DUTCH CARIBBEAN AIRLINES

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Dutch Caribbean - by A Moree

5 December 2004

I took a trip to Haiti in August 2004. I have flown DCA several times in the past and there is always a problem. The last trip I was scheduled to leave on Wednesday and when I got to the counter they did not have me in the system. I lost my return ticket and they tried to make me pay for another flight. Fortunately, there was a nice Haitian man that got a call through Miami (because I could not get through the answering machine) and they found my ticket in their system. I missed the plane but there was an overloaded plane that made an emergency landing in Port-au-Prince to pick up let over passengers. They are always overbooked and never leave on time. The lady in Haiti has seen me so many times when I complain she knows my face. Now I can't even get their website if I was to take a chance and fly with them again.

Dutch Caribbean - by Mark Foster

8 September 2004

I can see that I am not the only passenger to have problems with DCA. As it turns out, I didn't only have problems on the way out through them but also on the way back. I was delayed a whole day in Miami trying to get to Curacao. As the airline explained to us that the reason we were bumped from the flight was because the larger plane they were going to use was grounded due to mechanical problems and they were forced to fly a smaller plane. Each day they were bumping people as needed from one day to the next. As we found out later, there was no mechanical problems at all. The Airline wasn't paying taxes and the government took away all their large planes from them. They also are going bankrupt. Talk about a vote of confidence in them! Anyhow, after having to spend a whole day in Miami in both the Airport and at a crappy hotel that was comp'd by the Airline, I wasn't much in the mood for any crap the next day. We got on the next flight easily. It turned out that the flight wasn't entirely full anyhow. Got to the destination and found out that no one from the flight had luggage. It was left in Miami. I finally flew out on a Sunday, didn't see my baggage unil very late on Tuesday... Suffice it to say I didn't want to fly back with them. Much to my dismay, I was forced to travel with them again because I wasn't willing to shell out a large amount of cash to take an alternate flight. On the way home, our flight was drastically less filled and because of this, DCA decided to fly us to Haiti on an unscheduled flight to pick up stranded passengers. Suffice it to say that DCA picked up some serious cash to do this, but each and every person on our flight missed their connecting flights because of this. Once we arrive in Miami, 2 hours later than we should have, we found that at least the luggage had arrived. We tried to go see a DCA agent, but the whole desk was totally deserted, as if they knew to go and hide for this mess- up. I recall seeing a good number of them down in baggage claim. As we all know, once you leave baggage claim, there isn't any way to get back to it with the new security procedures. Don't think they didn't know that! Luckily I was able to get onto a connecting flight that did eventually get me to my final destination, but thanks to DCA I had the worst trip I have ever had!

Dutch Caribbean - by Steve Carmer

7 July 2004

Terrible! It started with a cancelled flight to Curacao from Miami due to hydraulic problems. We sat at Miami for 9 hours so another plane could be flown in. Then we got to Curacao at 12:30am and they said it was too late to go on to Bonaire (a 15 minute flight), so we were stuck in Curacao for the night. We found out the next day that the AM flight was cancelled so we were stuck in Curacao for the whole day awaiting a flight out late afternoon. We arrived back at the airport in the evening to find a zoo with no chance of getting our bags checked. They opened a "special" line to get us thru the check-in and we actually got on the flight just to get to Bonaire and have them tell us the plane was over-loaded so they left most of our bags in Curacao and we'd have to wait until tomorrow to get the bags? This plane was about 1/3 full of passengers so I don't understand the over-loaded story. To their credit, we did get the bags the next day and our vacation started in Bonaire a day late. You'd think that was the end of the story, but NO. On our departure, we arrived at Bonaire airport early in the AM and our flight to Curacao got cancelled for unknown reasons (plane was broke in someway). So we sat in Bonarire airport for 9 hours waiting for a plane to divert to Bonaire to pick us up. The diverted plane was supposed to leave at 2pm but left at 4pm because the ground equipment for starting the plane was broke? Can you believe this? To their credit, they held the flight from Curacao to Miami all day for us so when we finally arrived in Curacao, there was the plane waiting for us. We got to Miami about 30 minutes to late to get on our flight to Denver, so we got stuck in Miami for the night... had a big whopping 4 hours of sleep before we had to be back at the airport for what was now a 2-legged trip to Denver. DCA wasted 2 days of my Bonaire vacation between getting there and getting back. I will never fly DCA again. I can't say the staff was unfriendly, but the planes are in terrible condition and they have more flights scheduled than serviceable planes to fly them it would seem.

Dutch Caribbean - by Brad Bryan

16 June 2004

I purchased tickets from DCA's website for direct flights between Miami and Aruba, but the direct flight was cancelled on both the outbound and return flight. On the outbound flight, I had a nightmarish 6 1/2 hour layover in the Curacao airport. On the return, I was obligated to fly from Aruba to Bonaire to Curacao and then switch to a flight to Miami. In all cases, the airport ticket agents were unfriendly and not helpful. I was called prior to my outbound flight and told that the direct flight had been "delayed" (I figured out that it had actually been cancelled when she mentioned that I'd have a two-hour layover in Curacao). The customer service at DCA is nearly nonexistent, and I am still trying to find the proper person to register a complaint to. The food was below average and vegetarian options were not available. However, on all flights, the flight crews were extremely (and refreshingly) friendly.

Dutch Caribbean - by John Vaughn

26 August 2003

I fly regularly from Trinidad to Curacao. The flight to go is very early but very reliable. The nightmare is the return flight on the Friday. It is always extremely late and the service is horrible. I hate it! I wish I had an alternative.

Dutch Caribbean - by M Elstak

8 August 2003

I flew DCA from Curacao - Amsterdam - Curacao and it was just perfect. Very good service from the ground staff and crew members. The meal on board was delicious and the flights were on time.

Dutch Caribbean - by H Harrison

28 April 2003

I flew with DCE from Miami to Curacao. It was a fantastic flight, and seats are spacious and the crew friendly. We could take 3 pieces of luggage with us, with unlimited weight. I would fly it again.

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