Aerolineas Argentinas Domestic Flight- UK Visa Card

There are 9 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 870 times. The latest Post () was by Rice.

    Hello,


    I book and pay in advance on-line either my bus ticket with Busbud, or directly with Aerolineas Argentinas from Buenos Aires to Posadas.


    This is a normal Visa purchase, on the computer, with my mobile bank app running, where I usually have to 'confirm transaction'


    How far ahead are you trying to book??


    Make sure you really have the website:


    https://www.aerolineas.com.ar/

    as it is way down the Google page..




    Hope this helps...


    Cordialement,

    Have you considered using a travel agency? I know that seems a bit old fashioned these days but agencies still often get tranches of seats that they can make available at attractive prices and there may be fewer restrictions on how you can pay. It also means that when Aerolineas royally screw you over (and they will, my friend, they will) you have somebody else who is responsible for sorting out the mess. A British or European agency will be subject to either UK or EU consumer law respectively so you have more comeback available should Aerolineas not treat you properly (and they won't, my friend, they won't).

    Quote from bebopalula

    Have you considered using a travel agency? I know that seems a bit old fashioned these days but agencies still often get tranches of seats that they can make available at attractive prices and there may be fewer restrictions on how you can pay. It also means that when Aerolineas royally screw you over (and they will, my friend, they will) you have somebody else who is responsible for sorting out the mess. A British or European agency will be subject to either UK or EU consumer law respectively so you have more comeback available should Aerolineas not treat you properly (and they won't, my friend, they won't).

    Hello,

    Well I live at least 100 kms away from the nearest physical travel agency..and when I say..'oui, c'est pour l'Amerique du sud'

    there will be more than raised eyebrows...


    I have a French Visa premier card and make all travel bookings through that. I am thus indemnified with full insurance. I do not use any of the insurances offered by the carrier. I cancel the contract and I am directly refunded by the bank.

    I have had to cancel and get refunded during Covid, no hassle, all on line.


    My flight time was changed once 2 years ago by AA, but I had an e mail in plenty of time.


    I can only use AA, as that way I arrive in EZE at 7:30 am ish, with my afternoon flight to Posadas at 4pm ish, other airlines times do not co-incide.

    I get my boarding card for AA at Ezeiza, there is plenty of time, and I put on my tired old man face and ask for an aisle seat..

    I travel with 8kg cabin bag and a 'personal item' sling bag.....and sail past all those who rushed past me, now waiting at the carousel..


    Frankly I found that the Argentinian travel network..plane, bus, train all worked without a hitch all through my trip.


    This August we have done the trip the other way, 2 adults 3 children and baggage, using AA both ways to Exeiza without incident.


    So, if you are waiting for a refund....by the time it arrives ...it may only be worth wallpaper anyway.. :)


    Cordialement,

    Quote from Sarran1955

    So, if you are waiting for a refund....by the time it arrives ...it may only be worth wallpaper anyway.. :)

    WORDS OF WISDOM! I want to share my experience. In 2021 I went to Misiones by plane from Aeroparque to Iguazú and rented a car through Alamo at the airport in Iguazú. I had to pay the car in advance in full (it was booked online prior to my departure) and they only accepted credit cards, so my sister-in-law offered her Argentinian CC for the payment, as I only have an Argentinian debit card.


    When I arrived at the airport, I was asked for a credit card as an insurance/deposit in case of tickets or damages to the car. I only had one foreign credit card on me, so I slid my Capital One card and I was charged approx 3000 ARS = 30 USD at the time. Anyway, the amount would have been refunded when returning the car, so I wasn't bothered.


    When I returned the car, a week later, the lady from the car rental (Iemanja) told me that it can take 6 months for speed tickets to be notified in Misiones, so I would get the refund for the deposit no sooner than 6 months. I asked her why was that, and she said a laconic "this is how it works in Misiones".


    6 months passed, then 8, then 10... and the refund never arrived. I emailed to Alamo to inquire about my deposit refund and I received a reply saying that my email was being forwarded to the agency that works under the Alamo brand in Misiones. However, nobody got back to me. After another month I wrote directly to Alamo to a different email address (Buenos Aires office), and someone higher in rank emailed me that she would contact the agency in Misiones. After a week, she wrote again saying that the refund had been released. However, it never showed up in my card statement.


    Mind you, this was one year later, by then, so my 3000 ARS refund was already worth less than 30 USD. I emailed again to ask when the refund was being supposed to show up in my bank statement. Was it authorized or also issued? She never replied.

    Then it slipped my mind because that money was worth less and less. I commented this to my husband recently and he started yelling that I should have told him earlier, that you have to SPEAK with people here and not be an "american" behind an email, this is not the US etc etc.


    Anyway, he called Alamo Argentina and he was told that the local car rental agency (Iemanja) had closed up shop and I could forget about it.


    For the record, when I talked about this with a friend from the US, he told me that he had the same experience in NY with a different car rental company. He said it is common for them to "play they forget" to return the deposit, but that you can fight it through your credit card provider. Therefore, I tried to start a chargeback procedure through Capital One, however I failed the automated screener as the answer to "do you recognize this transaction" should have been "no", whereas I clicked on "yes" -- I thought I was going to be given the chance to explain the situation to the credit card provider, instead I got "we can't do nothing about it, but you can call our customer service at..."


    I gave up.

    Apologies, I rather went off at a tangent in my earlier post. @Bombonera says that his UK Visa card isn't being accepted by the airline: I'm suggesting that a UK or EU travel agency will accept the card and that will solve that particular problem. There also may be other benefits.


    Travel agencies are not all bricks and mortar: if you search for a flight on an aggregator such as momondo.com (other sites are available) most of the offers are from travel agents.

    serafina , what an outrageous situation! I’m appalled that you were so taken advantage of, in a rip-off scheme the car rental company must have used time after time, since they held all the cards and their renters had no choice but to trust them.


    (Tangent: As an American, I resent being characterized in an unwarranted stereotypical way by your husband. But I’ll take that up with him!)


    At some point, especially given the daily diminishing of the amount involved, I guess I might have given up as well. But not before speaking to a customer support agent to voice my strong objections to their cheating. I hope you hold on long enough to make that final protest.


    I admire your tenacity in standing up against an unprincipled business.

    Quote from Rice

    (Tangent: As an American, I resent being characterized in an unwarranted stereotypical way by your husband. But I’ll take that up with him!)

    Don't worry, he was just admiring how less efforts are required to get things done in the US than here. Here there is ZERO accountability, so he doesn't expect much of an email. He believes that speaking at least puts the other party in the uneasy place where he/she has to answer something!

    I do agree with that. I don’t think the US is the only place person-to-person customer service is expected, though.


    And increasingly, customer service calls in the US are routed directly to Bangalore or Manila. Frustrating, to say the least, but better than unanswered email.

    A client of mine got scammed through a customer service in Asia. She was trying to call Amazon.com customer support service and somehow the call was intercepted and redirected to a fake call center, where they instructed her to download a "support app" on her phone, which she did. Unfortunately, that app was giving full control of her Amazon account to the person on the other line of the phone, who proceeded to buy amazon gift cards for 200 USD using her Amazon account.

    When she contacted her bank to block the payment, the bank replied that she had authorized the purchase from her account, so nothing they could do if she was careless about with whom she shared her login credentials.


    She said the person on the phone with her had a heavy Asian accent, but that this is increasingly common, so she didn't think he was a scammer in India/Pakistan!