'We've been stranded in Costa Rica since the pandemic hit'
Back in March, there was a flurry of cautionary tales of British travellers caught up in the frantic shuttering of borders and grounding of planes. Soon after, the Government announced a £75 million rescue plan to repatriate the hundreds of thousands people who were stuck overseas.
Yet, nine months later – during which many borders have reopened, but travel remains tricky and flight schedules much reduced – there are still stragglers desperate to return home. Among them are Lawrence 'Larry' Kenney (who's 62) and Gary Shuker (50). They are, having run out of money, effectively trapped in Playa Grande, Costa Rica, after travelling to the region to volunteer.
Since May, they've been booked onto five cancelled fights and spent $17,000 (£12,700) on living costs. The men now face Christmas without friends or family, and are about to lose their accommodation.
“We feel now, in the last month, that we’ve been ditched here, totally stranded,” says Larry.
The British Embassy in San José, Costa Rica's capital, had initially got in touch with the men in March. However, Larry had fractured his leg and couldn’t board a plane, so both decided to wait until for a scheduled flight home two months later.
Larry is an engineer, and regularly travels to Panama to mentor engineering undergraduates. Gary, who previously travelled with Larry as the office manager at his firm, now assists him on these mentoring trips in a personal capacity. Larry had an accident when on-site in the country a few years ago and, ever since, Gary has provided support.
Their latest trip began in February in Panama, after which they headed to Costa Rica to spend some time in the country before their flight back from the city of Liberia. Their tickets were with KLM, booked through Lastminute.com, but for the return leg they'd be flying with KLM's partner airline, Delta.
As Covid-19 cases grew across the world and borders closed, including Costa Rica's, their hopes of getting home in the near future looked increasingly remote.
Their flight in May was cancelled, more cancellations followed in July, August, September and, most recently, November. Both men were patient up until the November cancellation. They had been sent e-tickets by KLM but were later told, by Lastminute.com, that these flights had been cancelled too.
KLM-Delta are operating routes between Costa Rica and London, and have seats available, they were informed, However, in order to board one of these flights, the men were would need to fork out three times what they’d already paid for the return leg of their journey.
Telegraph Travel asked KLM for comment. A spokesperson said: “Following several rebooking attempts, Mr Kenney and Mr Shuker’s travel agent Lastminute.com requested a refund for each passenger’s return flight from KLM. The refund requests were processed by the KLM refunds team and the amounts paid by each passenger were transferred to Lastminute.com on [September 28 and 29] 2020.”
However, Lastminute.com reserved seats on a new flight with KLM (at Larry and Gary's request), in November. As detailed above, this were also cancelled.
“I’ve been keeping smiling. But over the last few months, they [customer service staff] sympathise with us, but it’s ‘computer says no', basically,” says Larry.
Since May, the colleagues have been staying in basic accommodation, which they were offered at the equivalent of £50 a day for the two of them, including breakfast and an evening meal.
However, the costs have swiftly piled up. Added to their living expenses are the delivery charges of Larry's repeat prescription, which he's had sent from London.
One might ask why, at this point, the men haven’t paid the extra for a new ticket with KLM, or opted for a refund and booked with another airline.
Firstly, the repeated cancellations and rescheduling of the KLM-Delta flights have meant that, up until recently, they’ve always been waiting for the next one to go ahead.
Secondly, Larry adds: “It’s tough to [go with another carrier], and pay for a new ticket, it’s a difficult one to swallow.
“We’d have to travel five hours to the capital [rather than to the closer city of Liberia; which KLM-Delta fly from] to travel with another airline. But we are trying to explore every option.“
Now both are just hoping they can be back in time for Christmas. Next week, they will need to find new accommodation, and it's unlikely they'll secure anywhere at the same reasonable rate.
Amid the stress of not knowing when they’ll return home and losing a significant amount of money, they've found some consolation: getting to know the local community.
“In the early days [of being here, while we could still afford it], we had guys around from the local community and would cook for them once or twice a week,” says Larry. “We’d do things like that as a thank you to them [for helping us].”
They’ve also found ways to pass time. “I potter about [the area],” says Larry. “I’m helping a couple of [local] chaps paint and refresh things, they are hoping American [tourists] will come back soon.
“I’ve spent two hours this morning clearing the beach of plastic, because a hurricane [passed through] last week, I’ve been doing things like that everyday to contribute to the local community.”
Larry is quick to emphasise the beauty of Playa Grande (a favourite with American tourists and a hotspot for leatherback turtles). Living in an area that is so reliant on tourism, when the industry has been decimated, has reminded him of the comparative mildness of the difficulties he and Gary have faced. Nevertheless, they are at a loss for how to proceed.
In the last few days, they have been back in touch with the British Embassy: they were told to try family and friends, or their insurance, as means of getting home.
Yet with a tight deadline looming (they need to leave their accommodation on December 16) and resources running out, their patience is wearing thin. “We just want to get home to our families for Christmas,” says Larry.
Lastminute.com was contacted for comment; KLM declined to comment further.
