LAN Airlines

On the ground LAN are hopeless. We arrived in Santiago on December 31 only to find that our continuing flight to Buenos Aires didn't exist. Trying to find a customer service agent in the terminal was fruitless as there is no service desk in the departures area at SCL. Eventually I had to call the US office to get us transferred to a later flight - 10 hours later. Tonight I tried to print boarding cards for our return to JFK our requested seats had already been taken and a 30-minute call to customer service resulted only in the advice to "get to the airport early."

SFO to Lima. During the flight the call button was never acknowledged. When I flagged someone down to ask for a beer as I saw others receiving them the flight attendant rolled her eyes shook her head and said "no there is none" and walked away. I saw other attendants serving beer so I asked another FA who brought one. When I to the restroom attendants were telling jokes and chatting while people were walking to the back to ask for water as call buttons were ignored. Cusco-Lima-Quito. Air traffic control were on strike so things were running behind. We exited in Lima in a panic I found 2 LAN employees chatting and asked where my gate was - they stopped talking to each other one walked away and the other turned her back and got on her cell phone. I asked again and she turned around put her finger in my face and yelled one moment at me in Spanish. I ran to the gate where boarding had closed 4mins earlier. I persisted and she finally let me on. However due to the air traffic control strike we sat with the airplane door open for the next 3 hours. Bottom line they have the worst possible customer service.

Various internal flights in Chile and then SCL-EZE. Service on the ground and in the air was excellent. Comfortable aircraft and good leg room.

September 24th from Los Angeles to Lima and then Lima Buenos Aires. Both flights were on a 767-300 economy class is very comfortable. The entertainment system was varied but the same for both flights. Dinner and breakfast delicious and crew friendly every time I asked them for something they quickly brought it to me. An enjoyable flight.

JFK-GYE-UIO Dec 9th Business Class. Flight departed on time. Business class seats are comfortable cabin clean and inflight entertainment good. Dinner service on 6.5 hour flight departing at 11.05 pm and no breakfast or coffee served before arrival. Dinner was decent and wine list excellent. Cabin crew professional but no smile or efforts to welcome passengers. Sour faces and attitude when request to refill my wine glass. The nightmare began when I arrived to GYE. Two more international flights arrived at the same time and it took more than an hour to collect my bags. Priority tags placed on my bags were no help. It took another hour to clear customs and when I left customs area I was informed I needed to go to the second floor of the terminal and drop my luggage to make my connection to Quito. When I arrived at LAN's counter I was informed my 7.30 am flight was closed and had to wait until 3 pm to go on the waiting list. LAN representatives at GYE airport were rude disrespectful and arrogant. After begging for 1 hour I was able to obtain a seat at 10 am I had to check my bags again and arrived to Quito 3 hours later. My inbound flight to JFK was decent. The cabin looked dirty and once again some crew members were serious and annoyed. Food was ok and all flights on time. Overall LAN service from JFK-GYE-JFK in business class is satisfactory service could be better though. If you have a connection with LAN and you are in transit to Quito good luck.

UIO-SCL on Airbus A319 operated by Lan Ecuador. Night departure from Quito 10.30 pm with stopover in Guayaquil. Food served then duty-free sales and lights off from 2.15 to 4.30 am. Seats hardly reclinable rows very narrow. Seats one row in front and behind emergency exits were rigid. Virtually no sleep was possible. Crew was polite but not helpful. English languages announcements were virtually incomprehensible. Poor airline and crew service.

Nov-Dec 11 - JFK-GYE-UIO return. I only flew LAN Ecuador so cannot comment on other LAN branches. LAN has an excellent business class hard product especially for Latin America. The business class cabin is roomy and feels open the seats are very comfortable. The IFE is good plenty of movies and shows enough to keep me busy on a 6-7 hour flight. The food is very good I had fish both ways very nice meals. The problem I experienced both ways was with the service. The attendants are courteous however attentiveness drops significantly when you do not speak Spanish. On both trips it was very obvious Spanish speaking passengers received somewhat better service. All attendants seemed to speak English they were simply not keen on practising it. I would expect flight attendants on an international route to provide consistent service to all passengers. To sum it up despite this small annoyance LAN was an excellent value for the money I would recommend without hesitation. Lounge in GYE is ok but nothing to write home about.

Flew LAN in September from Santiago to NYC in business class having changed from an American flight due to my schedule changing. As a 2 million mile AA flyer I always default to AA and this was the first time I had flown LAN. Great service charming staff that were pleasant and served you rather than bark at you food that was a big cut above the AA food. 180 degree real flat beds unlike the slanted concoction AA still has. Same fare but what a feeling of upgrade. Business on LAN is better than First on AA. Entertainment about the same quality.

My wife and I flew from Cusco through Lima to Miami in economy. After having flown to Peru on American Airlines this was a very pleasant experience. The 767 looked new the seats were comfortable the food was as good as could be expected for "airline coach" food. Individual entertainment systems worked well with many choices. Even though we had a restroom behind us the seats "reclined" by virtue of the seat bottom sliding forward. American was shabby in comparison.

MEX-LIM-CUZ return flights were outstanding. Food free and very good quality. Cabin crew made constant rounds through the cabin on both of the long legs. The shorter legs were OK for 1 hour flight. All flights on time. Baggage always arrived. Seats were a bit stiff and lacked lumbar support however the inflight entertainment was excellent.