Panama City to Buenos Aires - Cock Ups & Cancellations

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The day started badly and got progressively worse. Our taxi didn’t show up at 0830 and neither did Luis with our $5 key deposit. We kept the keys as a final souvenir and a concierge at a nearly hotel sorted us out with a taxi. Our driver spoke English and we talked about Panamanian life, in particular their festivals and the ever increasing Colombian drug problem that has spilled over the border into Panama.

The queue wasn’t too long at the Copa Airlines desk but it still took well over an hour to check in for our flight and they couldn’t check our bags all the way through to Auckland. It seems that there is little difference between airport efficiency in South or Central America.

We boarded our flight to Buenos Aires and it left on time at midday arriving at 2200 local time in Buenos Aires. As Copa use Terminal A and Aerolineas Argentinas use Terminal B we were told that we would have to emigrate through customs to collect our bags and go to the other terminal. The US$25 airport tax was sufficient enough reason for me to put up an argument and finally a girl from Copa agreed to collect our bags, retag them for Auckland and deliver them to Terminal B. We started the 10 minute walk through the transit areas of Buenos Aires Airport arriving eventually at the Aerolineas Argentinas desk to be told our flight had been cancelled. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The girl at the desk couldn’t tell us why our flight had been cancelled, only that we would have to go through customs to gate 201 and get information about buses and hotels. The girl got on the phone for us to establish that our baggage was still at the Copa terminal and we could collect it there. Our re-scheduled flight was not until midday the following day so we had plenty of time! Our bags were not on the carousel when we finally made it back to Terminal A but we did establish that they had been taken through customs and were at the Copa desk. We loaded our trolley, bought a much needed pack of cigarettes and headed all the way back to Terminal B where the girl at desk 201 still couldn’t give us a reason as to why our flight was delayed but did sort us out with vouchers for a meal, taxi and a hotel room. We confirmed that our departure tax would be covered by Aerolineas Argentinas and by 2330 we were seated at the airport restaurant for dinner along with several disgruntled Kiwis and Aussies.

Our cab pulled up to the hotel at 0130 and we were checked into our room - by far the nicest room of the trip. Jo called home to let them know of the delay and we finally got some sleep at 0300.

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