Due to their extensive domestic network within Argentina, Aerolineas Argentinas have consistently proved to be the most competitive airline for our groups to travel to South America.  In 2006 we operated no fewer than 17 tours to South America, the majority of which were operated by Aerolineas Argentinas, travelling in July and August 2006.

In late June, because of the exceptional relationship we have with the airline, we were made aware, at an early stage, of the withdrawal of one aircraft on their transatlantic service which, with a small airline, meant a massive upheaval to their schedules.  Without knowing it at the time, we were to face date changes for departures and returns for almost every one of our groups, along with having to confront delays at both Gatwick and Madrid which necessitated overnight hotel stays.

 

In the knowledge that once airline tickets had been issued, any such changes are exclusively the airline’s responsibility to re-accommodate passengers, we took the decision to issue as many tickets as possible for our groups immediately. This took place even before we had been advised of a number of the changes and well ahead of the normal time of ticket issue, but thereby putting the onus exclusively with the airline.

The significance of this pre-emptive strike only showed itself in the coming weeks as Aerolineas Argentinas struggled to cope with the impact of their own decision but, unlike other agencies, they were unable simply to refund us the monies for tickets already issued and tell us to re-book with another airline. (In fact, the South Atlantic routes throughout the summer of 2006 with every airline were incredibly busy and it would have been almost impossible to find an alternative airline.)

 

Again, constant communication with our Tour Managers, all of whom were very understanding with the chopping and changing of departure and return dates, allowed us to resolve every single group and ensure that their tours went ahead as planned.

In one case, a school had only four days notice to depart one day earlier than they had anticipated.  Despite already having broken up for the summer, the school managed to contact everybody and ultimately all but one boy and one member of staff travelled out a day earlier.  The alternative would have been to have travelled on the original day as planned but to have endured two separate overnight stops en route ~ one in Madrid and one in Buenos Aires.