# Liat and St. Vincent-never again!



## Pappy Mentos (Aug 1, 2015)

Horrible experience last week. Had a 7:05 am flight from St. Vincent to St. Lucia on Liat. We thought it was odd that our taxi driver told us he would pick us up two hours early, as we usually don't arrive that early for an inter-island flight. He picked us up at 5:15 am and we were there before 5:30 am to find a line of about 25 people waiting for the two Liat attendants at the counter. 

There was a hand-written white board listing the flights and we immediately noticed our flight was listed as "delayed." There was an earlier flight to Barbados, an 11:00 am flight to Trinidad and Tobago and two other morning Barbados flights, none of which were listed as delayed. After standing in line for over 90 minutes in the un-air-conditioned lobby, we finally reached the counter and was told to go to the gate to wait for our plane. We checked our bags, passed through security and waited. We watched the Barbados plane leave and the area fill up with passengers for the next flight.

After a second plane left after 9:00 am, we were told our plane broke down in Grenada and that it would take two hours to fix. The Liat supervisor told us that Liat would take us all to Subway for breakfast, paid for by Liat. The passengers included a school/missionary group of about 25 students. So they packed us in taxis, 18 in a taxi that legally fit 14, and drove us across Kingstown to Subway. The school group was there when our taxi arrived, so we stood in line for over 40 minutes to order. We sat down to eat and about 5 minutes later the taxi driver said he was taking everyone back, so we quickly gathered up what we didn't eat to get back in the taxi. Once back at the airport, we were told to go back to the gate, but security would not allow us to take any drinks through, so everyone tried to finish their food while standing in the security line. We get to the gate to watch the Trinidad and Tobago flight take off, followed by an Air Mustique flight, a DHL plane and one from Fedex.

At the gate were bathrooms, a liquor store which was closed and nothing else, not even a water fountain. They opened the liquor store at about 2 pm and luckily they sold some cold bottles of water. At about 4 pm, they announced our flight was cancelled(just as a flight was arriving and which would take off for Barbados), that they would try to book some passengers on the 7:40 pm flight to St. Lucia and would buy everyone dinner, either chicken, a hamburger or fish, all with fries and a drink of soda or water. We were lucky to be on the 7:40 flight as many were taxied to a hotel until the following day. Of course, the food arrived about 10 minutes before the plane and security would still not let the drinks through, so you had to eat in the security line. The flight left at 7:40 and took less than twenty minutes to get to St. Lucia. All-in-all, we spent about 14 hours in the airport with no water until the liquor store opened at 2 pm.

Why Liat did not divert one of the five Barbados flights that day to cover this flight makes no sense. Given the short flight to St. Lucia, they could have easily used one of those planes to make the round trip and would have only delayed the Barbados flight for about an hour. Quite clearly, they would rather pay for two meals and a hotel for half of the passengers. Given the treatment by Liat and the airport staff at St. Vincent, we will avoid both in the future.


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## bobpark56 (Aug 2, 2015)

*Whining*

Sounds like you are wishing Liat had disadvantaged people on other flights just to make life easier for you.

FWIW, I am a former pilot, and I fully agree with Liat not wanting to force a crew to take off in a plane that required maintenance.

And, FWIW again, the same thing can happen with larger airlines. We encountered similar problems with United Airlines last year, making us a full day late in arriving at our vacation destination.

I suggest you just shrug your shoulders and press on.


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## alanmj (Aug 2, 2015)

Pappy Mentos said:


> Given the treatment by Liat and the airport staff at St. Vincent, we will avoid both in the future.



Yes, LIAT struggles to meet its schedule, which isn't surprising given how hard it is to get spares, but what the heck, you're in the CARIBBEAN. If you avoid LIAT for the rest of your life, there is a lot of the Caribbean you just won't see. Especially St Vincent and the Grenadines are the best part of the Caribbean. 

We're been going for over 15 years annually to the Caribbean, and are now used to simply going with the flow, and enjoying every minute of it. Best is watching those who become irate...


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