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Photo Credit: La Nacion/ Alejandro Gamboa Madrigal.
The dream trip of hundreds of Costa Ricans soon became a nightmare last week when they were informed of the cancellation of their flight by travel agency DestinosTV.
Close to 300 Ticos were stranded, at this point, sixty of them have been accommodated in commercial flights and are still waiting to get confirmation on their return flights, while a few are waiting for their reimbursement and others are scheduled to travel this Tuesday in hopes to make it in time for the second game of the national soccer team.
The general manager of DestinosTV, Jose Cortes, denounced then that his agency had been defrauded by the company they hired to provide the charter services.
Today, Cortes, stated during a press conference, that he will be filing a legal complaint for fraud against Canadian citizen Scott Smith CEO and President of the company Worldwide Charter Group.
Cortes, assures they made a payment of $1 million USD in advance as it is customary in the industry.
“For years we had worked with two companies, both with great international prestige, but two years ago another company appeared that had the precedent of transporting our national soccer team and the Soccer Federation to Brazil.
They offered us their client references (…). We verified their references, documentation and even checked with their clients to confirm they had contracts with them. I personally met with them in Costa Rica, Russia and Canada, they earned my trust.
They made us an offer where the main hook was not better prices but last generation planes such as the Boeing 777”, explained Cortes, who stated also that the company then changed some of the terms agreed on and a few days before the departure date he received a Whatsapp message where he was notified that ”due to problems with the permits in Russia they must cancel the flight”.
Cortes assures that DestinosTV was not the only company affected, but also a Mexican travel agency and another travel company in Peru.
Each passenger paid a total of $10,000.00 for a complete travel package.
