Idioteque

Hello all!
These SA airpasses are very confusing!
Does anybody have experience with this? If I understand well, I can also have an incoming flight to South America with TAM & still be able to benefit from the LAN SA airpass?

I actually need the following flights:
Lima - Juliaca
Cuzco - Lima - Sao Paolo - Cuiaba
Cuiaba - Rio de Janeiro

With TAM SA air pass it seems to be more expensive. If I choose LAN I cannot include the Cuiaba - Rio flight but that's not very expensive to buy separetely.

Any ideas?

Idioteque

Ooops, I meant LAN SA does not include also the Sao Paolo - Cuiaba...

Idioteque

I am also not very happy with this note:

"Please keep in mind that flights to/from Sao Paulo could arrive or depart from either Guarulhos (GRU), Congonhas (CGH) or Viracopos (VCP) airports.
"

I want to buy the ongoing flight to Cuiaba & I wouldn't want to magically be at the wrong airport....

Why do they make it so complicated?!!

mlgb

Because they think they are the only reliable airline with a network throughout South America. Customer service also reflects their attitude that if you don't like it, too bad.

However once they are in the air, they are fine.

glover

We used LANs SA airpass this year for flying to Argentina from the US (actually on TAM) and then flying around just Argentina for two months. It saved us some money. But we did NOT find it easy to book the flights in the beginning. TAM had just merged with LAN and we got contradictory info etc etc. Patient husband spent a lot of time on the phone with various LAN/TAM agents before we had it all worked out. All the flights worked out fine however in the end!

Idioteque

Thanks glover & mlgb for the replies.

I'm more confused than ever with this TAM & LAN companies!Besides the airpass, everything seems to be messed up.

TAM is trying to sell me a ticket Rio to London (via Sao Paolo) with only one hour transfer time in GIG. From what I can find online, people recommend at least 3h layover in Sao Paolo. I wonder if TAM takes care of rebookings if the first flight will be late and we miss the connection to London.

Susan7

I've had some good experiences with TAM and one dreadful one from Manaus to Sao Paulo in a holiday period. At GIG the domestic and the international are in the same terminal so transfer/transit is relatively straight forward but still I wouldn't leave yourself an hour, I doubt they would have two flights to London in one day.

Idioteque

Yeah, I'm not sure how it will work in the end, it also seems very short to me but I booked the flight because the prices were wonderful .

That's the only option the TAM website would give me for the day (though, taken individually, there are many flights/day from Rio to Sao Paolo). I hope things go well, if not, in principle, either TAM or my travel insurance should arrange for the extra night + new flight. Yup, I know I might be dreaming . But hey, now I'm just happy I finally booked the tickets for the holiday! Fingers crossed for us!