TACA INFURIATING and DECEITFUL
Written: Feb 11 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: friendly in El Salvador
Cons: unreliable, lose luggage, customer service unresponsive
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| llewelr's Full Review: Grupo TACA |
We flew once round trip to Belize from LA last March. The flight out of LA was oversold but the cadre of use car salesmen personalities did not ask for volunteers to leave the next day. Instead they assured us several times that of course we would make the flight--even, we realized later, after the plane had already left. Perhaps it was their idea of crowd control. I was concerned about my luggage with new dive gear, but they assured me they had it and it would go on the next flight. They never actually told us that the plane had left, so after 45 minutes of more waiting in line we, with the dozen or so other travellers left behind, went up to the desk and asked what was up. Then they told us they were sorry but the plane had already left. After we were told that we could not fly until 11 pm the next night, I asked again for my luggage and they kept giving me different excuses, saying they had it but that I couldn't get it for the next 24 hours. I never saw any of it again. I was not reimbursed to the limits of their liability for 9 months later (less than ten dollars a pound), and that was after they lost my claim once and had to be reminded and finally threatened at least 5 times.
Back to LA: we were not offered a hotel room until we asked, and then they left it to us to call the hotel and organize our transportation. They gave us vouchers for meals that did not cover the average price of the menu. One woman in the same boat as us had only a weekend to visit her husband working in El Salvador for the next few months, and she was heartbroken to lose one day of that weekend.
I'm sure that others travelling would have been happy to take the $400 vouchers we were given--but it would have taken a little initiative from TACA employees to ask for volunteers.
It seems TACA routinely puts the worst people in customer service positions, at least in the US. When we were given our vouchers, we were told that 1) they were transferable and 2) that they would extend the 1 year expiration upon request. They now deny both of those statements.
To be fair, I found TACA employees outside the US (at least in El Salvador and Belize) to be friendly and helpful--completely different than the hardened sharks they have in LA and in customer service.
If you fly TACA, get third party traveler's insurance!
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
llewelr
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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