Antarctica post cruise flight back to Buenos Aires

[ethan1171]

Hello all,

 

I am in the process of scheduling our flights back to US after the Ponant Antarctica cruise in February '22 (....let's see if it will happen, I am optimistic for now).

 

According to most trip reports i read the "charter" Ushuaia - Buenos Aires flight is around mid morning arriving at EZE between noon and 2pm.

 

I would appreciate hearing your experiences especially if you had to catch a flight out of EZE same day as the end of the cruise, and whether you had any success interlining the luggage through from the "charter" flight out of Ushuaia to the international destination.

 

Thank you

 

[Charlie Chan]

We flew from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires after our Dec 2018 cruise. Fortunately, we had booked a few days in BA after the cruise.

 

Our flight from Ushuaia did not leave till early afternoon. We were taken into the town and had free time till late morning.  We were all given a substantial snack and taken to the airport. We arrived in BA round 5.00pm I think.

 

Unfortunately, our bags (along with many other people's) were not on the flight and did not arrive till 9.00pm that evening. We waited at the airport to collect them rather than risk more issues.

 

Another complication was that our flight landed at the domestic airport (Aeropaque Jorge Newbery - AEP) and the international flights leave from the main (EZE) airport so transfer time has to be taken into consideration. (I don't know if this is always the case.) We know that people had to leave without their luggage. Some missed connections.

 

I have tried to find the flight details but they are not on the paper work I have kept. I do not think we were told the flight time back till much later in the booking process.

 

It's worth checking these complications with Ponant before making your bookings. Latam is not very reliable.

 

Apart from the Latam flights, it was a magnificent experience.

[81Zoomie]

One other thing to consider is the length of the lines at the airports.  We literally plopped down in our seats in Ushuaia at takeoff time. Yes, we were on a Ponant transfer to the airport. Waiting in line (over an hour+) in airports in Argentina seemed to be the norm. For reference, the pic is from EZE.  The counters were past the green hanging signs and to the left of the red arrow on the wall.

 

Additionally, there is apparently a weight limit on the domestic flights.  We had no issues flying into Ushuaia, but on the return flight, with identical luggage, we had to “go to the window and pay a fee.”  We were grateful to pay ~$40 US on a credit card and move on.  Several folks on our cruise had to pull many items out of their luggage and carry them on or wear them. We never understood why it was different flying into and out of Ushuaia. Both were domestic flights.

 

We elected to spend the night after the cruise in Buenos Aires and fly home the next day.  We had a relaxing dinner, great wine, and then walked about in the morning.  We scheduled a late checkout and arrived at the airport very early to beat the LONG line for check in.

 

Antartica was amazing and we loved our Ponant cruise.  We also enjoyed the couple of days we stayed in BA on our own before the cruise.  The food, wine and city were very enjoyable.

[gogo65]

Although I dont have specific details, I do remember, we were asking (forcing Ponant to give us an answer) about flight details only a few days prior to us leaving Sydney. We needed to know what airport we were flying into post cruise, so we could arrange accomodation and transfers. We flew into AEP, and flew out the next day from EZE, 

I also remember the lines at Ushuaia being ridiculously long, and also ended up checking in and walking straight onto the plane.

[Wendai]

Take away the stress and spend some time in BA.  It's a fabulous city.

[cboyle]

We were not able to check our bags through to our home airport because (we were told) we did not buy all our flights through Ponant. This was our experience (full review at https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=680008😞

 

DAY 17: WEDNESDAY 19 FEBRUARY 2020—USHUAIA TO BUENOS AIRES (EZE)

 

Diamond Princess COVID-19 update: 79 new cases, 621 total. [Note: Passengers who had tested negative started disembarking from the ship at the end of the 14-day quarantine period.]

 

Our bus did not leave for the airport until 7 a.m., so we had time for one last breakfast of Eggs Benedict. As we disembarked, I noticed that the National Geographic Orion was also in port.

 

At the airport, we found our bags and checked them for the 9 a.m. Aerolineas Argentina flight to Buenos Aires. Because we had not purchased our flights home from Ponant, we were not able to have the bags checked directly through to RDU. I was able to have our Delta SkyMiles numbers added to our reservations though.

 

We were served a snack on the flight and arrived in Buenos Aires around 12:30 p.m. After collecting our luggage, we exited into the Aerolineas Argentina terminal, where local Ponant representatives pointed the way to the Delta check-in counters. Unfortunately, there would not be any Delta agents there until 5:50 p.m. At least we were able to get seats in the terminal near an open door and it was not too hot (no air conditioning).

 

When the Delta agents finally showed up, we had another slight problem: the date I entered Argentina was not legible on the passport stamp. After much consultation with supervisors, it was decided that I must have come in with John on February 1 and we were issued boarding passes and checked our bags. We went through the security screening and proceeded to passport control. The Border agent scowled at my stamp but the computer system must have said it was OK because I got through.

[schnapperin]

My trip ended in Dec 19 and we had an early morning charter flight to EZE. Pick up was around 7 am, there was a extra check in counter for the charter flight, but security lines were longer. 
But we received the flight details pretty late and highly recommend not to fly international at the same day because of delays 

[ethan1171]

4 hours ago, schnapperin said:

My trip ended in Dec 19 and we had an early morning charter flight to EZE. Pick up was around 7 am, there was a extra check in counter for the charter flight, but security lines were longer. 
But we received the flight details pretty late and highly recommend not to fly international at the same day because of delays 

Yes - Thank you for the advice - i was able to reschedule our flight back to SF (no fee/ same fare) to 3 days later - so plenty of extra time now in Buenos Aires. Not only i was concerned about delays / operational issues / luggage delays etc. But also the idea of getting up at 5-6am to catch a flight to AEP/EZE - sitting at the airport for hours - and then getting on a 10+ hrs redeye flight (even on business class) + connections when getting back to US etc etc. Definitely not a relaxing way to end a vacation.  

[mj_holiday]

The trip is amazing ! ! !  We went in January 2014

The weight limit on flights into and out of Ushuaia caused a lot of discussion on our forum prior to the trip.  Many passengers were even wearing their boots since they weighed so much.

 

Our experience:  We were traveling by ourselves and our guide picked us up at our hotel in plenty of time.  We got to the airport early and ended up being the first people in the check in line.  When it came time to check in our guide (a very nice lady) insisted on putting my suitcase on the scale.  She let out a grown as she tried to pick it up,  the agent noticed and paid attention to the weight.  We were told we needed to rearrange some of our luggage since one suitcase was too heavy.  I do what I am told and right there I open my suitcases and start arranging stuff, we are still in line.  After a few minutes of chaos, the agent told me I was OK to go and I packed up and checked our bags.

 

The passengers that were with a tour group apparently got their bags checked-in in mass, so nothing was weighed.  And about 5-6 people behind us in line had luggage weighed, but then the agent was getting behind and the rest of the line didn't seem to have anyone pay attention to the weight of their luggage.

 

I avoid being first in line for check in now.