Bahamasair or Bahamas Disgrace

by Craig Butler

I have written about the national airline before, and trust me when I say that it has never been flattering. However, everybody and everything deserves another chance so it was with great trepidation that I decided to give Bahamasair one.

I fly America Airlines nearly all the time and I did intend to do so this over the Easter weekend. But like many Bahamians I waited until the last minute to make my reservations and by that time the price had increased to the point that the travel agent told me that American wanted almost $600 per ticket.

That is more than highway robbery - it is extortion. Reluctantly, I asked about Bahamasair, the price was reasonable and I booked two seats.

Anyone who travels knows that Easter is a busy time of the year, so the airlines must of course be aware of this too, as it happens year in and year out. With that in mind you would think that they would have contingency plans for anything that could go wrong.

Murphy’s Law being what it is, one of the jets went down that morning and threw the whole schedule into South Florida into disarray. The Orlando flight that was supposed to leave at around 10 am, left around 3 pm amongst other delays. I was booked on the 3:45 pm flight to Ft. Lauderdale.

You know when you have that feeling in your gut that something is going to go wrong? Well that feeling was so big it was up to my throat. At around 3:20 and no announcement having been made, the departure board showed my flight delayed to 4 pm. That didn’t seem so bad, so I sucked it up and endured.

Four came and went and there was still no announcement. This is what I find most disturbing and down right disgusting - the nonchalant callous attitude displayed by those who work for Bahamasair. Has the management of this organization never heard that customer satisfaction is job one. Clearly not, and maybe that contributes to the continuous losses the airline experiences.

Any thinking company will seek to diffuse a possible sticky situation before it escalates. Case in point? Continental was also experiencing difficulties but within five minutes of knowing there was going to be a delay an announcement was made stating the reason and the expected time of departure.

The mentality at Bahamasair appears to be one where the consumer has no right to be informed. God forbid you seek to ask a question as most of the agents have no qualms about giving you an ear and mouth full.

Finally, as it was approaching five, a lady came on the speaker and said that they were experiencing technical difficulties but the plane was on the way and we would be boarding shortly.

Well, sometimes I must display on my forehead the words 'world’s biggest jackass' because I believed her. Or maybe in my angst I should say I wanted to believe her. To compound this about 20 minutes later she was back at the podium calling for all those traveling with small children to come forward.

My wife started to proceed and I told her to allow the others to board first thinking she didn’t hear the announcement. Well, I should have followed her advance. Anyway she sat down and I noticed that no-one was walking towards the jetway.

To make an already bad situation worse these people perpetrated a fraud on us. There was no jet, there was a Dash 8 which they had managed to secure to carry the passengers. Simple arithmetic will tell you that there was going to be a problem. But with their usual deceptive practices they led us to believe all was well.

Accordingly when 50 people had gone through the doors they closed the flight. This of course had to be done as the jet can carry 128 passengers whilst the Dash 8 can accommodate only 50.

What I and many others asked was why it was necessary to conceal this from us? Why not simply state what the situation was and what steps were being taken to correct the problem? No, that is far too normal an approach. It involves telling the truth in an organization where lies are apparently rife.

If that were the end of the story it would have been bad enough but it got worse. The agent told us to come to the counter to get a $100 voucher for our inconvenience. But as fate would have it the agents moved so slowly in processing the vouchers that I sensed there was something afoot. You see, I’m a firm believer that the right hand can distract attention whilst the left hand gets up to mischief.

That is exactly what happened. Without any fanfare there was another Dash 8 ready to go and whilst people were waiting to collect their vouchers an agent went to the gate and without an announcement started collecting tickets. It was only after the boarding had commenced that the announcement was made. I was amongst the 50 that got on the plane. And to make matters worse they somehow lost count and allowed more than 50 to come through the gates.

Bahamasair courts discontent and anger. I honestly would like to believe otherwise but after all these years of service and their knowledge of their own people, the same mistakes happen every year.

The breakdown in the equipment is I am told due to the fact that we run these short flights. The stress of take offs and the wear and tear on the plane on landing is made all the worse because of the 30-minute flights. But the whole situation could have been easily rectified if Bahamasair had bothered to charter planes as they done in the past.

Sources say that this is no longer possible because charter company require the money up front due to Bahamasair's bad credit. I am further informed that management has decided to let people wait rather than arrange a charter because Bahamasair is not mandated to pay for meals and/or delays as the other airlines are.

Bahamasair is a classic case of the inmates running the asylum. I am a patriotic Bahamian but I must say that I have finally and officially given up on this excuse of an airline.

Comments

[Paul]

Thank you for telling it like it is.

[Vince]

I think that Bahamas Air should go out of business. That way there would be more incentive for a reputable airline to fill the void.