Tame Airline
Several Flights to Cuenca

Tame Airline (it's pronounced "tah-may") flies from both Quito and Guayaquil to Cuenca on a daily basis. Flights are inexpensive, but their website is infuriatingly difficult to use (more on that below).

Tame flights are some of the first, and some of the latest, to come into and leave the Mariscal Lamar Airport in Cuenca. That's good news if you need to make a day trip and don't want to spend the night in Guayaquil or Quito.

Quito

There are as many as 7 flights per day to and from Quito, the most of any of the airlines.

Quito to Cuenca

• The first flight leaves at 7:15 a.m. and arrives at 8:00.
• Next is 8:15 a.m., arriving at 9:00.
• The third flight is at 9:45 a.m. It arrives at 10:30.
• The first afternoon flight is at 1:30 p.m., arriving at 2:15.
• The second afternoon flight is at 2:30 p.m., which arrives at 3:15.
• The last afternoon flight leaves at 5:15 p.m. and arrives at 6:00.
• The last flight is at 6:30 p.m., which arrives at 7:15.

Cuenca to Quito

• The first flight to Quito leaves at 8:30 a.m. It arrives at 9:15.
• The next flight leaves at 9:30 a.m., and arrives at 10:15.
• The third flight departs at 11:00, which arrives at 11:45.
• The first afternoon flight is at 2:45 p.m. It arrives at 3:30.
• The second afternoon flight leaves at 3:45 p.m., and arrives at 4:30.
• The first evening flight is at 6:30 p.m.. It arrives at 7:15.
• The last flight is at 7:45 p.m., which arrives at 8:30.

Guayaquil

There are as many as three flights per day to and from Guayaquil.

Guayaquil to Cuenca

• The first flight is at 7:00 a.m., arriving at 7:30.
• Next is 8:00 a.m., arriving at 8:30.
• The last flight leaves at 6 p.m., arriving at 6:30.

Cuenca to Guayaquil

• The first flight to Guayaquil is at 8:00 a.m., arriving at 8:30.
• The second flight leaves at 9:00 a.m., and arrives at 9:30.
• The final flight of the day is at 7:00 p.m. It arrives at 7:30.

Ticket Prices and Payment Options

Round-trip flights are usually less than $100 per person, including the taxes and airport fees.

At the airport or through a Tame office or an agency, cash and credit cards can be used. Online, only credit cards can be used. But here's where it gets ugly. You can't use your credit card unless you have Verified by Visa, MasterCard SecureCode, or Diners Club PayClub.

As soon as you try to continue on from the home page to book your flight, you see this message (if you're on the English version of the site):

Dear Customer:

1. For security reasons, when making your first payment with VISA or MasterCard or Diner Club, you must enroll in Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode systems, or PayClub (Diner Club), otherwise your transaction will not be successful. If the bank that issues your credit card is not affiliated to these security systems, you will not be able to purchase through tame.com.ec.

If you plan to pay by credit card, be sure that your card's verification system is set up first, or you'll have the problem we had. By the time we set up SecureCode for Jeff's MasterCard, the Tame system dropped the reservation, but billed us anyway.

We're still dealing with Tame and Jeff's Canadian bank about this, over a month later.

Contact Information

The Tame website is www.tame.com.ec. But we recommend that you not use it. Here's why...

As mentioned, the Tame web site is difficult to use. The message mentioned above will appear the first time you try to book a flight (and any subsequent use if you don't book a flight).

Unfortunately, the page that opens after leaving the home page takes you to your return flight, not to the outbound flight. So you can't choose an outbound flight. And the return flight page has no button or link to move forward.

And, of course, there's the credit card issue discussed above.

Book through an agency, or at the airport (especially if you're flying from Quito, where some flights leave one hour apart). Unfortunately, you'll usually end up paying more in person than you will online.

You can also buy at a Tame Airline office. Click on the Contact Us link in the top right of the Tame website for a list of offices in various Ecuadorian cities, as well as Cali, Colombia, and Miami, Florida.

Or call Tame at 593 (2) 3977100 (inside Ecuador, call 02-3977100). Or toll-free inside Ecuador at 1800-500800.

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