stbartshopper
Senior Insider
Before I start the story on our recentjourney from Indianapolis to St. Barhtelemy, here is a little introon some details we learned about WinAir. We were told the airlinerecently went into default and was taken over by the Dutch governmentwho now owns and runs the company. I asked one of our pilots takingus from SBH to SXM what he thinks of the new management. He asked meto come to the cockpit and showed me his roll of duct tape and wherehe and others have 'duct taped' various things together in thecockpit and other areas of the plane. Through the closed stairspassengers enter, one can see daylight but as we do not fly in highaltitudes, this is apparently not a concern. To be fair, WinAir doeshave new planes as well that seem to be in very good condition andhave an excellent safety record.
For winter weather reasons, we alwaysfly the night before our departure to St. Maarten to Charlotte wherewe spend the night. The trip on Fri., Feb 3, was uneventful as wasthe AA trip to SXM from CLT on Sat., Feb 4. Our baggage arrivedquickly in SXM. There was a WinAir person waiting for us at thetransit counter where we quickly checked our baggage to SBH. Itlooked as though we were going to be able to catch an earlier flightas our AA flight arrived early. 'Things though were going too well' Itold my wife.
We went up to our 'favorite' gate- C1-and asked if we could switch to an earlier flight and were told thatall flights were fully booked. There were a lot of WinAir passengerswaiting to go to SBH standing around. After a while we realized theyhad been delayed. We noticed that all other SBH bound WinAir flightswere posted on the departures screen except ours? We asked at C1 andthey told us not to pay attention to the screen.
After several hours, it was beginningto get near 5PM and we were getting concerned, knowing the SBHairport shuts at just before sunset. There was then a garbledannouncement from C1 stating that three of the SBH bound WinAirflights had been cancelled and all passengers on those flights weregoing to be booked on the Ferry. An announcement was then made thatthe passengers on our flight were going to be flown to SBH and thatwe 'are the lucky ones.' They allowed us to go down the stairs wherewe waited and watched the sun set as we stood there. I told my wifewe were going to take the ferry as well. She remained optimisti****il WinAir personnel confirmed my belief. We were told WinAir was'putting' us on the fast ferry. Transport cars were arranged and wewere all literally 'dumped' at the ferry terminal. The WinAir peoplecollected our boarding passes and left us to fend for ourselves.
We were not sure whether or not we weregoing to make it to the island that evening. Hotel rooms at theWestin in town were going for $600 plus per night. Finally around 7PMish, after purchasing two tickets for 141 Euros, we got on the ferryand left for SXM. The trip was about an hour and the seas were roughwith lots of seasickness, including my beloved. We hired a taxi toMayas for dinner and were able to collect our bags at the airport thefollowing day.
We spoke with Rodrig, who worked forWinAir, and now works with Sabine, at St. Barth Services in SBH. Helooked at our WinAir itinerary and just shook his head. The WinAirSXM personnel had put in their records that the flight we were bookedon took off as planned and delivered all of us on time- not true. Hetold us that WinAir was doing these kinds of things more frequently.Odile, at Gumbs Car Rental, warned us to reconfirm our WinAir flightsback as she said she has been having clients who have had to waithours and even a day or longer before WinAir could get them back toSXM and/or lost their reservations with increasing frequency.
On the day of our return, Sat., Feb.18, the SBH WinAir personnel could not have been nicer. They put uson an earlier flight back to SXM and waved the excess baggage fee forexceeding 50lbs as did AA in SXM. They told us the WinAir SXMpersonnel were 'rude' to them and often did not answer their queries.They wished us luck in attempting to recover either our ferry or theWinAir flight cost (or both?- LOL) but were not optimistic.
Needless to say for both safety reasonsand the disorganization of WinAir we observed, it will be FAAcertified Tradewinds on a Pilatus from now on. My wife said she neverwants to see the C1 counter again. As a side note, we asked in SXM,why the flights had been cancelled. The explanation we received was-'We don't know. An aircraft was made unavailable due to maintenancereasons. Maybe a bird hit it and therefore it needed to beinspected.'
What are your WinAir stories?
For winter weather reasons, we alwaysfly the night before our departure to St. Maarten to Charlotte wherewe spend the night. The trip on Fri., Feb 3, was uneventful as wasthe AA trip to SXM from CLT on Sat., Feb 4. Our baggage arrivedquickly in SXM. There was a WinAir person waiting for us at thetransit counter where we quickly checked our baggage to SBH. Itlooked as though we were going to be able to catch an earlier flightas our AA flight arrived early. 'Things though were going too well' Itold my wife.
We went up to our 'favorite' gate- C1-and asked if we could switch to an earlier flight and were told thatall flights were fully booked. There were a lot of WinAir passengerswaiting to go to SBH standing around. After a while we realized theyhad been delayed. We noticed that all other SBH bound WinAir flightswere posted on the departures screen except ours? We asked at C1 andthey told us not to pay attention to the screen.
After several hours, it was beginningto get near 5PM and we were getting concerned, knowing the SBHairport shuts at just before sunset. There was then a garbledannouncement from C1 stating that three of the SBH bound WinAirflights had been cancelled and all passengers on those flights weregoing to be booked on the Ferry. An announcement was then made thatthe passengers on our flight were going to be flown to SBH and thatwe 'are the lucky ones.' They allowed us to go down the stairs wherewe waited and watched the sun set as we stood there. I told my wifewe were going to take the ferry as well. She remained optimisti****il WinAir personnel confirmed my belief. We were told WinAir was'putting' us on the fast ferry. Transport cars were arranged and wewere all literally 'dumped' at the ferry terminal. The WinAir peoplecollected our boarding passes and left us to fend for ourselves.
We were not sure whether or not we weregoing to make it to the island that evening. Hotel rooms at theWestin in town were going for $600 plus per night. Finally around 7PMish, after purchasing two tickets for 141 Euros, we got on the ferryand left for SXM. The trip was about an hour and the seas were roughwith lots of seasickness, including my beloved. We hired a taxi toMayas for dinner and were able to collect our bags at the airport thefollowing day.
We spoke with Rodrig, who worked forWinAir, and now works with Sabine, at St. Barth Services in SBH. Helooked at our WinAir itinerary and just shook his head. The WinAirSXM personnel had put in their records that the flight we were bookedon took off as planned and delivered all of us on time- not true. Hetold us that WinAir was doing these kinds of things more frequently.Odile, at Gumbs Car Rental, warned us to reconfirm our WinAir flightsback as she said she has been having clients who have had to waithours and even a day or longer before WinAir could get them back toSXM and/or lost their reservations with increasing frequency.
On the day of our return, Sat., Feb.18, the SBH WinAir personnel could not have been nicer. They put uson an earlier flight back to SXM and waved the excess baggage fee forexceeding 50lbs as did AA in SXM. They told us the WinAir SXMpersonnel were 'rude' to them and often did not answer their queries.They wished us luck in attempting to recover either our ferry or theWinAir flight cost (or both?- LOL) but were not optimistic.
Needless to say for both safety reasonsand the disorganization of WinAir we observed, it will be FAAcertified Tradewinds on a Pilatus from now on. My wife said she neverwants to see the C1 counter again. As a side note, we asked in SXM,why the flights had been cancelled. The explanation we received was-'We don't know. An aircraft was made unavailable due to maintenancereasons. Maybe a bird hit it and therefore it needed to beinspected.'
What are your WinAir stories?
