No sé si usas Twitter, pero mucho de estas especulaciones de los precios altos empezaron (al menos la primera vez que los vi) fue ahí. He oído que Aensa va a tomar acción legal contra aquellos medios que difundieron esta información, y espero que agarren a muchos “periodistas” en Twitter que hablaron mierda de esto hasta por las orejas.

Como dice mi madre, para hablar y comer pescado, hay que tener MUCHO cuidado

Gracias por escribir!

Yo también soy tica
Seguí la discusión en inglés para darle continuidad al post original.

Me alegra que el gerente haya aclarado lo que pasó. En mi caso, afirmé que estaban cobrando eso porque cuando mis primos se fueron (las mamás con sus bebés), se dio a entender que eso era lo que habían tenido que pagar.

Por eso junto con lo que escuché decir a la otra gente cuando todavía estábamos en La Paz y las notas de la nación, fue por lo que saqué mis conclusiones ahora claramente equivocadas. Disculpas públicas a Aensa por lo que les dije arriba.

Además también puedo ver que alguna gente sí pagara la tarifa del helicóptero completo para ellos solos y con sus malditas valijas, porque eso sí lo vi :s :s
Pero eso no es problema de Aensa.

Y como uds decían, sí hay más razón para reclamarle al gobierno si como dice en el artículo, tuvieron helicópteros disponibles sin hacer nada.

En fin, gracias por la discusión y por el link que aclara el problema.

Thanks for the comments, it’s nice to have a clean discussion here. Here is a something published by the GM of Aensa, worth a read (please let me know if you can’t read Spanish, I’ll gladly translate it for you):

http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2009/enero/23/opinion1849945.html

*or*

if you like reading half-assed English:

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nacion.com%2Fln_ee%2F2009%2Fenero%2F23%2Fopinion1849945.html&lp=es_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

I agree with you that the government should have been in charge of the evacuation and hired the helicopter companies. In fact, at some point a rumor started circulating that the Tourism ministry was paying for the rides. Obviously, not true.

So yes, the CNE, ICT, and the government itself should have to explain themselves. But that doesn’t mean that what Aerotour did was right and that they shouldn’t get called out for it.

I also agree the US hospital system is also disgusting, and I don’t want to belittle your broken wrist, I’ve been frustrated to no end in US hospitals too, even charged $2500 for a 10min hospital visit, but you can’t compare it to a situation where you have dozens dead, more missing, you haven’t stopped feeling earthquakes and you see the roads are cracked, you’re hearing stuff falling all over the place and you don’t know if the land beneath you will give away soon or not. Many of us there could walk out, but my Mom wouldn’t have been able to, neither women with babies and small children.

My complaint is that given that they were already there, they could provide the service, they took advantage of people. Seriously, from $200 to $1700? It’s downright disgusting greed. Especially when you have people crying to get on and get out, and they’re going, nope sorry I have to get my suitcases out of here first, or no, sorry you don’t have enough money to get out of this situation.

There were two other companies there, charging the fair rates. Why should we not shame Aerotour for being so freaking greedy? That was not business and demand, pure greed and taking advantage of people’s desperation.

Another point, I think it showed how near-sighted these people can be. Do you think all these foreigners are going to want to come back to CR? They’re going to go back and tell ALL their friends and family, never go there, we were stuck in this horrible situation and were ripped off on top of it, like you said, we should blame CNE and ICT too, but that does not give a free pass to Aerotour.

Point is, there is too much greed everywhere, agreed, but IMO it does not justify their actions. You can’t say you’re not going to call out people on wrong behavior because everyone else does it too.

For example, when I broke my wrist in Colorado while snowboarding, the lodge’s hospital bill came to be $3,500. Something that in Costa Rica would have been around ~$200… Yet you don’t see me bitching about the fact that a hospital made money of my tragedy.

Like maria says, @OutragedWitness, I am very sorry that you had to go through this, but the ones that should be whipped are the CNE. I hope that you share your experience with as many people as you can, because Costa Rica can not go on trying to sell itself as a tourist friendly country when it gives a shit about the lives of their tourists.

Personally (as I said before) I don’t know if Aensa charged 1K or 10K, that’s something that I don’t really care at all. What I do care (and was the main purpose of my previous reply) is why tourists and all victims in general had to call these companies to be rescued?.

The Government and the National Emergency Committee should be the ones monopolizing the demand of helicopters and all related services. That’s, I believe, was the main purpose of the post an all critics in general. The fact that this people had to find a way out by their self was wrong!! It demonstrates (once again) that CR is not prepared for these kind of situations.

Aensa made a decision based on business and demand. If we are going to massacre Aensa, we should do it to the rest of local and global companies as well, those that make money at other people’s suffering expense, such as private hospitals, medicine industries and why not, funeral services. And even better, we should raise our voice and criticize all the companies that cause the suffering such as the military industry.

This critic goes to the press too; I truly think that instead of spending money and time covering “Aensa’s mistake” they should be facing all government entities responsible for these types of emergencies.

Granted, they should not lose money. But to make money out of a tragedy? I know for a fact (I was there) how much the other companies were charging, it was $206 per person. That is the cost of one person in the helicopter. To charge up to $1700?? Outrageous.

Supply and demand principles should not apply in the midst of a tragedy when people’s lives and safety are in the middle.

I was there. I saw the people who could not afford to get away. I saw tourists pay the money to get themselves AND THEIR SUITCASES away to safety before other people. I was able to walk out, but many people did not have the condition to walk out.

Nothing can defend this. Sorry. And to the people up there saying that “business is business” there were two other companies at the hotel charging the $206 or around price. They were NOT taking advantage of the situation, they were not losing, and they were helping.

I had no idea they spent that much on marketing (which somehow makes sense as we depend on tourism a lot). Nonetheless, it would have made perfect sense to get the money from anywhere – or like María mentions – cut a deal with Aensa. Just like you mentioned, it would have been awesome headlines:

“Costa Rican Tourism Committee charters emergency helicopters to rescue stranded tourists” :ninja:

(or something catchier, my marketing skills suck!)

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Nice blog. The Tico blogosphere needs more of this.