My Travel Experience: Trinidad and Tobago, Miami, Dominican Republic, Antigua...
Submitted by Taran on Tue, 12/21/2004 - 16:33
The airline British West Indian Airlines (BWIA) has had a poor reputation as long as I can remember - jokes such as 'Be Waiting In Airport' and 'But Will It Arrive' are examples from the 1980s. I have flown with them since, and had minor problems. These flights were mainly to the United States and back, and were minimal - American Airlines typically had better fares, so I used them.
Until this December.
This December, I attended a reunion of the MISTICA mailing list and the ticket was provided by the organizers. And these organizers got me a BWIA ticket. I had some misgivings, but didn't think I would be too greatly inconvenienced. After all - how bad could it be.
Let me tell you my experience. Here's my original itinerary:
PARA: RAMPERSAD/TARAN
04 DIC 04 - SABADO
VUELO BWIA WEST INDIES VLO:BW434 ECONOMICA REFRSHMNT/COMP
SAL PORT OF SPAIN 800A EQP: BOEING 737-800
02HR 00MIN
LLEG SANTO DOMINGO 1000A SIN ESCALAS
REF: BBEMWN
11 DIC 04 - SABADO
VUELO BWIA WEST INDIES VLO:BW433 ECONOMICA REFRSHMNT/COMP
SAL SANTO DOMINGO 1100A EQP: BOEING 737-800
02HR 00MIN
LLEG PORT OF SPAIN 100P SIN ESCALAS
REF: BBEMWN
TARIFA HASTA EL 02NOV 14,546.00 - US$ 428.00
DEBE DE ESTAR 2 HORAS ANTES DE LA SALIDA
DE SU VUELO EN EL AEROPUERTO.
DEBE RECONFIRMAR SU VUELO 72 HORAS ANTES
DE SU REGRESO.
SI DESEA REALIZAR CAMBIOS EN SU BOLETO, DEBE HACERLO
ANTES DE LA FECHA IMPRESA EN EL MISMO Y PAGAR USD116.00
DE PENALIDAD, DE NO HACER PRESENTACION EN EL AEROPUERTO
PERDERA AUTOMATICAMENTE SU BOLETO, VALIDO EN CLASE
ECONOMICA Y NO REEMBOLSABLE
LAS TARIFAS NO SON GARANTIZADA HASTA
LA EMISION DEL BOLETO
FAVOR VERIFICAR SUS VISADOS ANTES DE LA SALIDA
LAS TARIFAS ESTAN SUJETAS A CAMBIOS SIN PREVIO AVISO
LA TASA DEL DOLLAR CAMBIA LOS SABADOS
LUEGO DE EMITIR EL BOLETO NO SE PUEDE CANCELAR
SI DESEA RETENER LA TARIFA BEBE HACERLO EL MISMO DIA
On the 4th of December, I got dropped to the airport by one of my cousins. This means that I got to the airport by 6 a.m. to check in (international flight), and that means that I left San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago at around 4:45 a.m. When I arrived, I intended to change my itinerary to return on the 18th of December, so that I could explore the Dominican Republic a bit.
As I proceeded to get my ticket from the BWIA ticket counter, I was told that BWIA flight 434 had been delayed by... 12 hours. The issue, I was told, was mechanical. In my mind, such a delay equates to a cancellation.
My uncle had already left. The people at the ticket counter also informed me that I would have to change my ticket in Santo Domingo. Fair enough.
Trinidad and Tobago
So I sat outside Piarco airport until about 7 a.m., drinking coffee and eating breakfast (at the expense of BWIA, whose ticket counter people had graciously given me vouchers and even offered me a day hotel. But what's the point of a day hotel?). A helpful BWIA ticket agent - I forget her name, though I did ask it of her - tracked me down outside and found a way for me to get to Santo Domingo even as the delayed flight was going to depart. Since this was a matter of attending a meeting, I was obliged to take this opportunity.
Miami
So I boarded flight BWIA flight 484, and headed up to Miami. While there, I took advantage of the fact that there were internet enabled telephones, and fired off a few emails. The coffee in Miami International Airport is always good. However, upon returning from outside to use these phones and stretch my legs, I got the Homeland Security treatment. I tolerated it well, since I sort of expected it - and the people who did it were very nice about the whole thing (but I still think it's a horrid thing to have to go through. Sorry.).
Dominican Republic
And thus, I took American Airlines Flight 1901 to Santo Domingo. From there, everything happened smoothly - except I could not change my return date because... the ticketing area was closed. With a week to fix that, I wasn't too worried.
The meeting started, and I tried calling BWIA repeatedly - with no success. So on Thursday, the conference organizers helped me out and somehow managed to help me out. The difference I was to pay was $42 US, and all I had to do was show up on the 18th of December for the flight.
Taran mucho gusto D.R. :-)
Trinidad? No. Antigua!
After spending a pleasant week exploring the Dominican Republic outside of the fattening confines of an all-inclusive hotel, I showed up at the airport for my return flight - BWIA Flight 433. This, I came to find out, was cancelled. BWIA shuffled off quite a few irate passengers to hotels to stare at televisions for a day or two - I was one of them. However, I had an alternative that I used - and ended up doing even more exploring of the Dominican Republic.
Otra vez, Taran mucho gusto D.R. :-)
On Monday, 20th December, Liat flight 501 was to depart with me on board at 1:45 p.m. It was a few minutes late, but we were off to Antigua. I was to have a half hour layover until BW415 took me back to Trinidad and Tobago. As we 'disembarked', I noted on the small airfield that there were no BWIA flights. Uh-oh, I told a fellow traveller who had also been rescheduled from the 18th of December.
Antigua
Immediately, we headed to the counter to find out what was going on with flight BW415. We were told that the plane would not arrive until 7:00 p.m. or so.
The *sane* thing to do in such a case is to get out of the traveller 'holding pen' and stretch your legs. My fellow traveller and myself headed over to the customs area so we could do just that, but after 15 minutes of standing around, the customs supervisor denied us the ability to go outside! So we were stuck at the mercy of the 'in transit' area in Antigua (ANU), and on the schedule of BWIA.
As we entered the 'holding pen' of Antigua's airport (ANU), I mentioned to a security officer scanning baggage that I found it hard to believe we could not simply go outside for a bit. Her response - a direct quote -
'You didn't buy a ticket to Antigua, did you?', in a hostile tone, 'you can't go outside because you didn't buy a ticket here!'
I bit back a retort on that one. But here it is, for everyone to read - because of my treatment at that Antiguan airport, it's unlikely that I will ever buy a ticket to Antigua. Are these the best representatives you could possibly find to greet people at the airport? Did the polite people leave the country? Where are they living now? I would surely visit them.
Prices for food in this area were simply atrocious. $15 EC for a simple sandwich. $10 EC for a hot dog. I subsisted on a Babe Ruth I obtained from a lady for $1 US and paced; touring the prison created by Antigua and BWIA. Getting stuck in Antigua is simple extortion. Perhaps BWIA and Antigua's tourist board split the proceeds from the ludicrous profits.
I then started writing what you are reading now.
By the way, no pictures or even sketches of the inside of the Antiguan airport. Apparently Bush has a tight fist on that country. It's a wonder that they don't blindfold people when they get off the plane in Antigua (maybe they should). Simply horrible. No, it's not air conditioned. And the seats, apparently, are usually packed. Expect to stand. Bring a chair, bring food. Bring a radio. A television. Bring everything to this place.
Because they will not let you out. If they do, they may put tracking devices on you. Ludicrous.
Eventually, BWIA's flight 451 arrived, and we arrived in Trinidad and Tobago around 11:30 p.m. Probably earlier, but I was tired and napping. Of course, when we got there, nobody was there to greet the plane and let we passengers off. We stood on the airplane for at least 10 minutes. Lovely.
Customs cleared us quickly, but baggage was slow to come out - frozen molasses comes to mind - and I heard many people coming in from New York and even Jamaica complaining about BWIA. I cannot write their stories. I have written mine.
Summary
Visit Dominican Republic. It's a wonderful place, and something I'll have to write more about.
Do not fly BWIA unless you're a masochist with more time than brains. I was inconvenienced the whole time, lost valuable work time and though I did enjoy extra time in the Dominican Republic, I would rather have been back at work. Lost productivity is something I am still trying to catch up on.
Do not take layovers in Antigua. Personally, I wouldn't visit
Antigua at this time... not after the way I was treated. If you do end up having a layover there, pack food, clothing and perhaps shelter. I'd advise food for a day, and whatever you need to keep from being depressed for a few hours. I wonder if you're a smoker and you finally cave and smoke a cigarette in this area... would that be entrapment? Amazing. I don't see how they could treat people that way and expect tourism.
Trinidad? Well, you're on your own.
Don't fly BWIA
Do not fly BWIA. They are mainly a Caribbean airline. Once you have paid them for your ticket, they could care less about anything else because they already got their money from you. I went to visit my wife's family and there were 3 flights that would take me to where I needed to go on the day of my departure. I asked for the latest flight and was told there were no seats available on the last 2 flights of that day. I got up at 4:30 am and was at the airport by 5 am and on the jet by 6 am. The promise was that I would be back in New York by 4 pm with one stop and transfer in Barbados. I had arranged for a ride to await me in NY for the 4 pm arrival. The stopover in Barbados was to be a 2 hour period according to my flight itinerary.
As I read a book while waiting and heard loudspeaker calls for arriving and "now boarding" flights, I became concerned when almost 2 hours had expired and I had not heard any call to board my flight to NY. I approached the information booth and began asking about my BWIA flight number. No one had any information other than to advise me to call BWIA on their rotary dial phone. I kept getting a busy signal and decided to sit down and wait or see if I could find anyone else with the same destination and flight. I continued to attempt dialing the nine-digit number for BWIA only to hear a busy signal each time. I could not find anyone else anywhere in the terminal heading for New York on the same flight. and began to think I somehow became so involved in my reading that I must have missed my flight.
I telephoned from the airport to New York to alert my ride that I missed my flight and would have to make arrangements for an alternate flight. Meanwhile the 2 later flights from my point of origin arrived and the arriving passengers told me when I asked about available seats that the next two planes were only about one third occupied so BWIA lied about seat availability on later flights that day or then two thirds of the passengers cancelled or missed the plane (which do you think?).
At 4:30 an announcement came in that my flight number was now ready to board. I had almost purchased a ticket on a different flight but knew my credit card did not have enough to cover the ticket. The BWIA crew told me I had to pay Barbados departure tax for having been in the airport terminal in Barbados where their flight route put me. I challenged the tax and they would not listen to a word I had to say about Barbados as a transient point and told them that I had been in the airport the entire time. They made me pay the departure tax and were very rude about it while I maintained a polite manner for fear of causing a scene and possibly getting arrested being in a foreign country and not as familiar with accepted behavior in challenging a mistake.
I arrived in New York at 2 am and had to be at work at 5 am. This gave me 3 hours to drive one hour and a half home and shower and leave for work. I wrote a letter to BWIA demanding my departure tax refunded and demanding an apology and if an apology a partial refund of the airfare for not so much as the decency to appoint ONE person the duty of calling ANY AIRPORT where a flight is expected to report a DELAY so that the customers who PAID for SERVICE at LEAST have the DECENCY of knowing what the *&#% is going on instead of panicking and possibly PAYING more to catch an another flight due to FEELING CERTAIN that you somehow MISSED your flight. I vowed and disclosed that if I only received an apology, that it would be the EASY method for BWIA to handle it and that if they were sincerely sorry for the LACK of SERVICE they display to their having-already-PAID CUSTOMERS, then they would admit the severity of their lack of a SIMPLE PHONE CALL to the INFORMATION BOOTH in Barbados having had a much more distressing impact on the customer and send a partial refund. I seriously believed I was stranded in Barbados with limited chances of getting back to NY and communicating with my employer that I might not arrive to work.
BWIA refunded only the departure tax and wrote one sentence which didn't even amount to an apology admitting any failure not lack on their part. The letter said we are sorry you had a bad experience. Please feel welcomed to fly BWIA again in the future. Here's how I interpreted the letter: "We got your money. Too bad you had a bad day. Hope we can have some more of your money in the future. We don't care."
BWIA does not deserve my business and they do not deserve your business. They haven't a clue what service is and once they have your money they will board you onto the plane as if you are one of a few hundred farm animals being herded into a big trailer. You can't imagine how alarming it feels to feel like you are STRANDED in a foreign country with insufficient funds and no promise of getting home and having to be at work within 18 hours. When I asked BWIA why they could not have made a phone call to Barbados to alert that the flight was delayed, they said it was not their policy. Not their policy to make a simple 30-second phone call so as to keep the customers informed and avoid some panic. I will never give them another cent and continue to tell everyone what a crappy airline they are. SCREW YOU BWIA!! I tell my relatives they can only visit if they do NOT use BWIA. You have lost thousands of dollars due to my telling others to use an alternate airline.
BWIA might as well stand for: Be Waiting In Airport
Be Wishing In Alternate
Bad Welcome Insufficient Airline
Blame We Instead Airline
Better Walk Ifuwanna Arrive
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