LAN Airlines

In 4 flights over 5 weeks with LAN Airlines from Santiago to Sydney via Auckland, 3 had problems. Space between seats is not adequate, families are regularly split up in the plane. We were bumped off a flight at the gate, despite having a boarding pass and lied to - plane overweight, we were last on (we booked 3 months earlier and checked in on time), we didn't even have luggage. My wife flew the last flight with a broken leg, staff in Santiago directed us to 4 different locations, before we could access a wheelchair. We were asked repeatedly "can't she just walk" She had a broken leg - we were reduced to wheeling her on a luggage trolley. When we did get a chair we were assured she would be collected and delivered to the plane. My children and I left to pass customs, my wife was forgotten by LAN staff. Left in a deserted terminal until she was able to call to a passerby for assistance - 20 minutes after the collection time. Despite cabin staff giving further assurance about organising a chair to greet us on arrival - no such request was made.

Flew LAN Airlines from Santiago, Chile to Lima, Peru and it was by far the worst flight I have been on. When I arrived at the airport to check-in I found out that they had changed my seat. I'm a taller guy so I need more leg room. They put me in the last seat on the aisle next to the bathrooms. Right in front of me was a teenager that had flight sickness and next to me on both sides were crying babies. At the same time I was bumped and leant on, I asked to be moved to another seat and the only ones available were the business class seats and I had to pay $350 to move. Now I'm back in Lima, Peru trying to fly back to Chile and they changed my flight due to delays (been sitting at the airport for 9 hours) and I attempted to try to get on an earlier flight, which by the way they had available seats, but they wouldn't bump me to that flight. Never again will I fly with LAN Airlines.

Travelling LAN Airlines back from Lima to London Heathrow via Madrid with the family in Business, the flight had a technical issue so all passengers offloaded. 4 hours later we take off and for the first leg Lima to Madrid no hot food as they have offloaded that as well - 10 hours later they serve breakfast not even sparkling mineral water. On arrival in Madrid missed connection and LAN then rebook us on a British Airways flight - but in economy not in business. So after not having any food for 11 hrs, the reward downgrade for us from our original booking class The best news the luggage had a better journey than us.

We tried to select our seats many days in advance in all three LAN Airlines planes we had to take. It was impossible to select or buy our seats in flight 600 to LAX, because the website wasn't working to select seats for this flight. We called LAN and they said they said that the website was working. We also tried to buy better seats on the phone, but they also said that we had to buy them only (which it was impossible). After many communications with them, they checked in for us (without asking for that) with different seats (35B-35C) in the flight LA600 that were different from the ones they informed us on the phone (30B-20C). Finally, we could get better seats at the counter in Cordoba. But their customer service is completely evasive and sometimes rude. Also, we made our reservation some months ago with flight LA952 at 5:00 pm from Cordoba to Santiago, and then the company changed this flight leaving at 12:00pm which caused that we had to stayed in a hotel in Cordoba and spend 8 hours in Santiago. We bought LA 952 at 5:00 pm because it was convenient for us, otherwise we would not buy that combination of flights! Also, the seats in Boeing 787 are very narrow and short, that is why we wanted to buy better seats!

Flew from Juliaca, Peru to Lima with LAN Airlines. The plane was OK. The flight was 1 hour and 10 minutes late due to delay of LIM airport departure. They offered us a complimentary hamburger while we were waiting. The aircraft was clean and the service was standard. Food was only crackers and nuts plus drinks. Staff were standard and tired. Apart from offering the burger the airline was not as expected, the 3 stars does not reflect the service that we had. On arrival to LIM we waited 15 minutes to disembark through the bridge.

Business class in a LAN Airlines Boeing 787, from Frankfurt to Madrid. Although they don't have a lounge in Frankfurt, we were able to use the new Air Canada lounge. There wasn't any lack of good food, all kinds of drinks and entertainment. The same in Madrid, using the Iberia one. Onboard the staff were taking care of all our requests. We were served a welcoming drink (pisco or sparkling wine) a very light salad and smoked ham with some of the best chilean wines. The pilot gave information about the flight, landing times, connection flights and so on. I must say I had the opportunity to fly them from Santiago to Easter island, 2 months later, in the same aircraft but this time economy and all I could say it was that except the food, which was average (not the wine and Cafe Juan Valdez) the experience was same as pleasent as the business one.

Easter Island to Santiago de Chile. LAN could be a great airline, but they are too variable to get there. This was our 5th sector in this trip and was probably the best, but it wasn't amazing. I like the hard product despite the business class seat layout being 2-2-2, it's a product like Royal Jordanian. Service is all over the place, but at least this crew tried. It was quite funny. Food is below average but the wines were great.

Brisbane to Lima via Santiago. I would not use this airline again. We flew from Brisbane to Lima and experienced confusion at Santiago as we waited for flight to Lima. No one really knew what was happening and we changed gates many times. When we were in Santiago we realised we had a problem with one of our flights. We could not go from Lima to Rio as we did not have a visa for Brazil so we went to LAN offices and asked for some help to change the flight. We were told this was not possible even though we were prepared to pay extra money to avoid losing our connecting flight from Santiago back to Brisbane. In fact we heard for the first time that if we didn't get on the flight to Rio all our ongoing flights would be cancelled. Catch 22 as we couldn't go to Rio as we didn't have a visa and we couldn't not go as we still wanted to return to Brisbane. LAN offered us no help at all and were totally useless at a time when we were in a country where we needed some help. We ended up booking flights with Delta to fly back to Brisbane. Moral is always fly with a decent airline - it is worth the extra cost.

Buenos Aires to Miami with LAN Airlines. On time departure and arrival. Excellent cabin staff, very good service and very good food and drink. No complaints. Will fly LAN whenver I can. Cabin clean, good individual screens and movies / music. Airport checkin was smooth.

Rio to Sydney via Santiago and Auckland. There were two staff at the check in at Rio and it took 2 hours, we had paid and booked our seats in early August for the Santiago to Auckland leg but they were allocated to someone else. The staff member gave us two seats one at the front and one at the back, after asking for a supervisor she gave us a seat one behind the other we were advised the flight was full. When I asked to speak to a manager she managed to find two seats together. We had a hour delay at Rio, a 2 hour delay at Santiago, a 7 hour delay at Auckland, the chaos at both Santiago and Auckland had to be seen to be believed. After 34 hours we finally made it home, this airline is run by muppets and if their technical / maintenance section is as inept as their front line staff they do not deserve to be flying into Australia and New Zealand.