TACV Cabo Verde Airlines review by Maria 2014-04-03

I would like to let everyone know how TACV treated us during our trip.
On Friday the 21st of February, the day we were supposed to leave to go to Cape Verde, we didn’t. After arriving to Logan Airport in Boston, we checked in and were then notified to return the next day at 7am to catch our flight to Cape Verde due to mechanical problems. The plane needed to wait for a part to come in from Florida. We ended up staying in a hotel in Chelsea, MA but while still at the airport getting more information on our flight, a lady told her fellow workers that they shouldn’t be telling any other passengers about the free hotel vaulter and they should just tell everyone to go back home.
On Saturday, we arrived at Logan Airport at 7am just like we were told and waited until 9am to board. We boarded sometime around 9 to 9:30 and didn’t leave until 10:15. The airplane ended up waiting for people who were late. Saturday night, we arrived in Praia around 9pm Cape Verde time, and were then told that since we missed our flight the day before, we would have to wait until the next day because the plane can’t land in Beila at night.
On Sunday, we arrived back at the airport in Praia and caught our flight to Beila after 1pm. We arrived safely to our family and had an amazing time with them. Sadly, our 6 day vacation was cut short and we weren’t able to do everything we had planned.
On Thursday the 27th, the day we were supposed to catch our flight home, we missed it because we were late. The boarding time on our boarding pass said 9:30am and the departure time said 1pm. My aunts and I needed to see our grandmother in the hospital before we left so we went to see her. We were back inside the airport before 12:30pm that day and everyone kept telling us to run before we missed our flight. All 3 of us ran as fast as we could. We got our passports stamped, went through security and got to the doors where we would just go through in order to get on the airplane. We were then notified by the TACV staff that we couldn’t get on the plane. The doors were wide open and the stairs were on the plane. 15 minutes later, the stairs were removed and we watched the plane take off. During those 15 minutes I’m sure we would of had the chance to board. The TACV staff told us that they would send out one of the guys to tell the pilot that we had arrived but instead they just stood there and did nothing. Another lady told us that she would get our luggage off the flight, but instead of following through with what they said, they all stood there doing nothing. There were at least 9 of them there just laughing and telling us to return next Thursday. I cried. I should of been let on the plane. I had nothing. I missed school the next day. And I didn’t even had a toothbrush to brush my teeth, elastics for my braces, my hand brace for my broken hand, or even my glasses so I could see. I had nothing! This is not how I was expected to be treated on my trip to Cape Verde. If I knew this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have taken those days off of school to struggle. On that same Thursday, my whole family struggled. All we wanted was a flight home and yet we got nothing. Running from one TACV place to another, we accomplished nothing. None of them helped us in any way. All they did was tell me to stop crying. One guy wouldn’t even talk to us after we waited 5 hours to talk to him. His wife even told him that we were waiting for him but he told us that she never told him anything. He was in a rush to go to a meeting and didn’t even acknowledge the fact that we were there. He didn’t care about what happened. None of then did. That same day, we went to the airport in Praia again to see if we could catch the 2:30am flight on Friday morning to Portugal then from Portugal to back home. We were trying our best to see if they would help is pay for our flight but they told us they couldn’t, knowing that we had no money! We tried every way we could to book a flight for that morning but we couldn’t. It just felt like we were stuck on the island and couldn’t get off.
On Saturday, we took TACV from Praia to Sal then from Sal to Portugal. We waited for 5 people at Sal and I’m not even sure if they ever got on the plane. This caused us to be over an hour late and to almost miss our flight to Portugal.
On Sunday, we waited for 1 person to board before taking SATA to arrive home in Boston.
This vacation was a big disaster and I do not plan to ever take TACV to Cape Verde ever again!