[Engrishprof]

*
This trip was our honeymoon. We had been married in Daegu, South Korea (where we live). We had then flown into Halifax, Nova Scotia, for a Canadian party. On July 7, we were booked to fly into Sandals, Negril. The following is an accurate account of what happened:

July 7 2008
Our flight, AA 4758, from Halifax to JFK (6:25 a.m./7:29 a.m.)
Then from JFK on AA 1193 (11:45 a.m./2:35 p.m.) through to Montego Bay. At JFK:

* Our flight was cancelled from JFK to Montego Bay.
* We waited in line for 2½ hours.
* We were told our baggage would get through before we arrived in Jamaica – it did not.
* We were promised meal vouchers at JFK.
* We were then sent to La Guardia to get a flight to Miami – no meal vouchers were listed.
* We arrived in La Guardia and were given tickets for standby – we waited for 4 flights to Miami – all of which were overbooked – and we obviously couldn’t get on any of these.
* We finally got on the 7:00 pm flight, which was delayed for about 2 hours.
* Eventually we arrived at a Miami hotel at 1:00 a.m. (first night of our honeymoon – very romantic!)
* Due to our cancelled flight and arriving a day later missed out on a $530/night resort non-refundable.

July 8
* We got a flight into Montego Bay having had to cancel the first night of our honeymoon at the Sandals resort in Negril (no refund – cost around $530.00).
* On arrival at the airport – no bag – we were told that they had no idea where it was.
* Filled out a missing bag report – we were not told to leave keys, combination to locks.
* We were promised our suitcase was on a flight from Miami to Montego Bay and would arrive at our hotel at 10:30 p.m. It never arrived.

July 9
* Got in touch with my travel agent who informed us that we were entitled to $50 for the both of us as compensation.
* Got in touch with a woman in Montego Bay and she said she would check and call back before noon – she never returned my call.

* Talked to a man named Ricky in the evening (6:15 p.m.) – said to call back in 30 minutes to talk to manager – I tried 4 different numbers and it was busy from 6:45 to the next day every time I called.

July 10
* Packed three days of medication for my wife in carry-on luggage, due to lost bag had to frantically run around to find replacement meds.
* We also had the problem of being without a change of clothes for 5 days! Not very pleasant at all.
* Talked to Alison at 4:30 – we were told our bag would arrive at 7:00 p.m. We waited around by 10:20 p.m. we still didn’t get it. We received a call at 10:20 p.m. saying they needed keys to open our bag. We were told we couldn’t get our bag until some time the next day – they didn’t know when.
* Airline sent someone from American Airlines to come and pick up the keys to our suitcase.
* We were never told by our agent that we needed to leave keys or combination to be cleared by Jamaican customs.

July 11
* We were told that we were entitled to $250 compensation, only after our travel agent had negotiated this for us.
* We were told that we definitely, definitely would have our case delivered that day (July 11) at
3:30 p.m.
* At 4:15 p.m. – still no suitcase – concierge called and was on the phone for 45 minutes and was finally told it had been put on the bus.
* At 7:00 p.m. I called back – our case had still not arrived … again, we waited and waited.

July 12
* We were told that the driver had left the airport at 4:00 p.m. – a usual 1½ - 2-hour drive.
* Our bag arrived at 3:00 a.m. – both locks broken and all my wife’s underwear had been stolen.

July 17
* We then flew to New York (AA 1190) – 2 hours late and having to tape up our suitcase which was obviously very badly damaged.
* When we arrived in New York, we were told by our travel agent to claim the money we were owed.
* Went to 4 different offices, each time directed to go to another. Everyone completely clueless!
* Submitted our claim and received a file number, returned 4 days later to find our file no longer existed!

July 20
* We were to fly to from JFK to Halifax (AA 4773). This flight was cancelled.
* We were then flown into Montreal – we got no meal vouchers, or accommodation. We slept overnight at the airport.

July 21
* Finally flew into Halifax the next morning, arriving at 9:15 a.m.

I might say we were extremely glad to be back in Halifax. Our ‘Honeymoon from Hell’ consisted of:

* 2 cancelled flights
* 4 stand-by flights that we didn’t get on
* being re-routed twice
* 6 days without our baggage – not to mention all the waiting for our bag to arrive and the total inconvenience of having no change of clothes.
* about 500 phone calls to American Airlines
* an extra 24 hours in the airport on the way to Jamaica
* and the same again on the way back to Halifax.

Of the 30 agents I had to deal with for various reasons, about 10% were actually kind, helpful, and funnily enough advised me never to fly American Airlines again.

*2 months ago we were told we would receive at least $250 in compensation, but haven't...have sent multiple e-mail/letters/called but nothing yet...



Brendan and Soo-Jin Rickard