Aerolineas Argentinas
Does anyone have recent experience flying on this airline? I have had one experience Sydney to Brazil return business class in December 2006 and found them quite good. I was advised by a friend that they had deteriorated markedly in recent times. I "googled" them recently and read absolute horror stories of cancelled flights, missed connections, poor food (or no food at all), no entertainment, dirty planes, over booking, poor service and in one flight they ran out of water! The problems (as I read in a couple of reports) have been officially recogonised by the Argentine government and they are to be nationalised and merged with Austral airlines. The advantage they have is that their business class fare Sydney to Brazil is almost half the LAN fare via Santiago or the new Qantas service via Buenos Aires.
I have flown LAN on the same route 3 times, twice in economy and once business class. The on board service was good however they are not without their problems. On the first trip my outgoing flight was cancelled although in fairness I was given a couple of weeks notice. On the return leg of my second trip we were advised in Santiago that the flight due out at about 23:00 would be delayed and after regular 30 minute updates it acknowledged at about 02:00 we would not be leaving until 10:00 and we would be accomodated in Santiago that night. This involved temporary visas and endless delay. To cap it off the bus on the way to the hotel broke down about a km from the hotel and we had to walk the rest of the way. The flight was terminated in Auckland and we herded on to Qantas flights spread over the day where spare seats could be found. On my third trip I arrived at Rio airport only to be told my flight had been resheduled and had already departed. In fairness I had failed to reconfirm (a mistake I will never make again!) and they paid for a room at the airport hotel and left the next day.
In summary when travelling from Australia to South America you need tolerance and a sense of humour. To return to my original question any recent experiences of Aerolineas Argentinas would be appreciated.
Does anyone have recent experience flying on this airline? I have had one experience Sydney to Brazil return business class in December 2006 and found them quite good. I was advised by a friend that they had deteriorated markedly in recent times. I "googled" them recently and read absolute horror stories of cancelled flights, missed connections, poor food (or no food at all), no entertainment, dirty planes, over booking, poor service and in one flight they ran out of water! The problems (as I read in a couple of reports) have been officially recogonised by the Argentine government and they are to be nationalised and merged with Austral airlines. The advantage they have is that their business class fare Sydney to Brazil is almost half the LAN fare via Santiago or the new Qantas service via Buenos Aires.
I have flown LAN on the same route 3 times, twice in economy and once business class. The on board service was good however they are not without their problems. On the first trip my outgoing flight was cancelled although in fairness I was given a couple of weeks notice. On the return leg of my second trip we were advised in Santiago that the flight due out at about 23:00 would be delayed and after regular 30 minute updates it acknowledged at about 02:00 we would not be leaving until 10:00 and we would be accomodated in Santiago that night. This involved temporary visas and endless delay. To cap it off the bus on the way to the hotel broke down about a km from the hotel and we had to walk the rest of the way. The flight was terminated in Auckland and we herded on to Qantas flights spread over the day where spare seats could be found. On my third trip I arrived at Rio airport only to be told my flight had been resheduled and had already departed. In fairness I had failed to reconfirm (a mistake I will never make again!) and they paid for a room at the airport hotel and left the next day.
In summary when travelling from Australia to South America you need tolerance and a sense of humour. To return to my original question any recent experiences of Aerolineas Argentinas would be appreciated.
