MY horrible affair with LIAT is one that I cannot easily put at the back of my mind. Since my last letter of me being stranded in The Dominican Republic due to the cancellation of LIAT’s flight out of that island to Antigua, with onward connections, I did not get any reply from any personnel at the airline. I suppose Stabroek News, too did not get a response from the person they sent a copy of the letter to. I forwarded my letter to all the email addresses of office bearers listed on the LIAT Website, yet no reply. This goes to show how this airline treats its customers. My flight was cancelled because of the arriving Hurricane Irene on the island. Liat had cancelled its flights and had been re-booking customers at the airport for flights on Wednesday 24th and Sunday, 28th. I begged and begged to be put on a flight for Wednesday, yet the agent at the airport counter said that only Sunday was available. I had to take up boarding and lodging at a hotel in Santo Domingo, spending money in the process. Thankfully, my travel agent in Guyana was able to book me on a flight on Wednesday, August 24. I wonder how LIAT told me that I had to wait until Sunday. I did see that same agent on Wednesday but getting off that island was the first thing on my mind. I still had wanted to give him a piece of my mind.
The flight on Wednesday was late as usual. It left Santo Domingo after 3pm, some 1and a half hour after schedule. They had us walk towards the plane on the tarmac and told us that there was a problem, and had us walk right back to the terminal. A few minutes after, we were allowed to board. Of course, due to their lateness, I missed my connecting flight in Antigua, to Barbados. The agent at Antigua however booked me on the next LIAT flight to Bridgetown.
LIAT’s service is so horrible. They have one flight attendant who hides herself at the back of the plane during flights. They do not give passengers anything to eat or drink even though flying times are over 2 hours, this cheap airline. Just imagine, JetBlue was late 3 hours last Sunday with my mom going back to NY and they refunded her $50 “for the inconvenience”. It was deposited in her bank account. Tell me, when will our Caribbean airline services treat us customers like this?
I see the other day in the papers that this airline is very cash- strapped. They might be closing down soon. I am saying again, there is need for Jet Blue and COPA Airlines in Guyana. Caribbean people, especially Guyanese deserve better than they get from Caribbean Airlines and LIAT. Since the crash incident at Timehri, Caribbean Airlines is putting a lot of full page ads in the papers, showing their flight attendants, services and such. I wonder if they train their flight attendants to run out of the plane first when a disaster occurs, much like what happened that early morning when the flight broke into two (according to passengers’ accounts of the flight attendants leaving first).
When will the time come when I can take a flight from Guyana and arrive at my destination in the Caribbean without any stops and hassles to go through security checks at immigration again. I had to go through immigration checks at Antigua upon my arrival there. Barbados had a better service where you proceeded straight to the departure gate, no checks. But of all the airports in the Caribbean, I must say Trinidad has the best and most modern, then Santo Domingo.
All in all, I am thankful and relieved to be back home. I will never again travel with LIAT though.