Aerolineas Argentinas...never again!!...

Hi all....as i sit here in Bariloche Intl Airport awaiting for my flight to Buenos Aires I wish to post a comment on the Airline that calls itself AEROLINEAS ARGENTINAS (AA). My friends and were supposed to fly at 1615 hrs today (Fr 22nd JUNE) but as of 1927 hrs our flight still has not arrived in Bariloche. Therefore it begs the question what are AA doing and what planet are they working off....

If people dont know already AA are a state owned airline and are in serious trouble financially due to the lack of funding by the Government to a new fleet. This is due to the stalling of the Government to implement plans to privatise the company. Of course this brings the Unions (Gremios) to the fore. Unions being what they are are against it and therefore Industrial Action has occurred in recent weeks. I have since heard that this is a regular occurence with AA.

Industrial Action is perfectly normal in todays world and the Unions are well within their rights to defend the work interests of their members but the ineptitutde and sheer "heads in the sand attitude" that the Airline itself has taken is disgraceful.

This is the second time in 2 weeks that i have either missed a flight or had it delayed by up to 5-6 hrs. I went to Igazu circa 10 days ago and our flight did not go. We eventually booked with LAN and enjoyed a very pleasant service on mew modern aircraft.

My questions are these:

1. Does AA have a customer service dept?---if it does it has been non-existent in its functionality on both occasions I have endured this farce. Each time there has been a distinct lack of communication from the Airline. Espécially in Jorge Newbery Airport (Aeroparque BsAs) 2 wks ago. Thousands of travellers did not know what was happening and were never informed of any decisions by the Airline until the flashed upon on a screen 8-10 hrs after their departure time.

2. Would privatisation improve the Airline?---Im Irish and recently our National Carrier (Aer Lingus) was privatised due to the reluctance of the Irish Government to fund a new fleet. The decision was debated in an open and transparent fashion and the Unions although reluctant to endorse it were consulted at all stages. This resulted in a smooth flotation of the Airline on the stock market and maintaing Industrial peace and stability.

This was one of the few things the Irish Govt did well last year!

Anyways my rant has gone on too long. My parting comment is that any traveller wishing to travel internally in Argentina or in South America should avoid AA at all costs. Their punctunality is one of the worst in the world, and its customer service record id deploreable.

I would highly recommend LAN. Their service is excellent and their fleet modern, spacious and clean.

Apart from that we are having a great time and sure if the flight doesnt go we will have to spend another night in Bariloche!....How Bad!!!!

Cuidate y un abrazo para todos!

Lobito!

PS: Excuse the spelling...stupid keyboard!...

I understand that you are annoyed but you have no idea about Aerolineas Argentinas. AR is not a state owned company. AR was handed over to Iberia in the first presidentship of Carlos Menem in about 1993 more or less. It was very run down with Iberiasand was sold to Marsan an spanish group owning Spannair. There have been several strikes. This is just one more and in fact it does affects Austral which is a partner of Aerolineas Argentinas. Lan had some problems with strikes too in Argentina but the main problem of Lan is that they just operate very few routes with even less planes in Argentina and most of the cities are only covered by AR. Argentina like most other southamerican countries is not a place like Ireland or Spain where you have 10 or 15 different companies to choose from or in any case can take a ferry, train or bus because distances are short. From what I have seen on the news, the flights for today from Austral were cancelled but obviously the company will hve to give you the information when and how you will reach your next destiny

Previous report on the radar crisis at Ezeiza International Airport and domestic one:

* There are genuine Air Traffic Control problems which do not look to go away quickly. The ATC problems are complicated by substantial pressure to keep airlines flying despite serious radar problems, some admitted, some denied by the Air Regions Command, an air force subjunct which until the 15th of March ran all of Argentine aviation. On the 15th President Kirchner announced the creation of a new National Civil Aviation Authority but only actually appointed five members to a Transfer Execution Unit. Since the present controllers are largely military - and certainly most with radar qualification - any real agency changes are going to take a while, even after the two new to-be-leased and 15 to be purchased ATC radars get up and running. When weather gets bad, with shaky radar, pax would be far better off accepting delays, inevitable under the paper, pencil and stopwatch system that preceded radar, and still substitues for it quite safely when the electronic eye fails anywhere in the world, than demanding to be delivered instantly - into danger. Obviously, except for scheduled maintenance no ATC authority, civil, military or some combination thereof, can predict radar outages. Weather prediction is a little better, but not much. ATC delays are not basically inconveniences. They are often measures taken to save the lives of the very pax who complain loudly in airport lines and lounges.

Jorge Daniel Barchi.
Buenos Aires.

i can do travel just a few weeks a year, i wouldn't even consider to risk my loved vacations to aerolinas if i did have another carrier, not matter what the cost, i am sick, bored, tired of seeing them on the news, if i have to fly in argentina i would rather take my chances with lan if i have an option
sorry to hear that varig in brasil is having some trouble from time to time so if i have to fly there i would chosse tam or other
don't get mad at me, it is just a point of view

nahuel, tengo entendido que el paro se inicio en austral como antes de las 16.00 y despues aerolineas se solariso, just info

I flew from Ushuaia to BA - except the plane didn't come to Ushuaia and we had to travel by bus to Rio Grande. I enjoyed the experience as a sort of flash back to travelling in the good old days of Soviet Russia. All that consideration for passsnegers, never giving information in case tghey frightened the passengers - or not giving information because they didn't give a darn.
However, there are plenty of worse airlines. Unfortunately Air Madrid went bust. With any long haul flight on Air Madrid you could pretty much guaranty at least two nights in good hotels!
That one flight from Ushuaia was my one bad experience in riding south from Bolivia to Tierra del Fuego. Kind, fun, helpful, hospitable, intelligent people, great landscapes and good food - what more can you want of travel?
I was on a Honda 125. Loved every moment. see blog

strike is already over, good luck to u all

To console your self while waiting go and read about the plane that had raw sewage flowing down the aisles. Or the one that sat at the gate....loaded...for 7 hrs. Or the airline that cancelled all flights because of a computer. Might want to look up the folks who want to start an airpassenger rights organization. I can remember as a kid my Dad telling us to forget about the crappy food they served at the airport because we would stuff ourselves on the plane...uh.. that was a few decades ago.

You are waiting for less then 3 hours for a flight in South America, and already complaining about the delay? Then you are clearly not ready to travel in SA!! this is part of the deal, and if you are expecting things to go smoothly, you are missing out on all the fun. This is how life is when you are in those parts of the world- read a book, talk to people around you, take a nap, go and chat online. I've been starnded by busses, planes, ferries, trucks, trains- you name it. It has only made my trips more interesting- i wouldn't go to SA assuming anything less then IMPERFECT.
get over it!

Previous report:
Posted: Saturday, June 09-07

I tried to leave Buenos Aires on Thursday... As a pilot I understand that the weather was terrible and with reduced radar coverage an issue for aircraft to land... Here are the facts as at 22:30 hours on Saturday night.

1. We left our hotel on Thursday morning at 07.30 hours to fly to El Calafate at 08.50am... As with most of the flights with Aerolineas Argentinas the departure board said 'Delayed' In our case until 11.00hrs... As this time approached, the board changed again to say 'Delayed'... After asking staff what was happening it turn out that our plane like others was not even at Jorge Newbery... It was difficult to obtain the right info from anyone. Nobody would make a decision... i.e. It took them hours to decide to cancel the flights. On Thursday, one did not need to be an Einstein to see that the fog was not going to clear as there was no wind.

2. After queuing for hours in the Aerolineas Argentinas sales queue, I met this guy that translated for me... The only flight leaving was a flight to Iguazu in 10 minutes, we change all our plans and decided on the spot to fly to Iguazu instead (We were not planning on doing this until next week). We arrived after dark.

3. LAN is opering as normal... I guess because the A320 is better equiped for poor weather than the Aerolineas Argentinas MD11's.

4. Anyway after 2 days in amazing Iguazu, we attempted to fly back with Aerolineas Argentinas this afternoon... 17.00 hours flight was cancelled, so we bought tickets on LAN... Somebody please tell me why the cost is double for non Argentinians (Surely this is illegal???).

5. NOW THE KILLER BLOW.... As at 17.30 hours until we left at 20.30 hours and probably continuing as I write this posting, Aerolineas Argentinas is now on strike... Why, well from what I can work out the ground crew were stressed about all the complaints and disgruntled passengers...

6. There are no Aerolineas Argentinas staff working in the departure area, there are only security guards at the counters... When we landed with LAN I saw around 20 MD11 Aerolineas Argentinas planes sitting on the Tarmac.

7. People are angry, we witnessed a near riot at the Aerolineas Argentinas sales office... which had 2 staff and around 100 people waiting... We gave up and checked into our hotel... I will deal with the refund when I get home.

8. We are going to attempt to get to Patagonia in the morning... If not, we will return to the hotel and go to plan F or whatever letter we are up to now? We are only in Argentina for 2 weeks.

9. Now the positive... As non Spanish speakers I have to say in all my years of travelling all over the world I have never met such a polite, kind and helpful group of people... Thank you. The amount of fantastic people that we have met in queue's and at the airport that have translated, been polite to us and so, so kind far outways the dissapointment with Aerolineas Argentinas...

Final word.... Aerolineas Argentinas is a National Disgrace, I accept that the weather was bad on Thursday and Friday and beyond anyone's control, but to go on strike now is beyond belief... However, the people we have met, just want me to return again next year and give it another shot!

Jorge Daniel Barchi.
Buenos Aires.

wow....you must be a joy to travel with! your flights got delayed- do try and get over it. Or you could stay at home.

First let me apolgise for having my facts wrong about AA. I stand correted....thanks Nahuel!...As for Yoni2NY i have travelled all over Europe-Eastern Europe, Cuba, and West Africa and i must say that theres is no excuse for poor Customer Service. After all this is suppopsed to be an intl carrier. Ive flown from Liberia and Sierra Leone to Europe many times and any delays were promptly communicated and all info disseminated to pasengers. And this was Africa! The flight did not leave until 4 the following morning!...and yes i did read, chat(en español amd english), sleep etc...So to sit and comment in mindless optimism about the SA Travel experience is that im clearly "not ready to travel in SA" is quite misplaced.

Having a great time overall!

Not only gringos, but a bulk of Argentine population would boykott AA and all other AAs for obvious reasons. But, they don't have a choice.

ready/not ready - what a pile!

someone mentioned they would choose TAM over varig, and i could go on about the delays on all my TAM flights last month in Brasil; withoiut any explanantions, missed connections and all that. and not just TAM, american airlines had similar delays. And while on that subject, delays affect every airline, and not just because of lack of funding or bad management, as esteros points out, could be the weather.

Overall i think travelling is getting easier to book, and harder to actually go through. security, long lines at airports, delays, missed connections, gosh ! and to think i loved airports as a kid...but to be fair, its just the bad trips we remember. Most of my flights this year ( india via europe, within india and the US) have been smooth.

argentina the day after ! hope no delays :)