I figured new students coming to Ross need to know this as well.

Check out this link:

http://www.valuemd.com/st-georges-un...-airlines.html


If you fly Liat, you are risking:

1) Lost Luggage
2) Missed flight connections due to Liat being always late
3) Being left on an island because they messed up your reservations. You have to wait till the next seat availabe to Dominica. Could be for days.
4) Sleep on the airport's bench because they won't put you in a hotel.
5) Extremely rude customer service
6) Having your flight (the whole flight) being chartered to others who are willing to pay more while you get stranded. This happened during Hurricane Dean when all the Ross students were trying to leave.

I have personally experienced all of the above during my flights with them. Let's hit them where it hurts. Fly American Eagle if at possible

I was once bumped from american eagle flight and I was given $250 US voucher, free hotel room, transport to and from the hotel, and $25 US in meal vouchers. Fly american when possible!

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AUA & Ross Forum Moderator

Easier said than done. I would gladly boycott Liat if I could but there just aren't enough American Airlines flights to do a boycott. Unless, you are just willing to sit out a semester for a boycott. The good American Airlines flights get taken early and after that students have to take whatever convoluted route they can to get to Ross. My first time flying Liat, my luggage was lost. It would have been lost forever had not a kind lady at Delta put out some kind of an automated alert that alerted every airline that had come into contact with my bag and told all them to again check for my bag.

LIAT does suck but what choice do Ross students have? only 2 airlines fly in and out of Dominica, AA and LIAT.

But when using LIAT, use extra discretion. this means leaving at least 3-4 hours between connecting flights and if your luggage gets lost, filling out a lost-luggage form and calling LIAT 3-4/day.

i have used liat and AA, here is what i got:

AA:

1. Lost my luggage twice. (got one of them same day about 6hrs later, got the other one 8 days later.)
2. Had to buy a new ticket even though i allready had one, AA said they would refund me, which of course they did not. After 2 months of calling them non stop i got a voucher for $160, which of course is a lot less then what i had to pay for the new ticket.

Liat:

1. Flight got delayed by 3hrs going to Dominica
2. Going back Flight got delayed by 3hrs again and i missed my connecting flight, so Liat got me a free ticket for next days flight, free hotel room, transport to and from the hotel, and $60 US in meal vouchers.

so i guess it depends on how lucky you get and it's possible to get screwed by both companies.

I agree wholeheartedly with this forum, I flew with american 2 times, lost my baggage once for a week and got a 200$ voucher, later I booked liat through a "bargain airfare site"

Trip to Dominica was fine, landed in San Juan off of United with an hour and a half to spare - found bags no problem, moved right through security, get to the check in counter with an hour and 15 minutes till my flight leaves. Took 30 minutes to get through the line of like 6 people - no biggie, I still have 45 minutes --THEY GAVE AWAY MY FRIGGIN SEAT. Liat closes check in 50 minutes before the flight. While I was waiting, my spot was given away to some poor student in front of me that was in the same situation. I was in the terminal for 2 days, waking up at dawn trying to secure a standby spot. No money, no hotel, no food - they did nothing stating that "I should have read their policy - maybe
Way back Dec 21, flight from Dom to antigua was an hour late, then we waited in the airport for 2 more hours. Then we can finally get going and we sit on the tarmac for another 45 minutes, most of us missed our flights, and a few on a holiday weekend had to overnight in Puerto Rico.
My advice never NEVER fly Liat (Land in any Terminal, Luggage in anny terminal, ect ect) Buisness practices like Liat are what sour student to the Carribean.

I would say you are one of the exceptions as I have only heard horror stories from this airline. They do not care about it's passengers and know that they have the monopoly to flying on the island, thus the behaviour. I realize it's hard to avoid them when all the AA flights book up, but I have decided to either come a day or two earlier or later than the start of semester to avoid them at all costs.

didn't Liat just go on strike? i know that they were before i left a few weeks ago and some of my friends' flights were cancelled.

i've never flown but always heard bad things.

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I'm like Internationally-known

I also had a horrible experience flying with Liat and I will never fly with them again. I was coming from Newark and my plane was delayed one hour because of adverse weather conditions. I still made it to Puerto Rico in time to make my flight to Dominica but for some reason the staff could not check me in 45 minutes before departure because the system was locked. I was forced to spend the night in San Juan, but luckily American Airlines was kind enough to pay for it. When I got there the next day, the staff gave me a very hard time checking in: they tried to deliberately over-charge me for my luggage by telling me my bags were too heavy. Since this was not my first time flying, I knew to weigh my things before hand and made sure everything was on point. I noticed that the scales were not calibrated (or most likely broken) because every time they weighed my bags, a different number came up. Also, the supervisor in charge was a girl who was noticeably too young to supervise/baby sit the rest of the staff/kids most of whom were younger than 18. Those who weren't young simply acted like children. They had no idea what they were doing or talking about; one person said one thing and another person said something completely different. The best way to avoid flying Liat is by booking ahead of time. Austin Travel also wasn't helpful because they decided to take off the week (I think from the 4th to the 8th) when many 1st semester students were flying in. This made the trip a lot harder and more confusing than it should have been.

fly through canefield. no one does. liat is almost always on time since only 16 people fly out of there every 90 min.