Scores of Eastern Airlines’ passengers were left stranded at the Pegasus Hotel after enduring two days of “delayed flights” that have left them frustrated.
When Stabroek News visited the hotel yesterday morning, suitcases lined one end of the entrance leading to the lobby, where travellers occupied sections as they contemplated their next move.
Due to the disruption of the Automated Airlines Check-in Services at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), several airlines have been forced to cancel flights.
Speaking with Stabroek News, Drew Amnay, one of the disgruntled passengers, described his experience with Eastern Airlines as being nothing short of disappointing, while highlighting the company’s lack of communication with its passengers as being its biggest shortfall.
Amnay, whose initial flight was booked for Sunday, explained that he received a call the same day explaining that the flight had been rescheduled to 4 pm that afternoon.
The departure time, he said, changed several times after that before passengers were finally informed that they would be accommodated at the Pegasus Hotel since their flight had been rescheduled for departure on Tuesday.
“I got to the airport for 4pm on Sunday and was told the flight would now be departing at 9pm, then it became 12am, then 6 in the morning, then one in the afternoon (Monday) and so forth,” he lamented.
Amnay further blasted the management of airline, describing the manner in which they handled the situation as being “unprofessional” since they not only failed to keep their passengers informed but also showed little to no consideration for those families travelling with young children.
“They told us they would take us to a hotel at 4pm. We got here (Pegasus) at 10pm last evening. I don’t mind, I’m an adult but what about those people with kids? There’s a lady that has been there since 6 on Saturday afternoon with two little kids and they don’t even have anywhere to sit down properly, they were bending their heads trying to stay awake,” he said.
Stabroek News was also told that while the airline would have informed the passengers of a 3pm departure, the departure time was once again pushed back several hours to 7.30pm last evening.
“They told us that we are leaving at 3pm today (yesterday), that has since changed to 7.30 tonight; I have a job I have to get back to. Over there, my team cannot go on vacation until I get back… I am affecting other people’s lives and they don’t care,” Amnay said.
Similar sentiments were echoed by a female passenger who was travelling with her two young children, as she too called out the airline for its poor public relations. “We would have provided a local contact number but they haven’t called us…so everything we know is from word of mouth. There is no reliability, we can’t even call a direct customer service to find out what’s going on,” she said.
Not food
The woman further vented her frustration with what she said was the lack of consideration shown towards the passengers. She explained that when they were finally informed that they would be accommodated at the hotel in the city, it was accompanied with a promise that breakfast and dinner would be provided for the affected passengers.
However, she said, when they arrived at the hotel, they were told that the airline only paid for accommodation and not food.
“Now we have to spend all this money to get around, to get food to eat and you can’t do that freely when you have kids. There is no priority given to families travelling with children, kids are frustrated and you, as a parent, don’t know what to do. We have to spend the little that we have to make them as comfortable as we can,” the woman said.
“I am not going to fly with them ever again…no matter how cheap their flights are,” she added.
Others like Ramadhan (only name), who made the journey from New Amsterdam with his two children to catch a flight to Miami are more concerned with the airline’s no refund policy.
He explained that with the constant cancellations, he remains skeptical of reaching his destination in time for to be present at his relative’s wedding.
“We booked a ticket for 9am Sunday morning and I had a call on Friday, saying that the flight won’t be 9am anymore but 4 in the afternoon. On Saturday, I got another call saying the flight moved from 4pm to 12:45 am Sunday morning. When I finally decide to make the drive, I got a call around 7.10 saying that flight is now scheduled for 6.30 in the morning (Sunday),” he explained.
To add insult to injury, Ramadhan said, the airline did not offer them any food during the time spent at the departure section at the airport.
“The only thing we were given is a sandwich and a juice at about 10.30 Sunday morning and that’s it, on to now, they put us up in the hotel without any food,” he added.
He went on to say that when he asked about possible refunds, he was informed that the airline does not offer refunds.
“I am really not sure about tonight… I don’t want to preempt anything but from the experience we’ve had from Sunday to now, I don’t really have high hopes,” he added.
Several attempts were made by Stabroek News to contact representatives from Eastern Airlines for a comment, however, they proved futile.
“The recent damage to the Americas II cable, a high speed internet service to the airlines servers, has affected the linkage between airlines’ check-in application hosts and the check-in counters at CJIA. The disruption has resulted in passengers being processed manually,” the CJIA had said in a brief statement on Monday, while adding that some airlines were experiencing cancellations due to crew rotation and other operational issues.
“The management of CJIAC will continue to work with its service providers to ensure that the Airline Check-in services are returned to normalcy in the fastest possible time,” it stated.
GTT yesterday announced that it had provided a solution to the airline reservation system, SITA and service was restored at 14:30 hrs yesterday.
