purbeast0
No Lifer
Monday my wife started her travels to bolivia with 2 of her friends. They flew from DC to Miami on American Airlines, then from Miami to Peru on LAN, and that is when the problems started.
They arrived in Peru at 5am and their next flight was not leaving until 12:30pm, so they were hanging at the airport and sleeping right near their gate.
So around noon or so, the people at the gate told them the flight had changed to a different gate, so they ran over to the new gate. When they got to the new gate the people there then told them it was somewhere else.
When they arrived at the final gate where the flight was at, they had finished boarding but the plane was still at the gate. They would not let them on the plane at all. They tried and tried to just let them get on the plane but the people would not budge.
So then the airline tells them that there is another flight at night around 11pm from Peru to Bolivia and that they will have to purchase new tickets for $400 a piece + a $27 fee for using a credit card to pay.
This is when my wife called me to tell me the problem, and she told me to look for flights online for her. Unfortunately it was too short notice for me to book flights for them online.
She and her friends also told me that they believed the people were taking advantage of them since they saw they were from the USA. While she was on the phone with me too, the people working for the airline magically told them that the $27 fee could now be waived once they knew i was looking for flights elsewhere. My wife asked me for the 1800 number for this airline and i gave it to them and they were going to try and call the offices and try to work something out. I then got off the phone.
So I then get a call from my wife last night after they arrived in Bolivia. She told me that things got kind of worse too at this airport and with the airline, and that the 1800 number would not go through from where they were in Peru, even with a calling card they had.
Since they needed to now buy new tickets, they had to leave the part of the airport with the terminals and stuff and had to go back out to the counters to purchase new tickets. Since they were going to be there all day they decided to get a tour of Peru and did that for the day.
When they came back to the airport, the same people were working at the airline when they went to check in. She said the people there then searched her bag and took liquor from her that she had bought earlier that day at the airport, which was a gift for someone in Bolivia, and they would not let her bring it with her.
It was still packaged the way they package liquor when you buy it in the airport, but they would not let her take it. She said the people were being complete jerks to them and again felt they were being taken advantage of because they had american passports. She tried to tell the guy if she cant take it she wants to pour it all out into the trash right there, but they would not let her do that since they had already taken it. She thinks they were going to take the liquor to drink it themselves.
So I guess the advice i'm wondering is I want to let this company know about the situation and try to get refunded the $400 for her ticket (and the other 2 girls as well if possible) and let them know how she was treated. The airline is TACA and they actually have an office like 10 miles from me in DC. I was thinking of going in there in person with my wife when she gets back and telling them the whole situation with exact details, flight #'s, etc, and I also wanted to wait for my wife to get home before I go there because I don't want them to screw around with her anymore than they already have.
So anyone have any suggestions or advice on how to go about this?
Sorry, no cliffs.
They arrived in Peru at 5am and their next flight was not leaving until 12:30pm, so they were hanging at the airport and sleeping right near their gate.
So around noon or so, the people at the gate told them the flight had changed to a different gate, so they ran over to the new gate. When they got to the new gate the people there then told them it was somewhere else.
When they arrived at the final gate where the flight was at, they had finished boarding but the plane was still at the gate. They would not let them on the plane at all. They tried and tried to just let them get on the plane but the people would not budge.
So then the airline tells them that there is another flight at night around 11pm from Peru to Bolivia and that they will have to purchase new tickets for $400 a piece + a $27 fee for using a credit card to pay.
This is when my wife called me to tell me the problem, and she told me to look for flights online for her. Unfortunately it was too short notice for me to book flights for them online.
She and her friends also told me that they believed the people were taking advantage of them since they saw they were from the USA. While she was on the phone with me too, the people working for the airline magically told them that the $27 fee could now be waived once they knew i was looking for flights elsewhere. My wife asked me for the 1800 number for this airline and i gave it to them and they were going to try and call the offices and try to work something out. I then got off the phone.
So I then get a call from my wife last night after they arrived in Bolivia. She told me that things got kind of worse too at this airport and with the airline, and that the 1800 number would not go through from where they were in Peru, even with a calling card they had.
Since they needed to now buy new tickets, they had to leave the part of the airport with the terminals and stuff and had to go back out to the counters to purchase new tickets. Since they were going to be there all day they decided to get a tour of Peru and did that for the day.
When they came back to the airport, the same people were working at the airline when they went to check in. She said the people there then searched her bag and took liquor from her that she had bought earlier that day at the airport, which was a gift for someone in Bolivia, and they would not let her bring it with her.
It was still packaged the way they package liquor when you buy it in the airport, but they would not let her take it. She said the people were being complete jerks to them and again felt they were being taken advantage of because they had american passports. She tried to tell the guy if she cant take it she wants to pour it all out into the trash right there, but they would not let her do that since they had already taken it. She thinks they were going to take the liquor to drink it themselves.
So I guess the advice i'm wondering is I want to let this company know about the situation and try to get refunded the $400 for her ticket (and the other 2 girls as well if possible) and let them know how she was treated. The airline is TACA and they actually have an office like 10 miles from me in DC. I was thinking of going in there in person with my wife when she gets back and telling them the whole situation with exact details, flight #'s, etc, and I also wanted to wait for my wife to get home before I go there because I don't want them to screw around with her anymore than they already have.
So anyone have any suggestions or advice on how to go about this?
Sorry, no cliffs.
