A citizen of the Central European country of Switzerland has taken to social media to voice her dissatisfaction and outrage with the treatment she allegedly received at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) in Guyana. And she was very vocal about it!
Although she made some damning allegations which includes racial profiling, lack of professionalism, and gross incompetence, the woman, who goes by the Facebook name of “Denise Beutler,” tempered her message with the element of constructive criticism.
I am not a Social Media person but I do hope it is being used as constructive criticism to improve the quality of service at the Airport and not as attacking anyone.
This is her story…
CJ INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT GUYANA NIGHTMARE AT MIDDAY
We`re a Swiss family who travelled to the USA and then to Guyana on vacation. We left Zürich and was never asked for ESTA. We were in the USA for a few days, our passports were read and stamped by the US Authorities which allows us to stay 3 months in the USA. They never asked us for ESTA (which is a permission to enter the USA), which we had . ESTA is electronic as well as our tickets for all to see as soon as our passports were swiped. The US authorities only asked us to produce a stay of address.
We left the USA where we were treated professionally and with respect and went to Guyana. Our stay in Guyana was enjoyable.
When our time was up and we decided to leave Guyana, this was an experience that we would not like to have again or any wish for any other person to deal with. I am not a Social Media person but I do hope it is being used as constructive criticism to improve the quality of service at the Airport and not as attacking anyone.
We arrived at CJIA after 3 hours of travelling, hungry and could not see anywhere that we could have grabbed lunch. I asked one friendly madam (she seemed to be a security or information personnel, cannot say). Anyways, she directed us to the blue building across the road.
I read the menu board and proceeded to order burger with chips. That Madam had an attitude. She turned to me and said, and I quote: “we only have Eddo leave cook-up with bake chicken, and chowmein with bake chicken, and the kitchen is not taking any orders” (which in my opinion is stale food).
People, this is 12:30 midday. I went and asked another person working there. She told me when we finished checking – in that there is a Burger King and a Pizza Hut upstairs. Check-in time was at 14:00hrs. We had some butter flaps and decided to keep the worms down with lots of patience. There is also inadequate seating accommodation for those passenger awaiting their check-in time.
Here is where it got even more interesting, my goodness. We went up to the Madam at Caribbean Airlines to check-in, handed over the passports. Her question was: “Where is your ESTA”?
I responded, “can’t you see it, it’s online.” Her further question was, “I need to see your ongoing ticket to Switzerland. How foolish and non-sensical could she be. I told her that is not her job to ask for our ongoing tickets to Switzerland since we are all Swiss. Let the US authorities deal with that part as we are going back to the USA.
Less to say, it`s 2023 and we don`t walk with paper, all our tickets are electronic. She said some BS that I cannot not remember. I then said to her Madam, “YOUR SYSTEM IS NOT WORKING.”
OH BOY, THAT WAS MY BIGGEST MISTAKE. HER EXACT WORDS WERE “YOU DON`T COME HERE AND DISRESPECT GUYANA.”
IF SHE WAS EDUCATED ENOUGH OR EXPERIENCED ENOUGH, SHE WOULD SEE THAT OUR PASSPORTS WERE STAMPED FOR 3 MONTHS STAY IN THE USA.
Imagine, it’s customers she is speaking to in this manner, but my mouth wasn’t lazy. Another madam came, whom I assumed to be her supervisor and they both laughed at us (very nice and courteous thing to do).
The check-in nonsense is over now MODERNISED SLAVERY BEGINS…
We were told to fetched our luggage on the other side to the SCANNER. Imagine, you have to manually lift your cases to put it up there and the Airport staff directing you how it must be done. It seems as though we are working with them and not the other way around. The funny thing is going towards immigration we had to fill out forms (lol). As we proceeded from immigration going towards security, there were 3 securities or whatever they were. They stopped us and asked for ESTA again. I gave to them the piece of paper. Without reading or not understanding what was given to them, they asked for the other 3 pieces of paper. I told them that the piece of paper that was given to them had all 4 confirmations of our ESTAs. Lord have mercy.
That second chapter was over. Coming to the 3rd. We went through security with the 2 hand luggage which belongs to four persons. We had 3 pieces of black cake, one blanket, a sweater, pantyliners, pringles, cashew nuts which I clearly remembered.
I was the black person so they chose to attach me to that hand luggage for searching and sent the 3 men, who look like white, to have a seat. Those 3 men were my husband and 2 sons. I find it to be racial discrimination.
After searching me and finding nothing, the Madam (Afro) asked the other Madan (Indo) what should I log in the book? She then left, came back and asked for my passport. Giving my passport to her, she then wrote my name on her gloves.
CAN THE GUAYNA AUTHORITIES SAY TO ME THE REASON FOR THIS? WORKERS WRITING CUSTOMERS NAMES ON THEIR GLOVES? WE HAVE TRAVELLED TO SO MANY COUNTIRES AND NEVER HAD THIS EXPERIENCE. I FIND IT VERY DISRESPECTFUL AND THIS COUNTRY IS PROMOTING TOURISM!!!!!!
Guyanese should realize that all living there are classified as blacks despite of the texture of your hair. . .
SORRY, BUT THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO CUSTOMER SERVICE AT THE AIRPORT. I HOPE THAT THE AIRLINE STAFF WILL EDUCATE THEMSELVES AND PROPER TRAINING BEING GIVEN TO THEM ABOUT OTHER COUNTRIES AND ALSO PUT WORKING SYSTEMS IN PLACE. ALSO LEARN TO TAKE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITISIMS TO MAKE THEIR WORK BETTER AND NOT TO BARK ON CUSTOMERS. WITHOUT CUSTOMERS, YOU PEOPLE WOULD NOT HAVE HAD A JOB.
WE FLEW BACK TO THE USA, WAS NEVER ASKED FOR OUR ESTA NOR OUR ONGOING TICKET TO SWITZERLAND, NEITHER OUR LUGGAGES WERE SEARCHED FOR A PIECE OF BLACK CAKE, NEITHER WAS I SINGLED OUT AS A BLACK FROM MY FAMILY.
