Dear Mr. Darby:

I'm writing directly to you since I figure that the buck should stop with you. Your airline is the absolute worst airline that I've ever had the misfortune to fly on in the 45 years that I've been using airline services. What is even a greater shame is the way this lack of service quality impacts the whole tourism business on all the Caribbean islands that you serve. I feel compelled to warn all other travelers planning trips to the Caribbean to reconsider if they have any flights that require the use of LIAT Airlines. And, to make matters worse, your employees seem so inured to the poor quality situation that they appear to have given up caring. I cannot imagine what it must be like for your employees each day as they deal with violently angry customers such as the several that I saw.

This is what happened to my wife and I during our recent trip to St. Vincent for an 8 day vacation at the Young Island Resort. We thoroughly enjoyed Young Island and would go back there in an instant as long as we can figure out a way to avoid your airline.

Our experience with LIAT on the way to St. Vincent left me completely astonished, astounded, flabbergasted, and perplexed.

We had a connection from United Airlines flight 1675 arriving San Juan at 2:41PM on December 27, 2007. We arrived exactly on time and walked off the flight heading for LIAT right at 2:41PM to catch LIAT flight 383 leaving at 3:30PM. Our baggage had been completely checked through to St. Vincent via United Airlines. With 49 minutes to get to the LIAT flight, we assumed we had plenty of time. We did have to ask someone where the LIAT gate was as there were no signs telling us where to go. After about 5 minutes, we asked someone and they pointed us downstairs.

We arrived at the gate to hear LIAT representative Ledennette Ortiz tell the person in front of us that the flight was "closed" and they were accepting no more passengers for the flight. It then occurred to us that we were also now being denied boarding on the flight. When we asked, this was confirmed that indeed the flight was closed 45 minutes prior to boarding and no additional passengers would be accommodated. The fellow in front of us then stated his opinion that the flight was just overbooked. In response, the representative at the gate then said that it was the practice of LIAT to close the flight 45 minutes prior to departure time and that this was not an overbooking issue. The LIAT representatives were not at all accommodating nor did they seem to care what happened to us, the customers of LIAT. The attitude was unbelievable. They would fly us to St. Vincent on the 28th only if they had space available. There was no guarantee that we would actually have a seat on the next day's flight.

We went back upstairs and spoke with a United Airlines person. He called LIAT and spoke to another LIAT representative who confirmed that there were seats on the flight to St. Vincent and that indeed they were not going to allow us to take the flight. We did successfully retrieve our luggage so we would have clothing to wear in San Juan since it was obvious that we would be stranded overnight there. This cost us additional hotel and dinning expenses as well as the loss of a full day of our package at Young Island.

I would also like to add that the airline tickets for the trip had been purchased totally from LIAT including the US flights. You would think that they would have warned us about a problem connection between San Juan and St. Vincent. We had no warning or clue that there was a problem until we arrived at the LIAT gate.

We did manage to make it to St. Vincent the following day.

On our return leg on January 4th, 2008, we were scheduled to fly to Barbados on LIAT flight 332 leaving at 12:30PM and arriving in Barbados at 1:10PM. This would give us 2 full hours to make our connecting flight with American Airlines 1078 leaving at 3:25PM for Miami. Plenty of time we figured…

And, we thought the getting to St. Vincent was challenging!!!!

We arrived at the airport at 10:00AM to be sure that we got on the LIAT Flight. We waited, and we waited and we waited; 5 hours we waited. Finally, we did board our flight to Barbados at 3:00PM (2 ½ hours late).

Our American Airlines flight to Miami was scheduled to depart at 3:30PM. We were going to miss that flight for sure. We would be Stranded again, only this time in Barbados.

Upon arrival in Barbados, we managed our way through customs and went to the baggage claim area around 3:40PM. My 2 bags did arrive, but my wife's bag did not arrive. We went to the baggage claim desk and waited behind 2 other individuals who also had luggage problems. It took till 5PM to file our baggage claim (1 ½ hours!!!). LIAT personnel move so slowly, I sometimes wonder if they are really alive or not.

We then headed for the LIAT counter in the departure area to see what could be done to get us to Miami. The LIAT person that assisted us was Seymore Gill. He also had to deal with a number of other passengers with the same problem. He had no help from anyone else at LIAT. My wife stood in the line from 5PM till 6:50PM before we finally had arrangements for our overnight stay and arrangements for our flight to Miami in the morning. The best that could be done was to place us on Standby status with American Airlines. At this point, we had now spent 8 ½ hours waiting on LIAT for assistance and support. We were not even able to take a break for a meal.

We did check for the lost bag the next morning before catching our American Airlines flight to Miami. The bag still had not been located. I am hoping that this bag will be found and returned to us but am not sure that we will ever see my wife's bag or its contents ever again. I've sent email to the baggage claim email address on the LIAT web site and am hopeful that someone will reply to me. I don't have high hopes for that either.

It is astounding to see how slowly the LIAT personnel work and how ineffectually they work. I have over 45 years of airline travel and have never ever experienced such poor performance by an airline. While waiting in the LIAT lines, we also talked with many other travelers with similar experiences with LIAT. I usually can maintain some level of calm when things go wrong. But, the bad attitude exhibited by LIAT personnel was infectious. It was difficult for me to be civil with them.

The tragedy of all this is that LIAT is the only airline serving the Caribbean islands at this time. I would have to say that I would not recommend anyone go anywhere on LIAT. But boycotting LIAT also means boycotting quality operations like Young Island and Dive St. Vincent as well. The whole tourism industry is impacted by this.

Regarding another inter-island airline, I would suggest that LIAT look at the Aloha Airlines operation in the Hawaiian Islands. They are on time and provide excellent service. Yet, the cost per flight for Aloha is much MUCH less than what LIAT is charging. For example, a one-way ticket from Honolulu to Hilo is only $49.00 via Aloha. I know that salary levels in Hawaii have to be much higher than for the Caribbean. There is just no excuse for these problems. A solution needs to be found.

At this point, I estimate that my financial losses are $1,160.00. This includes the hotel in San Juan, cab fare to and from the hotel, help with our baggage at the airport, and the loss of one day of our 8 day vacation package at Young's Island Resort. This does not include the potential loss of my wife's bag and its contents.

I can understand that you have some major leadership challenges facing you and your organization. I would hope that you will be able to resolve this and make LIAT a good airline to fly with. Right now, I cannot recommend anyone subject themselves to your service.

Sincerely,

D. Lee Penn

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