Bolivian Stupidity

[widman]

Some people are just stupid.

My wife went to the Aerosur airline office to find what days there were non-stop flights from Santa Cruz to Tarija and was told she had 5 choices a week. She chose today at 2:00 pm.

We got to the airport and they said the flight goes through La Paz (13,000 ft altitude). My wife can't go there because of high blood pressure, so after arguing about the routing, she said to change it to tomorrow through Cochabamba, and the airline said we had to pay the change fees. After arguing that to various employees that it was their mistake, she got the supervisor, who exclaimed: "Of course the direct flight goes through La Paz".

I wanted to ask what dictionary she was using but broke out in such a sarcastic laugh that I had to walk away.

We went to the consumer protection desk and the guy wouldn't take the complaint. He said that was reasonable and it is her fault for not checking what she was told. She called the ticket office where she bought the tickets and they insisted the airport was wrong, that her computer says direct to Tarija. (no definition of "Direct" on the screen, apparently)

Non-stop from Santa Cruz to Tarija is 291 miles. Via La Paz it is 761 miles.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Ah yeah, it's like my "direct" flight from Chicago to Vegas via Phoenix. But at least I knew it ahead of time.

 

[Tempest]

Quote:
Of course the direct flight goes through La Paz


Just pulled up a map....I think you are in the right.

 

[mahansm]

The airline used standard terminology.

Non-Stop: Takes off from origination and lands at destination with no intermediate stops

Direct: May land at intermediate airports but passengers stay on the same aircraft

 

[Pablo]

How the heck did you guys get people from the USA airlines to work in Bolivia? Either times are tough or they like the scenery.

 

[PandaBear]

Can she take medication for a short period of time to help?

 

[Steve S]

The airline people are the same no matter where in the world you are.

 

[widman]

Since American changed their route, it is the only way back from Miami. She takes the medicines, but takes about 2 days to recover from the 1 hour stop.

So I looked it up. I guess the problem is Most of my 3 million miles are on American Airlines, and as I just read:
"American’s site is the only one that displays a “direct” flight as two separate segments.

“American makes it clear to customers on our Web site that the flight is a connecting flight, even though the flight number may be the same,” said spokesman Tim Smith."

 

[Cogito]

Thanks, it's good to know about this semantical boondoggle. I'm sure going to ask for nonstop flights in the future, rather than direct. It's very vague and misleading.

 

[widman]

So we got seats on the 7:00 am flight through Cochabamba. Row 1
Got on the plane and it starts at row 3.

Sitting in the airport in transit in Cochabamba. Meeting people who had to deplane yesterday's flight as they sold more tickets than seats available.

 

[rjundi]

Your thread title makes it out like all Bolivian people are stupid. I don't read that in rant about airlines...

 

[widman]

I posted the update too quickly. It turns out that my friend who stayed actually got as far as La Paz. There they had all passengers to Tarija get off the plane to go through security again, then took off without them.
He had to pay his own taxi and hotel, then the penalty for changing flights, and be at the airport at 5 am today to go to Cochabamba where he caught up with us again.

PS. My luggage isn't here yet.

Not intended to say all are, just that this is an example of it.

 

[Torino]

Widman. Are they still flying any of those WW II aircraft (meat planes) around? When I was running the Tin smelter/refinery (Oruro) I needed aluminum shreds for the process. Whenever they would put one of those into a mountain side (often) I would send a crew out and recover the alum skin. I kept a LOT of the instrumentation, hydraulic hoses and fittings, pumps, et. al. storing them at 611 Belzu (house and 4-car garage). Be interesting to know if they are still there. Saludos. Ing. John Garrison. Las Vegas. BTW, they kept a few seats in the back of those planes and you could fly anywhere they went for about $3.00.

 

[widman]

Still a few of the c47's in the air. I think there were 4 in La Paz last week when I went, but not all air-worth. I flew on most of the DC3's they had once upon a time.