Andrew´s letter (rant) to Aerosur

Friends and family, you should know (if you don´t already) and be warned that members of the Frishman family carry a rare and cumbersome gene, the rant gene. The following is a letter written to Aerosur regarding our lost luggage. Enjoy!


To Whom it SHOULD Concern at Aerosur,

My name is Andrew Frishman, my wife Leigh Needleman and I were passengers on Aerosur flight #115 from La Paz to Cochabamba on Thursday September 28th, 2006. When we arrived in Cochabamba, our luggage did not arrive with us. We had contemplated taking a bus from La Paz but had decided to fly because we had heard that there were intermittent roadblocks by protesters on the roads to Cochabamba and also hoped that the flight would be quicker and easier, we were soon to be rpoven wrong. In retrospect I wish that we had taken our chances with roadblocks and civil unrest.

I am aware that in any large systemic business, accidents will happen, however I would like to point no less than 12 separate instances when we received unacceptable customer service. The way in which we were treated was so incompetent, insulting, and inferior that I feel that I must recommend all friends and family against using Aerosur until I can be sure that these issues have been rectified and that improvements have been made. También tengo que decir que hablo español afluentemente, y los problemas que voy a detallar no fueron dificultades con traducción. Todas las conversaciones debajo ocurrieron en español y solamente estoy escribiéndola en ingles para consistencia de idioma.

1) 27/9/2006 5pm On Wednesday September 27th, my wife, Leigh Needleman logged in to the Aerosur website and reserved two tickets on the desired flight. Within minutes she received a confirmation email for two seats on Aerosur flight #115 from La Paz to Cochabamba departing at 4:45pm arriving at 5:15pm. We were informed that we should arrive 2 hours early for our flight. 28/9/2006 3pm When we arrived at the airport, the worker at the Aerosur desk could not find our reservation, despite being presented with the confirmation email, she claimed that we were nowhere in her system. We were extremely lucky that there were still seats available, but were shaken and nervous for the 20 minutes it took her to write us up a ticket. What is the point of a reservation, and furthermore, of emailing a confirmation, if no information is entered into the system?

2) 28/9/2006 3:30pm As we were checking in, I overheard the worker at the desk ask a colleague for a pair of Cochabamba luggage tags to put on our 2 pieces of luggage to be checked. "We´re out of Cochabamba tags, just use those Cobija tags over there." was the response. To my chagrin I saw the woman attach Cobija tags to our luggage and then. with a marker write over the CIJ (of Cobija) to turn them into CBB, however, in smaller print it still said Cobija. I was visibly upset and asked that the woman helping us go find some tags that were actually Cochabamba. "We´re all out" was her response. I expressed concern that the baggage handlers tend to look at the color of the tag, but she assured me repeatedly and vehemently that all of the bags that had been loaded onto the Cochabamba flight were also using the modified tags and that "there would be no problem." There was a problem! when I arrived in Cochabamba and was informed that my bags had been sent to Cobija!

3) 28/9/2006 4:30pm As my wife and I were walking out onto the tarmac towards our plane, we walked by another plane and saw our bags on a baggage cart waiting to be loaded onto the wrong plane! Straying from the carefully marked "safe" path across the tarmac that led to our plane, I approached one of the baggage handlers (who removed his ear protection to talk with me). I expressed concern that my bags were about to be loaded onto the wrong plane. "Don´t worry, this plane is also going to Cochabamba," he tried to reassure me. "Yes, but I want it to get there at the same time as me," I demanded. His response was, "because of the roadblocks, we are sending extra planes to Cochabamba, so it will be there at the same time." Other than forcing my way past the baggage handlers, and running across the tarmac, then forcing my bags onto the plane, there was nothing I then could have done to try to get my baggage on the correct plane. The baggage handler must have known that this was not the case, but he misled me.

4) 28/9/2006 4:35pm As we approached our plane, I spoke our pilot (or another member of the crew?) standing at the base of the stairs. I repeated the conversation that I had just had, hoping to get some confirmation about the story of multiple planes going to Cochabamba. Instead, I was told a completely different story. He said, "The baggage cart drives from plane to plane dropping off luggage, it just hasn´t gotten over here yet. Don´t worry, your bag will be on this plane," he said in a placating and almost condescending tone. Once again, this turned out to be incorrect information.

5) 28/9/2006 5:30pm Upon arriving in Cochabamba our bags were no where to be found. There was a group of about 5-10 passengers who had not received their bags. After going to the Aerosur desk, we were forced to wait nearly 30 minutes to fill out the forms which were required of us. When I did finally fill out the forms, as I talked with the worker who was assisting us, he told me, "Don´t worry, this always happens, They will definitely be on the next Aerosur flight to arrive in Cochabamba." This statement, upset me for two reasons, 1) The fact that this was a repetitive pattern that had not been fixed led me to question the efficacy of Aerosur. 2) I had explained that I had seen my baggage loaded onto another flight, that was not going to be the next flight from La Paz into Cochabamba, therefore it was hiughly unlikely that my bags would arrive on the next flight.

6) 28/9/2006 6pm After explaining that I had seen my luggage loaded onto a flight for Cobija, I was informed that that it was actually the next flight from La Paz. I was told that the plane that flew to Cobija then turned around, went through La Paz and would arrive at 9pm (3 hours later). I was told that if I left the name of a hotel that my bags would be delivered. This presented two problems: 1) We had not yer located a hotel to stay at, and so could not give a hotel name, and 2) At this point, I felt that I could no longer trust that Aerosur would take adequate care of my bags, and wanted to have them in-hand as soon as possible. 28/9/2006 10pm With no other choice, my wife and I waited in the Airport for the next 4 hours (as the plane, expected at 9 was nearly an hour late). After the baggage was all claimed and our bags were still missing, the same worker who had promised me that "this always happens" made a quick phone call, and told me that my bags were now in Cobija and he would not be able to get them to Cochabamba until the middle of the next day on Friday the 29th of September.

7) 28/9/2006 11pm I carefully explained the entire situation to the Aerosur worker with whom I had been talking. I explained that I now had no toiletries or toothbrush, and no clothes to wear the next day. In addition, I would have to modify my plans to stay in Cochabamba overnight to wait for my luggage. He explained that the policy was to give each passenger 50 Bolivianos as compensation for misplaced baggage. This meant that my wife and I had 100 Bolivianos between us to pay for a cab to the city (25 Bolvianos) find a hotel (average hotel price in Cochabamba about 100 Bolivianos) and buy toothbrush, underwear, socks, etc. (at least 100 Bolivianos) Somewhere along the way, we were about 125 Bolivianos short of what we needed not to take into account that Aerosur should have been compensating us for the inconvenience. The worker could see that I was upset and he tried to cheer me up, "I promise that the bags will be in by noon tomorrow." I replied "Good, but if I come out here in a cab to pick up the bag and its not here, then Aerosur is going to pay for my cab fare out and back." "Of course sir," he closed the conversation.

8) 29/9/2006 12:30pm I called the Aerosur desk in Cochabamba to determine whether my bags had come in as promised and was dismayed to find out that they would not be arriving until 7:30 pm. I was VERY upset to once again have been misled. However, I was glad that I had called ahead, as I was not optimistic that Aerosur would have followed through on its promise to pay my cab fare.

9) 29/9/2006 7:40 pm I called the Aerosur desk in Cochabamba to determine whether my bags had come in as promised and was AGAIN dismayed to find out that they would not be arriving until 10:00 pm. AGAIN, I was VERY upset to once again have been misled. However, I was glad that I had called ahead, as I was not optimistic that Aerosur would have followed through on its promise to pay my cab fare. I therefore explained that I would be coming out the airport at 10 to meet my bags and that if they weren´t there, then we would need to begin to figure out how Aerosur was going to reimburse me for the monetary value of the items that were in our luggage. In addition, I asked that Aerosur cover the expense of the cab that I would need to take to, and returning from the airport, and was repeatedly assured that this would not be a problem.

10) 29/9/2006 9:55 pm I arrived at the airport, and about 20 minutes later, my bags were brought to me! I fell to my knees, "Gracias a Dios, un Milagro!" I exclaimed, not feeling that I was overreacting in the slightest. I had arranged a very modest fee with a cab driver (30 Bolivianos) to bring me to the airport, wait and then return with me and my bags. However, at this point the Aerosur representative informed me that he could not pay any other cab company than the one Aerosur had a contract with. Apparently I had once again been misled. I tried to get Aerosur to pay at least th 15 Bolivianos (half) of what was owed to my cab driver, then I could take the Aerosur contracted cab back. . . but to no avail. I explained, in a rather direct and emotional manner, how I had been repeatedly poorly treated by the Aerosur representatives over the past few days, and that 15 Bolivianos (not quite $2) was really the least that Aerosur could give me in order to compensate me. However, I was rebuffed and told that if I had an issue ir complaint I could bring it to "The president of the airport" who, of course, would not be in at work until the next morning. Considering that over the twenty minutes that I had been waiting I had witnessed the same Aerosur employee say the same thing to about 5 other people who had complaints, all of whom walked away shaking their heads, I decided it was time to cut my losses. I paid my cabdriver and headed out to the Aerosur contracted cab.

11) 29/9/2006 10:15pm Rather than it being a cab which was contracted only to transport us to our hotel, the cab apparently was being used to deliver a variety of other lost baggage to various hotels around the city. There was not enough room to cram us, our luggage, and all of the other bags into the cab, so the Aerosur worker helped the cab driver by precariously balancing our bag hanging out of the open trunk of the cab. . . This was ridiculous! I could tell as we entered the cab that the bag would fall out onto the road with the first bump that we went over. Instead of allowing this, I took the bag (approximately 20 kilos) ang placed it on my lap for the duration of the ride. It was shocking to me that after nearly 30 hours of trying to explain to Aerosur employees how important it was that we get our bags back, and the repeated inferior service we had recieved, that the final interaction I had with an Aerosur employee was him placing my bag in a precarious position where it would no doubt have been lost or perhaps damaged.

In conclusion, I suspect that by trying to please me, by telling me what they thought that I wanted to hear, your employees, instead, repeatedly and intentionally lied to me. I find this type of customer assistance to be inexcusable and repugnant. I am aware of cultural differences which exist between countries and regions, but I also need to draw to your attention the common, internationally-held, set of expectations about what constitutes good business practices. The observance, or ignorance, of these spell success or eventual destruction for a company. I, therefore, bring these things to your attention not merely to hear myself rant, although the process is therapeutic, but rather with a constructive goal, that you may use this information to improve the service which you provide your customers in the future. As I stated earlier, the service we received was was repeatedly incompetent, insulting, and inferior and I feel that I currently must recommend all friends and family against using Aerosur until I can be sure that these issues have been rectified and that improvements have been made. We have been travelling for the last few months in South America and will be travelling for a few more, I can assure you that during that time we will steer clear of Aerosur and advise all who we come in contact with to do the same, unless we recieve some sort of adequate response.

We eagerly await your reply,

Andrew Frishman and Leigh Needleman
andrewfrishman@gmail.com, lneedleman@gmail.com