Occasionally, an airline will do the right thing, even if it means they lose significant money in the process. The good news is that such a circumstance happened just last week. Unfortunately for folks in the U.S., the bad news is that it didn’t happen on a U.S.-based airline. It happened in Argentina.
Musical superstar Taylor Swift is in the midst of her Eras Tour, which is a concert with 151 shows across 5 continents (to date, it’s the highest-grossing tour ever by a woman and the second highest-grossing tour ever, and by its 56th show, was the second highest-grossing overall concert, ever).
Swift’s concert dates in North America and Europe are complete (although she’s scheduled more shows in the U.S. at the very tail end of the tour). She’s currently performing in Latin America.
Swift was supposed to perform in Buenos Aires on Friday, November 10th but due to heavy rain, it got rescheduled to Sunday the 12th.
I love a rain show but I’m never going to endanger my fans or my fellow performers and crew. We’ve rescheduled tonight’s Buenos Aires show for Sunday due to the weather being so truly chaotic it would be unsafe to try and put on this concert. Good news is I get to stay in… https://t.co/kibxWUwIiw
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) November 10, 2023
“I love a rain show but I’m never going to endanger my fans or my fellow performers and crew. We’ve rescheduled tonight’s Buenos Aires show for Sunday due to the weather being so truly chaotic it would be unsafe to try and put on this concert. Good news is I get to stay in Argentina longer!!” Swift said on her “platform formerly known as Twitter” account.
However, thousands of fans had traveled to Buenos Aires specifically to see her show and then planned to fly home the next day. With the concert rescheduled for two days later, they had to change their travel plans, which would typically mean a change fee.
However those flying LATAM were in for a surprise. The day after Swift said she was postponing her concert, the largest carrier in South America said they would waive both their ticket-change fees and any differences in fare if travelers flew anytime through Nov. 17.
#AtenciónSwifties: sabemos que tus planes cambiaron, por eso a partir de hoy actualizamos nuestra política de flexibilidad para que quienes tenían vuelo programado desde Buenos Aires los días 11 y 12 de noviembre. pic.twitter.com/6g1WqRSIW4
— LATAM Chile (@LATAM_CHI) November 11, 2023
“We know that your plans have changed, that’s why starting today we updated our flexibility policy so that those who had a flight scheduled from Buenos Aires on Nov. 11 and 12” …. ”
If your plans change, count on us. Visit My trips on latam.com and find out the availability of flights for the next few days
Unfortunately, it didn’t appear that LATAM had added any extra flights and some passengers said they were having difficulty finding available seats on later planes. But for those who did, it was a nice way not to have to pay a change fee that could be upwards of a few hundred dollars.
Swift’s tour has given a lift to tourism in each city she’s visited. Besides hotels near concert venues seeing significantly more business, Bernstein analyst Richard Clarke has noted that average revenue generated per room was more than 4% above the national benchmark in U.S. states during the months of Swift’s visits to various cities.
“Despite the slowing recovery in tourism in the region overall, one contact highlighted that May was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic,” Fed officials wrote in the July beige book, which summarizes economic activity. They said it was “in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city.”
Feature Photo: Taylor Swift / X (It’ll forever be Twitter to me)
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