Feeling grounded... in a bad way
Air travel has been a hassle here lately. It makes me feel almost trapped. We're now planning trips to Brazil, Bolivia & the US for the coming months. I hate to think recent bad air experiences are going to repeat themselves on our coming trips.A quick reprise of our most recent troubles:
- March 1: Flight delayed to Mendoza. This was especially maddening at 5-something AM, when we thought we had to arrive to catch our 6:30 AM flight. The storm mucked up radar and just about everything was delayed... for more than a week!
- March 5: Aforementioned radar problems delayed our flight back to Baires, again by hours. I heard another woman ask if she could rebook for another day and the airline employees told her "What's the point? It will just be delayed again!" Argh: trapped. No meal coupons, despite the fact that we're stranded at dinner time. Airport café runs low on food.
- March 6: Arrive home after midnight, exhausted. Ian's mother doesn't discover until she awakes the next morning that her checked luggage was pillaged. Her perfume and jewelry (gold earrings, etc.) all gone. Airline: LAN Argentina.
I haven't even mentioned the complication added to travel with an Argentine child. You see, you need the original partido de nacimiento (birth certificate) and both parents present, or a certified document granting permission by the parent(s) not present in order to fly out of the country. We arrived in the US a full day late because we didn't have Henry's original birth certificate from Argentina, and our British friends had it even worse than we did, with several days' delay.
Flights to Sao Paulo are nicely priced right now. Here's to hoping we can get off the ground without a serious problem later this month...
posted by cintra @ 9:15 AM
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4 Comments:
There's no way this "radar" problem still persists. The same thing happened to me coming back from Mendoza in December (delayed for 7 hours). This must be related to the labor dispute with LAN Argentine going on right now.
Best avoid flying LAB, that airline is notorious for long delays. Last month we had a 6 hr delay at EZE and then a 4 hr delay in Santa Cruz. Rather than radar problems, an LAB flight attendant later explained that it was just the way that LAB schedules their flights and that they have too few planes in the high season. (But LAB did provide a meal coupon at EZE). Enjoy your travels!
... not to mention the security line at Ezeiza. Mayhem reigned last week around 21hrs when all the international flights depart to USA/Europe. Talk about a really bad taste in the mouth the argentines leave tourists that have hopefully had a good vacaction in their country.
It took me 2 hours to go through security and immigration! People were mad, sweaty, screaming and even crying!
Me gusto tu blog. Sobretodo los stencils y las fotos q hiciste con picasa.
Nesle.
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