South America for Only AUS$ 999! from Sydney - Aerolinhas Argentinas

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  latinamorena on 30/04/2012 - 21:56

  +5

  I would not recommend anyone fly with Aerolineas Argentina, if you want to save yourself a LOT of time waiting in airports, coupled with incredible poor customer service on Aerolineas Argentina air hostesses. We flew with them recently (Dec 2011 - Jan 2012) from Brisbane to Lima and we were initially told the 'stopover' at Auckland was simply a fuel stop, lie, it was an actual full disembarkment stop-over where we had to wait for over an hour in the waiting area to board our flight again, we then arrived at Argentina, which we had to wait another 2-3 hours to get the flight to Lima, Peru. The air hostesses were incredibly arrogant, never smiled or asked anything politely. Furthermore, on the return trip from Lima to Peru, Aerolineas Argentina only fly Monday, Wednesdays and Saturdays so we were stuck in the Argentina airport for over 20 hours, which they made us pay the airport exit fee of USD$100 each despite the fact that we never even left the airport, but because we were Australians (they apply this fee to Americans too), and we were in their airport for longer than 4-5 hours!!! Pay the extra bit and fly with another carrier that goes directly from Brisbane-Chile or Sydney-Chile then Lima is my recommendation, it is not worth the saving having to do 4 flight changes each way!!!

  • 

    Coops1 on 30/04/2012 - 22:02

    -8

    I flew with Aerolineas back in the 90's, fantastic service and never had an issue. The 1-3 hrs between flights is normal and expected. The 20hrs not so much, but you must have known. I would just use the stopover in Buenos Aires, and you can enjoy the fantastic city for a day or 2.

    • 

      quickling on 30/04/2012 - 22:58

      +3

      that's before they went bankrupt ;)

  • 

    retiredfeline on 30/04/2012 - 22:03

    Those hosties were somewhat bronca huh? Thanks for the heads-up, will keep that in mind.

  • 

    quickling on 30/04/2012 - 22:22

    +1

    also, bring your own food for the plane ;)

  • 

    lano on 30/04/2012 - 22:30

    "we were initially told the 'stopover' at Auckland was simply a fuel stop, lie, it was an actual full disembarkment stop-over where we had to wait for over an hour in the waiting area to board our flight again"

    I had that with Virgin flying Melbourne to London via Hong Kong; we were all kicked off the plane whilst it was refueling. It seems to be common practice regardless of the airline.

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 30/04/2012 - 22:45

      I have been told it is a requirement all passengers disembark while refuelling, for safety. I have encountered that many times on different long-haul airlines. Can't blame an airline, but misinformation is annoying.

      • 

        d3ft on 01/05/2012 - 11:59

        If I had to guess the most likely time for a plane to explode, I'd go with refuelling. I'd be much happier watching from the lounge.

  • 

    RubenM on 30/04/2012 - 22:36

    +2

    "…on the return trip from Lima to Peru…"
    Not quite sure I understand.

  • 

    matt4711 on 30/04/2012 - 22:59

    +2

    I had the same problem last December. I flew from Spain to Chile with Aerolineas Argentina and the flight was terrible. The plane was at least 20 years old. We had only crt monitors in the hallway which were turned off after a while in the middle of a movie. After that the lights were turned off and everybody had to go to sleep. There was not a single hostess on the flight which appeared to speak any English.

    Will not fly again.

  • 

    joannatan on 01/05/2012 - 00:16

    +4

    have you ever read your itinerary before you booked and pay your ticket? it should appear the first fligt and then transit and stop over for how many hours, it is very weird that you don't even know that you will be stuck 20 hours stop over.

  • 

    lmabzo on 01/05/2012 - 06:55

    +1

    I wouldn't fly with them ever again and its got nothing to do with airport waiting times.. My last experience with them about 5 years ago (only fly LanChile now) consisted of them "losing cabin power".. how this even happens I have no idea, but resulted in no light, no hot food, no entertainment, no air control.. was horrific considering its a 14 hour flight. The worst of it though is that the flight attendants were not sympathetic in the least and somehow where not even surprised by this occurring. Scary shit.

  • 

    dyziplen on 01/05/2012 - 06:58

    All stop overs are disembark and re-board, and as to the 20 hour stop over, who booked your tickets? Why didn't you review the flights before you paid for it. It should have been obvious there is a lengthy stop over involved.

    As to the inflight service, you do get what you paid for, but its fairly typical with a lot of air lines around the world. You are just used to the higher quality since we are in the Asia Pacific region with a lot of the top tier airlines around.

  • 

    Charlotta on 01/05/2012 - 10:06

    +4

    The on-board service may well have been lousy, however with comments like these, LatinaMorena, it's a bit rich that YOU are calling THEM arrogant.

    I would not recommend anyone fly with Aerolineas Argentina, if you want to save yourself a LOT of time waiting in airports, coupled with incredible poor customer service on Aerolineas Argentina air hostesses. We flew with them recently (Dec 2011 - Jan 2012) from Brisbane to Lima and we were initially told the 'stopover' at Auckland was simply a fuel stop, lie, it was an actual full disembarkment stop-over where we had to wait for over an hour in the waiting area to board our flight again, we then arrived at Argentina, which we had to wait another 2-3 hours to get the flight to Lima, Peru. The air hostesses were incredibly arrogant, never smiled or asked anything politely.

    Maybe you need to change your travel agent or learn to ask a few questions before you buy an itinerary. From the way you have written I suspect someone else bought your ticket for you and now you are blaming the airline for flying their scheduled flights. Whoever bought your tickets had the all flight times and transfer times available to them before they committed to purchasing them.

    Most international travellers would call 2-3 hours a good transfer time - especially in that part of the world.

    Furthermore, on the return trip from Lima to Peru,

    Lima is in Peru.

    … Aerolineas Argentina only fly Monday, Wednesdays and Saturdays so we were stuck in the Argentina airport for over 20 hours, which they made us pay the airport exit fee of USD$100 each despite the fact that we never even left the airport, but because we were Australians (they apply this fee to Americans too), and we were in their airport for longer than 4-5 hours!!!

    The USD$100 paid by Australians is a "reciprocity fee". The level is set by Argentina to correspond to the amount that the Australian Government charges an Argentinian to apply for a visa to come to Australia. We're actually getting the better side of the deal at the moment because (a) the Australia's e676 application fee is AUD$110 (i.e. c. USD$117) and (b) Argentina only charges people when entering the country whereas Australia charges just to apply for a visa - so they have to pay even if their visa application is unsuccessful. The fee paid upon entering Argentina is valid for unlimited entries over a 12 month period. (US pay USD$140/160 and Canadians US$75 with different durations reciprocally corresponding).

    Passengers that don't leave the international transit area (i.e. who do not pass through immigration) do not need to pay this fee. As your connecting flight was with Aerolineas you shouldn't have had to leave transit. [Some airlines (eg. Taca) don't have a baggage interline arrangement with Aerolineas meaning that international passengers transferring to or from those airlines will likely need to exit through immigration to re-check their baggage! Sometimes it is possible to get a staff-person to accompany you to do this without clearing immigration and without paying the reciprocity fee. Research your trip!]

    Pay the extra bit and fly with another carrier that goes directly from Brisbane-Chile or Sydney-Chile then Lima is my recommendation, it is not worth the saving having to do 4 flight changes each way!!!

    ???! YOU only had TWO flight changes each way: one in Auckland and one in Buenos Aires.
    - there are no airlines that fly direct from Brisbane to Chile!!
    - even flying Sydney to Chile direct, a Brisbane person like yourself would still have 2 flight changes: one in Sydney and one in Santiago!
    - Chile and Brazil also charge the reciprocity fee for the same reason.
    Not everyone looking at this offer will have Lima as their destination.

    I'm no fan of Aerolineas - but LatinaMorena, take responsibility for those parts of your journey which are your responsibility to research beforehand.

• 

  RubenM on 30/04/2012 - 21:56

  Wow, that's awesome.
  I wish I had leave and money for a trip, but I only just got back from Europe.

  Any idea where the stopovers can be?

  • 

    dyziplen on 01/05/2012 - 07:00

    AKL is definitely one of them, they don't flight direct from Oz, you hop over to AKL, then to South America.

• 

  Coops1 on 30/04/2012 - 21:58

  Fantastic deal. Rang up but for early-mid Sep there was only fares over, not back :(. Would have swapped the Vietnam trip for Argentina and Peru !

• 

  Morbo on 30/04/2012 - 22:55

  +2

  Terrible airline by all reports, but the alternative is paying about twice as much with Qantas. Flew Qantas to Buenos Aires for ~$1400 last year, thinking of heading that way again so hopefully this will encourage them to lower the price a bit.

• 

  fireflyliveson on 30/04/2012 - 23:12

  +3

  I did south america last year and by far the least enjoyable parts of the trip was aerolineas argentinas. My friends and i would prefer to pay double to avoid them or not go at all. By far the worst airline in my extensive experience

• 

  Succulent Synth on 01/05/2012 - 00:28

  +3

  Avoid this airline at all costs. I made the mistake of travelling with them once and every leg of the trip was delayed by at least 6 hours. The longest delay was 27 hours with no assistance from the airline with accommodation, transfers access to a shower or anything. All of the staff are extremely rude. What you save on this cheap fare you will end up spending on hotels, food, phonecalls etc whilst you wait around for your delayed flights.

  This was not a one off incident, the majority of people I know who have flown them have had a similar experience.

• 

  2enjoy on 01/05/2012 - 06:56

  +1

  personally, i'd go for LAN Chile where possible. I had a few flights with them and they were great :)

  • 

    _Bruce_ on 01/05/2012 - 09:18

    I agree I was very happy with the staff and service.

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  _Bruce_ on 01/05/2012 - 09:18

  To add to the bad stories, about 5 years ago I flew with them from Brazil to Agentina and not only was the flight 12 hours late, but they decided not to accept my ticket (issued in AU) /after/ I checked in. So they paged me to go somewhere, but not in english. Then I had no choice but to buy a new ticket on the spot as my bag was already gone (and someone was meant to meet me at the other end, though of course I missed them anyway due to the 12 hour delay).

  My worst travel experience.

• 

  Hadoop on 01/05/2012 - 09:20

  +1

  I would not fly Aerolineas even if they were giving away free tickets. Worst customer service ever, lots of time wasted on airport - they are never on-time, awful food, no entertainment on board, they will limit your alcohol on-board as much as possible, especially if you're non-Argentinian (good luck getting a beer) and if you're unlucky with any weather/natural disaster like an ash cloud then good luck making your own arrangements because all they will do is shutdown their check-in and will give you absolutely no answers.

  I WOULD STRONGLY recommend anyone who doesn't want to risk their holidays to avoid this company at all costs. In fact, I would wait as other companies that fly to South American (Lan and Qantas) normally have specials at this time of year.

  • 

    _Bruce_ on 01/05/2012 - 09:22

    +1

    Note that most 'quantas' flights are not in fact quantas flights to South america (LAN does most of them as I understand).

    At least this was the case 5 years ago when I went.

    • 

      PlagueistheCheap on 01/05/2012 - 11:39

      Not anymore, QANTAS started flying their own metal last month. However in the first week one had to return to Syd with FMS failure, lucky it happened close to land. Good luck finding your way home over water with no idea where you are.

• 

  Xperamental on 01/05/2012 - 12:25

  Is this return or one-way? Can't seem to find that answer anywhere. From all reports I will be avoiding this airline at all costs anyway but just looking to clarify that.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 01/05/2012 - 13:03

    Yeah I would like to know that too, because to Argentina $2000 return is Ok but not great.

• 

  coolsteps on 01/05/2012 - 16:39

  i just called up its return. so that's a excellent price for South america !

  btw ex bne to sydney leg its via Qantas. note "All travel must be completed by 12 December 2012."

• 

  SrMoure on 01/05/2012 - 16:50

  I would not recommend anyone fly with Aerolineas Argentina, if you want to save yourself a LOT of time waiting in airports, coupled with incredible poor customer service on Aerolineas Argentina air hostesses.

  • 

    d3ft on 01/05/2012 - 18:57

    But are they hot? Qantas is really letting the side down in terms of eye candy on these long haul flights.

    • 

      SrMoure on 02/05/2012 - 17:01

      Just did 18 hours flight with AA. I can assure no eye candy there. One slept most of the flight. They turn on the fasten your belts announcement to keep people on their seats.

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  coolsteps on 01/05/2012 - 17:00

  i wonder how much a cheap return airfare from Buenos Aires - Santiago - Rio De Janeiro - Sao Paulo - Lima - Salta to europe would cost?