Passengers Unite!
Written: Dec 02 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Direct flights from Boston
Cons: Blatant rudeness, extremely disorganized, delays, overbooking
The Bottom Line: Don't fly Air Jamaica. But if you do..
-Enjoy Jamaica, it is truly paradise. The AJ reps are apparently recruited from elsewhere..I've never met such rude people on island.
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| lisac33's Full Review: Air Jamaica |
We started planning our second long-awaited trip to the south coast of Jamaica six months in advance. I had bought four Delta tickets through Yahoo! travel. The tickets specifically stated that the flights would be operated by their partner, Air Jamaica. I was excited that we'd get to fly direct--our last trip required that we stop over in Miami (I think we flew US Airways). Little did I know how irrelevant a direct flight would be.
During the period between the purchase and the actual flight, Air Jamaica (or Delta) definitely had my money but apparently no record of our reservations. We arrived at the airport 2 hours prior to departure, waited 1.5 hours in line and then another 30 minutes at the counter while the rep tried to figure out what had happened. Air Jamaica and Delta are partners and, in my mind, "partners" implies automated information sharing..apparently this is not the case in this particular partnership.
The rep reluctantly explained--they never offer information, it must be extracted by constant questioning--that since our tickets were purchased through Delta, Air Jamaica had no record of the transaction. However, I had PRINTED tickets so somebody new about us. In any case, whether this was a system glitch, an error on the part of Delta or AJ, it was a bad way to get started and an omen of things to come.
The actual flight to Jamaica wasn't bad. A couple of us had to sit in the very last row (no reclining) but as a frequent coach traveler, I'm used to uncomfortable seating. Besides it is only a ~4 hour flight, no big deal. However, this seating did impact two things--duty free shopping and breakfast. By the time they got to the back of the plane, they had run out of the sweet smelling waffles they were serving and were serving tasteless eggs and greasy homefries instead. Also, all the items we wanted to purchase from duty-free were out of stock by the time they got to us. Still, we were heading TO Jamaica, on a long overdue vacation, so it was easy to overlook any inconvenience.
After a fantastic week of swimming, boating, sunning and relaxing, we headed back to Montego Bay for our flight home. This is where things went really wrong.
We arrived 3.5 hours early before our flight to avoid paying an extra day on our rental car (and also to take care of any ticket problems early). This, we thought, would allow us to shop, eat, and relax before our flight. Oh no--that was not to be. We immediately went straight to the check-in line behind a crowd of about 70 people. And that's exactly what it was a crowd, not a line, of people. You see, the Air Jamaica reps either have no concept of setting up a queue properly or just don't care. People were trying to form lines so there could be some order but it was impossible. Air Jamaica had scheduled three full flights, LAX, BOS and BWI to leave within an hour of one another (LAX and BWI were actually leaving within 5 minutes of one another)and everyone from all three flights was mixed up in the same crowd.
The Baltimore flight was the first scheduled to leave. It did not go smoothly. First, the only announcement about the flight was when one of the ticket counter reps announced it was final boarding call for BWI. We had been waiting in line for about 2.5 hours at this point. People started freaking out as there were still many, many people waiting to check in for the flight. In order to get people checked in for the flight, the reps kept shifting the lines to try to get the Baltimore people up front. This resulted in people cutting lines, pushing and fighting (verbally).
My boyfriend called out to try to get a manager. That request was met with blank stares and shrugging shoulders by everyone behind the counter. We were then told that there is only one manager in the entire airport and it would take him at least 5 hours to get to us (he continued to request a manager, they totally ignored him).
It was also extremely hot which added to the tension. Our friend had to sit down because she thought she was going to pass out, a person standing in line next to us actually did pass out from the heat.
Next up was the flight to LAX. This one was even worse. They had seriously overbooked the flight and many people were left without seats. Imagine waiting in line for 3 hours and THEN being told there are no seats.
When we finally got to the counter after a 3 hour wait, we of course ran into the same problem with our tickets. A few phone calls by our rep cleared up the situation although we were very lucky to get seats (so I guess there was a pay-off to arriving 3.5 hours early!).
We had just enough time to run to duty-free, get our goods and get to the plane. Or so we thought. It turned out we had a good deal longer since our co-pilot was not even in Montego Bay but was on his way from Kingston! Our flight was officially delayed only 45 minutes but of course we then had to sit on the runway for another hour before takeoff.
The last people to get on the plane was a family of four. The father sat next to me and explained that they also had a difficult time checking in. It seems that they had booked their flights several months ago but when they got to the airport, they were told there were no more seats. After persisting, he was told he could have seats but they were not together and they wouldn't get any food (big surprise there!). Sure enough, they didn't. The whole family of four, scattered throughout the plane, was singled out to not receive food. The father got very upset about this and tried to speak to several attendants about it. His complaints of "poor service" and "not enough food" fell mostly on deaf ears however. One flight attendant listened to his complaint and then challenged other passengers to corroborate his claim of poor service. When we did, he nodded his head and walked away, never to return again.
The poor gentleman I was sitting to was essentially ignored by the all the flight attendants after that point. In fact, the worst was yet to happen and it confirmed my suspicions that the reps/flight attendants of Air Jamaica are the most unprofessional and petty people I have ever had to do business with. This is what happened--the man next to me asked if "there is any juice left". The flight attendant answered "yes" and kept walking. 10 minutes later, the flight attendant walked by and the man inquired about his juice. The flight attendant actually said "but you only asked if we had any left"!
Overall, the whole experience was terrible. I am glad to have gone to Jamaica again, and I certainly will in the future. The people I have met there are some of the nicest I know. One thing is for sure though, Air Jamaica will not be getting my business, my friends business, or that man's business ever again.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
lisac33
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 1 member
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