Belize's male under 23 volleyball team finished fourth at the recently concluded Central American Championships - while Guatemala placed first with an undefeated record.
The games were played in Panama - and on the way back yesterday - the team ran into some difficulties with TAG airlines in Guatemala City. Now, these things happen with flight delays and missed connections - but team coach Bryton Codd says the treatment was especially deplorable. So much so that he put up an angry post - which drew a lot of attention.
He told us about it today via Zoom:
Bryton Codd, Coach, U-23 National Volleyball
"We were traveling with the Under-23 coming back from Panama. And we flew to Guatemala City because we had a flight to Flores. We got through customs. It was a long line coming off Copa Airlines. We told them that we were in customs. And we got to the counter maybe about three minutes after the time was for them to close off. And this is because it was 11 of us. So we took up majority of the seats on the flight. And we asked them to check us in."
"And they said, we're sorry, but we have to close the flight. And so we said, can you not extend any type of courtesy towards us as we're heading towards Belize and we have to get there because there's a bus waiting for us in Flores to come to the border."
"The person working behind the desk at the time said, we're sorry, but there's nothing we can do. We're traveling now and we're telling them, what's the next flight? They said, the next flight is four o 'clock in the evening."
"I said, OK, so can you reschedule us for four o 'clock in the evening? She said, yes, we can reschedule you, but it would be 100 US per person. And that's when time, that's the time I actually looked at the coach and I said, this is this is ridiculous. I said, usually when you go through any type of customs or immigration and you're late for a flight, at least with my traveling experiences, so far, they put you on another flight without having to pay any additional fees."
"So they charge us 100 US additional fee per person. It was 11 of us traveling. So that's 11 hundred US that they charge. Then the other situation came up that because we were bumped to the four o 'clock flight, we, our baggage that we were allowed to the weight of our baggage that we were allowed to enter to check in, change from 40 pounds to 20 pounds. So I said, there is no way that we could get to our baggage in at 20 pounds when these are all athletes traveling back with jerseys, sneakers, an entire week of clothing. And she said that you could take up to 20 pounds and check in and for every additional pound you have to pay three US. I said, this is absolute nonsense. Because now we're looking at paying approximately 60 US dollars per person to check in a 40 pound bag. They had absolutely no courtesy with us."
"And I think it extends beyond just, I think it's a Belize/ Guatemala thing. That's just me. Because I saw the other people who they were dealing with at the counter and the type of interaction was completely different."
"So I just have to put that out there. I saw where these particular people who worked with this airline, work with this airline company, manipulated their policies to be able to sort off, extort money from from us while we were traveling."
Jules Vasquez
"So right there have been a racial component as well?"
Bryton Codd, Coach, U-23 National Volleyball
"I would honestly hope not and I don't want to instigate that it was, but the possibility that it might have been could have been there as well."
Going back to the games, Belize's Kaelen Ingram won as Best Opposite.
