Stranded BVI Airways passengers complain of being 'misled'
This news site received a call after 6 P.M. from one of the affected passengers who expressed his disappointment with the treatment allegedly meted out to the passengers. "I was here at this airport since 6:30 this morning and not till after 6 P.M. they going to tell us the flight cancelled and we have to buy our own ticket to get on a Liat flight," said the passenger who asked not to be named.
The individual agreed that delays and cancellations were not a strange or unusual occurrence, but felt passengers were being misled all day. "And the thing that hurt more than anything is they had us here all day and not even a bottle of water much less a snack or a lunch," the upset passenger added.
The man said he became very annoyed at the end of the day when they were told the onus was on them to purchase another ticket with another airline to get to their destination and that they would be refunded at a later stage. "Now that was dread and totally unbelievable," he added.
Contacted last evening June 24, 2013 for an explanation, BVI Airways' Mr Luke Smith acknowledged there was a flight cancellation but emphasised that it was necessary in the best interest of the passengers' safety and the company's integrity.
Mr Smith told Virgin Islands News Online that his company regretted to have had some disgruntlement and misunderstanding among passengers. He explained that initially when it was discovered that the plane had developed a mechanical problem they were hoping that the problem would have been rectified in a timely manner, which would have seen a flight delay as opposed to a cancellation.
"Foremost for us is the safety and well-being of our passengers so we had to make sure that the aircraft was in perfect condition before we allowed our customers to board," Smith explained. According to the airline co-owner, passengers were kept informed as to the status of the flight every hour of the day.
He said the airline was eventually forced to have the flight cancelled altogether after 4 P.M. when it was realised there was no hope of the problem being rectified before the end of the day. Mr Smith said when word had reached him about the misunderstanding about refunds he personally rushed to the airport to have matters sorted out. He said he had even given some persons immediate refunds to allow them to proceed with other arrangements.
"We are very concerned about our reputation and we value our customers and would not deliberately do anything that would make them unhappy. The cancellation was in their best interest and as it relates to the misunderstanding I personally came and dealt with it," Smith emphasised.
He noted that over the past year BVI Airways has had a very small number of flight cancellations.
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33 Responses to “Stranded BVI Airways passengers complain of being 'misled'”
This will not be good for the BVI.
People going to have to find new way to get to the BVI or maybe they will not come at all.
We could start the new STANDARD submarine service. The secret way to get to Natures Little Secrets.
I can see the headline.
"SUB STANDARD SERVICE - The only way to get to the BVI!"
What justice is there in little tola?
We were not kept informed every hour and the flight cancellation was passed on to passengers at 555pm in time for five persons to rush and
Purchase the last 5 seats on liat. Its shameful what u did and to this juncture no one has recieved a refund as yet so please do not try to save face. Not one passenger allegedly got a refund to this date and u were at the airport up till five u never had to rush to the airport I called and spoke to u at the airport. This cud have been handled different u could have put service before money and purchased the five tickets like your staff member Moses asked u to do, but bein thrifty caused u a bad reputation I hope u will make a proper decision in respect to all nine passengers like a free round trip ticket, not even a mea tsk tsk tsk Luke service should be above money
I do have sympathy for the stranded passengers, but Government will run with this one.
It sounds as if the communication could have been improved though.
That is the reputation this airline has earned as a result of this incident.
Worst airline I dealt with in 40 years.