Ladrones at LAN--help!

[elclandestino]

Welcome to Argentina. Most of irregular residents and tourists unless money loaded use buses domestically

 

[Stafford]

At best the airlines employ disgusting little people who have a new found arrogance since you can´t give your opinion without risking getting blacklisted to a no fly list. They kill the desire to travel worse than the always wacky pricing structure.

Now that's a bit harsh. Not all of them are disgusting little people. I've had some horrible experiences of course, but generally speaking a big smile and an ounce of respect towards the person on the other end of the counter goes a long way. You are right in that they are sadly not really accountable or responsible to help. It's all about how you approach them. One thing that's worked for me is to say something like "what a crazy day you guys must be having with all these cancellations. I can't even imagine..."

And not in a bullshit kind of way, but if you are actually sincere in taking a minute to understand the crap they're going through and show that you respect them, you'll be surprised how the attitude takes about a 90 degree turn.

 

[elclandestino]

Mostly they are nice, if you're nice too. Immigration officers could go cocky, not the airline ground staff

 

[DontMindMe]

I doubt I'd be able to board at this point without issue since we made a case with LAN. I'm not willing to risk it. We've since made a case with the Asociación Nacional de Aviación Civil, which involved a signed statement of what happened, copies of our documents, printouts of the reservation, etc. Thy guy on the phone there said that what happened was most certainly not okay, but I've been here too long to get my hopes up just because someone on the phone said something.

So now, we wait.

 

[chris]

Well this is all news to me.

I've never flown domestically and didn't realize they have different prices for tourists vs residents. How do people find this acceptable?


It's not acceptable but they get away with it and no one seems to have challenged it in court. The Teatro Colon tried this one season -- charged non-residents DOUBLE the price. It didn't work out and they dropped it.

 

[Fettucini]

If you buy domestic flight tickets at despegar.com.ar now you pay the resident price and don't get asked for a dni - this has only just changed in the last year it seems as before they always asked for dni/ residency for their domestic flight tickets.
I recently flew up north and paid the promo ticket price with LAN through that site (without having residency), so it definitely works.

 

[sivan]

I have gone to the LAN office on Cerrito a few times and I have always found them to be very helpful. Here is the link to all the offices in Buenos Aires.
http://www.lan.com/es_ar/sitio_personas/contactenos/argentina.html

 

[2GuysInPM]

It's not acceptable but they get away with it and no one seems to have challenged it in court. The Teatro Colon tried this one season -- charged non-residents DOUBLE the price. It didn't work out and they dropped it.

The fares are government regulated since at least 2002, perhaps even earlier. My understanding is that is limited to a percentage of seats per flight (20%?).

http://www.aaovyt.com.ar/aaovyt/resolu_35-02.htm

http://www.horaciopiemonte.com.ar/index.php/26-tarifas-maximas/33-tarifas-de-avion

http://www.infoleg.gov.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/180000-184999/182564/norma.htm


then there's another way to look at this; foreigners get regular fare price, while residents can take advantage of "limited" discounted fares. --- Kinda like a Nevada or Florida resident can get discounted tickets at shows and parks just for being local residents.

 

[banut]

i think in Argentina there is 3 tier pricing

local

tourist

stupid or unaware tourist

sad but true

the tourist always gets the screw ed

 

[Damiancho]

I can explain,
This is a BIG country and don't have the railways needed.
So the goverment make a rule that the 20% of the seats need to be selled for resident prices. Also if you are resident of the place you are going, you pay less than being porteño.

40% off for local (20% places)
20% for residentes (20% places)
0 % for the remaining sits (60%)

But the sad part is that the "subsided" fare is also more expensive that any other regional flight in the world ei UK to Germany