Bolivian officials = helpful, polite, efficient. AA reps = FAIL

That’s right. The title is not a typo. Getting through customs in Bolivia was (relatively speaking) a breeze. Dealing with American Airlines was awful.

Our itinerary had us flying out of Chicago at 7 PM, landing in Miami at 11, overnighting in Miami, and taking the afternoon direct flight to Santa Cruz. At ORD, we were able to check in at the international counter, the agent checked our tickets and passports, and promptly informed us that we had to collect our bags in Miami and check in AGAIN there. Because it has to be within 12 hours for international flights (though their website says 24 hours in advance). Well, there was nothing much we could do about it. We arrived in Miami late (midnight) with a tired and cranky baby, collected our bags, and checked into the hotel. After a good night’s sleep, we assumed we’d be able to just check in our bags no problem.

WRONG.

We get to the ticket counter and meet Maritza. The least helpful customer service representative in the history of the universe (only a slight exaggeration). She asks to see our documents. We pass them over. She looks at me and Javi and says “where are you photos? We will not check you in until you have 4 X 4 photos of you and the baby. Oh and where’s your yellow fever certificate? Hotel reservation? Actual visa form? Your husband, he needs none of this.” Us: “Well actually, because we’re married we are supposed to be able to go through with this notarized letter of introduction and invitation from Miguel’s parents.” She then proceeds to stare at this letter for awhile and sighs, deciding it is ok. She asks about yellow fever certificates. We did not have them, but had written up a brief letter in English and Spanish swearing we wouldn’t sue Bolivia if we contracted it, signed it, and had a witness sign it. After much consultation and us showing her the form from Migración with the section highlighted saying that we could travel with such an affidavit, she then marched off to talk to a supervisor. She came back and agreed this was sufficient.

But we still didn’t have photos. She told us that we had to go get them before she would issue us boarding passes. Or let us check in our bags. But wait! There were no places in the airport to get it done. We asked if there was an office center or a place with a printer, since all we needed to do was take our picture, upload it to our computers, crop it, and print. Should take 15 minutes. Her response? No, there’s no way we can help you and I won’t accept anything if it isn’t exact. We asked why we weren’t informed of this in Miami. She just shrugged and basically told us to get lost, that we needed to take a taxi to get *proper* pictures taken, us doing it ourselves was not ok with her and she wasn’t going to help us find a place to do it.

At this point, we’d been waiting and/or arguing for about 45 minutes. It was 11 AM. Our flight was at 2:55. We asked her if we had to wait in line after we got the pictures, or if we’d be able to come back to her and finish our booking. She said that was fine but that she was off at 12:30. I asked her explicitly that the ONLY thing we needed were these pictures, that she had checked EVERYTHING else and that she could assure us that something else wouldn’t come up if we left to do this and rushed back (I had visions of her saying “oh, whoops, let’s see the lock of hair from your firstborn” or something). She said no, everything else was in order and we just needed the photos and that she’d entered this into the computer. (Here I should add that the information she was telling us conflicted with the official from we had from Migración, she said that Javi didn’t need yellow fever until 6 years old and so on – for whatever reason the information in their system is incorrect compared to the information given out in Bolivia and on the Bolivian website).

Miguel said he’d stay with the baggage, and I took Javi out, grabbed a cab ($18 fare) to the closest CVS, where I waited till the photo technician came off of break, took our passport pictures ($8 each) and then had to call for a taxi back to the airport ($18). I arrived back at the line at 11:50 (and I must say I was hugely relieved that the taxi driver let me take Javi in the Ergo carrier, and didn’t make a big deal out of not having a car seat. Yes, I know car seats are safest. But had they insisted we would have been stuck in MIA). She and her supervisor saw us. I waved the photo envelopes. She nodded and so we walked back in line while she finished helping other folks. Maritza looked at us at one point and told us to go to another CS rep, since it was going to take awhile. I decided that we should wait since she knew us and knew the situation.

And now it gets worse.

After she was done with the people in front of us, she looked at us, took her bag, and walked away. It was 12:05.

We asked the woman next to her what just happened.

Well, she said, she’s off. And so am I. You can get back in the back of the line.

At which point we got REALLY upset. The other woman just shrugged and walked away from us.

Then we get called down to the end of the row. We explained what had happened to the new CS rep, and he looked up our itinerary. Did Maritza make ANY notes or save ANY of her work in our itinerary?

HAHAHAHAHAHA of course not.

Back to square one. So we had to go through the whole rigamarole of him scrutinizing our documents, deciding what we had was sufficient, and so forth. Did he even ask to see the d@mn pictures? No. He did ask if we had the visa forms, which we had presented to Maritza but somehow they were not returned to us.

This is when I burst into tears. Miguel intervened and said that because he was Bolivian he could walk out, get the visa forms from his parents, and return. The new CS rep must have taken pity on us or something so he printed our boarding passes and checked us in.

Why didn’t this come up in Chicago? Well, how about because it is *completely* unnecessary and none of these documents were requested upon entry into Bolivia. As we walked to our gate, we knew none of this would be required upon entry. And we were right. (The photos they request if you get your visa ahead of time at a consulate, from what I understand, they are *not* required if you pay when you enter since they scanned our passports).

In Bolivia, Javi and I *did* have to get the visa. Note to other families of Bolivian nationals: with notarized Consular copies of his birth certificate and our marriage certificate we would not have had to do so because that would register our marriage to a Bolivian and therefore certify us as a Bolivian family in the eyes of Migración, but we only had U.S. issued certificates.

That process was rather quick and painless. The officials understood where we were coming from, they were apologetic that they could not approve a family visit entry because our certificates hadn’t been inspected by a Bolivian official, but they assured us that our visas are valid for 5 years for multiple entries, and if we registered Javi’s birth + our marriage we would have more flexibility in terms of time of stay and so forth (because we have the same last name this was easier. Had we been traveling with different last names but as a family, a customs/migration form per person as opposed to per family is required). The visa itself clearly states the five-year period as well. They had all the forms ready, answered our questions, and genuinely wanted the process to be as quick as possible for us.

In addition, there was a big poster in the customs line advertising exactly where in Bolivia yellow fever is endemic and spelling out how far in advance you need to receive the vaccine if you visit *only those* areas. Our pictures, affidavit (or yellow card), etc were not requested (as we suspected and this makes our anger at AA even greater). The letter of invitation and the copies of Miguel’s parents’ carnets we did use, but only to fill out the visa form because they ask if you are visiting family and if so who they are.

In sum: the Bolivian officials were friendly, efficient, and helpful. Avoid American Airlines (which, of course, is near impossible).

More to come on the dynamics of a long flight with a 17 month old and the patience of passengers to Bolivia vs. to MIA, the Korean-Bolivian cattle ranchers on both of our flights, and Bolivian precautions against swine flu.