Travel to Chili
 

Today' s large earthquake in Chile may effect my Monday departure on a SmarTour trip scheduled to arrive in Santiago on Tuesday, March 2. Today (Sat. AM) noone answers the tour company phones and there doesn't seem to be an emergency number or help catagory on their website. Any ideas how I can find out if the trip is still good to go?

I doubt that the extent of damage will be known for days, that is a massive, massive earthquake. The Santiago airport is reportedly closed, perhaps for as long as 72 hours.

Have you tried your airlines (I'm assuming you are flying into Santiago?)

Smartours is in New York, but lists no extended hours on their website. Send them an email now (you'll have a record that you tried to contact them) and then call first thing Monday morning.

If you have trip insurance I would also contact the provider, and ask them how to proceed, they should have a weekend contact.

You might also want to contact your credit card company they may have advice about how to attempt a refund.

I would not want to arrive in Chile without knowing that my lodgings and transportation are secured. There will be other priorities than tourism in the near term.

Posting from TripAdvisor, which is more active than Fodors for Chile, from a resident of Santiago.

My personal feeling is that you should cancel if you can. Things are unclear at the moment and buildings will have to be checked over for safety. The airport has been closed for a preliminary 72 hours but it is uncertain until it is vetted when it will reopen. Bus travel may be difficult if problems are found in the tunnels connecting Santiago and the coast. There are a fair number of aftershocks which you will not enjoy.

I don't know where your trip includes, but I would agree that you should cancel. This is a major earthquake and highways are damaged to the south. Urban roads are damaged. The airport is still being evaluated. From Valparaíso south through the Bio Bio (and including the metropolitan area of Santiago) has been declared a catastrophe zone. Santiago has mostly had the electricity restored, but there are still areas without. Things are not going to get back to anything like normal here for a couple of weeks at least. All public buildings have to be vetted, including hotels. It is just a very bad time to come. The aftershocks are nasty and can go on for a week or more.
I just can't imagine you will receive anything like the trip you planned and paid for if you come now.

I have just seen footage of the terminal building at the airport. It is going to be a while before it can be put right. No doubt they will set up something temporary next week, but then where do you go? North is the only feasible destination at the moment.
If possible I would postpone any visit for at least a month and longer if possible. There is just too much major damage in too much of the country.

Thanks to all for the valuable input. I have not heard from my tour company, but I believe that the Chilean portion of the trip will surely be postponed for another trip. Best wishes to all of the people in the affected areas.

Hi, I am booked on the same Smartour to SA leaving NY on Monday.

Anyone know if it is still on?

The itinary would have to change.

Teddn, amazingly, SmarTours has not attempted to contact members of this group with information on trip cancelation, new travel plan or client options. I tried to call their(800) & NY numbers (faxed inquiry here-not reply). They have no published e-mail address. The NY office opens tomorrow morning just as I leave home for the airport for Miami....Not a good way to ingender client confidence.

I would contact your airline without waiting for Smartours! After reading Smartours terms and conditions I wouldn't expect them to be helpful or to give you any refunds. Perhaps at a minimum you can ask the airlines to rearrange your flights without penalty. Or with a small penalty. And I really do hope you have trip insurance, this is exactly what it is for.

The Santiago airport is projected to be closed at least thru Monday according to the my newspaper this morning. Even if it opens Tuesday, there is no guarantee that your scheduled flight will have priority. "Santiago's international airport will be closed at least through Monday, officials said. Although the runways are in good condition, the control tower and customs facilities suffered extensive damage, officials said."

Telephone service and electricity were still out in one-third of the capital as of the afternoon and communication was problematic because of the collapse of several cellphone towers. Santiago faces possible mass transit chaos, with the city's subway system closed indefinitely while the tracks are inspected.

Our travel inconveniences are, of course insiginificant compared to the lost and disrupted lives all around the affected areas. Your observations and suggestions have been extremely helpful, thanks to all.

I just received a call from SmarTours and they say that the trip is to be "rescheduled for another departure date". That is another way of saying "canceled" but they resisted my using that word, presumably to avoid offering refunds, but that is for another day. I did, fortunately, buy trip insurance and hope other passergers did the same.

Looks like Santiago airport re-opened.
We are 2 Irish people holidaying in Pucon. We were due to fly to Santiago on Saturday and fly to San Pedro on Sunday. Obviously all cancelled. We felt the aftershocks quite badly here in Pucon. It was defo scary but not as scary as what we can see and are reading about what others are going through so we are considering ourselves lucky.
We are due to fly to Auckland from Santiago on Saturday - we may try to do that earlier but not sure what the chances of that are !!! We'll see !!

My brother's wife's family lives in Santiago. He told me the main (only) route running to the south from Santiago is impassable in places due to ruined bridges. If your tour involved travel via this route, you might want to look into this.

I was scheduled to depart to Santiago Chili on Monday March 1. About 3pm today I received a telephone call from Smartours not to go to the Airport Monday (JFK) the trip is cancelled/postponed. They tried to reroute us but the Chiliean gov. requires all airline seats on LAN to be reserved for their citizens. She did apologize for the inconvience and said to please give them to the end of the week to make a decision as to how this would be handled. I feel lucky to have travel insurance.

You are lucky to have insurance. At the moment the only planes coming in are LAN bringing Chileans who were out of the country on summer holiday home. There will also be Chileans who live abroad who wish to come to make sure their families are alright. At the moment those are the priorities.

Good that Smartours contacted you before your Monday departure!

shellie, here are some reports (conflicting) compiled about Santiago airport. It is not fully open. One report cites the Chilean Air Force commander as saying it will reopen in 48 hrs.

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/news.cfm?ID=3718

thank-you mlgb - I must say that I have been struggling to know which sites to use for information.

mlizh1 & mlizh1, et al - I was also a SmarTour passenger on today's canceled South America tour (bound for Santiago). I am hoping to get advice on how best to proceed with a refund request from SmarTours Company /Trip Insurance Company. All new to me. As a start, I am compiling a list and receipts for all trip costs incurred to include Booking Costs, Visa Costs, Airline Cancelation Costs (to departure city), etc. Any suggestions from anyone?

Such devastation, my heart breaks for the people of Chile!

I was scheduled to cruise on Princess Star March 2 and arrive in Chile March 1. Delta cancelled my flight and offered to either reschedule me for Sun March 7 or refund all my money. I didn't have insurance on the air. (how stupid!). Thank you to Delta.

But...on the other hand, Princess is taking the hard line and insists that they will sail on March 2 and basically, it's just too bad. I don't know how they can expect anyone to get there with the airport and roads????

When princess arrives in port on Tuesday there will be many, many passengers getting off the ship with no where to go. I'm just so thankful I'm in the US instead of that mess.
If anyone else is booked on Princess, let's start blogging and maybe we can shame them in to a refund or at least let people know how they handle their customer service.In advance, thanks for helping out.

I had heard that about the cruise ship. It is shameful. The disembarking passengers are going to be stuck until the airport opens later in the week. Even then there will be nothing like normal flights in/out of the airport for months. The local authorities have other priorities right now and the help they will be able to offer is minimal.
Perhaps the BBC or CNN would be interested. They have people here and also places to post your personal experiences on their websites. Tourism may be low on the list of priorities, but a load of passengers getting dumped on Valparaíso adds an unfair burden on a country which is suffering.

Huentetu is wrong. There has only been damage to the terminal not to the rest of the airport facilities. The airport will open Wednsday and it is expected to get back to normal operations within a few days.

I did not mean that there would be no normality at the airport. I meant that the normal schedule of flights and a normally operating terminal will take months.

Princess posted this on their website. It still doesn't say what would happen if someone can't get to the ship by March 4.

3/2/2010
Star Princess in Valparaiso, Chile - Update


Star Princess arrived in Valparaiso, Chile -- the terminus of a 12-day South America/Cape Horn cruise -- as scheduled this morning, Tuesday, March 2.

Because air flights are continuing to operate in and out of Santiago on a limited basis over the next several days, we recognize that passengers are having difficulties reaching Star Princess as planned. Therefore we will hold the ship in Valparaiso until noon on Thursday, March 4, giving arriving passengers additional time to meet the ship.

At that time, Star Princess will depart on a revised itinerary for the next cruise, calling at the ports of Ushuaia, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and ending in Rio de Janeiro on March 16. Passengers who are able to embark Star Princess in Valparaiso at the time of sailing on March 4 will sail on the revised itinerary, and will be advised after departure on their cruise details.

Passengers who are currently onboard Star Princess and are unable to fly home because of limited air flights, have two options. They can disembark the ship as planned on March 2, or they can remain onboard for the next cruise, and can disembark from any of the ports on the sailing up to and including Buenos Aires.

I've called Princess repeatedly and they insist they will do nothing. They said to be there or lose all my money. They just care about their bottom line, not doing the right thing for their passengers.

It sounds like Princess is taking the position that, hey, the cruise is on, too bad for you if you can't get here. Not very good PR. I guess you best option at this point is to ask a travel agent to attempt to find any flight to Santiago, using your refund from Delta, and if there isn't one, to protest with your credit card company.

For passengers still at home, we encourage you to continue to work with the airlines to rebook your flight to arrive in Santiago on or before 8:00am on Thursday, March 4. For those passengers with Princess Air, we're working with the availability given by the airlines to attempt to book flights when they become available.

Also, if you had trip insurance, what does that provider say about refunding the cruise costs?

Jfh649 and etc. I spoke to the trip insurance company for Smartours and at first she tried to say that natural disasters were not covered under this policy I protested since I had the policy in front of me reading the terms. The rep. researched further and said finally that natural disasters were covered. Also the only monies that will be returned are the monies paid directly to Smartours. I specifically asked about the Brazil visas and was told they are not included. I am waiting to hear from Smartours before I proceed further. As previously stated Smartours asked to be given until the end of the week to determine what their procedures will be in this case. I believe that is Friday.

That sounds fair. I wouldn't expect travel insurance to reimburse you for the cost of the Brazilian visa since that is something now in your possession and you could theoretically still use with a trip there in the next few years.

I hope the rest works out to your satisfaction. :)

I have arrived to Patagonia via El Calafate (Argentina)last Saturday Feb 27 . I was at Torres del Paine, went to Puerto Natales (Chile) and I´m in Punta Arenas to make the penguins excursion. There are people waiting from LAN flights, but I made my booking from Rio Gallegos (Argentina).
As I watch here, Patagonia does not suffer any hit but the social movement to help the people who suffered the earthquake at North.

I also heard from an acquaintance who was in Coyhaique, Chile. They didn't feel anything. To leave they drove to Comodoro Rivadovia and then flew to Buenos Aires.

visas to brazil have to be used within 90 days of issueing

The Santiago airport is fully operational, although only part of the terminal can be used. All flights should be operating on schedule.

mlizh1, et al: RE Canceled So Am. SmarTour Tour- On March 3rd, I e-mailed the tour company requesting a full refund as they had instructed me to do in a phone conversation. Today someone named Linda Nice (called Feb 28 to inform of the canceled trip) asked that I re-send it to her assistant, Marion. Linda said that they would reimpurse me except for a portion related to American Airlines for which I would have to file a claim with the trip insurance company. She said to call them right away and request a claim form. I believe that it may also be available on-line. Haven't checked yet.

jfh649, et al: We also canceled the So.American trip with Smartours as per Linda's telephone conversation. At that time she said the co. was trying to negotiate wth vendors in S.A. to lower or eliminate cancellation fees,she did mention American Airline but not in detail. I am expecting full refund so I will have to check further. I would like to book another trip with Smartours, but that probably is not a good idea until the refund is settled.

mlizh1, et al: RE Canceled So Am. SmarTour Tour-
I agree that I will wait until I receive a full refund from this SmarTour trip before trying another booking with them as this will be a test of the quality and reliability of the company. When resolved, I would book with them again also.