Sunday, March 22, 2009

Air Transat and airports

When we left Montreal we got to the airport and our flight was delayed 4 hours.
The plane was suppose to leave at 5 pm and left at 9pm even if the plane was parked right in our face since 6pm. All of that because of the Montreal airport rules of no landing after 2 am. They gave us food coupons to eat, which was nice of them. So we spent 7 hous at the airport before the flight took off. So far not so bad.

When we tried to leave Cuba it got terrible. We left the hotel at 6pm. Our flight out was at 9h55 pm. AT 9h45 we still hadent borded the plane. At 10pm the pilot showed up telling us there was a minor problem with the plane, that the air transat mechanics was flying in from Varadero, which was a 30 minutes flight and that we could then take off.
At 11h30 pilot came to see us again, the pilot from the crew in Varadero was not aloud to take an international flight to make a local flight. So they tried to find a local plane to fly in the mechanics.
At 2h30 am pilot came to see us again. They found a plane but no pilot to fly it, mechanics had now taken the road on land to come, which is a 9 hour drive. So the air line decided to fly in another plane from Montreal for us. But because of the 2 am rule in MOntreal the plane could leave Montreal at 7 am, so we would be able to leave Cuba at 11h30 am.
They fed us chep food, sandwich's with dry bread and a slice of hame no butter or mustard. There was no one at the airport who spoke english or french, we had no one to ask question to, no internet acces and no phone acces. The crew from the plane gave us the pillow's and the blankets and we had to sleep on the floor of the airport. And beleive me this airport is not the Montreal airport. We were cut off from the rest of the world.
We finally took off at 12h15pm. The airline is suppose to refund us an amount. I still will write a complaint letter as the service was terrible. What a nightmare to finish off our great trip. Air transat is now on my black list.

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