Never Holiday With Sandals, Part Two

In the beginning, there was Sandals Travel Sucks (the first part).

Then we swam, ate, drank and generally had a merry time for a few days.

When it came time to leave though, we were pretty rightfully frightened considering the treatment Sandals had given us on the flight down. The Girl kept asking our butler (yes, we had a butler - but it's not really as swank as it sounds) to verify our schedule but we were continually told not to worry about it.

So I double checked the only flight information we had on hand - the original paper itinerary. This told us we needed to board around 9:45 and considering the amount of merry time we had the night before ... this proved somewhat difficult. We awoke and sloughed around 7 in the morning to shower, finish packing and harass the front desk. We were both in a state of pain from being hungover with very little sleep.

The front desk was certain we were to check out at 11, leave at 12 and board a plane at 2:35. This prompted a lot of questions from us. Were we still getting into Chicago at 7 if we were leaving half a day later than before? Were we going to have enough time in San Juan to make our connecting flight (without the use of a time machine)? Were we confirmed for this new flight out of San Juan?

The first story we got was the yes, we would still get to Chicago at 7:00. Yes, thirty minutes was enough time to exit the plane, get your luggage, get through customs and get to the other gate.

We were a bit skeptical of all this.

The second story we got was that we had about an hour in San Juan but we'd still get to Chicago later that night. We still didn't get any real confirmation on this phantom flight and never got confirmation that we were actually on that flight.

We were a bit skeptical of all this.

So noon rolls around and we're put into a cab and get sent off to the airport. We get to the American Airlines ticket counter.

We are told there has been a schedule change and there is no flight out of San Juan to Chicago. The best they can do is get us to Miami that night, hope we can get a hotel and then get to Chicago in the morning.

At this junction there are only three possibilities. Either Sandals is so woefully incompetent that they don't understand the difference between a plane being in existence and not being in existence, they know the difference but they were simply lying to us because they knew once we were off the resort we weren't their problem - or some combination of the two.

To make a long, painful, story short - we spent four hours in a Days Inn off Miami International. We made it into Chicago about 17 hours after we were supposed to originally. I missed a day of work and The Girl had no chance to clean or organize for our impending house guests. We've been in varying states of exhaustion ever since. Oddly being stuck for inside hotels, airports and airplanes for nearly a day cycle really throws the body out of whack.

Despite the fact that we had a plenty good time while on the island itself - our end summation is that there are plenty of resorts in the sea and we don't need to deal with one that treats its guest so carelessy from both a corporate and local level. The treatment was truly astonishing.

I've heard back from their odd, secret, internal customer service on the first part and the response was essentially a formal summary of their original stance. They process many flights like this and if a few customers fall through the cracks then well, shrug, ho hum and go sod off.

Which we would say to Sandals: the feeling is now mutual.

Update:
I sent a summary of this to the "internal customer service email" (whatever the hell that means). I had already sent the first post there and basically got a paraphrase of the same "this is our policy" nonsense that they gave us before.

This time I got nothing. Not even a "sorry for lying to" or, heck, even a sorry. Nothing at all. This is Sandals, people. Unless you're calling with your credit card in hand, they could really care less.

Sandals Travel Sucks

So we are not in Antigua.

We might not be tonight.

Sandals booked our flight an hour after our connection was to leave. Without a time machine we were screwed.

Then things got bad. And weird. American Air was a champ. Karen V and your supervisor? Angels. Thanks again. After much work we were at least booked for the next day.

Then they noticed someone booked a local Carribean flght. American has no connection with them so they couldn't do much more than tell us it was there.

Mind you - if they hadn't ... nobody would have.

So we fly to San Juan and head to Liat, the local carrier, to see what is up. They are pretty much as surprised as we are to our predicament.

But we are booked.

It will just cost us $300.

I call Sandals Antigua. I get forwarded to what think was the front desk. This happened this morning too. And nobody picked up. This time nobody picked up.

So I call back. Last I called back I got into a debate which almost certainly sparked our odd booking.

This time I am almost certain someone hung up on me.

So I called the 800 number and got angry with one person and then the next and then a supervisor. At one point I was on hold for not one, not two but four Marley songs.

In the end I was told it was my fault.

All my fault.

Because in June and I think April I got emails that notified me of my schedule change. Apparently without calling them - and I kid you not - they aren't even aware it is happening.

Tip to Sandals: if you are going to send a blind email that will require me to say use a time machine to keep my schedule ... IT SHOULD SAY TIME MACHINE IN THE SUBJECT. That will get my attention.

But what if I had changed emails.

Or as The Girl pointed out - I was blind.

So far today I've disappointed, left on hold, left to a ringing phone, hung up on and ultimately blamed. A fine statement to the true nature of Sandals.

The highest name at Sandals I got was Yoni Epstein. Yoni: your service sucks. This entire setup sucks. And to pay what we have paid Sandals over two holidays and to be treated to and blamed for a $300 scenario is dangerously stupid.

I build software for a living, Yoni Epstein, and I can tell you were I truly responsible for this situation I would have been fired.

And anyone who thinks "blame the customer" is sound policy should be as well.

I haven't even made it to the resort and I can tell you we will never ever do Sandals again. And we don't recommend it to anyone else.

The Girl is opting to pay Liat and just get to beach drinks sooner. I'm inclined to agree as they are probably our best remedy for now.

Sent from my iPhoneIn San Juan

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Also, Sandals Sucks Part Two!