LATAM Airlines

Not Verified | I was flying from Belo Horizonte to São Paolo and first the flight got moved making me lose my connection to Mexico City. And because of that, they changed our flight telling us the wrong information about what we would get as a compensation. The man said to pick up our luggage in São Paolo. Once we arrived to São Paolo, another man giving vouchers clearly said we shouldn’t pick up our bags because it was directly moved to our final destination. We double (even tripled) asked to make sure as we have been told otherwise, and he assured our bags were on the right track. 12 hours later we arrived finding out that our bags are lost and nowhere to be found even though they had put them on the system even before we got out of the airport. I have been in contact with the airline through WhatsApp asking about my bag status and they only say “it takes time and that I have to wait”. I have asked information about where to go in the airport as I’m flying today to another destination, so I can check directly in the airport but they only can say I need to ask at the airport, not providing any useful information about which terminal or desk should I ask. Not traveling with Latam airlines again, that’s for sure.

✅ Trip Verified | Latam Changed my flight schedule, so I cancelled my trip. Unfortunately it is not possible for them to return my money because I have a European Bank account. I tried 2 of my personal accounts and now I'm trying to transfer it to a Friend in Ecuador so she can transfer me the money. Now its almost 2 months later and I still don't have my money. This overall customer service experience is the worst I have had.

✅ Trip Verified | I had a brand new suitcase, and after traveling from Lima, Peru to Quito, Ecuador. I discovered it had two vertical lines across the back and on one it had a cut about an inch long. I had already left baggage, so I went to their counter, and they told me I had to wait 15 minutes for an employee to show up, then they told me 5 more minutes 3 times. I had a shuttle waiting for me, so I took down the employees name and badge number along with a picture of the suitcase. I reported it when I got home and I got a response that says: We want to inform you that to ensure that your experience is the best possible, we have evaluated the background information you have provided and unfortunately, the damages claimed are not included in our compensation policy, since they correspond to those that may occur during the transfer. as a consequence of the normal and habitual handling of luggage such as: scratches, dents, cuts, stains, wear, damage caused by excess weight, or loss of protruding external elements, such as straps, locks or pockets. I guess if you like your luggage, don't fly LATAM.

✅ Trip Verified | LATAM is fine as long as there are no issues. Our flight got cancelled due to maintenance issues and that's when the trouble started. LATAM personnel is constantly contradicting itself and providing wrong information. They are badly organised in case of a calamity such as a cancellation which causes long and unnecessary waiting times for their costumers under stressful conditions. The company does not give the compensation that it is legally required to provide. The personnel does not seem to care about their customers. Simply no respect for their customers.

✅ Trip Verified | In January 2020, I bought a round-trip ticket from Sacramento to Lima for June 2020. Subsequently, the trip was cancelled by the tour company due to Covid. I called LATAM and was told that I could hold open my ticket until the next year. My tour was rescheduled for June 2021 and I rebooked flights on LATAM. The 2021 trip was also cancelled by the tour company due to Covid. I spoke by phone with a LATAM agent who told me my ticket would be held open until June 13, 2020. My tour was rescheduled by the tour company for June 2022. In early March 2022, I began trying to rebook my flights. This turned out to be an absolute nightmare and ultimately unsuccessful. I lost track of the number of attempts I made to rebook this ticket, but it had to be over 20. For about a week, I made several calls daily that resulted in waiting for extremely long times for my call to be answered, only to be cut off. I waited about a week before I started calling again. Now my calls were answered, but I couldn’t believe I was dealing with the same airline I had dealt with in 2020 and 2021. With one or two exceptions, every agent had such poor English that it was extremely difficult to communicate, I never really felt they understood what I wanted, and I, in turn, could barely understand them. Several times, I had to tell someone that I would just have to try another agent. The background noise level was extreme. I had to terminate several calls because it was impossible to hear. With one exception, the agents did not seem to know how to do their job. They told me, variously: that I should use the LATAM website (not seeming to know that you can’t use an open ticket on the website, nor book legs on other airlines), that it was not possible to rebook my ticket, that the flight I wanted did not exist (when I was looking at it on the website), that it was impossible to book SMF-LAX with them (after hearing that several times, I dropped the SMF-LAX portion and just focused on LAX-LIM), that I would have to go from LAX to LIM via Santiago and Miami, in that order (two agents told me this). Finally, I got an agent with good English on a clear line, who was able to book exactly what I wanted. When we were nearly finished, he put me on hold - and the call was dropped. That was when I gave up and bought tickets online. I had to book the SMF-LAX leg separately on another airline. I sent all the above information to the airline with my request for a refund of the $2198.09 I'd paid for the original ticket. After a very long time, they told me I could not have a refund because I'd been told in the beginning that I should rebook my open ticket.

Not Verified | Booked to go from Auckland to Peru and then back again. Half way through our holiday they cancelled our flight home. Had to spend two days of the holiday trying to sort out flights home. They gave us one option - leave three weeks later going via Brazil. When we complained they then gave us another option to go via Los Angeles on the day were were supposed to leave but then left us to sort out our ESTA visas to go through USA. I had to ring the UK to get my UK passport number as I was travelling on my NZ passport so that was more cost to me. We had paid for extra leg room seats, never got that money back! So our trip home to NZ was Lima to LA, LA to Sydney Australia (on Qantas) and then Sydney to Auckland with Qantas. Our original flight from Lima to Auckland was available with Qantas their partner airline but because we had booked originally through LATAM they could not arrange us to go with Qantas, yet they could from LA and Sydney. Go figure. We then had to pay again for extra legroom seats which when we got on the plane the cabin crew knew nothing about and I had to complain and show them the payment receipt as LATAM had given us the wrong boarding passes. The cabin crew then gave the other seats in extra legroom to other passengers who had not paid! We were treated dreadfully on the LATAM flight. Was soooo glad to board Qantas flights - we had to pay a extra for their leg room seats but once the crew had heard of our plight the Qantas crew made us feel so comfortable and brought us treats. When we got home I wrote to LATAM to tell them of our experience and they could not be bothered, we do not give refunds was their response. I got really annoyed with them and their couldn't be bothered response and informed them as as a travel and tourism teacher I would using their customer service as an example of not what to do. They are now a case study in my class and the students pretend to be useless LATAM customer service and flight crew and the students critique what was bad service and what a good airline company should do. I use the emails they send and even have a script which the students use. So one positive came out of the experience. The annoying thing is that I want to go back to South America but the thought of flying this useless crew is so off putting. Even if I book with Qantas you may end up with this bunch. My advice for anyone thinking of booking with LATAM / or forced to book with them - warn your employees you may be three weeks later back to work. Take all documentation needed to enter a variety of different countries around the world so you meet their visa requirements and also currencies of those countries so you can by a drink while waiting in the numerous airport lounges you will be forced to wait in. Or just walk home!

Not Verified | Totally underwhelmed by this airline. In the first instance, ticket was expensive. The food service for the short leg of the trip from Brisbane to Auckland was pathetic. Even worse for the Auckland to Santiago leg with the main meal being a dried piece of chicken breast with a small portion of plain rice. It was served on a flat discardable plate with aluminium foil covering. It did not look appealing at all. Not warm enough, chicken hard to cut with plastic cutlery, needless to say the meal was very dried and cold. We were served a cold bread roll with no butter. Only one round of drinks. Breakfast was an omelette however, it didn’t have any ham or cheese. Seats are very uncomfortable. Not enough cushioning. I had to wait 4 hours to catch my flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires. This was not the case when I booked the flight - only 1.5 hours transit. Their app is totally useless, you don’t get any alerts, emails or text messages to the various changes they made to my itinerary. My flight back was even worse. They changed my transit time from Buenos Aires to Santiago from 1.5 hours to 10.5 hours. It took me two days to get back home, totally exhausting. I do not recommend this airline. It seems to me that it’s closer to being a budget airline even though prices are not. I wasn’t even asked for feedback so i guess not interested in pleasing their customers. I won’t use them again.

Not Verified | Flying with LATAM has been my worst flight experience so far. Despite involving a 30 min flight, I managed to experience a 12h delay (which would have been acceptable if they would have done as legally required, meaning warning the passenger of a change in the flight schedule). They advanced my flight 2h, I was coming in with an international connection and had my boarding pass. I show up at the airport and the flight is not programmed, instead of being guided, I was forced to do a super long line (baggage drop off) at 4am in the morning, fight to get my luggage, and fight to get a flight rescheduled. Apparently this was all the "weather". I fail to see how worldwide emails stop, and the customer service of an international airline collapses, when it rains in one city in Colombia but this is so far their explanation. On top of this, they take months to treat every customer claim. If you can, avoid this company at all costs.

Not Verified | Don’t ever buy flexible ticket because will never be able to change the dates because their website give error always. They change the date and time of your flights without explanation - they don’t have reachable customer service. The arrival time to make the connection of flights are not compatible we had only 15 minutes to arrive there in Madrid airport after taking a continental flight (10 hours flight). The seats at the plane are too tight and we were not able and limit water in a continental flight.

✅ Trip Verified | I bought a LATAM ticket from Cusco to Santiago with a layover in Lima. To begin my travels, in Cusco, where I was told I must be approved to enter Chile or I could not leave for Lima. I provided my very recent (3-hour-old) negative Covid test and tried to download the c19 paperwork, as those were the two stated requirements. There was technical trouble with downloading the document, but the LATAM rep said no worries, it is not that important. You have your Covid test, vaccines and boosters, US documents, etc. LATAM approved me to Chile. (Personal Note: My daughter, who was teaching English in Cuzco had been sick with stomach pain, so if I was not approved, I would have stayed in Cuzco with her.) In Lima, they said the representative in Cuzco was wrong, and I could not go to Chile. I was there hours early. So, I asked for help in getting this document, and they blew me off! Would not help. Essentially, they triaged me and helped all others, mostly Latin Americans. They further assured me three different times a certain gentleman was in charge of the flight would make sure everything cleared. Every time I went to speak with him, he brushed me off. Furthermore, they snuck behind my back, lied to me about getting me on, then asked me my name and passport number so they could pull my luggage from the flight because they knew no one at LATAM would help me. I wrote and called the airline and they did not help.