Tenerife Airport, North Or South is part of Still The Best Trip Report.
I should’ve been more modest with the name of this Trip Report. Less than 24 hours into trip planning and I have already made a mistake. The booking was Iberia in business from SJU–MAD–TCI for 51,000 Avios and $129. That is a great deal compared to retail price of over $11,000 (see Still The Best: Canary Islands, Cabo Verde Booked!). My joy was taken away when I found out that Tenerife has two airports: one in the north and one in the south. I, of course, booked the wrong one, the one in the north.
While I am one to admit when I make travel gaffes (see TPOL’s Travel Lessons), I’m going to make the case that I am not to blame for this one. Here’s why this isn’t my fault with the reasons ranging from weakest to strongest.
- Who would think that such a small, remote island would have multiple airports that service the same airline?
- Was it unreasonable to trust Iberia’s website? I typed ‘Tenerife’ in the destination box. One destination appeared. If I type in NYC and it says ‘all airports,’ I know there are multiple airports.
- How would I know there is a north and a south airport without independent research? On the booking page, the destination also said Tenerife. I reasonably selected the flight that arrived earliest in Tenerife.
- Unless I’m checking to see if it is QSuites, who is clicking on details for a short-haul flight? Only by clicking on the flight details would I have seen that there is a Tenerife South and a Tenerife North.
Ultimately, I changed my reservation to arrive in Tenerife South. I reasoned that arriving later in the day was better than spending over $100 to take a taxi from the north. Had I kept the original flight, it is safe to assume that I would have missed my connection anyway as 1:25 is not enough time to transit in Madrid’s terrible airport (see Connecting in Madrid? Pack Extra Time & Connecting in Madrid: Pack Extra Time Part II).
If you’re curious as to why I want to stay in the south part of the island and not the north, here’s why: Prior to booking, I knew that all the action was in the south and, per my friend, was told that the only thing to see in the north was the elderly on their mobility scooters.
PRIOR TO BOOKING, YOU WERE TOLD by your friends. But you still oops. Your faults.
Secondly, you didn’t mention you were searching via third party website (hence QSuite) instead of direct booking with IB.
It’s still POOR PLANNING. YOUR FAULTS. STOP WHINING
1. Why are you using capital letters? Are you angry? Relax.
2. I was told to stay in the south of the island, I wasn’t told to FLY TO THE SOUTH OF THE ISLAND (borrowing your caps immaturity to make my point)
3. Can you see the pictures? They are on Iberia’s website. I was comparing booking on qatar’s website and checking the details to make sure that I was in a plane that had the Qsuite hard product.
So you know nothing. I award you zero points. And may god have mercy on your soul.
Lol, imagine thinking QSuite is a travel agency
lol
Well, you did input Tenerife and it returned TCI – which is the area code for TFS and TFN just like TYO returns both NRT and HND. And St Lucia has UVF and SLU.
Yes but in the results for Tokyo, as I said about NYC, it will show HND and NRT. No one reads the whole post or they take the blame me approach because they’re all experts in Tenerife airports.
I think this discovery is begging for a TPOL exposé: which is the REAL Tenerife?
Ooh a Tenerife airport comparison