Margarita nightmare

We arrived at Piarco with our two small suitcases, ready to check in and realised that the flight actually was leaving at 6 pm.

As we proceeded to check our luggage, and while my husband was taking care of the boarding passes, I noticed that our suitcases were being separated.

It was extremely noticeable that my suitcase was put in one area while his was in another area. I thought this was strange but ignored any crazy notion that passed through my head.

We boarded the full flight and arrived in Margarita. Once we got to the luggage area, the suitcases started coming around the conveyor. We noticed that only one of our suitcases had arrived.

In fact there were 16 suitcases missing. It turns out that one suitcase for each family was missing! (Oddly enough it was mostly the ones that belonged to the male in each family!) The Venezulean authorities in the airport soon announced that the suitcases would be on the next flight and that they had no room on this flight to take the full load of luggage.

This was an utter outrage as they were fully aware of the situation before we left Trinidad that they did not have enough room and further more the next flight was two days later.

When we brought this to the attention of the authorities they then informed us that if we read the small print on the ticket it says “they do not have to compensate you for three days.” If you do not receive your suitcase by the end of the third day, they will then look into compensation.

So in the meantime, whether you like it or not, you have to purchase clothes and toiletries and anything else you need that may have been in your suitcase.

I think that the Trinidadian public should be aware of such Venezulean scams.

Imagine getting to a foreign city in the night where you do not speak the language and having no luggage.