[Heartsore]

On November 5, 2015 my friend booked nonstop flights on Expedia for four of us to go to and from Aruba from Miami in April 2016 on Insel Air Aruba. On March 7, 2016 we received a phone call from Expedia saying that our flights had been changed, the times were different and now the flights were no longer nonstop. We now have a three hour stop in Curaçao both ways. We will be arriving in Aruba at 9:35 at night instead of 7 pm and we will be leaving Aruba at 8:15 in the morning instead of 11:30 am. Since the airlines advise that you arrive at the airport in Oranjestad 3 hours before your flight, we will have to get up at 3 in the morning. We had booked a nonstop flight because I have a heart condition called Atrial Fibrillation. Stress and fatigue bring it on and it is life threatening.

On March 8 I called Insel Air. I spoke to Marie and she asked for the reservation number so that she could look at the flights. There were two numbers, one for the flight down and one for returning. She said there was no reservation from Miami to Aruba, only from Aruba to Miami. She checked several times. When I looked at the itinerary from Expedia it says "your ticket is not confirmed. We are confirming with the airline and will update your online itinerary with him 24 hours". We never received an update. I said "great, then we only need a refund for one flight". She then told me we could not have a refund.

Marie said she would speak to customer service and then she turned me over to Zinho Kowsolwa. He said Insel air makes no allowances for medical excuses. He told me that if my heart is so bad I shouldn't travel. Even though the airline had changed the flights he said we could not have a refund. When I said that it turned out that we didn't have a flight from Miami to Aruba only from Aruba to Miami, he said it the flight from Miami to Aruba had now been confirmed. Knowing that we wanted a refund he had just confirmed it.

We paid for a nonstop flight for a reason. The airline made the changes, not us. It is clear that their policy protects only themselves and not the passengers. Perhaps they should change their name to Insult Air.