Dear Editor,
Every day I look at the news in the papers and every day I see signs that we Guyanese are abused by everyone who comes here to our country to do business and take our national resources or our money. Since we make no effort to be a successful nation we do not have competent people managing our affairs; race and not intelligence and competence is what wins elections here, and in the end we, all of us, get the wrong end of the stick. We continue to prove to the world that we are an uneducated, incompetent, uncaring and impotent people who will tolerate anything. Well not this Guyanese!
On the 8th June, 2016, I had an important meeting in Miami and I had arranged that on the 7th June I would travel to the US and meet with my lawyer to sign contracts for a specific private transaction. I had to be in Miami on the 7th at 4 pm. It is why I dragged my 70-year-old self out of bed at 1am, got into a taxi at 2 am and travelled to Timehri arriving there at before 3 am, nearly 4 hours before the flight was supposed to depart. I checked into Insel air flight number 0712 which was scheduled to depart at 6.45 am. I got my boarding pass (I still have it), went through immigration and the almost too personal search, and sat in the departure lounge. Well 8.30 am came and went and no information was given, unless it came over that unacceptable mess we call a sound system at our international airport. It is crucial that you don’t treat a public address system as an afterthought; you treat it with the respect it deserves, since it is the principal tool to the effective functioning of an airport, ie, to tell people what is happening, where to go, etc. For this purpose you have to buy the best PA system available, not some nonsense from Radio Shack.
At 9.30 am after what were allegedly delay notices on this so-called PA system which I did not understand ‒ incredibly, not only is the sound system poor, but the staff of the various airlines mumble into this device making it even more unintelligible ‒ I went up to a young lady who happened to be passing and asked for further information. I was told that the plane had technical issues, which apparently they were trying to fix. I then asked her, reasonably enough, how long it would take? She said they may not be able to make any announcement until 6 pm. Editor, this is nearly 10 am and she is saying check back at 6 pm.
I told her that this was not acceptable to me, since I had to be in Miami at 4 pm. They did not give me any trouble, in fact they helped me to get in touch with the officials of Suriname Airways to see if they had space on the flight leaving at 11.30 am arriving in Miami at 4 pm. I made contact by text and asked my lawyer to make my appointment later, and he agreed. Then I accompanied the Insel Air staff to the customs area and retrieved my two pieces of luggage, which I had to haul all the way back to the check-in counter of Suriname Airways. I had to pay the airfare with the US I had bought to travel with, and ended up in the US with several hundred dollars less that what I had thought it judicious to travel with.
Editor, now comes the really sad part of this story, which outraged me more than anything else. On returning to Guyana I made contact with the travel agent who put me on this airline and asked for my refund; two weeks later I called and asked what had happened and I was told that I would have to go to Insel Air which is represented locally by Roraima Airways, and file my complaint there, since the policy of the company was not to make any refunds. So a few days ago I went into the management offices of Insel Air in Guyana at Roraima Airways and filed a complaint. They swiftly responded that Insel Air is inviting me to communicate my complaint directly with them, but the email restated that my appeal may or may not be successful, since it is not the policy of the company to make any refunds whatever. She even informed me that some people who had missed connections, etc, were similarly affected, and she does not know what, if any compensation or refund was given. It would be outrageous if they did not, since if you miss your connecting flights due to these delays you are most assuredly going to lose that money as well.
I decided not to play that game any further, but write this letter and speak to my lawyer since I am convinced that if a person buys a seat on a specific flight they should turn up; because if I don’t turn up, the aircraft will have to fly an empty seat to whatever destination I was going to, and they could have sold that ticket to someone else. So I am liable.
To my way of thinking a travel ticket is a contract between me and an airline saying that they have rules and that I must follow those rules. It covers such things as the amount and weight of luggage, check-in times and penalties for not turning up, being overweight, a ban on smoking, etc. But this contract between me and this airline says that this aircraft has to depart at a specific time; when it does not do so through no fault of mine, they have violated this contract and my rights.
Whatever other age I may have been born in, I am the best I can be today, because of an instrument called the internet. On googling this no refund nonsense, almost the first entry concerned the European Union. I discovered that anywhere in the European Union and any country wishing to become a member of the EU would, I imagine, have to agree to these conditions and modify their legislation accordingly to incorporate “travellers rights.”
These rights include the following:
Firstly, you may not be charged a higher price for a ticket because of your nationality or where you are buying the ticket from. Secondly, you also have rights in case things go wrong. This concerns delays, cancellations and overbooking that prevent you from boarding and applies if you are:
a. departing from any airport situated in the EU,
b. arriving in the EU with an EU carrier or one from Iceland, Norway or Switzerland.
Refund or alternative transport –
If you are denied boarding or your flight is cancelled or overbooked, you are entitled to either:
a. transport to your final destination using comparable alternative means, or
b. having your ticket refunded and, where relevant, being returned free of charge to your initial departure point.
Long delays –
if your flight is delayed by 5 hours or more, you are also entitled to a refund (But if you accept a refund, the airline does not have to provide any further onward travel or assistance).
I have every intention of enforcing my rights legally, since this is not just about money it is a matter of principle, even if it means treading into that other national disgrace, our judicial system.
I do have one other thought: there is a push to discredit GuySuCo and their diversification plans saying that the corporation is starting anew but with old men. I don’t have to address this nonsense with too much of your valuable print space; the average age of retirement of the Supreme Court justices of the US is 78.7 years These are usually 9 of the most brilliant legal minds in the world, not doddering old fools. Currently 3 of them are over this average age; one is 83.
Yours faithfully,
Tony Vieira
