On the second half of our journey through South America, we’ve been able to see a lot of the country – with about 7 weeks on the ground in mainland Argentina. It’s a big country – just over 3000 miles from the southern tip (Ushuaia) to the northernmost point (La Quiaca, on the Bolivian border). We usually travel by bus, but the Andes are a big mountain range, so there are some trips that are just better in a plane. We’ve been able to fly several times in Argentina (not including our short stint in the US), and on most of the Argentinian carriers:
- From Rio Gallegos to Ushuaia (with Aerolineas)
- From Ushuaia to El Calafate (with Aerolineas)
- From El Calafate to Bariloche (with LADE)
- From Cordoba to Iguazu (via Buenos Aires, with Aerolineas)
- From Iguazu to Cordoba (via Buenos Aires, with Aerolineas)
- From Cordoba to Lima (en route to Cuzco, with LAN)
We’ve had the full set of experiences, I think. It’s been pretty funny – everyone (guidebooks and travelers especially, but also some of the tour companies – like Quark, who ran our incredible Antarctic Cruise) complains about Aerolineas – how their flights are either delayed or canceled, and how they never have information for you until after something happens (or doesn’t happen, as the case may be). We’ve flown with Aerolineas three times now, and each time have had a different experience:
- We weren’t sure what to expect when we booked our first Aerolineas flight to Ushuaia, but the price and timing was too good to pass up. As it turns out, we arrived at the Rio Gallegos airport to discover that our flight was delayed by 3 hours. By the time our flight actually left the ground, it was a full 4 1/2 hours late. However, they did get us into Ushuaia, on the same day, and didn’t lose any of our bags.
- After we got off of the Ocean Nova to return to dry land, we flew from Ushuaia to El Calafate. This flight was surprisingly uneventful, schedule-wise. The only funny part was that I checked my big backpack, but because we had so many extra clothes I carried our duffel bag onto the plane. That bag was as large as my big pack, and must have weighed at least 25 pounds (Aerolineas limits carry-ons to 5kg, or 11 pounds, on their domestic flights). I wasn’t even questioned when I told them I was carrying it on! That was a good thing, too, as we didn’t really have too many options that afternoon.
- Our final set of Aerolineas flights was a round-trip from Cordoba to Iguazu. We had bought the flight through Travelocity, but I visited an Aerolineas office to extend our trip by 1 day (for 2 full days in Iguazu instead of just one). This trip was fraught with problems:
- It took two changes in the office to get the flights right. For some reason, the agent I spoke to thought I wanted us to stay in Buenos Aires for a day between Cordoba and Iguazu (and this was all conducted in solid Spanish, by the way).
- Travelocity was informed of the flight changes three days before our flights took off – about 3 weeks after the changes were made! They sent several emails requiring me to call them to learn about our new itinerary. When I called, I spent an hour on the phone with an unfortunate CSR from India (whose English was OK, but not good) where I tried to explain what the tickets were supposed to be. This person actually called Aerolineas Argentinas to understand the changes (I was on hold for that conversation, but I wish I could have heard it), and then confirmed with me that what I had requested was going to happen.
- On our way back from Iguazu to Buenos Aires, our 10:30am flight was cancelled! No email or notice (not unheard of in this case). Thankfully, we had gotten to the airport early and were one of the first to check in for the canceled flight, so we thought it would be easy to change to the flight that was one hour later…
- When we spoke to the woman at the counter about getting on the later flight, she said that her records showed that we had been a “no-show” for our flight to Iguazu. This didn’t make any sense, since we had flown Aerolineas to get to Iguazu. Apparently, she was looking at our original reservation, not the updated one. After a few minutes discussing dates, she found our correct information. With that hurdle behind us, we thought that we were all set, but…
- She must have been very frustrated at the prospect of telling all these people that they weren’t going to get their 10:30 am flight: She tried to strictly enforce the 5kg carry-on limit with us. My bag weighed 8kg, so she told me I couldn’t get on with it. I needed to do some smooth talking to get around it, but I was helped by two things:
- We didn’t check any baggage, so our carry-ons were all that we had.
- The woman in front of us in the line had checked 30kg (66 pounds) of luggage, plus her carry-ons.
After a lot of negotiating, we were able to get on the flight. It was a bit harrowing because we had reservations to go to Cusco the next day, and most of our stuff was stored in Cordoba, so in order to make our international flights (to meet Jack and Jen), we needed to get back to Cordoba that day.
So, in a nutshell those were our experiences with Aerolineas Argentinas. I know this was longer than normal, and there aren’t many pics, but I had to put all of these together in one place! Mostly interesting, sometimes successful, but never completely depressing…
