in those long lines at the main terminal.

downfall is that after you use the "private" ticket counter you have to go through the general security line to get to your connecting flight in the terminal, which we all know can be very long.

my advice is book your seat in the front of the plane if your connecting flight has a short time line. the sooner you get off the sooner you get you bags and are in line for customs.

hope this helps our connecting flight wait was an hour and 15 minutes and the planes was late. even with 3 checked bags and two kids and a grandmother we still manage to have time to grab a bite to eat in the terminal before the plane left

good luck