LatinPass/GlobalPass - Its Over - Best and Worst of latinpass trip

It would be interesting to see if we can come to an agreement or see a pattern of our likes and dislikes about the latinpass promotion. Here are my two pesos worth.

Best Airline: ACES
Worst Airline: Avianca (coach)

Best Hotel: J.W.Marriott, Quito
Worst Hotel: Inter-Continental, Managua

Best City: Quito, Ecuador
Worst City: Managua, Nicaragua

Best Airport: Panama City
Worst Airport: Iquitos, Peru

Longest delay: 8 hours in San Salvador (flight cancelled)

Best Flight Attendant: Angelica on ACES
Worst Flight Attendant: On Aeropostal flight - had to wake him up so I could use rear toilet on red eye flight from LIM-GYE.

saying: If its Tuesday, it must be Quito!!

Most commom phrase learned: Transito!

Cheers, Dave Stevenson.

[This message has been edited by davistev (edited 07-02-2000).]

[This message has been edited by davistev (edited 07-03-2000).]

Hey, good thread Dave!

Best Airline: Avianca, Clase Ejecutiva
Worst Airline: Aeropostal, Coach Class

Best Hotel: Marriott, AUA
Worst Hotel: Hilton, CCS

Best City: UIO
Worst City: CCS

Best Airport: AUA
Worst Airport: SJO

Longest delay: 30 minutes in BOG (thuderstorms)

Best Flight Attendant: Avianca
Worst Flight Attendant: Aeropostal

Saying: "What problems are those FT LP crazies talking about?"

Most commom phrase learned: Lo siento. No hablo mucho espanol. Habla usted ingles?

I agree. A fun thread for us all to read. Has anyone thought about a LatinPass Get together?

Best Airline: Avianca in Business/ACES coach
Worst Airline: Aeropostal, Coach

Best Hotel: Raddison, Guatemala
Worst Hotel: None

Best City: Quito
Worst City: Managua (BY FAR)

Best Airport: SAL (only did transit)
Worst Airport: Lima (I was sick of it by the end!!)

Longest delay: Full Day when bumped off overbooked TACA flight in Managua

Best Flight Attendant: Taca Peru flight from LIM to CUZ. Had a good laugh with her about this whole thing.
Worst Flight Attendants: Aeropostal, Woke me up to tell me I could not sleep on the plane?? Still do not get that one. I think they were trying to say I could not sleep across 3 seats.

Saying: "Do Not worry a supervisor will escort you to the plane in a moment." Many moments later we found we had been rebooked on an American Airlines flight. 4 hours later we paid a TAX and left the Managua airport with a TACA flight the next day.

Most commom phrase learned: Quiero ir al aeropuerto!!!

Special Mention: Actually the worst flight by far were my US Air segments.

rich


[This message has been edited by RichLond (edited 07-02-2000).]

[This message has been edited by RichLond (edited 07-02-2000).]

Best Airline: Avianca (business) Aces (coach)

Worst Airline: Aeropostal ( tied with TWA)

Best City: Quito

Worst City: Lima

Best Hotel: Monasterio in Cuzco

Best Airline: Tie, Avianca/Aces

Worst: Errorpostal

Best Hotel: Raddison, Bog (gave us free beer while checking in)

Worst: Holiday SJO (had $250 stolen from the room safe)

Best City: Bog

Worst: None

Best FA: Avianca (they gave us a tour of the City the next day)

Worst: Errorpostal

Longest delay: None, but the almost landing in thge fog in Lima followed by full power at 500 feet with diversion to a military airport was ...... well lets say it was time to change the underware anyway.

Best tourist site: Machu Picchu

Nicest people: Bog & Gua

OK, here's my two cents (although we only did the 500K):

BEST Airline--Aviateca Ejecutiva Class
WORST Airline--Aeropostal

BEST Hotel--No contest. Camino Real Intercontinental in San Jose, Costa Rica. Would go back there in a second.
WORST hotel--Intercontinental in Managua. BUT, on the bright side, they do sell designer leather gun holsters in the gift shop! For REAL!

BEST City--San Jose
WORST City--Managua

BEST Airport--Panama City
WORST Airport--Managua (Of course, since one of our group was detained there because he lost his passport, that affected our perceptions as well). But Guatemala City ranks right up there too.

BEST flight attendant--Aviatece Ejecutiva Class
WORST -- Aeropostal.

Longest Delay--about 30 minutes. First flight on Aeropostal (not counting the 1 hr. 30 mins. we waited on the ground on US Air once we got back to Phila., waiting for a gate!!).

It was a great adventure!! Definitely worth it! Can't wait to spend all the miles.

Djlawman

best airline: Avianca Business/ ACES coach
worst airline: Aeropostal, by a mile; does not get anywhere near the high standards of all other LP carriers

best hotel: Radisson, GUA
worst: ??

best city: Quito
worst city: Guayaquil
most pleasant surprise, city-wise: Lima - does not justify the awful reputation that it has - quite a fun place, notwithstanding the permanent fog...

longest delay: not a single delay as such, but a 24H bumping-off on CUZ-LIM

best ground staff: ACES at UIO (and LIM, too), Taca-Peru at CUZ, Copa at GUA
worst ground staff: Aeropostal in LIM and GYE; Avianca in MIA

best FAs: ACES in coach; Avianca in business class
worst FAs: Aeropostal, again

most common phrase: veinte quatro dolares? no lo puedo creer! Usted quiere decir veinte quatro soles...

saying: Are you doing the Latinpass promotion marathon, too?

Can't wait to go back. I wish LP carriers did more transatlantic services.

BEST AIRLINE: Taca Ejecutiva Class
BEST COACH ACES
BEST HOTEL Marriott Quito
BEST CITY Quito
WORST CITY Miami
WORST AIRLINE US AIRWAYS
BEST FA TACA
WORST DELAY Miami, US AIRWAYS
SECOND WORST COPA- 20 minutes.

My wife and I completed the Million Mile mileage run in the first half of May. Here are our thoughts about the Best and Worse:

BEST AIRLINE - AVIANCA
WORST AIRLINE - AEROPOSTAL
BEST AIRLINE SERVICE - AVIANCA (Amazing service)
LONGEST DELAY - APPROX 18 HOURS on AEROPOSTAL
BEST CITY - CUZCO
WORST CITY - MANAGUA
BEST HOTEL - SHERATON, LIMA
WORST HOTEL - THE REGENCY, MIAMI (flea bag hotel that Aeropostal put us up in while they spent 18 hours trying to find a airplane that worked.)
WORST HOTEL STAFF - Radisson - Antigua, Guatemala (They claimed that my room rate didn't qualify for LP mileage, and that I would have to pay $175 to get the credit. After I told them I would leave and stay somewhere else, they finally relented, saying they would make an exception. When I got to the room, I saw on the tariff sheet that the maximum they could legally charge me was about $160! They also gave us misinformation regarding shuttle bus service back to the airport in Guatemala City which caused us a bit of an inconvenience.
BEST FOOD - Manuel Antonio area of Costa Rica
MOST UNUSUAL FOOD - Guinea pig in Cuzco
BEST SIGHTS - Cuzco Area
BIGGEST SURPRISE - Tie: 1) Seeing all of our old yellow school buses on the streets of Managua and 2) Having no problems with a 16 minute international connection in San Salvador.


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Happy Travels,

Rhinochaser

I guess no one liked this thread when I started one a month ago....

Best airline: COPA-- especially the employee/flight attendant morale. You can really see the Continental influence... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Worst Airline: SAM-- awful food. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif (Has anyone flown SAM and Avianca? Is Avianca really that much different?) US Air was pretty close to worst....

Best airline ground staff: ACES in Quito. Free drinks in the waiting lounge, and super friendly airport staff.

Best City: PANAMA CITY!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif #2-- Quito
Worst City: Caracas, because of the crime-- 5 different locals warned us about crime at different times.

Longest delay: Aeropostal in Miami for 5 hours. We parked the rental car while we checked in and found out about the delay. Good news: we drove to South Beach for a few hours during the delay. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Best airport: Lima (Bogota is 2nd as far as shopping and people watching in the terminal area, but the gates are pretty dead and security was sooo tight!)

Worst airport: San Salvador-- please NEVER make me spend more than 2 hours there again!

Best hotel: Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza- Quito.

Saying: #1-- No pagamos el impuesto-- estamos en transito.
#2-- Tiene mi numero de LatinPass? Hay que teclar F-T-L-P-5-9-8-....

Best memory: watching sunrise over the Andes on the Lima-Cuzco flight

Note: Managua is a country with a lot of natural beauty and potential-- I was told that we were there during a dry spell (hence little green plants/grass). Outside Managua, the volcano and lakes are really nice, and there are a lot of public works projects to improve the country. ("Obras, no Palabras: Aleman")

[This message has been edited by Viajero Joven (edited 07-05-2000).]

best airline: aces - great service, food, staff, planes; outstanding
worst airline: (tie) avianca (coach - broken seats, bad food), aeropostal (bad everything)

best hotel: montesario, cusco - amazing place
worst hotel: none

best city: quito
worst city: none

best airport: panama city
worst airport: guayaquil

longest delay: 4 hours in quito (fog)

best ground staff: (tie) aces in quito - 4 hour delay and all staff personally worked the boarding area to keep passengers informed + sandwiches and drinks, taca peru in lima - free upgrade without asking for it

best flight attendants: copa - personally made tricky connection in gye possible, close runner-up were the taca fa's

worst flight attendants: aeropostal - disinterested, grumpy

most surprising sight: the internet cafe in aguas calientes, peru

spanish learned: "tengo connexcion"

nicest people: ecuador

best tourist spot: the incomparable macchu picchu