Aerolíneas Argentinas

[King_Crud]

Anyone flown Aerolíneas Argentinas? We're doing a large group booking to Buenos Aires and Santiago in March, and the guy running it is keen on them because they're a lot cheaper than the other options (LAN, BA). I've been reading Skytrax and they don't get many good reviews, but that's mostly people flying Sydney-BA. I'm wondering if it's worth it.

[sunburywhite]

Weren't they the airline that was carrying the rugby team that crashed in the Andes and where they eat each other to survive

[King_Crud]

Weren't they the airline that was carrying the rugby team that crashed in the Andes and where they eat each other to survive

no:

Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, which details the story of a Uruguayan rugby team who were involved in the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571

At least if a similar thing happens I'll be with 14 other cricket players, so there'll be plenty of meat on the bones

[sunburywhite]

After you have eaten the twelth man you had better stop otherwise you will not have enough players for a tea

[FP]

I usually try to avoid Aerolineas Argentinas (i really don't remember flying them for years now) the main reason being there lack of punctuality. If you book a flight with them it'll most likely be delay. My daugther is in Spain now, she flew two days ago and the departure was delayed two hours. I traveled a lot the past years and in every airport i've been i have always seen an Aerolineas Argentinas delayed flight.

A friend of mine is a stewardress and she flies the Sidney fligh often, she does not like their Airbus 340, she says they always have a problem, minor, but a problem.

All this trying to be objective, from the economical side, it is the state own company so it meas that the different in pricing against the competition it's being subsidize with my tax money

Mr KC if you need anything let me know, i'll be glad to help

[King_Crud]

Cheers, I'm going to push the organiser to go with the more expensive option. It's £100 more but it's with BA/LAN/Iberia, and the flights are more direct. The return leg on AA goes Santiago>Buenos Aires>Madrid>London. It's long enough even without the expected late flights.

[FP]

With BA you go Buenos Aires-London non stop (they had a stop in Sao Paulo last year). I'm flying that one on February

[Burt]

Weren't they the airline that was carrying the rugby team that crashed in the Andes and where they eat each other to survive

I actually met one of the survivors, Nando Parrado, last year. He was one of the keynote speakers at our sales conference in San Diego last year. Seemed a bit of a strange choice at the time but I have never seen 2,000 people so wrapped up in a speech as I did that night.

Amazing guy, and and one of those stories that are really hard to deal with, and inspirational, in equal measures. He signed my book (well, the one he wrote!) and was a true gent.

[GTS]

Well it was a couple of years ago now but I did a lot of flying on Aerolineas Argentinas and whilst they were reasonably reliabke their planes were very grotty and old.

LAN Chile on the other hand were superb...very reliable, new fleet and some of the best looking stewardesses I have ever seen.

[King_Crud]

yeah the guy organising is waiting on a quote back from LAN. Apparently cost is a major factor for a fair few going on the trip, so we have to go with the cheapest. Hopefully LAN give us a similar price

[Pata]

Flew with them once - from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia in Spring 2009. The flight was fine; however, 2 days before the flight they switched it from Jorge Newbery to Ezeiza and sent us an e-mail. Good job I decided to login the night before we were due to go to double-check that everything was as planned.

The budget Chilean airline Sky gave us trouble first with a flight cancellation and then with a plane delay, which nearly screwed up our return to Blighty on the heroic Temuco->Santiago->Buenos Aires->Madrid->London route that involved 3 airlines.

PS LAN were superb on our Santiago->Easter Island->Santiago flights.

[clintclintdeuce]

I flew them from buenos aires domestic airport to puerto iguazu. They were delayed due to weather, but their service was great and I enjoyed the flight.

[King_Crud]

cool, glad to hear it's not all doom and gloom