TACA Airlines

TACA Airlines

Type of business: Airline

Location: Los Angeles Grupo TACA Employees Shaking Passengers Down My wife and I are both journalists and regularly travel all over the world. In the past year she made

three trips to El Salvador and one to Colombia, all on TACA. This trip was for pleasure, not business, a

return to Colombia for the holidays. We purchased a TACA flight from LAX to Bogota, and arrived at the

airport at 5:30 PM on December 26th. I will point out that, at least in Los Angeles, the female TACA employees are very polite, then men are

very rude to American males. They get sarcastic, are obviously very threatened and insecure, and I have purchased tickets from other airlines because of this. Therefore, I was not surprised when a short, 50ish character stationed at A3 in the TACA section of the Tom Bradley terminal was less than accomodating. He asked my wife to put her suitcase on the scale, and told her that it was both oversized and overweight, and it would cost her an additional $200 to take this suitcase, cash only. Both the round number, the fact that the suitcase easily fit on the scale, and cash only were highly suspicious. She asked him to explain to me in English what was happening, and he responded in Spanish, "I don't have to explain anything to him." I then answered, in Spanish, "let's talk to your manager and tell him why we're cancelling this flight" and he said, "We have regulation size bags available if you'd like to purchase one for $20." My wife was desparate so we gave him $20 and he produced a small, cheap bag. I handed him $20 and he did not issue a receipt. I suspect I know where the $20 bill ended up. When my wife arrived in Bogota she met up with a friend and the same thing happened to her. Then, when I got home I measured the suitcase and it is only 50", according to TACA regulations 62" is the limit. It doesn't take a genius to see what this character is pulling. I strongly suggest TACA investigate the

practices of employees at LAX. Also, a complaint is being filed with both airport police and the fraud

division of LAPD. Thank you, John S On December 26th my wife was headed for Colombia on a TACA flight. She arrived at LAX at 5:00 PM even though the flight didn't leave until 11. There was a little, obnoxious guy behind the counter who told her her bag was too big and too heavy, it would cost her another $200 in cash to take it with her. Even though I speak Spanish, she asked the man to explain it to me in English because I always play "dumb gringo." He told her that he didn't have to explain anything to me (again rudely). I then, very angry, asked if I could speak to his manager. Then he told me, in very good English, that if $200 was too much, we could purchase a regulation size bag for $20. We did that and transferred the luggage. He did not issue a receipt for the $20 cash -- you know where it ended up.

Later on, in Bogota, my wife met up with a friend who said the same thing happened to her. When I got home, I measured her suitcase and it was 50". According to TACA, the limit is 62". Not only did he lie, he tried to shake her down. Apparently, from what I read, shaking passengers down is common at this airline. What the weasel didn’t know is my wife is a top reporter for HOY and her friend is a television news

reporter in L.A., and he's going to get his butt kicked pretty badly by the media when they get back.

My question is, would you be willing to be interviewed if necessary? John S

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