LAN Airlines

Santiago - NY Economy. Very neat B767-300 clean interior. Surprising and very comfortable seat pitch. Tasteful dinner menu with free wine and breakfast. Reasonable entertainment selection. The most attentive crew in a long time. Compared with American LAN is by far the best choice.

I have never been subjected to so little customer care. LAN twice delayed our flight from Lima so that it was just short of 24 hours late. They could not give me accurate information on my flight whether I was actually booked and what would happen with my connecting flight from Madrid to London - which was already a problem with an overnight stay planned with the delay from Lima. The line to speak to someone in the LAN department was 3 hours long and no organisation. Unless you wish to ruin your business or pleasure trip avoid this airline. It's not that they had the problems it's the fact they have not dealt with them at all. The only good thing about this whole episode is that I have now managed to book another flight home with a more reliable carrier.

Sydney - Ushuaia. Business class to BA then economy to Ushuaia. Food great large variety of choice. Auckland - Santiago about 12 hours and flat sleeper was definitely worth it. Staff make an effort with English. Customer service at the airport was polite and efficient. Oneworld lounges at several locations are well stocked but they pack you in. Can get noisy. The aircraft all seem in good condition and despite the length of the trip were value for money and the business class comparable to other major airlines.

We booked a flight from Cusco to Arequipa on Lan. The plane flew only to Juliaca. We found out that Lan knew they were not going to Arequipa because of bad weather but decided I guess that the passengers didn't need to know. We were dumped off in Juliaca with no help in figuring out how to get to the destination we paid for. We took a long bus ride to Arequipa and arrived there at 3am. Lan did not compensate us did not help us did nothing. I would not fly this airline again.

GRU-LIM-SFO. The cabin is classy and seats recline to flatbeds. Service is quite courteous and entertainment (15in AVOD screens) is top-notch. However this is not the best flight if you want to rest. The problem has to do with flight times. The 5hour flight from GRU to LIM is too short to sleep and if you are coming from Brazil the 12am departure from LIM means that after meal service it's already 4am according to your body clock.

LAN airlines will not even let you complain. Traveling with two small children and speak very little Spanish from Santiago to Lima then Lima to Los Angeles the plane broke in Lima. I understand that planes break sometimes but the staff from LAN should communicate with passengers what is going on. After two hours of no information I noticed that everybody got up and either got in line or were leaving the gate. After asking several passengers I found out that the flight was not going to leave for 12 hours and we were supposed to go to the hotel. No one said what hotel or where it was located. In tears and clearly upset I followed other Spanish speaking passengers and 2 hours later was outside the airport getting on a bus that looked like it was going to break down without my luggage. No LAN staff members were around to tell us anything on the bus the driver communicated in Spanish that we were headed 1 hour 40 mins away to downtown Lima in rush hour traffic. It took two hours to check into the hotel where one of the passengers passed out and needed medical attention just so we could leave three hours later to travel back to the airport where they made us stand in line again to check in for the flight. I encountered around 100 LAN staff members and not one was helpful. I would ask a question and they would say they had to find out the answer and disappear. Nobody helped with connections everybody was on their own. Submitted a complaint to customer service and the response took almost three weeks and was in Spanish go figure! I will never fly LAN or any of their Oneworld Alliance carriers ever again!

Calling reservations office from USA - usually on recording for 1/2 hour or more if they answer at all - last time I gave up after 45 minutes with no answer at a non-peak calling time. I also received conflicting information on several occasions - reservations office appears to be staffed by only 2 or 3 people - problems with lan.com website are not addressed - cannot get Lanpass number through web site and if you call reservations you are told to do it on line. Agent said to send information to email address that turned out to be bogus - if you can use an agency you probably should because reservations office is incompetent and unprofessional.

SCL-TEM PMC-PUQ-SCL. First 2 legs were fine friendly service decent IFE considering they were short flights. First leg on a pretty new A318 2nd and 3rd on new A320s with comfortable leather seats. Final flight was delayed in PUQ for 3 hours 1 hour delay communicated at checkin counter afterwards no more communication. Food vouchers handed out. Once in the air another 3 hour stop at Balmaceda airport. Food vouchers handed out again. Service on the plane was good friendly FAs on all flights. Communication could have been better. Finally arrived with 6 hours of delay.

YYZ-JFK-LIM-CUZ-PEM return. The flight to JFK was fine seats leather comfy service fine. JFK flight 4 hours delayed for no reason apparently. LIM-CUZ seats still had crumbs on them and pockets still had other peoples trash in it. Seat was spacious snack provided service fine. CUZ-PEM fine with a snack. Long journey back staff at PEM airport don't speak English fair enough. But Flight attendants on the LIM-JFK don't speak English? Not even basic English like when I asked "do I have a choice of meals?" she didn't understand.

Round trip Quito to Medellin as well as Quito to Miami. The flight on B767 from Quito to Miami was superb. The seatback entertainment offering music and video was excellent and it was wonderful to fly a widebody aircraft.