Disappointing Part of Saba Trip

[DennisW]

I was part of the recent SB trip to Saba and although the diving was wonderful and the Hotel was nice and the Dive Shop, Sea Saba was absolutely wonderful, there was one disappointing thing on the trip.

The airline, Winair, is a nonresponsive and totally negative company to deal with. They insist that you fax or e-mail copies of your passport and credit card to them or they will cancel your reservations. Then when you do, they may very well lose the information and cancel your reservations anyway. This happened to me on my trip to Saba and I was forced to spend the night in St. Maarten and spend an extra $250 for room and food that was not planned. Winair didn't care nor did they believe it was their responsibility to pay for my stay. As I was dealing with this issue, several other people had the same problem while I was at the Winair desk. Obviously this is normal operations, not an exception. When I was in Saba, I asked the ticket agent at the airport about this and he said that he called St. Maarten. He gave me a name and e-mail of someone in management, but the e-mail was a yahoo.com e-mail so that was kind of fishy. In any case the e-mail address did not exist, so either the ticket agent lied to me or the person in St. Maarten lied to the ticket agent.

If you can help it, don't do business with this company, they are arrogant and irresponsible. I am now working on getting reimbursed through my trip insurance.

 

[robint]

I was part of the recent SB trip to Saba and although the diving was wonderful and the Hotel was nice and the Dive Shop, Sea Saba was absolutely wonderful, there was one disappointing thing on the trip.

The airline, Winair, is a nonresponsive and totally negative company to deal with. They insist that you fax or e-mail copies of your passport and credit card to them or they will cancel your reservations. Then when you do, they may very well lose the information and cancel your reservations anyway. This happened to me on my trip to Saba and I was forced to spend the night in St. Maarten and spend an extra $250 for room and food that was not planned. Winair didn't care nor did they believe it was their responsibility to pay for my stay. As I was dealing with this issue, several other people had the same problem while I was at the Winair desk. Obviously this is normal operations, not an exception. When I was in Saba, I asked the ticket agent at the airport about this and he said that he called St. Maarten. He gave me a name and e-mail of someone in management, but the e-mail was a yahoo.com e-mail so that was kind of fishy. In any case the e-mail address did not exist, so either the ticket agent lied to me or the person in St. Maarten lied to the ticket agent.

If you can help it, don't do business with this company, they are arrogant and irresponsible. I am now working on getting reimbursed through my trip insurance.

Wow, that sucks. I hope your trip insurance pays for it all. Thanks for posting.

 

[Marvel]

I hear you, Dennis. Spirit Air wasn't much better. We arrived at the airport well ahead of our flight out of FLL & yet had to stand in line outside the airport for so long that we barely made our flight. To top it off, my dive gear, which went down the conveyor belt before 3 of my travel companions luggage did not make it to St Maarten, although my (less important) suitcase did. The apathy I experienced at the airport was appalling & to add insult to injury when I called later to see if my gear had been found, I was hung up on.

While my gear did finally make it- it was flown down on AA & transported to Saba by WinAir, no one was ever able to tell me that it had been located. Thank goodness Lynn at Sea Saba was so willing & persistent in following up for me.

& then there was the Edge ferry & their shananegans....

 

[Walter]

I wasn't aware of a problem with the Edge ferry, but the Dawn II, after accepting payment from 8 of our group (and who knows how many others) scheduled their boat for dry dock for not emergency issues for the very time they had bookings. This resulted in 8 folks having to book an unplanned night in St Maarten. I would avoid the Dawn II if at all possible. There just aren't all that many ways to get into Saba. I had no issues with Win Air, but I booked through a travel agent (Aqua Dreams) and apparently there are fewer issues when booking Win Air flight through a travel agent.

 

[moeronn]

So it sounds like Saba is a great place to go, provided you can get here reliably...

 

[Marvel]

I wasn't aware of a problem with the Edge ferry, but the Dawn II, after accepting payment from 8 of our group (and who knows how many others) scheduled their boat for dry dock for not emergency issues for the very time they had bookings. This resulted in 8 folks having to book an unplanned night in St Maarten. I would avoid the Dawn II if at all possible. There just aren't all that many ways to get into Saba. I had no issues with Win Air, but I booked through a travel agent (Aqua Dreams) and apparently there are fewer issues when booking Win Air flight through a travel agent.

:11: i stand corrected... don't know why I said the Edge. Definitely the Dawn II.

&, yes, to answer moeronn, Saba's definitely a great place to go!

 

[DennisW]

Absolutely, Donna and I are considering going again next year for our 30th anniversary.

 

[scubamickey]

We had no problems with the Dawn II. I was aware of the dates for dry dock since that was on their website for over a month and luckily my dates were for right after it went back in the water. They are hassle free and the trip was very pleasant with free all you can drink Heineken on the St Marten to Saba leg.

They really should have let the booked passengers know about the dry dock dates though. That is poor customer service for sure.

 

[joystershell]

We had no problems with the Dawn II. I was aware of the dates for dry dock since that was on their website for over a month and luckily my dates were for right after it went back in the water. They are hassle free and the trip was very pleasant with free all you can drink Heineken on the St Marten to Saba leg.

They really should have let the booked passengers know about the dry dock dates though. That is poor customer service for sure.

Gee Whiz! All that they offered us for our Saba to St Marten leg was a barf bag! Oh, and medical attention for someone who was hurt by a crashing metal door.

 

[scubamickey]

Gee Whiz! All that they offered us for our Saba to St Marten leg was a barf bag! Oh, and medical attention for someone who was hurt by a crashing metal door.

Barf bag? The trip isn't that bad. We slept for most of it. Or maybe we just have a higher tolerance to rough boat rides being from Alaska. But the girl kept asking us if we were OK on the ride out to Saba. She seemed so "caring". Now I think it's because you guys were so abused that they were over concerned by the time we arrived that night

There is no beer on the Saba to St. Marten leg. Good grief! It was 8 am...