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Watch out for Air Jamica and Delta
Recently miscommunication and denial between Delta Airlines, Air
Jamaica, Expedia and Berkley Travel have set us back over $2,500.00 in
airlines tickets, hotel fees, lost wages, international phone calls
and miscellaneous expenses.
We are writing this letter to the entitles involved as well as
selected consumer r advocate groups to see if any relief can be
obtained before the use of legal proceedings. We have already spoken
to these entities by phone for over twenty hours. Many of these calls
were International calls made in Barbados and Jamaica.
It began when we bought our tickets from Expedia (Expedia itinerary
number
118676328895). We felt secure with them having been their customer
for eight years.
Air Jamaica claims all fault lies with Delta Airlines. Delta Airlines
claims that all fault lies with Air Jamaica. Berkley Travel claims
that all fault lies with Expedia. Expedia claims that all fault lies
with Air Jamaica. Air Jamaica claims that it could fix things, if only
we hadn't let Mr. Chase, their representative in Barbados, take our
tickets.
Here is what happened to us:
· On 11 March we leave Austin, Texas on Delta Flight 1184. We are
issued tickets printed on Delta stock. We are worried about the short
lay-over in Montego and ask the agent if it will be problem. She
tells us no, that Delta Airlines and Air Jamaica are partner airlines
and that our bags are checked direct to Bridgetown, Barbados. We
will not have to go through customs.
· In Atlanta we board flight 2683, an Air Jamaica flight operated by
Delta Airlines. The flight attendants hail out of Cleveland and are
wearing Delta uniforms. We are told that we will have to go through
customs, pick up our bags, exit the building, go the Air Jamaica
counter, re-check our bags before we can board Flight 93 to
Bridgetown. We are told this has always been the procedure and that
the agent in Austin must have been confused.
· In Montego Bay customs officials told us that as on March 12 there
was a "strike" by Air Jamaica against Delta Airlines. Custom official
mange to hold flight 93 and as we slip on we are told that if we fill
out a report on our bags in Bridgetown they will be put on the next
flight.
· In Bridgetown we locate an Air Jamaica representative who begins to
take down our information. She excuses herself to deal with an
hysterical passenger, who ha come in our flight, telling us that she
will be back. We wait in the arrival area for over and hour and then
discover that all Air Jamaica officials have left for the day.
· The next day we make our first set of calls to Air Jamaica, who
tells us that the lost bags are Delta Airlines's responsibility (since
the flight was operated by Delta Airlines). We call Delta Airlines
who tell us that the lost bags are Air Jamaica's responsibility (since
it was an Air Jamaica flight). We ask Bajan Services for help. The
manager makes similar calls and he is told that the bags will arrive
this night. They do not arrive.
· On the thirteenth we make our second set of calls to other officials
in the same airlines, as does Bajan services. We received assurance
that our bags will arrive. They do not arrive.
· On the fourteenth Bajan services calls the manager of Air Jamaica
and is told we will receive $500.00 Bajan clothing allowance. We
call Air Jamaica; they say buy your clothes and bring the receipts
tomorrow. Also they have good news our bags will arrive tonight. We
call Berkley Travel. They tell us they are setting a claim for us on
lost luggage and to buy what we need. The bags do not arrive. We buy
clothes.
· On the fifteenth we call Air Jamaica and say that we have our
receipts and we need to be reimbursed. Mr. Chase tells us that they
don't have any cash, but that they will be prepared to give us the
$500.00 when we leave on Sunday the 17th. Our bags arrive.
· On the seventeenth we arrive at the airport. Mr. Chase tells us
that are not going to receive $500.00, such an agreement was never
made. We point out that the manager of Bajan Services had spoken with
the manager of Air Jamaica. Mr. Chase excuses himself and goes to
make a phone call. Forty five minutes later he returns and says that
yes we are indeed owed the money, but they have no money and tells us
that a "runner" will enter the plane in Grenada and hand us the cash.
Since we actually have no money to buy lunch, he agrees to see if he
"can" get any money at the local banks. In the meantime we are told
that flight 94 to Montego Bay has been delayed and that we will miss
our connections into the United States. We are told accommodation
will be provided and Air Jamaica will aide us in Montego Bay getting
on the flight the next day (an Air Jamaica flight operated by Delta).
We are asked to surrender our paper tickets (printed on Air Jamaica
stock) and told we will be issued new tickers in Montego Bay,
Foolishly we do as Mr. Chase asks, since we were still waiting for the
money at that point.
· Upon our late arrival in Montego Bay several passengers were ushered
into waiting area and two Air Jamaica employees telling us that as "we
had been advised there Air Jamaica is not providing accommodation."
Several people began shouting at this lie, and Air Jamaica had one
very upset couple escorted away by guards. We waited in line asked
for the aide promised us in Bridgetown. Air Jamaica said they would
honor their tickets to get us to Atlanta the next day, but there was
no way to get a seat out on Delta as it was oversold and they could
not contact Delta in any manner.
· Due to the superior offices of American Express we found a hotel and
exhausted called our employers and arranged for substitute teachers to
fill our position the next day.
· The next morning we called Delta. We told them that we had missed
Flight 1137 due to weather. They said they could not help us in any
way. We called the Travel Service of American Express, who said that
Delta was obligated by law to provide us a seat and offered to call
Delta for us. When American Express called Delta, the Delta
representative said that he could fix our problems with no worries.
However as soon as the American Express agent hung up, the Delta Agent
told us that actually he could do nothing, as the tickets were Air
Jamaica tickets. We pointed out that all we were interested in was
the Atlanta-to-Austin leg of the trip. He said that it did not matter
that Expedia had purchased the tickets from Air Jamaica. When asked
"You mean to tell me that Delta Airlines does not have the power to
put a person its airplane in America, from whom they have received
money?" he responded no, that their power ended with the ability to
receive money. He offered however to call Air Jamaica. The Air
Jamaica representative said he had the full records of my trip and
could help me set everything all right. All I needed to do was read a
code from my paper tickets that were printed on Air Jamaica stock. I
told him that my paper tickets had been surrendered to their agent Mr.
Chase on Barbados. He said that he could not help me unless I
obtained the tickets, and that he would never have surrendered them.
He then hung up. The Delta Agent who had been waiting on the line was
shocked. He told me that he had never had such poor customer
service. He got us on stand-by for flights out of Atlanta, and said
that he thought we would "probably" be home on Wednesday, but he could
not guarantee it. He did not know if we would have to pay for the
tickets or not.
· We arranged for flights home on Northwest. We had to back to our
jobs. We arrived on the twentieth.
· On the twenty-first my wife called Berkley Travel to file a claim
for trip delay. The insurance they issuses for 'tri[ delay" did not
cover delays in trips. She was told that they were uninterested in
processing our claim and that it sounded "complicated" and that it
was all Expedia's fault. Call them. They did however give us a Case
# 20703002343
· My wife called Expedia and was told that our claim was "complicated"
and that we should call Air Jamaica and get a claim number/case file
set up. They could not help us until Air Jamaica did this.
· My wife contacted Air Jamaica.
· Air Jamaica respond and said they would issue us a case number
immeadeatly, they would e-mail soon.
· It is March 23. We have not been contacted by Air Jamaica.
We have began e-mailing our friends, the e-lists we are on, Epinons
and so forth about our trip so that others will be familiar with the
four entitles' ability to take in money, but not give service. . So
far we have contacted about 10,000 people.
We will gladly provide copies of receipts and other documents. After
our experience of Air Jamaica confiscating our tickets we do not wish
to provide originals. Having been lied to several times by phone we
are only interested in written response.
Sincerely.
Don Webb
CC:
Delta Airlines
Jamaica Air
Berkeley Travel
Expedia
Bajan Services
Seven on Your Side
Austin American Statesman
Austin Craigslist Rants
Bellevue Washington Better Business Bureau
Aviation Consumer Protection Division of the Department of
Transportation at airconsumer@ost.dot.gov.
· www.my3cents.com
· www.complaints.com
· www.consumeraffairs.com
· www.mytravelrights.com
We will add other for a daily.
Jamaica, Expedia and Berkley Travel have set us back over $2,500.00 in
airlines tickets, hotel fees, lost wages, international phone calls
and miscellaneous expenses.
We are writing this letter to the entitles involved as well as
selected consumer r advocate groups to see if any relief can be
obtained before the use of legal proceedings. We have already spoken
to these entities by phone for over twenty hours. Many of these calls
were International calls made in Barbados and Jamaica.
It began when we bought our tickets from Expedia (Expedia itinerary
number
118676328895). We felt secure with them having been their customer
for eight years.
Air Jamaica claims all fault lies with Delta Airlines. Delta Airlines
claims that all fault lies with Air Jamaica. Berkley Travel claims
that all fault lies with Expedia. Expedia claims that all fault lies
with Air Jamaica. Air Jamaica claims that it could fix things, if only
we hadn't let Mr. Chase, their representative in Barbados, take our
tickets.
Here is what happened to us:
· On 11 March we leave Austin, Texas on Delta Flight 1184. We are
issued tickets printed on Delta stock. We are worried about the short
lay-over in Montego and ask the agent if it will be problem. She
tells us no, that Delta Airlines and Air Jamaica are partner airlines
and that our bags are checked direct to Bridgetown, Barbados. We
will not have to go through customs.
· In Atlanta we board flight 2683, an Air Jamaica flight operated by
Delta Airlines. The flight attendants hail out of Cleveland and are
wearing Delta uniforms. We are told that we will have to go through
customs, pick up our bags, exit the building, go the Air Jamaica
counter, re-check our bags before we can board Flight 93 to
Bridgetown. We are told this has always been the procedure and that
the agent in Austin must have been confused.
· In Montego Bay customs officials told us that as on March 12 there
was a "strike" by Air Jamaica against Delta Airlines. Custom official
mange to hold flight 93 and as we slip on we are told that if we fill
out a report on our bags in Bridgetown they will be put on the next
flight.
· In Bridgetown we locate an Air Jamaica representative who begins to
take down our information. She excuses herself to deal with an
hysterical passenger, who ha come in our flight, telling us that she
will be back. We wait in the arrival area for over and hour and then
discover that all Air Jamaica officials have left for the day.
· The next day we make our first set of calls to Air Jamaica, who
tells us that the lost bags are Delta Airlines's responsibility (since
the flight was operated by Delta Airlines). We call Delta Airlines
who tell us that the lost bags are Air Jamaica's responsibility (since
it was an Air Jamaica flight). We ask Bajan Services for help. The
manager makes similar calls and he is told that the bags will arrive
this night. They do not arrive.
· On the thirteenth we make our second set of calls to other officials
in the same airlines, as does Bajan services. We received assurance
that our bags will arrive. They do not arrive.
· On the fourteenth Bajan services calls the manager of Air Jamaica
and is told we will receive $500.00 Bajan clothing allowance. We
call Air Jamaica; they say buy your clothes and bring the receipts
tomorrow. Also they have good news our bags will arrive tonight. We
call Berkley Travel. They tell us they are setting a claim for us on
lost luggage and to buy what we need. The bags do not arrive. We buy
clothes.
· On the fifteenth we call Air Jamaica and say that we have our
receipts and we need to be reimbursed. Mr. Chase tells us that they
don't have any cash, but that they will be prepared to give us the
$500.00 when we leave on Sunday the 17th. Our bags arrive.
· On the seventeenth we arrive at the airport. Mr. Chase tells us
that are not going to receive $500.00, such an agreement was never
made. We point out that the manager of Bajan Services had spoken with
the manager of Air Jamaica. Mr. Chase excuses himself and goes to
make a phone call. Forty five minutes later he returns and says that
yes we are indeed owed the money, but they have no money and tells us
that a "runner" will enter the plane in Grenada and hand us the cash.
Since we actually have no money to buy lunch, he agrees to see if he
"can" get any money at the local banks. In the meantime we are told
that flight 94 to Montego Bay has been delayed and that we will miss
our connections into the United States. We are told accommodation
will be provided and Air Jamaica will aide us in Montego Bay getting
on the flight the next day (an Air Jamaica flight operated by Delta).
We are asked to surrender our paper tickets (printed on Air Jamaica
stock) and told we will be issued new tickers in Montego Bay,
Foolishly we do as Mr. Chase asks, since we were still waiting for the
money at that point.
· Upon our late arrival in Montego Bay several passengers were ushered
into waiting area and two Air Jamaica employees telling us that as "we
had been advised there Air Jamaica is not providing accommodation."
Several people began shouting at this lie, and Air Jamaica had one
very upset couple escorted away by guards. We waited in line asked
for the aide promised us in Bridgetown. Air Jamaica said they would
honor their tickets to get us to Atlanta the next day, but there was
no way to get a seat out on Delta as it was oversold and they could
not contact Delta in any manner.
· Due to the superior offices of American Express we found a hotel and
exhausted called our employers and arranged for substitute teachers to
fill our position the next day.
· The next morning we called Delta. We told them that we had missed
Flight 1137 due to weather. They said they could not help us in any
way. We called the Travel Service of American Express, who said that
Delta was obligated by law to provide us a seat and offered to call
Delta for us. When American Express called Delta, the Delta
representative said that he could fix our problems with no worries.
However as soon as the American Express agent hung up, the Delta Agent
told us that actually he could do nothing, as the tickets were Air
Jamaica tickets. We pointed out that all we were interested in was
the Atlanta-to-Austin leg of the trip. He said that it did not matter
that Expedia had purchased the tickets from Air Jamaica. When asked
"You mean to tell me that Delta Airlines does not have the power to
put a person its airplane in America, from whom they have received
money?" he responded no, that their power ended with the ability to
receive money. He offered however to call Air Jamaica. The Air
Jamaica representative said he had the full records of my trip and
could help me set everything all right. All I needed to do was read a
code from my paper tickets that were printed on Air Jamaica stock. I
told him that my paper tickets had been surrendered to their agent Mr.
Chase on Barbados. He said that he could not help me unless I
obtained the tickets, and that he would never have surrendered them.
He then hung up. The Delta Agent who had been waiting on the line was
shocked. He told me that he had never had such poor customer
service. He got us on stand-by for flights out of Atlanta, and said
that he thought we would "probably" be home on Wednesday, but he could
not guarantee it. He did not know if we would have to pay for the
tickets or not.
· We arranged for flights home on Northwest. We had to back to our
jobs. We arrived on the twentieth.
· On the twenty-first my wife called Berkley Travel to file a claim
for trip delay. The insurance they issuses for 'tri[ delay" did not
cover delays in trips. She was told that they were uninterested in
processing our claim and that it sounded "complicated" and that it
was all Expedia's fault. Call them. They did however give us a Case
# 20703002343
· My wife called Expedia and was told that our claim was "complicated"
and that we should call Air Jamaica and get a claim number/case file
set up. They could not help us until Air Jamaica did this.
· My wife contacted Air Jamaica.
· Air Jamaica respond and said they would issue us a case number
immeadeatly, they would e-mail soon.
· It is March 23. We have not been contacted by Air Jamaica.
We have began e-mailing our friends, the e-lists we are on, Epinons
and so forth about our trip so that others will be familiar with the
four entitles' ability to take in money, but not give service. . So
far we have contacted about 10,000 people.
We will gladly provide copies of receipts and other documents. After
our experience of Air Jamaica confiscating our tickets we do not wish
to provide originals. Having been lied to several times by phone we
are only interested in written response.
Sincerely.
Don Webb
CC:
Delta Airlines
Jamaica Air
Berkeley Travel
Expedia
Bajan Services
Seven on Your Side
Austin American Statesman
Austin Craigslist Rants
Bellevue Washington Better Business Bureau
Aviation Consumer Protection Division of the Department of
Transportation at airconsumer@ost.dot.gov.
· www.my3cents.com
· www.complaints.com
· www.consumeraffairs.com
· www.mytravelrights.com
We will add other for a daily.
dwebb9@austin.rr.com wrote:
> Recently miscommunication and denial between Delta Airlines, Air
> Jamaica, Expedia and Berkley Travel have set us back over $2,500.00 in
> airlines tickets, hotel fees, lost wages, international phone calls
> and miscellaneous expenses.
1. It has only been a short time since all of this happened.
2. If you bought tickets through Expedia, then how is Berkley Travel and
Bajan services involved?
3. Your description of the events is very confusing. Lost bags claims
are usually handled by the last airline on the trip. It sounds like you
bought trip insurance. If so, was there coverage for delayed baggage?
You didn't clearly indicate when your bags arrived, but the way I
understand it, you were told to by clothing on the 14th and your bags
arrived on the 15th.
4. You did mention missing a flight due to weather. It sounds like this
was the flight to MBJ, but for being teachers, you are quite unclear on
this. If this is what happened, then Air Jamaica doesn't owe you a hotel
room for this. It's not the airline's fault the weather was bad. You
indicated that Air Jamaica did arrange for you to take the flight to ATL
the following day. Delta's phone conversation sounds odd, but there is
also no indication you attempted to contact Delta on arrival in Atlanta.
You stated that the DL agent on the phone said your ticket numbers were
needed. Did you contact Air Jamaica to get the ticket numbers? They
might have been able to look up the numbers in their reseravations
system. You stated the DL agent got you standby on the flight out of
Atlanta. Did you standby or just decide to buy a NW ticket? You were
put on standby because there were no DL seats available. If there are no
seats available, then they put you on standby. They are not obligated
to pay for you to fly on another carrier if you missed your connection
due to a weather delay.
5. You booked through Expedia. Did you contact them at any point during
the trip? This is one advantage to using a full service agent over
places like Expedia. A good TA will handle the problem for you.
In conclusion:
It sounds like some compensation might be due for the delayed baggage.
It sounds like you were without luggage for 3 days. File a claim with
both DL and Air Jamaica, if you haven't already. This is really not
something to get all worked up over.
For the other part of this, you aren't really entitled to compensation,
as it was a weather delay.
1. Your weather delayed flight to MBJ arrived to late for you to fly to
Atlanta
2. Air Jamaica put you on the next flight to Atlanta as they had space,
so you didn't need to be standby.
3. Delta put you standby due to there being no confirmed seats
avaialable. This is standard practice when you miss flights due to weather.
4. You decided you didn't want to be standby, and it didn't sounded like
you actually waited as standby for any flights. Instead you chose to pay
for confirmed seats on another carrier.
It sounds like you don't travel much as you really seem to be
overreacting by contacting multitudes of people only a few days after
your return. If you write letters to the companies involved, you might
get something, but your view on what you are entitled to may differ from
what you are really entitled to. Weather delays are common. Airlines
can not afford to put people up in hotel rooms or pay for them to fly on
an another carrier if they miss their flights due to weather and there
is no space on another of the carrier's flights. Additionally, it didn't
sound like you tried even one flight as standby. For most US carriers,
stranded connecting passengers have a higher priority for standby than
other passengers.
> Recently miscommunication and denial between Delta Airlines, Air
> Jamaica, Expedia and Berkley Travel have set us back over $2,500.00 in
> airlines tickets, hotel fees, lost wages, international phone calls
> and miscellaneous expenses.
1. It has only been a short time since all of this happened.
2. If you bought tickets through Expedia, then how is Berkley Travel and
Bajan services involved?
3. Your description of the events is very confusing. Lost bags claims
are usually handled by the last airline on the trip. It sounds like you
bought trip insurance. If so, was there coverage for delayed baggage?
You didn't clearly indicate when your bags arrived, but the way I
understand it, you were told to by clothing on the 14th and your bags
arrived on the 15th.
4. You did mention missing a flight due to weather. It sounds like this
was the flight to MBJ, but for being teachers, you are quite unclear on
this. If this is what happened, then Air Jamaica doesn't owe you a hotel
room for this. It's not the airline's fault the weather was bad. You
indicated that Air Jamaica did arrange for you to take the flight to ATL
the following day. Delta's phone conversation sounds odd, but there is
also no indication you attempted to contact Delta on arrival in Atlanta.
You stated that the DL agent on the phone said your ticket numbers were
needed. Did you contact Air Jamaica to get the ticket numbers? They
might have been able to look up the numbers in their reseravations
system. You stated the DL agent got you standby on the flight out of
Atlanta. Did you standby or just decide to buy a NW ticket? You were
put on standby because there were no DL seats available. If there are no
seats available, then they put you on standby. They are not obligated
to pay for you to fly on another carrier if you missed your connection
due to a weather delay.
5. You booked through Expedia. Did you contact them at any point during
the trip? This is one advantage to using a full service agent over
places like Expedia. A good TA will handle the problem for you.
In conclusion:
It sounds like some compensation might be due for the delayed baggage.
It sounds like you were without luggage for 3 days. File a claim with
both DL and Air Jamaica, if you haven't already. This is really not
something to get all worked up over.
For the other part of this, you aren't really entitled to compensation,
as it was a weather delay.
1. Your weather delayed flight to MBJ arrived to late for you to fly to
Atlanta
2. Air Jamaica put you on the next flight to Atlanta as they had space,
so you didn't need to be standby.
3. Delta put you standby due to there being no confirmed seats
avaialable. This is standard practice when you miss flights due to weather.
4. You decided you didn't want to be standby, and it didn't sounded like
you actually waited as standby for any flights. Instead you chose to pay
for confirmed seats on another carrier.
It sounds like you don't travel much as you really seem to be
overreacting by contacting multitudes of people only a few days after
your return. If you write letters to the companies involved, you might
get something, but your view on what you are entitled to may differ from
what you are really entitled to. Weather delays are common. Airlines
can not afford to put people up in hotel rooms or pay for them to fly on
an another carrier if they miss their flights due to weather and there
is no space on another of the carrier's flights. Additionally, it didn't
sound like you tried even one flight as standby. For most US carriers,
stranded connecting passengers have a higher priority for standby than
other passengers.
