Dear Editor,
On February 1st, 2021, I sent a letter to each of the four daily newspapers. My letter was a complaint against Caribbean Airlines (CAL), for its failure to issue a refund for my flight which was scheduled to occur on March 24th, 2020. Stabroek News was the only one to publish my letter. Thank you.
On the day that my letter was published, Tuesday, February 2nd, 2021, I received an email at 6:47 A.M. and a phone call at 2:16 P.M. from Caribbean Airlines. The email was as follows:
Dear Mr. Zamir,
We apologise for the delay in processing your refund due to the extreme volumes resulting from this global pandemic
Your refund was processed today in the amount of USD XXX.XX. You will have access by week of February 12 2021 or before.
The excuse for the “delay” is the classic excuse; the “volume.” The “volume” never occasions a delay in charging someone’s account.
The refund was made to my credit card on February 4th, eight days prior to the promised “week”.
I would like to ask the public to observe that only Stabroek News published my letter and this resulted in prompt action by CAL. A letter of complaint was also sent to Mr. Anil Nandlall, Guyana’s Attorney General. I am yet to receive a reply.
From my conversations with several Guyanese, I learnt that several airlines have failed to make refunds for which those persons are entitled.
I, here again, wish to inform those who are due refund(s) from CAL, Eastern Airlines. etc, to “File a consumer Complaint” with the Department of Transportation at: https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/file-consumer-complaint. Anyone may “File a Consumer Complaint” against an airline licensed by the US DOT.
In addition, in July, 2020, I made a reservation with Eastern Airlines, for a flight from CJIA to JFK, on August 3rd, 2020. I received a receipt and itinerary document in format. Two days later, I received another receipt and itinerary in PDF format. It was only after careful examination of the latter PDF that I discovered that Eastern had rescheduled the flight for September 3rd, 2020, but there was no indication in the email that this was done. I immediately requested a refund and was informed that my request would be honoured within seven days. I could not check my account, while in Guyana, since the two-step verification was linked to my US phone, on which I had no service in Guyana. Upon my return to the US, on August 11th, 2020, a check with the bank indicated that Eastern had not fulfilled their promise. I filed complaints with the US DOT, the AG of Pennsylvania and the bank which issued the credit card. Further, I was in the process of filing with the AG of Guyana (the origin of the flight) and the AG of New York, the destination of the flight. I received my refund before my latter two filings.
For the flight, on Eastern, on August 11th, 2020, I was charged for three seats. This was done either deliberately or by an incompetent programmer. A seat assignment field in a passenger’s record, in a database, should be restricted to one of three values; no seat selected, or $XX.00 or $YY.00 seat assigned (determined by the seat selected.). A group of numbers would reference one value and another group would reference the other value.
I have not made a claim for a US$20.00 refund. Should anyone need any advice or assistance with filing a claim, you may contact me at “zamir.guyana@gmail.com”
Again, thank you Stabroek News; you certainly do stand out as a beacon in representation of the Guyanese public and dissemination of information to same.
Yours faithfully,
Zamir