Cliffs: Avoid flying GOL on AA tickets at all costs
​​​​​​I went to Brazil this week to visit family and have a little rest of relaxation. I was scheduled to fly from Sao Luis (SLZ) to the US via Sao Paulo and Dallas tonight. It has turned into a nightmare and made me a believer that GOL is the worst airline in history including Soviet Aeroflot.

I get to SLZ around 4:00 PM for my 5:30 flight. I head to the check-in counter, hand the agent my US Passport and my itinerary. The agent does a bunch of typing, makes a phone call and then asks me if I had proof of US residency like a green card. I look at him like ...? A US Passport is more than sufficient to enter the US. Even the Brazilian passenger next to me is like what the hell is this guy talking about, a US Passport holder literally cannot have a green card. He goes off and makes some more phone calls and comes back and doesn't mention the green card again.

Next he asked me for my COVID test. I give him my antigen test that meets all CDC requirements that was taken three days ago. He goes off and makes some phone calls and comes back telling me I need a PCR test. I pull up the US Embassy, CDC and AA websites to show him that an antigen test is fine. He persists in his demand for a PCR Test and even brings over his supervisor to back him up and tells me the test requirements vary by airline and they called AA and AA requires a PCR. I'm like that is total ........ and complete lie and whip out my phone and call AA myself and put them on speaker. The AA agent educates them on US test requirements in Portuguese but they still refuse to relent and tells them to look in TIMATIC and they don't even know what TIMATIC is. The AA Agent is incredulous. Finally, after about 90 minutes of arguing, the GOL staff finally realize they are wrong but by this time the flight has departed.

The GOL staff are all apologies but I'm like apologies are not going to get me home or cover the extra expenses and hassle you have now caused. GOL has the crappiest IT system I have ever seen. The GOL staff cannot rebook my flight at all since it is an AA codeshare and on AA stock; they have to call some internal interline desk in Sao Paulo which cannot do anything either. They call AA and try to sweet talk them into rebooking me for free but AA is like nope, that will be $2800 please. The GOL staff try to get me to pay $2800 and they will reimburse me and I'm like "do I look that stupid?" So finally, they are like we need to close, please call reservations after noon tomorrow and the will be an interline supervisor who might be able to assist. I refuse. I admit I caused a scene - I sat down right in the middle of their office and refused to leave until they booked me a flight tomorrow. Then they called the police on me. The police didn't really do anything other than make me leave the office.

So I showed up on time with the proper documents. GOL screwed up and is unable to fix the problem due to their crap IT so I'm stuck in a foreign country in limbo and now I have to get another COVID test because the previous one is now expired. Due to the short turnaround time I'm going to have to get another antigen so we'll see if I have the same drama again whenever I get the flight rebooked. If I could fly to Rio and torch GOL's HQ building I would. I never thought I would miss LATAM so.

Customer Service is not their GOL. AA needs a better partner.
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