Markgeezer
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- May 25, 2011
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Gotta get this off my chest, and if anyone has some worthwhile or helpful comments or advice that would be great…. I am not looking for any sympathy btw.
Been planning a major family trip to Africa for a few years now and thought we had finalized all of our logistics. We had already travelled extensively around S. Africa in 2001, but this time and now with young children we simplified our plans to flying Buenos Aires to Jo’burg (via S. Paulo) in order to leisurely travel through Kruger, then on to Mauritius and Reunion, before returning to BA.
On Friday we went to AEP to take our flight to S. Paulo, only to immediately be warned by TAM staff that we would not be allowed to fly GRU-JNB without each of us having a Yellow Fever vaccination booklet because of the *yellow fever situation in Argentina*.
NB. This is because Argentina is classified by the World Health Organisation as a low risk Yellow Fever country. Now….. we all know that we can fly to anywhere in Europe and North America without being asked for this certificate and most all of us living here know that there is no yellow fever in Argentina. I vaguely recall that some howler monkeys in Misiones were infected with YF about 15 years ago, but searching the web I see that two Brazilians died of YF in 2010, while large swathes of Africa are rife with YF, not to mention the more lethal viruses in Africa and S. Africa. TAM staff said that they were turning away several uninformed passengers per day, but many more originating in Argentina, were rejected from flying from S. Paulo. We were of course fully prepared for Malaria in S. Africa and taking the recommended pills.
Now, here’s the worst part for us. We bought our flights through Despegar and we are still fighting/ negotiating with them as to what we can recuperate from ARS 60,000 paid to them. At first they blamed us and said it would be a total loss, and that was even before the first flight took off.
· Our transatlantic carrier was South African Airways and they did not inform us that passengers coming from Argentina need a Yellow Fever certificate. (Note that on our previous visit, this was not a requisite).
· Despegar did not inform us that we needed a Yellow Fever certificate when they banked our ARS 60,000 for flights, but in their small print it says that passengers are responsible for having all their travel papers in order.
· My wife actually phoned the S. African embassy weeks ahead of our trip just to check that that she didn’t need a visa… had a conversation during which the YF subject could have been mentioned, but we were left in the dark.
So, the worst scenario was my 7 year old crying in the airport when everything went AWOL, and my 5 year old going ballistic… while we were in heated discussions as to why nobody had bothered two shits to tell us about the YF certificate, while Despegar passed the buck with SA Airways and TAM, we actually passed a cell phone between them !!!! We realize that we are at fault for not having checked properly, but having already travelled to S. Africa from Argentina previously and not knowing the current WHO situation for Argentina on YF (why would we ?) we came unstuck. I don’t wish that on anyone else, hence this post, yet DESPEGAR and S. African Airlines are profiting daily from this situation it seems.
We are still counting the cost because we have lost 100% on a motorhome that we hired in S. Africa, plus other reservations including hotels etc. and it seems approx 50% of our flight costs.
Initially we tried to defer everything for two weeks later (YF certificate needs to be 10 days from vaccination), but Despegar quoted us double. This is a true nightmare. We really don’t now know what we can salvage, and whether we can realize this trip in the future.
In my head I know that this is a real f**k up, but I also see a lot of blame on Despegar, South African Airways and the South African Embassy in Bs As.
Any comments welcome.
Been planning a major family trip to Africa for a few years now and thought we had finalized all of our logistics. We had already travelled extensively around S. Africa in 2001, but this time and now with young children we simplified our plans to flying Buenos Aires to Jo’burg (via S. Paulo) in order to leisurely travel through Kruger, then on to Mauritius and Reunion, before returning to BA.
On Friday we went to AEP to take our flight to S. Paulo, only to immediately be warned by TAM staff that we would not be allowed to fly GRU-JNB without each of us having a Yellow Fever vaccination booklet because of the *yellow fever situation in Argentina*.
NB. This is because Argentina is classified by the World Health Organisation as a low risk Yellow Fever country. Now….. we all know that we can fly to anywhere in Europe and North America without being asked for this certificate and most all of us living here know that there is no yellow fever in Argentina. I vaguely recall that some howler monkeys in Misiones were infected with YF about 15 years ago, but searching the web I see that two Brazilians died of YF in 2010, while large swathes of Africa are rife with YF, not to mention the more lethal viruses in Africa and S. Africa. TAM staff said that they were turning away several uninformed passengers per day, but many more originating in Argentina, were rejected from flying from S. Paulo. We were of course fully prepared for Malaria in S. Africa and taking the recommended pills.
Now, here’s the worst part for us. We bought our flights through Despegar and we are still fighting/ negotiating with them as to what we can recuperate from ARS 60,000 paid to them. At first they blamed us and said it would be a total loss, and that was even before the first flight took off.
· Our transatlantic carrier was South African Airways and they did not inform us that passengers coming from Argentina need a Yellow Fever certificate. (Note that on our previous visit, this was not a requisite).
· Despegar did not inform us that we needed a Yellow Fever certificate when they banked our ARS 60,000 for flights, but in their small print it says that passengers are responsible for having all their travel papers in order.
· My wife actually phoned the S. African embassy weeks ahead of our trip just to check that that she didn’t need a visa… had a conversation during which the YF subject could have been mentioned, but we were left in the dark.
So, the worst scenario was my 7 year old crying in the airport when everything went AWOL, and my 5 year old going ballistic… while we were in heated discussions as to why nobody had bothered two shits to tell us about the YF certificate, while Despegar passed the buck with SA Airways and TAM, we actually passed a cell phone between them !!!! We realize that we are at fault for not having checked properly, but having already travelled to S. Africa from Argentina previously and not knowing the current WHO situation for Argentina on YF (why would we ?) we came unstuck. I don’t wish that on anyone else, hence this post, yet DESPEGAR and S. African Airlines are profiting daily from this situation it seems.
We are still counting the cost because we have lost 100% on a motorhome that we hired in S. Africa, plus other reservations including hotels etc. and it seems approx 50% of our flight costs.
Initially we tried to defer everything for two weeks later (YF certificate needs to be 10 days from vaccination), but Despegar quoted us double. This is a true nightmare. We really don’t now know what we can salvage, and whether we can realize this trip in the future.
In my head I know that this is a real f**k up, but I also see a lot of blame on Despegar, South African Airways and the South African Embassy in Bs As.
Any comments welcome.
