My Take on TACA...
Written: Jan 12 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good connections throughout Central America, nice hub in San Salvador, new planes, more...
Cons: Has a reputation for impersonal service, though I had no problems...
The Bottom Line: If you're going to do much flying in Latin America, you're probably going to get an introduction to TACA. They fly right by me...
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Grupo TACA |
Judging from the many TACA reviews here on Epinions, either TACA has sporadic performance, or they're getting better because I flew with them a couple weeks ago and didn't encounter any real problems. They seemed generally efficient and courteous to me, the fares were reasonable and the flight experience was good. Let me tell you 'bout it...
About TACA....
If you travel to and from just about anywhere in Latin America, you've probably heard of TACA (if you haven't actually flown with them) since they're pretty much everywhere Spanish is spoken, and since they've really grown themselves into a true pan-American presence, moving strongly into both North and South America with a number of new routes and gateways.
TACA is the biggest airline in Central America, serving every major city and destination in the region. They also continue to operate flights under the Aviateca and LACSA names, though nowadays, those flights are practically indistinguishable from mainstream TACA flights.
Although you can occasionally get a direct flight from the U.S. to destinations like San Jose or Roatan, most TACA flights that originate in the U.S. will connect in San Salvador (SAL). Most folks don't actually want to be in San Salvador, but as a Central American hub, it's a logical choice because it is more centrally located than Copa's hub in Panama City Tocumen International. San Salvador is also a better choice because it's the newest, most modern, safest, and largest airport in Central America. The terminal is good and the flight availability from SAL is excellent (due mostly to TACA).
TACA also maintains lesser hubs in Lima Peru and San Jose Costa Rica, but speaking from experience, the San Jose "hub" works for flights within Central America, but it's a fairly small, strictly regional operation, and folks flying more than a few hundred miles will probably still want to connect in El Salvador. The Lima hub is for connections to South American capitals, like Santiago or Buenos Aires.
In the United States, TACA operates in the following cities: Chicago, Miami (of course), Dallas, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York (direct flights to San Jose!), and San Francisco. In many of these cases, it's one daily direct flight to San Salvador (SAL), and you can connect there to anywhere else in Central America. If you live in New York City, check 'em out for flights to Costa Rica --- they have a 5am direct LACSA flight to San Jose, which puts you in early enough to rent a car and get to anywhere in Costa Rica --- sure beats those afternoon arrivals with the de rigeur San Jose overnight that you get from everyone else!
TACA has two main alliances: American Airlines in the U.S. and TAM in Brazil --- essentially hooking them up with cooperative arrangements with two of the biggest behemoths in the hemisphere. In some cases, you may book a flight to South or Central America on American Airlines, check in with American Airlines, and actually end up boarding a TACA flight because of cooperative code-shares. Such is the nature of flying in the 21st century...fortunately, TACA ain't bad (in fact, I like 'em better than American).
Plane Talk...
I've heard folks complain about TACA's planes. I think they're full of bunk. The planes are very modern and very well maintained.
TACA's fleet is extremely young, and consists of mostly Airbus A320s. Now I'm not a particular fan of that particular aircraft, but there are a lot of passengers who like 'em, and with TACA's seat configuration, they work just fine for me.
My flights between San Jose and Managua were both on A320-200 series aircraft. The planes were extremely well maintained and both were nicer and more spacious than the American Airlines Airbus that I was on en route from Dallas to San Jose.
I've heard folks complain about TACA's punctuality. I think they're full of bunk. TACA's fleet-wide on-time record was 92% last year, putting them well ahead of every U.S. flag carrier other than Hawaiian. (Statistically, straight by the numbers, you are twice as likely to be delayed on a "good" performing U.S. carrier like Southwest as you are on a TACA flight, and almost three times as likely to be delayed on poorer on-time performers, like USAirways). Anecdotes have their place, I suppose, but the numbers paint a different story. My own, extremely limited, experience with TACA was on-the-dot punctuality. But I suppose your mileage could vary...
I've heard folks complain about TACA's service, and I really am not in a position to confirm or deny, since my flights went off without a hitch and I had no issues with the service level or professionalism of either the people working the check-in area or with the people on the plane itself. I didn't quite the warm fuzzy effusive welcome that I get on carriers like Aviacsa (my favorite latin carrier for about the last 4 years), but the people got the job done and seemed happy to me. Maybe if you're one of the unlucky souls who get bumped or delayed, you'd feel otherwise, but they did okay by me.
I've heard folks complain about TACA's rates, but I don't see them being unreasonable. For many years, I've had Fare Watchers set on Travelocity for my "wish list" Latin American destinations. Many, many times I've gotten alerts that TACA had the best deals going. When I flew between San Jose and Managua, I could have flown with Copa, but TACA beat the price (you didn't think I flew TACA just to write another Epinion review, did you??) TACA does promotions as often as anybody else does, it's easy to find 'em on their web site, and they're often the most convenient flights anyway, so my opinion is that TACA has good rates.
Weaving the Web...
TACA's web site (www.taca.com) is attractive, functional, well laid out, and generally usable and stable. It has good English language support, so gringos shouldn't be afraid to give it a test spin, and it's fairly easy to use the site to spot deals (why not sign up for email alerts if you're in one of their U.S. gateway cities?).
The reservation tool is fairly straightforward, though I find it unsettling that it often returns "no flights available" errors between destinations that are reachable via TACA, but that may require 2 or more hops or that may require an overnight stay to make a connection. I'm aware that these types of itineraries are not popular among travelers anyway, but it's unsettling to me when they pop up on Travelocity cannonball searches (flexible dates) but can't be duplicated on the airlines' own web site. (Okay, okay, so I'm a travel geek who spends entirely too much time double- and triple-checking web sites just to save a buck.)
Like most airline web sites, TACA steers you to e-tickets. The only caveat and gotcha that I should mention with specific reference to TACA is be sure to carry your credit card on the actual day you travel! Unlike most airline business practices, TACA requests to see your credit card and to run an imprint on the day you travel. They do tell you this on their web site, but it's unsettling to me to see it actually enforced in the airport. I suppose it's for security, and I understand that credit card fraud is taken more seriously in Latin America than in the U.S. (though perversely, they actually have a lower incidence of it...possibly because they are tighter on their security).
Anyway, fairly decent web site --- better than most latin carriers. Check it out if you don't believe me...
Going the DISTANCIA...
TACA has a frequent flyer program --- it's called DISTANCIA. I'm not a member, and don't plan to become one. I doubt I'd ever build up enough miles to get any reward.
If you do a lot of flying in Central America, it might be worth looking into. Looks like they base everything around the mile concept, like U.S. carriers do, with similar earning potential on flights, a fair range of hotel partners, earning power on American Airlines, TAM, or Aeroperlas flights, but ho-hum reward bang with reasonable thresholds for short-hop Central American flights, but very high thresholds on trans-Pacific rewards. The elite levels look a little easier to hit than in many of the programs from U.S. carriers (20,000 miles or 25 segments to hit silver, 40K for gold, 80K for platinum). Just my opinion, but I think I do better with Continental's OnePass, even with their recent degradations in the program's quality.
Bottom Line...
TACA is okay. They run a tight ship, they have good reliability, I think they have good fares, and they have an awesome route map if you value travel within Latin America. I'm aware of their spotty reputation, but I have a feeling it's a case of people becoming far more upset with a foreign carrier than they'd be with a domestic carrier because of language and communication issues or general unease at the fact that when bumps do occur, they happen in very unfamiliar places (like El Salvador). This doesn't bother me, and I didn't get bumped anyway. Chances are pretty good that you won't either, and the stats say you're far more likely to arrive on-time than you would if you'd flown a U.S. flag carrier.
All in all, I like TACA. They do okay by me.
Until next time, see you on the road. As always, you just know I'll be sitting in the cheap seat!
Recommended:
Yes
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