Travel News Today

Dear Mr Davies,

This is an open letter from the people of Trinidad and Tobago to you and your staff because it is quite apparent after the Carnival fiasco that there lies a serious discrepancy between the image of Caribbean Airlines and the actual product. When your new airline was launched, there were many misgivings and fears that it would turn out to be just as sordid as its predecessor BWIA, which was fondly given the acronyms of Bound to Wait In Airport, But Will It Arrive, and Better Walk If Able. We feared that Caribbean Airlines would follow in the footsteps of BWIA and gather its own acronyms, Choose Another, Charlatan Airlines, Combative Aggression and the list can go on indefinitely. There was much apprehension but we, the citizens gave your airline a chance but now it seems that we must reconsider this decision and determine if we wish to make the same mistake twice.

How does this airline expect to make a favorable impression and even profit, from alienating the very same people it wishes to attract? Why must a paying passenger put up with service that is totally devoid of respect, common courtesy and hospitality? We, the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, want to support our national airline but incidents like this make it extremely hard for us to actually do so as by repeatedly putting up with substandard service it appears that we are accepting of the treatment meted out to us by the employees of Caribbean Airlines. When we use the term «employees» we include the top echelons of the establishment as those at the bottom rung represent those at the top; every gruff retort, display of hostility and snide remark by the visible staff represents the entire body of employees that work for Caribbean Airlines .

This situation is quite frankly, unacceptable. Passengers were stranded for days at the Piarco airport, without monetary compensation or any form of accommodation whatsoever; many of them wondering if their jobs would be there when they returned to their resident countries. Why was this? Was this because they were mainly returning nationals and as such, your company felt that we, non-tourists, were not worthy of the respect that would be given to foreign passengers? Is that what we are to deduce from this blatant lack of respect ? Did anyone at your airline, take into consideration that there are Trinidadians and Tobagonians who return for the carnival season and stay at hotels and not with friends and family so when these passengers are stranded, they must now dip into their pockets to finance extra nights at their previous places of accommodation. From the looks of things, it appears that there was no forethought given to this Carnival season at all as by principle, when the airline overbooked, and passengers became stranded, the onus fell on the airline to provide accommodation for those who were forced to stay longer than expected at the airport.

Why is it that Caribbean Airlines did not see it fit to make some arrangement with other international carriers such as British Airways, American Airlines, Delta, Air Canada and Continental, among others, to get passengers back to their destinations? The issue of the flight being overbooked had absolutely nothing to do with the passengers, that was an internal matter for the airline to deal with, on its own time. The passengers are your main priority but it appears that once their funds have been pocketed, they cease to exist and all the courtesies extended when trying to entice passengers to fly with Caribbean airlines are withdrawn. Caribbean Airlines states that its vision is «to be our customers first choice carrier on the routes that we fly» and in the aftermath of this Carnival fiasco, it can safely be said that that particular ship has already sailed, never to return so maybe a new tagline is in order.

To add insult to injury, after passengers were unable to travel on the return leg of their confirmed tickets they were then told that they would have to pay extra to get a seat as their current tickets were not guaranteed to be honoured. Tell us, Mr Davies, what would be the incentive for someone to want to repeat this experience by taking a risk and travelling with Caribbean Airlines a second time? If you received shoddy treatment when you went to purchase a product would you visit that establishment again? No. Would you recommend said establishment to friends or family? No. So in the end who loses more, you or us? We may lose the monetary value that this trip would have cost us but you would have lost thousands of future passengers as many disgruntled passengers will spread the word, by any means necessary, to their friends and family members, warning them never to travel with Caribbean Airlines. You need passengers to stay in the air and with the other options available to us, national pride is not a good enough reason any more to accept substandard service and if customers flock to foreign airlines in droves, you have nobody to blame but yourselves. We tried but you did not rise to the occasion and there will be no excuses good enough to warrant the patronizing of a disrespectful and mediocre company.

In closing, we would like to say that Caribbean Airlines must place its company portfolio under closer scrutiny and identify areas in which customer service and customer satisfaction could be improved. It is not enough to have a pretty website and a colourful plane, there must be product integrity so that people are enthused not resigned to booking a flight on Caribbean Airlines. It is time for Trinidad and Tobago to throw off the cloak of mediocrity for as Benjamin Disraeli put so eloquently «in a progressive country change is constant; … change … is inevitable.» Please change your company practices so that we may once again have a national airline of which we are proud. Don't let the only change be passengers choosing to fly with another carrier.

Renee Pilgrim

(Caribbean Net News)