Latest news with #LatamAirlines
Malay Mail
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
Fly with a smile: Brazil airlines cheer Lady Gaga-driven demand
SAO PAULO, May 4 — Brazilian airlines are enjoying a boost as fans from all over the country fly to Rio de Janeiro ahead of a free Lady Gaga concert that is expected to draw more than 1 million fans to Copacabana Beach this weekend. The 39-year-old Die with a Smile and Poker Face singer from New York will take the stage at the famous beach on Saturday as part of Rio's efforts to bring superstars to perform at free events that authorities say lift the local economy. The country's largest carriers - the local unit of Chile's Latam Airlines, Gol and Azul - all reported on Friday that they have been operating more flights that are close to full. Latam said in a statement that between Wednesday and Monday it had increased the frequency of its flights to Rio's two main airports, Galeao and Santos Dumont, by 25 per cent compared to the previous week, while offering 26 per cent more seats. 'Passenger demand justifies the investments,' said the carrier, which is also a sponsor of the concert, noting that on Wednesday and Thursday its flights from Brazilian cities to Rio de Janeiro were 90 per cent full, a measurement known as the load factor. That is higher than the 80.8 per cent load factor LATAM registered in domestic routes in the first quarter. Rio de Janeiro's city government estimates that 1.6 million people will attend the concert, Gaga's first in Brazil since 2012, with attendance also boosted by a long weekend as the South American country celebrated Workers' Day on Thursday. Azul in a statement said the load factor of its operations to Rio this week hit 91 per cent, while Gol said it had added 60 flights to Galeao airport from other major Brazilian cities. The free open-air concerts, whose lineup also included Madonna last May, are providing a much-needed boost after a drastic reduction in recent years in the number of flights to Rio while the city grappled with an economic crisis. 'Music tourism is the darling of the moment in Brazil,' Tourism Minister Celso Sabino said. 'People are traveling more and more to see concerts and festivals. This boosts the entire tourism industry, from hotels to coconut water stalls.' — Reuters
Times
30-04-2025
- Times
Our luggage was lost on holiday — but insurance won't cover it
✉ We travelled to Brazil in August and from there went on to visit the Atacama desert in Chile in early September, staying nearby in San Pedro de Atacama for four nights. We booked flights for the latter trip with Latam Airlines from Sao Paulo to Calama in Chile, with a stop in Santiago, the capital. When we arrived in Calama our suitcase wasn't on our flight from Santiago so we registered a lost baggage claim. Given the climatic conditions in the Atacama region — high temperatures during the day and very low temperatures at night — once the luggage had not turned up the day after our arrival (and with no information about when it would arrive), we bought some necessities and appropriate clothing, which cost about £300. The next day the case was finally delivered to our hotel. On our return to the UK we registered a claim for the cost of the items with Latam but this was rejected. We then turned to our AllClear Gold Plus insurance policy but the claim was rejected on the basis that the delayed baggage didn't occur on our initial outward journey from the UK but on a flight we took some days after this. It seems that even a top policy doesn't provide full cover while on holiday. Can you help?Peter Allen You'd assume that if you lost luggage at any point during a multi-leg outbound journey it would be covered, so your experience was worrying, but it seems your claim was rejected due to human error. A spokesperson for Zurich Insurance, AllClear's underwriter, said: 'We are pleased to confirm that Mr Allen's claim was fully settled this week. Following a full investigation, we identified that the claim was originally declined as it was incorrectly logged as a direct connection flight on their return to the UK and not a stop-off in Chile. While we strive to offer the highest standards of customer service, on this occasion it didn't happen. We apologise for the stress caused to Mr Allen as a result of this and will be in contact to offer a £100 gesture of goodwill payment for any inconvenience caused.' • Lost, delayed or damaged luggage? Your compensation rights explained ✉ My friend and I would like to spend a week travelling the Romantic Road in Germany from Würzburg to Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria but I'm uncertain as to the best way to do this. Can you recommend any travel companies that have an organised tour or suggest the best towns to stay in along the route? Also, is it easy to travel by train or better to hire a car?Marian Garland Germany's Romantic Road is one of Europe's finest road trips and is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year with events and festivals in the 29 towns en route. For maximum flexibility it's better to drive and the route is best done from north to south (Würzburg to Füssen) so that the Bavarian Alps are the grand finale. Don't be in too much of a hurry to leave Würzburg, however, because it's the Franconian wine capital. If you travel in June you could time your visit to coincide with one of its wine festivals. The medieval Rothenburg ob der Tauber, said to have been the inspiration for the village in Disney's Pinocchio, is the most-visited town along the route and the traditional, half-timbered Hotel Reichs-Küchenmeister is a good base (B&B doubles from £113; Dinkelsbühl, with its baroque castle, and Nördlingen, home to Germany's only completely preserved town wall on which you can walk around, are also must-dos; you'll find the lowdown on all 29 on the route's official website ( • 10 of the best cities to visit in Germany If you'd rather do an organised tour, Great Rail Journeys has an all-inclusive seven-night Bavaria's Romantic Road trip from London St Pancras, based in Landenau, which includes excursions to Neuschwanstein Castle and the medieval island town of Lindau on Lake Constance. It starts at £999pp ( ✉ My husband and I are travelling to France in the middle of September for a month. We have the first half sorted, with stays in Amiens, Normandy and Poitiers before going south to Carcassonne for a few days. All of that is self-catering but we thought in the ten days left before returning from Dunkirk we'd like a short cruise of between five and seven days somewhere in eastern France. While there seem to be many river cruises, I'm struggling to find one of that length. Any ideas?Carol Bridgeman CroisiEurope is the go-to for shorter French cruises and one that ticks your boxes in early October is a barge trip from Strasbourg to Lagarde on the Marne-Rhine Canal. There are visits to the Villa Meteor, the oldest French brewery in operation, as well as to the Château du Haut-Barr and the Chagall trail in Sarrebourg. The six-night trip starts at £2,564pp. If that busts your budget, an alternative is a five-night voyage that ticks off all the must-see sites on the Rhône between Lyons, Provence and the Camargue, plus a splendid dinner at Paul Bocuse's Abbaye de Collonges restaurant. The October 4 departure starts at £1,614pp ( Just be aware that while all announcements and tours will be in French and English, you may well be the only English-speaking guests on board. ✉ It's my husband's 80th birthday on November 1 and I'm looking for a luxury family hotel for a weekend, which wouldn't be too far from Gatwick, Heathrow or Wimbledon, avoiding long taxi rides and our small granddaughters getting car sick. Any suggestions?Chantal Bull If you're prepared to splurge, Beaverbrook in the Surrey Hills sits nicely in that triangle and while it's hugely glamorous, it's also family-friendly: there are interconnecting rooms, a Sharky & George kids' club, indoor and outdoor pools plus a cinema, as well as 470 acres to roam. For adults, there's fabulous Japanese or modern European food, a swanky spa and excellent cocktails in Sir Frank's Bar. B&B doubles start at £699 in November ( Another possibility is the swish Coworth Park, a Georgian country house near Ascot in Berkshire, which has Michelin dining for the celebratory dinner (as well as casual dining in the Barn) and plenty of entertainment for children, including treasure hunts in the kids' club and riding in the equestrian centre. B&B Stable Superior rooms sleeping up to three start at £512 in November ( • Beaverbrook hotel review: a historic country manor house and spa in Surrey ✉ As a result of being involuntarily denied boarding by Ryanair, my partner and I arrived at Milan Bergamo eight hours later than originally planned. Our prebooked car hire had been cancelled due to our late arrival and so we had to arrange alternative car hire. We tried to claim a refund from Ryanair but it has refused. Is this correct?David Bainbridge Infuriating though it is to have your journey so significantly delayed, you can't claim for the new car you had to book because airlines are not responsible for consequential loss. The good news is that the denied boarding compensation you're entitled to for this trip — £220 each — should cover the extra cost. Have you got a holiday dilemma? Email traveldoctor@
Al Arabiya
22-03-2025
- Al Arabiya
US woman drowns dog in airport bathroom after airline refuses pet over paperwork issue
A woman drowned her dog in a Florida airport bathroom and then boarded her international flight after she was prevented from bringing the white miniature schnauzer with her because of a paperwork issue, authorities said. The woman was arrested in Lake County on Wednesday on a charge of aggravated animal abuse, a third-degree felony. She was released on $5,000 bail. 'This act was intentional and resulted in a cruel and unnecessary death of the animal,' said an arrest affidavit from the Orlando Police Department. Online court records showed no attorney listed for the woman from Kenner, Louisiana. The investigation into the death of the 9-year-old schnauzer named Tywinn started in December when a janitor found the dog in a trash bag in a bathroom stall at Orlando International Airport. The janitor earlier had seen the woman in the stall cleaning up water and dog food from the stall's floor. The janitor was pulled away for a cleanup emergency and returned to the bathroom 20 minutes later where she found Tywinn in the trash container, along with a companion vest, collar, rabies tag, a dog travel bag and a bone-shaped dog tag with the woman's name and phone number, investigators said. Airport surveillance cameras captured the woman speaking for 15 minutes to a Latam Airlines agent with the dog in tow, walking into a bathroom near the ticketing area with the dog and exiting the bathroom without Tywinn less than 20 minutes later. The woman then went outside the terminal building, reentered a short time later, passed through security and boarded the Colombia-bound plane, the report said. Authorities said the woman had been told she could not bring her dog aboard because she did not have the proper paperwork. According to the US Department of Agriculture, dogs traveling from the US to Colombia must be accompanied by a veterinarian-issued health certificate and a rabies vaccination certificate. The dog was identified by its implanted microchip and a necropsy determined that Tywinn had been drowned. US Customs and Border Protection also confirmed to detectives that the woman had boarded a flight to Bogota, Colombia, and then flew to Ecuador.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Yahoo
Woman charged with drowning dog in airport bathroom after being denied boarding
A woman in Florida has been charged with drowning her dog in an airport bathroom after she was prevented from bringing the animal onboard a flight. Police arrested the woman in Lake County on Wednesday on a charge of aggravated animal abuse, a third-degree felony. Officers say she was stopped from bringing the white miniature schnauzer on her flight to Colombia from Orlando International Airport so she killed it and boarded the plane without it. 'This act was intentional and resulted in a cruel and unnecessary death of the animal,' said an arrest affidavit from the Orlando Police Department. The investigation into the death of the 9-year-old schnauzer named Tywinn started in December when a janitor found the dog in a trash bag in a bathroom stall at the airport. The janitor earlier had seen the woman in the stall cleaning up water and dog food from the stall's floor. The janitor returned to the bathroom 20 minutes later where she found Tywinn in the trash container, along with a companion vest, collar, rabies tag, a dog travel bag and a bone-shaped dog tag with the woman's name and phone number, investigators said. Airport surveillance cameras captured the woman speaking for 15 minutes to a Latam Airlines agent with the dog in tow. She was then seen on camera walking into a bathroom near the ticketing area with the dog and exiting the bathroom without Tywinn less than 20 minutes later, police said. The woman then went outside the terminal building, re-entered a short time later, passed through security and boarded the plane. Authorities said the woman had been told she could not bring her dog aboard because she did not have the proper paperwork. According to the US Department of Agriculture, dogs travelling from the US to Colombia must be accompanied by a veterinarian-issued health certificate and a rabies vaccination certificate. The dog was identified by its implanted microchip and a necropsy determined that Tywinn had been drowned. US Customs and Border Protection also confirmed to detectives that the woman had boarded a flight to Bogota and then flew to Ecuador. Online court records showed no attorney listed for the woman from Kenner, Louisiana. She was released on $5,000 bail. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
