Dear Editor,
I have never felt compelled to write to this column but in this instance I cannot refrain from doing so to express total dissatisfaction with the manner in which Fly Jamaica has treated passengers during the current crisis. Fly Jamaica must understand that passengers have spent their hard earned money to fly with the airline and therefore the least they expect is to be treated with the utmost respect and consideration which have certainly been lacking during this crisis.
My family, like so many other passengers, have been stranded in the USA for almost two weeks. It was only after the intervention of the GCAA that the airline thought it fit to announce the establishment of ‘24 hour hotlines’ here in Guyana. To add insult to injury, the so-called hotline has been ringing out constantly over a period of days. Why say you have ‘24 hour hotlines’ if nobody is there to respond? This is a case of lip-service and utter disrespect. Passengers are in dire need of information. As if that isn’t aggravating enough, the Fly Jamaica website is currently giving a schedule for Original Flight Dates of January 11 to January 15. Where is the information for passengers whose Original Flight Dates were January 3 to January 10? Are these passengers on the ‘back burner’ to be squeezed in when they think fit?
To further compound passengers’ misery, the staff/agents call passengers and instruct them to go to JFK for check in during a particular period on January 11. Money is spent to get there. The passenger spends approximately 7 hours at JFK only to hear “Your name is not on the list” for that flight. Why is the passenger contacted in the first place? They are expected to refund the transportation cost.
Now one would expect passengers to be transported out of the USA in the order in which they were originally scheduled. Lo and behold, many passengers who were originally scheduled for a January 3 flight are still stranded while passengers originally scheduled for the January 11 flight are checked in. Is there preferential treatment being meted out here?
Fly Jamaica has to treat passengers with far greater respect and consideration than has been displayed and stop taking their patronage for granted. Without the passenger they have no business. They have displayed disregard and disrespect and their response at times has been an insult to passengers’ intelligence. Their hard earned cash keeps the airline in business. My family, along with many other passengers, have sworn to never travel with this airline again!
Yours faithfully,
S Joseph
