Dear Claudienne:

I would like to share my disappointment with the lack of customer service and accuracy displayed by Caribbean Airlines (CAL).

Our family of four originally booked flights from Barbados to Kingston for the period July 3 to August 10, 2015. Subsequently, we changed and paid for a return date to Barbados on August 17, 2015. The entire process has been rife with errors and inefficiencies, and so I will try to be as concise as possible in explaining what happened.

We travelled with our 4-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, and CAL policy required that as minors, our children’s tickets be linked to an adult’s ticket.

We had to change the return dates of our tickets, but when we called the CAL Call Centre, none of the agents could locate the original reservation made for our son.

After numerous calls to the Centre and being placed on hold for lengthy periods of time, a supervisor eventually located our son’s reservation on the system.

The supervisor attributed the delay in locating my son’s reservation to an error by one of the booking agents. She said that although our daughter had been linked to my husband’s ticket, the agent had erroneously booked my son, but had not linked him to an adult ticket.

Because of the error, she indicated that our son’s change fee would be higher as it was in a separate category from that of our daughter. After assuring me that the error had been rectified, she updated one of the other agents with the new information and then transferred me back to that agent to complete the transaction.

The agent quoted me the total change fee for the four of us, and we provided our credit card details over the phone. Our credit card statement has since reflected the payment.

On the day of departure, there were more challenges. On August 16, we received notification for web check-in eligibility for “all” four travellers (including our son) for BW415 departing KIN on August 17.

My husband, daughter and myself were able to web check-in, but we received an error online for our son. When we phoned the Call Centre to inquire about the error, the agent said that we would have to check him in at the airport, but noting that he was a minor, she arranged for my son to be pre-seated.

On August 17, when our family arrived at the Norman Manley airport to depart for Barbados, the CAL check-in agent indicated that she could not locate any reservation for our son. At the ticketing counter an officer said that there was no indication on her system that we had paid any change fee for our son.

The ticketing officer said that the system indicated that our son was still scheduled to travel on August 10 “on his own”, as her system showed that the other three family members were travelling on August 17.

We repeatedly shared pertinent details (as noted above) with her, including a copy of the web check-in eligibility email we received on August 16 for our son. The officer said that if we all wanted to travel to Barbados “today” (August 17), we would have to pay the change fee (again) for my son. Not wanting to miss the flight, we again paid a change fee of US$84 for him.

At this point, the flight had long started to board, so our family had to race to immigration, unescorted by any Caribbean Airlines agent. We eventually boarded the flight as the last passengers.

On August 18, I issued a formal complaint to CAL, detailing the above with more specifics including e-ticket numbers, credit card statements, etc.

On August 19, I received an e-mail from CAL stating that the claim would be processed in 60 days.

On October 8, I wrote CAL to remind them of the claim.

At the time of writing you (November 23, 2015) 94 days later, I have received neither reimbursement nor update from Caribbean Airlines.

We would appreciate your intervention to resolve this matter.

TB

Dear TB:

CAL has informed

Tell Claudienne that they cannot communicate with a third party.

Nevertheless, we urged CAL to speak with you. We note that you said that their Customer Service Supervisor phoned you on May 2, 2016. In an e-mail to

Tell Claudienne you stated the following:

“I spoke to the Customer Service Supervisor yesterday evening (Monday) for about 15 minutes. Was this before or after your call? She was calling to follow up. I explained our situation fully to her. She listened and acknowledged that her agents may not have explained the situation fully. She said CAL cannot communicate with you as you are a third party. I told her I am quite grateful for your intervention as I was beginning to feel overwhelmed by the situation. We went through the situation piece by piece and I asked her if she cannot see the holes in CAL’s positioning. To her credit, I really believe that she listened openly. It was a very frank and respectful conversation and I was grateful for it. She ended by saying she will send me an official email shortly.

I will keep you posted.”

We note that you said you never received that promised official e-mail.

The Customer Service Supervisor at CAL and the Head of CAL’s Corporate Communications insist that your claim has been settled.

In an e-mail sent to Tell Claudienne on March 7, 2017, the Head of CAL’s Corporate Communications states: “To state that the claim remains unsettled is incorrect.”

They said that two e-mails CAL sent to you on November 26, 2015 and December 4, 2015 fully explained and clarified the matter. The Customer Service Supervisor said that Tell Claudienne would have to obtain from you copies of the CAL e-mails in settlement of the matter.

You have sent us the e-mails that you received from CAL, but we cannot disclose any of the information in them .

The following warning appears at the end of the e-mails: “The information contained in this e-mail transmission is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination or copying of this transmission (including any attachments) is strictly prohibited.”

In your response to us on April 20, 2016 about the CAL “settlement” e-mails, you stated the following: “We have no record of the claims made in the e-mail.”

You also stated : “Claudienne, there are so many inaccuracies with CAL’s e-mail. However, we are truly exhausted. I sincerely apologise for the delay in replying to your e-mail and I thank you for your kind persistence in following up on this matter. We appreciate it.”

Since you still believe that the matter has not been settled, probably your only recourse might be to take the matter to court.

We wish you all the best.

Have a problem with a store, utility, or company? Telephone 936-9346 or write to: Tell Claudienne c/o Sunday Finance, Jamaica Observer, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail:edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com. Please include a contact phone number.