When my family and I arrived at the international airport in Ecuador, we had an unexpected nightmare waiting for us, we were informed that our 1 yr old didn’t have a ticket. We were asked how she got to South America and if she was our daughter. The staff claimed there was no record of her flying to South America on American Airlines and then argued that there was no way she was on the same flight as us when we flew there. Then they proceeded to explain that we had to buy a (new) ticket for her if we wanted to leave with her.
This is where my stubbornness kicked in and I refused to purchase another ticket. It may have been the wrong decision because it caused us to miss our flight but it seemed like we were being targeted for extortion and I was very upset. Just as a warning, if you ever find your family in this situation, weight your choices carefully to decide your next move. Staff in Ecuador and Peru are notorious for their terrible customer service. Not a single employee cared about our plight and we were not treated well, but I demanded to go to their office to call American Airlines and fix my toddlers missing ticket.
Be wary of any numbers that unhelpful staff give you or dial for you. I discovered after almost two hours and being hung up on twice that the number they were dialing was just to the back office. No, I am not making this up.
We wised up and looked up the number to reach a representative in America and finally reached someone helpful right as the Quito office was closing and they were trying to tell us to leave.
Luckily, the representative quickly sent vouchers for us to stay at a hotel with meals ( much to Irene’s displeasure since she was the unhelpful supervisor in Quito) and I continued calling to set things strait from the hotel. Be aware that the hotel will charge huge fee’s for 1-800 numbers and the next morning I had to pay $55 to cover the calls. Luckily I got to the bottom of the issue, got Wren her ticket re-issued and when we got to the airport the next day, only had to wait 30 minutes as the ticket counter agent left us standing there to go upstairs to confirm that our tickets were real. I don’t think Irene was happy that we worked past her obstacles. We could have avoided all these issues by just paying the few hundred dollars they demanded but it was the principle of the thing that made me so mad. In the end, I didn’t mind staying at the hotel American Airlines provided or the meals they covered.
The sauna, hot tub and steam room were wonderful at the hotel Wyndham by the airport and cost more than Irene’s demanded fee.
Once we were airborne it was exciting to be heading back to the familiarity of home after such a long trip abroad with all its exciting adventures and difficulties.