The Joys of Aerolineas Argentinas

Airline travel can provide a test of patience and involve long waits, but I think that Aerolineas Argentina must hold the record for flight delays, strikes and challenges in general . After returning to Ushuaia with Aerolineas I remember why I choose to fly with other airlines whenever it is possible!
The trip started in Quito, when LAN informed me there was no way my luggage could be sent through to Buenos Aires and would go to Santiago, from where I would have to collect it and recheck it. Fair enough, except that one’s luggage is outside, through immigration and I am inside in the Transit area. To exit and collect it means immigration, a reciprocal tax of $56 and an exit tax of $16 – not an option! Easy they say, go to the Aerolineas counter and get them to collect the luggage, except there is no Aerolineas desk and in the early hours of the morning it’s not easy to find anyone to help. Bless the lovely young lady in the Diners Club lounge, she spent some time on the telephone chasing down the luggage through Aerolineas. I wasn’t the only one, there was a couple from Guatemala with the same challenge. Finally, about 30 minutes before the flight departure we were handed our boarding passes with, we hoped, appropriate luggage collection tags. We were all very pleased to see our luggage on the carousel in Buenos Aires.
That was followed by an expensive Remis journey across Buenos Aires to the Domestic Terminal for the scheduled departure of my flight to Ushuaia. Might as well have walked! 8 hours later the flight departed Buenos Aires with a plane full of rather disgruntled travellers. All the flights on Saturday afternoon displayed the red Demorado – delayed notice, on the board and during the course of the day several were cancelled with no explanation. Several flights scheduled for later than mine departed for Ushuaia and still no explanation. Finally when we boarded they told us that seating was free – as the plane had been changed, which, as you can imagine caused even more problems as it was literally a case of first on best seats! I was lucky I was on early, after being squashed onto the bus last and so amongst the first off – so I had a front seat with all that lovely leg room. But couples were separated and there were lots of unhappy people.
We arrived in Uhuaia at 2.30 am, my luggage was almost last off and so I had a long wait for a taxi – in the cold, and after Galapagos it was cold! Finally made it back to my flat at 3.30 after 2 nights with little sleep.
Don’t think I will travel Aerolineas again in a hurry! I have to return to Buenos Aires with Aerolineas, but think I will ditch the flight to Santiago to connect for the return to Oz and buy a single with LAN – they are much more reliable!