A Miami couple left stranded in Bora Bora by an airport strike during their dreamy honeymoon have revealed how they finally made it back home.
Earlier this week, Omid Kazravan posted a series of TikToks detailing how he and his new wife, Karrah were stuck on the picturesque island and trying to return to the US.
After weighing multiple options, the couple decided to team up with other stranded tourists and hire a 18-seater charter plane – that could only take 10 people on board due to regulations – for $7,500.
But in an update posted yesterday, Omid complained that the group was forced to board a much smaller plane which was not the private jet he had booked.
He goes on to tell viewers that another nearby hotel had been trying to get hold of the plane for their stuck customers.
He explained: ‘We woke up at 6am to start coordinating everything because we had to make sure that everybody was within weight of the plane.
‘Once everybody paid, we finally got all the information from the broker and it turns out that they put the wrong date so we’re like what the hell this is for tomorrow and sure enough after a lot of back and forth, turns out the broker had a typo.
‘When the plane arrives, the ticketing agents tell us that it was not our plane and we’re going back and forth with them.
‘Pilot had to come out and let them know that it was the plane and it turns out that another one of the resorts on Bora Bora, the St Regis was actually trying to take our plane.’
Omid then went on to share pictures of the plane they boarded – noting that it looked like a ‘cylinder in the air with no space’ rather than the ‘fancy private jet they saw on Google’.
He described the journey from Bora Bora to a ‘little private airport area’ on the ‘cylinder-alike’ plane as the ‘longest 35 minutes’ of his life.
The video, which has garnered nearly 45,000 views, was captioned: ‘Normally when you charter a jet, you think of something luxurious. This was far from that.’
The couple had initially left stranded due to the ongoing domestic airport strike by unionized workers on their check-out day.
The industry’s action caused Air Tahiti and Air Moana to cancel all domestic flights through the Bora Bora Airport as strikers demand that their needs be met by officials.
No international flights have been impacted as a result of the strike.
‘We gotta take matters into our own hands. There’s been no communication from domestic airlines. They’re kind of not even sending emails,’ Omid told viewers in his earlier videos.
‘We have to literally call them our to five times to get them to send an email that our flight is canceled.
The entrepreneur went on to say there was only one eight-hour boat ride out of the most expensive isle, where a regular can of Coca Cola costs $9, to the mainland.
They also contacted the US embassy for aid and were informed that a cargo ship would soon be arriving to bring them to the airport.
After some research, Omid discovered that the freighter was also an eight-hour long trek with no seats or any kind of chairs onboard.
As they began to ponder on what to do with the rest of the stranded tourists, the resort suggested they hire a small plane that would have cost $10,000 for eight people.
As of now, Air Tahiti has issued a warning that reads: ‘Due to the strike of the airport staff of Tahiti, disruptions on the flights program of Bora Bora, Rangiroa and Raiatea are to be expected.’
No other information has been provided by the company.