TAM Airlines

I went to BACC Travel Agency to purchase three tickets from NY to Brazil. My wife and son were going to stay there for some months and I was only going to take them and come back because I needed to work. So I purchased three tickets, 1-round trip ($1071) and 2-one way ($1150). My debit card was used and the first payment went through but when they tried the second time for the other tickets, it was declined due to insufficient funds. So I decided to go to the bank and see what was going on because I did have funds. So I went to the next branch and saw that two amounts had been debited from my account one for the correct amount ($1071) and the other for an amount a little higher than I was told the other tickets would be ($1357). So I asked the teller to print me the statements with all the information.

The statement clearly said Tam, New York and the purchases were made 2 minutes apart from each other. I went back to the travel agency and they told me they hadn't debited that amount. They called TAM Airlines and were told that it wasn't them either. I spent two hours trying to see if they would refund my money or if they would issue me a ticket and they did neither both of them. Instead they said give me 24 hours and I will let you know what happened. My problem was my ticket was for the next day at 6:50 so I did not have 24 hours. I came home, called my bank and asked them to dispute that amount. My problem is, I don't need to travel because I was only going to take my family and come back and now I've lost my ticket money and it seems that I've paid for someone else's ticket as well.

I want to show everybody the awful service of LAN and TAM airlines.

On January 13th 2011, I took the flight 8096, LA 754, which had two stops: Brazil and Paris, before getting to the final destiny: Warsaw, Poland. When I did the check in at the LAN office, they told me that I must take my baggage in Paris. In Brazil, I had to change the flight, because the connection time with TAM was only 25 minutes and nobody could tell me correctly where the airplane was and, anyway, the distances at So Paulo Airport was too big to reach boarding, having that period of time. Finally, I boarded the TAM flight JJ8096, the same day, that means January 13th at 23:20 hours, Brazilian time.

As I got to Paris, none of my two baggages were found. I spent a lot of time at the TAM office (lost baggages). They promised me to ship them to my home in Poland next day. Well, those next days, they called me, telling me that I must take my baggages at the Warsaw Airport and I was living in Belchatow, a small city, two hours from Warsaw, where there was no train or subway and the bus service was so complex (too few people speak English in Poland), so I had to take a taxi to the Warsaw airport, which cost was 200 euros and what happened at Warsaw airport? They told me that my baggages were not there. They should have arrived to LOT Polish Airlines, because it was the last airplane I took.

The manager of that last airline called TAM Paris and they told him that my baggages were still in that city. I had to make a second two hours trip to Warsaw, a week later because there were holy days in between. Getting to Warsaw airport again, they told me that they have sent my baggages by Air France. I have never been informed that I should ask all airlines to know where my things are, that is just ridiculous and I never flown with Air France in my whole trip. I have to say that, passed two days of my baggage delay, I got an apology card.

Being in Chile again (i flown using the same airlines named before), at TAM, they told me that I should receive USD50, the same thing they told me in Milan (a joke compared with all the money we spent), but the TAM office was closed, which cause LAN flight from Brasil to Chile in four hours delay and I just found a girl who gave me two phone numbers (both false). I called three times to the french TAM office, the number of which was written on the apology paper that I got from TAM. There, they promise me to call me back, but they never did!

I just can say, after all that, that LAN and TAM are too cheeky! If you have flights with those companies, there are a lot of probabilities that you could waste a lot of money, time and energy, because they don't care for your things and don't even carry out what they promised. I don't recommend those airlines at all. I had to buy all my stuffs to survive for a week (200 euros minimum), paying 400 euros just to get my baggages and paying about ten phone calls from Poland and from Chile to French, Polish and Chilean TAM offices!