Liat Airline Online Bookings Options

[mieka]

On October 11th,2005, Liat launched a Web based booking and buying system that is expected to revolutionise inter-island travel. Customers will be able to plan personal itineraries, and benefit from early purchase with the lowest fares available at the time of booking.

http://liatairline.com/

[Martinor]

Having just experienced a 4 hour delay last week with Liat and as a consequence missed my connection to UK all I can say is their timetable seems to be a work of fiction !

Cheers

Martin

[brighteyes]

Martinor

Was the connection out of Grenada. We had a few timetable problems last year in Grenada. We had booked a flight to Carriacou and I just could not find out whether the flight departed at 9.00am or 9.30am, seemed to depend on who you asked. We had to check in for the early flight just in case, when we checked in they told us it was leaving at 9.30, guess what, they were wrong, we left at 9.00! Then they decided they were going to Union Island first, not much fun with 2 kids and no toilets on board.

We are flying with LIAT next May from Antigua to Anguilla, thought it better to stay a night in Antigua either side as I was concerned about missing connections, especially on the return journey.
Did you have to pay anything extra to get your ticket transferred to a later flight. Also, if you had to fly the next day, does your travel insurance cover you for any costs incurred?

LIAT have also told me that it could take an extra 2 days for our luggage to reach us (IMG:http://grenadatravelforum.com/style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif) , that could be fun on the way back (IMG:http://grenadatravelforum.com/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif) . I wonder how usual this is with connecting flights. Anyone had any experience of chasing up luggage with LIAT?

[Martinor]

Long saga which I was going to post details of later.

We had been due to return to UK on the Virgin flight on Thursday 27/10. This was cancelled leaving us stranded ! Virgin put us up in the Monmot - OK (ish )but not what we were used to as we had stayed at True Blue.

The next day Virgin were unable to say when we would be flying as all flights from Barbados were full on all airlines as it was the end of 1/2 term. As we were going to Manchester eventually we advised them that we could fly Barbados to Manchester if required. They were able to get us on the BWIA flight on Friday night to Manchester. This required a connecting flight to Barbados with Liat.

We were due to fly at 1.30pm plenty of time for a connecting flight due out at 7.00pm. Liat were their usual self and the flight left at 5.45.We arrived 5 minutes too late so misssed the flight. BWIA left on time very unusually - ironically the next day the same flight was 4 hours late. Virgin put us up in a hotel and we were put on the flight the next night. This was delayed by over 5 hours as it was diverted to Grenada to pickup the pasengers left in Grenada - we would have better staying in Grenada ! They had bumped a lot of passengers off the flight to accommodate

To cap matters as the flight was delayed this meant we would have missed our connecting flight up to Manchester with a wait of over 6 hours till the next flight. All credit to Virgin they put us in a taxi home.

All in all a lot of extra time in airports and 2 extra days holiday thanks to Virgin. I cannot fault them and they did their best in difficult circumstances.

From the long hours spent in the airport it was evident the Liat timetable is fiction as there were so many delays.My advice is do not rely on them for connections and either get an early flight and hope it is not delayed too long or fly the previous day. We experienced delays also a couple of years ago Barbados to Grenada when we waited 5 hours in Barbados for the flight which was 3 hours late.

Cheers

Martin

[mieka]

Hi Martin,

I heard also a couple stories about that particular Virgin flight.
Unfortunately it is true that you can not rely on Liat or Caribbean Star to be on time.
This is a problem since years, both airlines do Island hopping and nearly every stop has a couple delays, because of some missing or late arriving passengers, lost luggage, plane problems or heavy rain.

People here in the Caribbean call Liat - Leave island any time or Luggage in another terminal.

If you book any international connections flight, the best thing is to have at least 4 hours between them to connect.

[brighteyes]

Martin (IMG:http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/8868/rofl29cg.gif)
couldn't help laughing about your saga, can't believe someone took longer to get home than us, you poor thing. Maybe the island is trying to tell us something eh? (IMG:http://grenadatravelforum.com/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[AKEdkuktr]

I am just looking at LIAT to travel from GND to St. Lucia. It is $90.80 for 2 people (one way; taxes included). There is one stop - Barbados from 11:45 to 2:55. Do you think that would be enough time to allow for the lateness of the airline? We would get into St. Lucia at 3:35 (supposedly).

I'm surprised at the cost... I even called the airline to make sure it was correct!

[mieka]

I think that should be ok, you have nearly 3 hours. Plus the flight is leaving at midday, in other words it should not have that many delays yet.

Liat offers great prices online, especially if you book months in advance. Just make sure that you reconfirm your flight one day before while in Grenada and write down your confirmation number their will give you on the phone.