TAAG - AVOID THIS AIRLINE!

I read some bad reviews and thought that it cannot possibly be that bad. But believe me, it is really a nightmare! The flight from Cape Town to Luanda was without any major hiccups except for a very old / rather dirty plane. Our flight from Luanda to Sao Paulo was delayed by 2 hours due to technical problems. When we boarded, the air conditioner on the plane didn’t work and the heat was unbearable. Our take-off was delayed due to numerous passengers having incorrect seats and staff being rude and shouting at them to sit down. Due to the heat, some families with small children or babies were threatening to leave the plane. The pilot must have been told to take off, as the plane started taxiing with people still walking around and overhead bins still open. The flight attendants strapped in and the passengers had to hastily close the bins. The safety demonstration was only given about half hour after take-off! Our return flight was where the real issues began. We were scheduled to fly from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo 12:50 and land at 15:40. Our TAAG flight was then scheduled for 18:15 to Luanda where we would catch our connecting flight to Cape Town. The day before, I received an email informing me that the flight time had changed to 9:00. This was 9 hour earlier than the booked time and 6 hours before our flight from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo landed! I tried on numerous occasions to reschedule our flight via the TAAG contact number in Angola, WhatsApp number and the call centre in Sao Paulo. I really struggled to get them to understand that it would be impossible for us to make this flight. I was assured that we would rebooked the next day and that TAAG would pay for us to stay a night in Sao Paulo as it was their problem. However, I never received confirmation. Whenever I contacted them, I was either assured that the problem was being addressed or told that they have no knowledge of the problem and could not find our original tickets! They would repeatedly drop conversations and we needed to start all over again with a new TAAG representative who had no context of the situation - no continuity or accountability! Whenever a new representative checked the system, there would be no evidence of the previous conversations. We were advised to go to the TAAG office in Sao Paulo airport. Although the sign on the door said it closes at 19:30, the office was locked and no-one was there. I tried calling the number on numerous occasions and got a recording in Portuguese telling me to leave a message – which I did and never received a reply. When I mentioned this on the WhatsApp line, I was told to “come back tomorrow” even though we had nowhere to stay. At this stage I realised that we were stranded in Sao Paulo and I managed to find an airport hotel for us to stay for the night. We continued to try and contact TAAG but it was clear that they were talking in circles and refusing to answer our questions. Despite asking for reference numbers when I called, I was never given one. When we received a message saying that they would not re-issue tickets for “people who missed their check-in”, I realised that their promises would not materialise and that we were stranded in Sao Paulo. I had to purchase tickets on another airline at great expense to get us home. It is now 3 days later and I have still not heard anything from TAAG! A rescheduled ticket was never sent and there was no follow-up of the situation! AVOID THIS AIRLINE!