16657: (Hermantin)-Miami-Herald-$6,000 repaid for canceled flight to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, Sep. 06, 2003

$6,000 repaid for canceled flight to Haiti
BY EVAN S. BENN
ebenn@herald.com

Several South Florida humanitarians who claimed an airline stiffed them out
of $6,000 got their money back Friday.

''We're absolutely elated,'' said John Fletemeyer, who helped plan a
16-person trip to Cap Haitien, Haiti to teach children to swim and to
improve local hospitals.

A Florida Air Express executive called the trip's organizers Thursday to
explain why a refund check bounced, Fletemeyer said.

Friday, a day after The Herald reported the story, the executive handed over
a $6,000 cashier's check -- with guaranteed funds -- to cover ticket costs.

''They said we tried to cash [the original refund] too soon,'' Fletemeyer
said. ''That's bogus, because we put it through twice,'' including a try on
Aug. 28, he said.

Sixteen people planned an Aug. 10 trip to Cap Haitien, Fort Lauderdale's
sister city, including Fletemeyer, vice president of the International
Swimming Hall of Fame, and Eddy Remy, president of the Haitian American
Business Council.

They were going to set up free swimming classes for local children, start a
beach patrol along drowning-prone waterfronts, and make improvements to the
city's emergency-medicine centers.

The night before their flight, Florida Air Express canceled, saying no plane
was available. The next day, Aug. 10, an airline representative told the
group to wait a few days until the airline could find a pilot to fly to Cap
Haitien, Fletemeyer said.

The group demanded its money back.

Jean R. Achille, the airline's president and CEO, wrote a refund check on
Aug. 11, but it twice failed to clear the bank, Fletemeyer said.

Then, Fletemeyer said, Achille and other representatives of Florida Air
Express made themselves unavailable for several weeks, not responding to
dozens of telephone calls from the trip's organizers, Fletemeyer said.

Achille did not respond to a telephone message Friday. Hernan Hernandez, a
Coral Gables lawyer who represents Florida Air Express, also did not return
a call.

The goodwill group now plans to go to Cap Haitien on Sept. 21 for four days.

Fletemeyer and Remy were seeking to book another airline, until a good
Samaritan called them Thursday.

A woman who flies a Learjet medical evacuation plane contacted Fletemeyer
and offered to fly some of the group members to Haiti.

Her plane isn't big enough for all 16 people, so she's trying to find
another small-jet pilot to take the rest of the group, Fletemeyer said.

''She hasn't mentioned anything about wanting money,'' he said. ``I think
she just recognized the nature of the trip and wants to help out.''

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