TACA Airlines

SJO-PTY in business class. Returning to report on my latest flight with Taca this time less impressed with the service on one of its main hub SJO. After staff took my Brazilian passport she started to talk to me very slowly after telling her I spoke fluent Spanish she made odd comments as how she was surprised to see a Brazilian speaking other language than Portuguese. When I asked for a plastic bag to protect my bag which was no problem in San Salvador the same lady said she had run out I asked her colleague who told me she was not going to do it herself so I had to jump over the scales and put the plastic bag on my luggage myself. On board the service was once again good happy and polite staff had a chicken salad with beverages short flight though I can not blame the whole airline for one or two staff members attitude but will think twice when booking a flight in Central America.

My flight from Toronto to Costa Rica was delayed departing due to a long queue to be de-iced after a pretty major snow storm. I along with 39 others found myself stranded in El Salvador having missed my connecting flight. The TACA ground staff were great - after getting us all rebooked onto a morning flight we were bussed to a great hotel fed 2 meals offered free international calls and taken back to the airport well rested and ready for that last 1 hour leg of travel the next morning. I was so impressed with their customer service.

Flew round trip from San Francisco to San Jose Costa Rica. Had to change planes at San Salvador. Flights left and arrived on time or a little early. Friendly flight attendants. The food was good compared to what you get on U.S. airlines.

SAL-SJO. Surprised with the service even standing in the business class line the check-in took a while but staff are warm and helpful boarding and flight on time. Served welcome drinks fruits and salad as breakfast there are PTVs with some movies. Their price was cheaper than their main competitor and I was surprised that departure tax was included. Will fly them again in a few weeks.

This morning the flight Cusco-Lima was more than one hour late. I missed my plane to Quito (by 5 minutes). They of course knew our flight was late but the plane took off without us. Now I have to wait 12 hours arrive at Quito airport at 1 am and lose my trip to south Ecuador.

Appalling customer service. I am a Star Alliance gold card frequent flier and had a flight booked from Belize City to San Salvador and then from San Salvador to JFK on 26 Dec 2012. When I checked in at Belize City I didn't look at my onward boarding pass just the pass for the first flight. When I got to San Salvador I discovered that the San Salvador-JFK flight had been changed from 3.10pm departure to 9.00pm departure. The check-in agent at Belize City did not mention the change although it was shown on the boarding pass so was known to her. There was a United flight leaving for Houston at around the same time which I would have asked to be moved to if I had realised that the TACA flight had a 6 hour delay. At San Salvador airport there was only one person working on the TACA customer service counter (3 empty slots) which resulted in standing in line for 30 minutes by which time the only other possible flight that I could have moved to that could have provided a connection to get me to JFK at a reasonable time had closed. I am now sitting in the lounge in San Salvador airport with 4 hours to go until boarding and a flight that if it really goes at the time given will get me to JFK at around 2am. There is one newspaper in the lounge that is in Spanish virtually no food and at the other end I will have to pay for a taxi because it will be too late to use the subway. All in all a very unpleasant experience.

Lima - Cuzco - Puerto Maldonado - Lima. All flights on time. Comfortable seats. Good snacks and drink selection on board.

Buenos Aires to Lima return economy: nothing to really complain about everything average neither excellent nor bad (state of plane boarding organization seats pitch food drinks including a good rum attendants). The huge complaint I have is about the check-in in Lima: we arrived with our check-in boarding pass pre-printed we were led to the queue which did not move at all. They only had 2 counters open and it took us 40 minutes to complete the queue. A few of us complained falling on deaf ears. 40 minutes waiting at check-in 30 minutes for security and 30 more minutes for immigration - not a pleasant experience.

Second leg on GRU-LIM-SAL-LAX itinerary. Service level differs slightly between TACA subsids. TACA Int'l tries to add upscale touch but fails in the execution: "hot" towels are only hot in spots when they come mostly dry food presentation out of LIM terrible. Class Ejecutiva like U.S. domestic First 2x2 seating with some recline no individual IFE. Plane interior old leather seats worn and hard from use. FA on this leg one of the hardest working I've had. TACA's contract lounge at LIM terrible its facilities vile; public restrooms were cleaner.

Final leg on GRU-LIM-SAL-LAX itinerary. Execution better than last legs most polished product good food. SFA had a floral arrangement going in First Class restroom with little hand written note to help keep 'her' room tidy. Smart. It worked. Forgot that connect flights into the U.S. require full re-screening; got caught with some duty free liquid. To my surprise screeners arranged for me to get my luggage gate-checked on last call and even affixed a hand written note "Fragile".