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Member since:03.12.2000
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British West Indies Airlines (BWIA) have recently added a Manchester to Port of Spain service Via Barbados to their UK destination. The route is serviced by there one and only Tristar aircraft, which has recently transferred from the London services. The London route is now operated by a Air Canada Airbus painted in BWIA colours as BWIA couldnot afford to buy new aircraft which it had on order from Airbus.
Routes ++++++
The flight operates from Manchester to Port of Spain via Barbados every Friday and Sunday. The return journey comes back on Thursday and Sunday Evenings. This flight offers connections with both BWEE Express and LAIT onto other Caribbean Island but before you do read the bit on Bridgetown airport.
Bridgetown
Airport ++++++++++++++
I would not recommend changing at Bridgetown airport as it is the worst airport I have ever come across. The staff cannot be found even at ticket desks. The staff you can find are unhelpful, rude and cannot be bothered with you. The airport does not have air conditioning and believe me it gets unbearably hot. Last thing that you want after a 9-hour flight is to wait about for an onward connection in this place. Believe me the Adults and children that were on our flight that felt sick or unwell because of the heat alarmed me. After Bridgetown I will never complain about either Gatwick or Heathrow again!
BWIA aircraft. ++++++++++
BWEE operate two long haul aircraft. One is an Airbus A340 – 300 four-engined jet that operates in and out of Heathrow to various islands. The other is a three-engined Tristar L1011 aircraft, which we travelled on.
Tristar aircraft range in age from 36 to 19 years old. I think this is one of the younger ones but is still out of date by today’s standards. Infact the only people I know that still operate them out of the UK are the RAF on their services down to the Falklands.
The Tristar seats approximately 270 people in two classes. Seating in economy is in rows of 2 -5 –2. The toilets are in the tail of the aircraft.
The Tristar aircraft itself is not that bad once you are up in the air with the only worrying thing is that the sides of the aircraft move a lot on take off!!!. The seats are off average size and are comfortable. The entertainment is very poor and is the worst I have ever seen in a transatlantic service. The pull down screens are bent and therefore do not show the full TV picture. The sound and picture quality is awful.
What happens when things go wrong? +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I have first hand knowledge of what happens…….not a lot. Our plane develop a major problem before take off on the return journey resulting in one pair of very smelly underwear!. And that was just the captain! We had already been delayed for 6 hours because the plane had to make a full-scale emergency landing on the trip before ours in Toronto with an engine failure. We did not know this until other passengers told us the next day and this was in addition to the problem with the rudder on our flight. I cannot verify this for certain, but a BWIA telecentre staff told me about it when I was reconfirming my flights and he said that it was because of technical difficulties in Toronto.
We ended up stuck in Barbados for 48 hours. We did not hear anything from BWEE staff unless we phoned them. Basically we were stuck in a hotel and it was out of sight, out of mind! The reservations staff were telling us repeatedly that the service has still running but had been delayed indefinitely. Infact we knew the plane was totally and utterly knackered and wouldn’t be flying for a further couple of days. I checked four days late after out return to the UK and the aircraft was still on the ground in Bridgetown.
I was offer USD200 per person against future travel with BWIA …is that the best joke ever. I couldn’t and willn’t ever flight with this airline again. I was given £22 in costs for telephone calls etc and claimed £80 back from the travel insurance. BWIA got it terribly wrong for me and did not put it right when they had the chance.
Conclusion ++++++++
I learnt one thing from this…BWIA are hopeless when things go wrong. They operate an out of date jet, which is well past its best by date. If you operate old aircraft you expect problems and when they have not got a backup Ghost aircraft which most major aircraft have, this kind of delay happens. The airline has not got the amount of staff they should have and those they do have are hopeless. On the way out I did not think they were so bad…….that all changed on the return.
I did fly back with Virgin in the end….my advice is to pay the extra and fly with Virgin instead who is by far a better carrier. The extra money may hurt your wallet…but are your families worth the extra to fly with a safe airline????. Virgin are operating a Manchester to Barbados service from May 2003.
And if anyone says what a place to get stuck in…..I will reply “Do u fancy a Tristar stuck up bum??”
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this absolutely mirrors all my experiences with 'BWEE'. Avoid at all costs... seriously!
danieletheridge 13.10.2002 13:01
Good op - just a few errors. The A340 is actually BWIA's, and was intended to be theirs. They ordered two but cancelled, but then decided they did indeed want to exercise the order. Air Canada had also cancelled an order but the aircraft was already built and therefore needed to be sold. BWIA took this aircraft. If you wish to have the rest of the errors and possible additions listed, just let me know :) Cheers > Dan
Baywatch_Fan2002 30.09.2002 13:34
i will not be travelling with this company then. Thanks for sharing your experience! Its terrible what you had to go through! Imagine if there is a problem and its going to crash or something, would they not know what to do?
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Sep 9th, 2002
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