No stranger to complaints about his airline, Sir Richard Branson was tickled to read a complaint letter to Caribbean airline LIAT which has a partnership with Branson’s Virgin Atlantic.
The sarcastic open letter was written by Arthur Hicks and first appeared in The BVI Beacon, a newspaper in the British Virgin Islands, in April, but caught Branson’s attention last week.
Branson, who received what became known as the world’s best airline complaint letter back in 2009, which called the food a “culinary journey of hell”, said he was “tickled” to see another brilliant note. So tickled he shared it with his Twitter followers:
How to write a complaint letter – read this hilarious note from a frustrated airline passenger http://t.co/BCvUPzTswV
— richardbranson (@richardbranson) June 28, 2013
The letter reads:
Dear LIAT,
May I say how considerate it is of you to enable your passengers such an in-depth and thorough tour of the Caribbean.
Most other airlines I have travelled on would simply wish to take me from point A to B in rather a hurry. I was intrigued that we were allowed to stop at not a lowly one or two but a magnificent six airports yesterday. And who wants to fly on the same airplane the entire time? We got to change and refuel every step of the way!
I particularly enjoyed sampling the security scanners at each and every airport. I find it preposterous that people imagine them all to be the same. And as for being patted down by a variety of islanders, well, I feel as if I’ve been hugged by most of the Caribbean already.
I also found it unique that this was all done on “island time,” because I do like to have time to absorb the atmosphere of the various departure lounges. As for our arrival, well, who wants to have to take a ferry at the end of all that flying anyway? I’m glad the boat was long gone by the time we arrived into Tortola last night — and that all those noisy bars and restaurants were closed.
So thank you, LIAT. I now truly understand why you are “The Caribbean Airline.”
P.S. Keep the bag. I never liked it anyway.
LIAT stands for Leeward Islands Air Transport but passengers who have experienced their brand of ‘island time’ say it stands for Languishing In Airport Terminals! Ouch!
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