I was wondering how common theft is on this airline.
I was traveling through Belize City to San Pedro. I had a carry-on suitcase that I carried on 2 flights before that, and it was always with me on the planes. My money was in the front pocket, so I could access it, and I checked it after I landed at BZE. I have traveled on small planes before, and usually you take your bag in the plane, and they load it into the plane right when you get on the plane. That is not what happened here. I went to get my boarding pass, they asked for my luggage, they put a tag on it, and gave me a receipt. You could see the planes right behind the desk, so I figured no big deal, they would just take it out to the plane, no problem. Well, they did take it out to the plane, the wrong one. When I got to San Pedro, I realized my luggage was not in the belly of the plane. They took me to what looked like an unsecured loading dock and told me that my luggage had arrived on an earlier flight. I immediately checked my luggage for the money and it was gone.
On my return trip through San Pedro on Maya I watched their luggage process more carefully. I could only describe it as archaic at best. You have to drop your luggage off with a guy outside the terminal, go inside through security, check in at the gate, wait until shortly before your flight takes off, go back to desk and get your boarding pass that has a color on it, walk back outside through security to find the different guy who is standing next to an unsecured pile of luggage destined for various flights, he has to find your luggage, and hand write the color of your boarding pass on it. If this sounds overcomplicated and error prone, it is.
I filed a complaint and have been waiting to hear back from Maya Air. Have other people had this experience with them?