LAN Airlines

Mexico City to Lima with LAN Airlines, and a good experience with this airline. Two checked bags for free. Good food and wine. I got three glasses and a scotch for free. Very nice! Great entertainment options. Tons of movies available. Good attentive and friendly staff. Flight was on time.

Arrived at JFK (New York) Feb 13th at 6.40am from South Africa and went to book-in for my flight to Toronto scheduled to leave at 9.25am (Flight 8730) only to be told the flight had been cancelled. Had wait until 3.30pm to get the next flight out - what an unexpected waste of my time - surely I deserve some explanation and compensation. I give LAN Airlines a zero for reliability.

Sydney to Santiago via Auckland. It had been several years since I had flown this route with LAN and it was not a pleasant return. With the new Boeing 787 flying this route there has been a deterioration in passenger comfort with very poor leg room. The food was lousy and for some strange reason the male stewards were very friendly but the females not at all so. After reaching Brazil and catching my local connecting flight with GOL I was relieved to find the GOL domestic aircraft with more leg room than the hellish seat standards that LAN offered up for a 14 hour flight - where I had to constantly contort my legs into a space that literally did not really exist.

We were booked to fly on LAN Airlines 4241 on 17 Dec from Mendoza to Buenos Aires. During check in, we were told that the flight would be delayed by an hour. In actual fact, the flight was cancelled. We only found out through fellow passengers after waiting for an hour at the boarding gate. There was no announcement during the time to inform us of the delay, perhaps there were but none was in English! It then took us hours to get the attention of any LAN ground staff member to explain what was happening and what our alternatives were. Guess not being a Spanish speaker did not help us (you would have thought English speaker is a compulsory requisite for anyone working at an airline front desk?) We finally managed to get someone's attention in the end who arranged to put us on an alternative flight (Aerolineas Argentinas) almost 12 hours later the same day. It is worthy to note that as a result of the airline staff incompetency, we have missed two potential flights bound for Buenos Aires while waiting for a response. I have since raised a request via LAN website to provide a written notice to confirm the cancellation. Unsurprisingly I have not heard back from the airline. It took them over 10 days to acknowledge receipt of my request. It will apparently take them another 30 days to assign the case to someone. Last I checked it is 'pending assignment to executive' (and it has been over 20 days). It is shame that this national airline did not do its lovely country any justice. This unfortunate event aside, as first time visitors to the region we were very impressed and appreciative of the hospitality that the locals have provided us. We hope to visit again some day but would definitely avoid travelling on LAN.

I flew Auckland to Sydney with LAN Airlines. It was my first flight on a Boeing 787 and I was impressed by the level of confort. The bigger windows with electronic shadowing is a very good difference. The entertainment is pretty good but they should increase the number of language versions. For example a documentary in the "business" session was only in Portuguese. The breakfast was not the best but fine. The cabin crew extremely friendly and with a positive mood. I would not mind to fly with them on a longer flight to fully test their product.

Efficient check-in including assistance for flight from Ezeiza to Santiago with LAN Airlines. Boarding was good with priority groups entry onboard. Seats in overwing exit rows with good legroom and comfortable. Onboard service satisfactory to class offered. No issues on arrival and claiming baggage. Onboard team pleasant and approachable. Wifi onboard with possibility to connect with inflight entertainment - great idea.

Flew LAN Airlines from Lima Jorge Chavez to Montevideo Carrasco via Santiago. Priority check-in offered with efficient service including two ticket check-ins on whole route. Lounge access in LIM and SCL, both with good area to relax and grab some refreshments. Boarding in priority groups. Seats in 1A and 2A comfortable with middle seat free in premium economy (in some of the european airlines this is called business class). Onboard team professional and friendly. Food quality and drinks very good. Wifi onboard with possibility to connect with inflight entertainment - great idea.

Santiago to Sydney via Auckland. My husband and I have flown internationally with LAN on three occasions, and each time our flight has been delayed - twice by 5 hours, and once by 16 hours! On each occasion, we have found LAN ground staff to be unhelpful and uncommunicative. On the most recent occasion, we were told that the delay was due to the fact that there were 50 more passengers booked on the flight than the plane they were using could accommodate. The ground staff's attempts at resolving the problem were a display of incompetence, and the whole process turned into an absolute debacle. Although several of the ground staff could speak fluent English, they refused to communicate or make announcements in any language other than Spanish (despite the fact that the majority of passengers on the flight were English-speaking Australians and new Zealanders). This has also been the case during our previous experiences with LAN ground staff. When my husband and I attempted to board, we were told to join a queue of 'rejected' passengers and wait for our fate to be decided. When we eventually reached the front of the queue, I asked that we be allocated seats next to each other. This appeared to enrage the staff member allocating seats, as she pushed us aside and proceeded to completely ignore us, continuing to allocate seats to people who had been in the queue behind us. When we tried to get her to communicate with us, she continued to ignore us, and laughed and joked with a person she was speaking to on the phone. By this time, there was almost nobody left in the queue, and I was becoming extremely distressed and anxious. This only appeared to cause the staff member further amusement. Eventually, my husband managed to get the attention of another ground staff member, who came and took over the computer and allocated us two seats within a few seconds. We boarded the by now almost-full plane only to find that the new seats we had been allocated were already occupied, and the only empty seats were the two that we had originally been allocated! I have never before, as a customer, encountered such deliberate and extreme rudeness, nor such incompetence. I would certainly not recommend flying internationally with LAN unless there is absolutely no alternative.

Very good product offered on this LAN Airlines domestic flight from Santiago to Calama. No delays despite both flights being full. There are small snacks and beverages served. Beautiful views over the Andes. They have also LAN entertainment offered on this flight which was nice and worked well. You have to download the app before the flight. Flown also on international sector from EZE to SCL in premium economy and again very good product you will no longer get on most European airlines. Will definitely fly with LAN again.

A month before my flight from Auckland to Sydney with LAN Airlines I called the Contact centre to order a special meal. I ordered a vegan meal, and then they sent me a new itinerary with the updated information. However when I got it I realised that it said I ordered vege lacto-ovo (meaning vegetarian with dairy and eggs, which is not vegan at all) so I called again and told them they had made a mistake. They denied and said that they did order a vegan meal, so I assumed it was a typo. On the flight they served me a meal that clearly had scrambled eggs, a tub of dairy yoghurt and some dairy milk. I told the crew that I had ordered a vegan meal, but they simply told me that they didn't even know what vegan was. I told them that it was like vegetarian but without dairy and eggs, and they replied that my meal was the best they had. They also looked at my order sheet and told me it did not say vegan on it. The crew were nowhere near as friendly as the crew from other airlines I have flown. They seem to favour passengers who can speak Spanish (which I understand is easier to talk to them, but they literally acted completely different to non-Spanish passengers). I will never fly LAN again, and if their website states they have vegan meals then maybe their staff should know what it is too.