First, let me say a general word about Pan American Airlines? BAD. That?s the word that comes mind.
After being informed before I left that due to a scheduling change I would have to spend a night in Newark NJ courtesy of PanAm before heading home, I was a little miffed, but apathetic since I was on my way to the DR and I was too happy to care about such things. The trip down there was very long and tiring since (due to the schedules re-routing) I was put from Portsmouth, NH to Newark to San Juan to POP.
The trouble began on the flight(s) home though. POP to San Juan was no problem. We were 2 hours delayed out of San Juan because of ?bad weather? in Newark, though passengers calling home to Newark got reports of sunny skies. Then we were told that due to the bad weather and weight of lots of luggage on the plane, we would be stopping off in Sanford, FLA on our way to NJ to get fuel. After narrowly missing riots and arrests of unruly passengers, we boarded. Of course, the flight was completely full and there were lots of babies and small kids.
Mysteriously it took us 3 hours to get to Florida from San Juan. Go figure. We were told that we would spend 15-20 min. on the ground fueling. Turns out it was an hour. Go figure. During this time the twin babies sitting in front of me began throwing up.
We were then told by a PanAm gate agent who had boarded the plane during the ?fuel break? that it would take us 1 ? hours to get to Newark from Florida. My fellow passengers and I found this hysterically funny. I forgot to mention I was laughing so hard I was crying from the fueling break on pretty much. (or was it crying so hard I was laughing?) During all of this time we got one bag of cookies and one bag of pretzels and one drink.
Speaking of fellow passengers, I heard a couple other horror stories during the flight about PanAm refusing to pay for expenses such as taxi trips caused by their delays and airport changes. My favorite new friend was this Russian guy who was cracking me up the whole time? after being lied to so many times, he wisely said ?How mach peepels? how diffrent talk. Evry zime dey tel dee zime, eet is double.?
Finally we got in and I got to my hotel at about 1:30 am. When I arrived at the airport the following day for my 6:45 flight to Portsmouth, there was no one at the PanAm check in desk. Other passengers called 1-800-FLYPANAM to inform them that there was no one there to check us in, and so they sent over some people from National Airlines to help out. Some of the passengers were already pretty mad because apparently PanAm hadn?t told them that the Sun. flight from Newark to Portsmouth was permanently cancelled and moved to Mon. Thank God they did tell me and put me up for the night. Who knows why they told me and not them, since we all had booked our flights months ago.
Needless to say, I have contact info. from passengers from both flights, and PanAm will be getting plenty of calls, emails and letters really soon. It is really sad, because it would be great to have another airline to chose from for the DR, especially with competitive prices, but this one needs a major overhaul.
After being informed before I left that due to a scheduling change I would have to spend a night in Newark NJ courtesy of PanAm before heading home, I was a little miffed, but apathetic since I was on my way to the DR and I was too happy to care about such things. The trip down there was very long and tiring since (due to the schedules re-routing) I was put from Portsmouth, NH to Newark to San Juan to POP.
The trouble began on the flight(s) home though. POP to San Juan was no problem. We were 2 hours delayed out of San Juan because of ?bad weather? in Newark, though passengers calling home to Newark got reports of sunny skies. Then we were told that due to the bad weather and weight of lots of luggage on the plane, we would be stopping off in Sanford, FLA on our way to NJ to get fuel. After narrowly missing riots and arrests of unruly passengers, we boarded. Of course, the flight was completely full and there were lots of babies and small kids.
Mysteriously it took us 3 hours to get to Florida from San Juan. Go figure. We were told that we would spend 15-20 min. on the ground fueling. Turns out it was an hour. Go figure. During this time the twin babies sitting in front of me began throwing up.
We were then told by a PanAm gate agent who had boarded the plane during the ?fuel break? that it would take us 1 ? hours to get to Newark from Florida. My fellow passengers and I found this hysterically funny. I forgot to mention I was laughing so hard I was crying from the fueling break on pretty much. (or was it crying so hard I was laughing?) During all of this time we got one bag of cookies and one bag of pretzels and one drink.
Speaking of fellow passengers, I heard a couple other horror stories during the flight about PanAm refusing to pay for expenses such as taxi trips caused by their delays and airport changes. My favorite new friend was this Russian guy who was cracking me up the whole time? after being lied to so many times, he wisely said ?How mach peepels? how diffrent talk. Evry zime dey tel dee zime, eet is double.?
Finally we got in and I got to my hotel at about 1:30 am. When I arrived at the airport the following day for my 6:45 flight to Portsmouth, there was no one at the PanAm check in desk. Other passengers called 1-800-FLYPANAM to inform them that there was no one there to check us in, and so they sent over some people from National Airlines to help out. Some of the passengers were already pretty mad because apparently PanAm hadn?t told them that the Sun. flight from Newark to Portsmouth was permanently cancelled and moved to Mon. Thank God they did tell me and put me up for the night. Who knows why they told me and not them, since we all had booked our flights months ago.
Needless to say, I have contact info. from passengers from both flights, and PanAm will be getting plenty of calls, emails and letters really soon. It is really sad, because it would be great to have another airline to chose from for the DR, especially with competitive prices, but this one needs a major overhaul.
