The 2012 London Olympic Games have been a spectacular event for countries all around the world and two lucky winners – Luis Féliz and his wife Yamiler – were able to enjoy this historical event first-hand, as the winners of a very special competition sponsored by Visa and Butterfield. The competition saw the couple enjoy free flights and accommodation plus entry to the Olympic Games.

“It was a blessing from God,” Mr. Féliz says, confirming that he would never have been able to make the trip without this good fortune.

“It was a dream come true, and winning this prize made it possible because it would have been very difficult and costly for us to do otherwise,” he comments.

Mr. and Mrs. Féliz have been long-standing customers of Butterfield since arriving in the Cayman Islands three years ago from their native Dominican Republic.

In order to win the competition, of which the fantastic prize also included two £200 prepaid Butterfield Visa cards, the couple simply had to use their Butterfield Visa cards in their normal daily routine. Butterfield then drew their names at random from their thousands of Visa card customers and the couple’s name came up as the eventual winners.

“We just used our Butterfield cards as usual, and one day we received a phone call from a radio station letting us know that we have won this prize. At first we did not believe it and thought it was a scam, but it was all true!” he says.

Mr. Féliz confirms his favourite experience was being able to enjoy the impressive opening ceremony, along with all the other people from many different countries.

“Seeing everybody cheering for their home countries while they were presented was pretty special,” he says.

All in all he confirms, it was a wonderful experience.

“We were in London from 25^th to 29^th July so we were able to see other events as well such as gymnastics and basketball. The facilities were impressive, very modern and beautiful, especially the Olympic Stadium,” he confirms. “It was amazing to be in those places as you could see and meet people from many countries. That was an enriching experience.”

This was the couple’s first time in London and indeed in Europe itself. Mr. Féliz describes London as an “amazing city” and Mr. and Mrs. Féliz managed to take in many historic sites along the way.

“It is a place where you can walk through beautiful gardens, visit many different historic places, and meet wonderful people from many different cultures,” he says. “We had tours of the city and visited places like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, the London Eye, the River Thames, and so on. It’s impressive how many things you can do there!”

Butterfield Director, Sheree Ebanks, says she is delighted that Mr. and Mrs. Féliz had such an incredible experience thanks to Butterfield and Visa.

“We are thrilled that Mr. and Mrs. Féliz were able to get so much out of the experience,” she confirms. “The 2012 Olympics has had us all glued to our television sets as we have watched all the great athletes compete, especially of course our own superb athletes who have done the Cayman Islands proud.”

Mrs. Ebanks says that the partnership between Visa and Butterfield has been an extremely important relationship for the Bank and has been instrumental in developing and enhancing banking services at Butterfield over the years.

“A Visa card is now pretty much in everyone’s purse or wallet these days as it is such a convenient means of payment,” she says. “We wanted to find a way to thank our loyal customers for making the Visa card such a successful service, so what better way than to reward them with such a tremendous experience.”

Mr. Féliz says he and his wife have enjoyed an excellent service from their Butterfield Visa card and also enjoy Butterfield’s online banking service as well, which he says he uses with equal enthusiasm.

“We are very pleased with the service and products they offer,” Mr. Féliz says.