A passenger who was scheduled to leave Guyana’s shores on December 11, 2018 after booking his flight five months in advance with Fly Jamaica, has expressed frustration at the airline for “dragging its feet” in relation to refunding passengers their monies.
Vikask Ramnarine, who was destined for JFK airport, New York, said that he was only informed of the cancellation of the flight when he made calls to the airline and was told to return eight weeks later for a full refund of his airfare.
“On Thursday and Friday my relatives told me to call just to make sure that the flight is on, since all these things going on with that particular airline, so I did and I was told by the staff that everything is ok and I am schedule to fly on the same day.”
“On Saturday and Sunday I called back only to be told that the flight has been cancelled, but still no one called to say anything”, Ramnarine related.
Ramnarine noted that he decided to visit the company’s Carmichael Street office to express his dissatisfaction, only to be told by the staff that they “don’t have any arrangements in place” and nothing could be done.
“I understand that the process to refund customers will take time but I expected this period be at least 3 days since this was not our fault and it’s very unfair that we have to wait 6-8 Weeks for our money to be returned to us. Also taking into consideration the airline held this money since August 2018 and they do not have any service to provide, no instant refund”.
According to him the company owes him a total of US$720 which is equivalent to GYD$144,000.
Recently, a source close to the Airline had refuted the claims of inconvenienced and frustrated passengers who complain of not being refunded their tickets’ cost.
The representative who spoke with Guyana Times International said, “All the flights that were cancelled or (passengers who) were affected are having a total refund. If you want to cancel from us because you need to book another carrier, I am not sure how they are gonna go about doing that, but they are free to come into the office and have that clarification done with accounting or they can call the local number and have clearer information as to how we are going about that.”
She said that in addition to the local office, Fly Jamaica also has international offices in the United States where queries can be made.
Although the sale of tickets has been put on hold, the source related that operations are expected to resume in January.
Just recently, a disgruntled passenger expressed his frustration in a letter to this newspaper explaining, “I had purchased a ticket before the incident to travel to Guyana on December 21 and return to Toronto in January 2019. I contacted Fly Jamaica to find out if my flight would be cancelled and if I could get a refund. They claimed that the flight will not be cancelled, and, therefore, I will not be getting a refund.”
