Encontro de capítulos/2012/Relato/Failure report

Today I came back from the city where I am living, Mossoró, the place of the university I study, to Fortaleza, which is 300km away. I have arrived in Fortaleza at 5 a.m., made my bag and went to the airport at 10:30 a.m. The flight was supposed to depart to Rio de Janeiro, then to make a connection to Paris at 19:00 and another one to Berlin.

When I came to the airport, it was a looooong line. Guess what? There wasn't any TAM airlines staff in the desk. Once my first flight was TAM, and I had to get a baggage checked and do my check-in, I had to wait in that line. Finally, at 10h50, the guys from TAM appeared at the desk and started working. Finally, at 11:20 a.m., my questions were answered. But there was a problem.

A woman asked my passport, my flight receipt and my birth certificate. I've shown the passport, the receipt I have printed and the birth certificate. But there was a problem. Once a birth certificate is a really unique document, usually people never walk with the original version, but with an authenticated copy. (It's even advised by the local authorities for the people use authenticated copies instead, just to you to know).

An authenticated copy is a copy of the original copy which received a label of the local registry/notary's office proving it's a real and legally usable copy of the original one. It's fixed at the notary's office legislation, an authenticated copy worth as an original one.

Anyway, after I've shown these 3 documents, the woman simply give back to me and said Copies aren't enough here, just original documents. I was like: "WTF!" I've already been to Argentina, Spain, Israel and never took the original copy of my birth certificate. Simply an authenticated copy was ALWAYS enough. I tried to argue with them, I tried to convince them, I tried to explain my situation, that I had a lot of connections after that flight. Nothing. They have just started ignoring me. One of most frustrating days of my whole life.

I even tried to see other airlines flights. There wasn't any flight from Fortaleza to Rio de Janeiro arriving before 07 pm (the time of the second connection to Paris). Nothing. Then I came back home frustrated.

After talking to Nicole and Danny, I called TAM. Talked to them like hours, and after all, I discovered:

1. It was not my fault at all. TAM doesn't wrote the only original rules anywhere. They consider it as a rule, once it's not written anywhere, it wasn't my fault.
2. Only the tourism agency can make a new itinerary. TAM doesn't have anything to do with this.

Anyway, it was opened a protocol at TAM airlines (which I sent the data in another e-mail), with the official version. If you want to see it, have to call to them and ask for it.

Sorry again.

-Mateus Nobre, tango down