LATAM Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Sydney to Rio de Janeiro via Santiago. I've just purchased 13 tickets through the Black Friday sales, trying to organise this big group to go to Brazil next year for my wedding. I purchased 3 individual tickets separately (different itinerary), then 7 tickets at the same time and 3 people opted to do the transaction using their own credit cards. As soon as the purchase of the 7 tickets was confirmed, the price for the inbound flight went from A$686 to A$1140, although this was still Sunday, the 25th November, still within the Black Friday period promising the discounts. So we were forced to buy the 3 remainder tickets with the inbound flight on the next day (7 July). This morning I checked, and the flights on the 6 July were again down to A$686!!! I called and explained the situation but there is no way they could change the flights to the day before free of charge. I then tried again willing to pay the A$100 fee to get a refund (it was a 'plus' ticket and this is in the policy). It turns out the 'plus' doesn't apply because the outbound flight was a 'light' fare, in which case the whole trip becomes 'light' (so why are they allowed to sell it in the first place???). This Black Friday is the biggest scam I've ever seen because the increase the prices the day before and then apply the discount on the increase prices, so the discount is not the percentage promised anyway. The prices increase during the sales period. There was no understanding of the situation or consideration for a client who just bought 13 flights from them and I'll never fly with them again.

✅ Trip Verified | Los Angeles to Santiago de Chile. I brought my ticket with miles through the frequent flyer program. I attempted to change the date for the outbound flight a week prior to the intended date. I called on 2 consecutive dates: Day 1, after being on the phone for over 1hour they couldn't help me because the system was not working. Day 2, after they were about to finalize my transaction and waiting 1hr 10min the call dropped. I waited for a call back for 40 min. Called back, after being on the phone for another 40min, they let me know that the price in miles is no longer the one arranged, and is now over 300,000 miles (5x the price arranged). I asked for a supervisor, he said they are not available. I asked how many were on staff, he said 2. This transaction was such a waste of my time and their time. They never attempted to call me back after the calls dropped, the price changed in a matter of minutes and they were not able to honor the offer. Supervisors are not available to speak with the costumer. This has to stop. I've flown with LAN before, the costumer service used to be comparable to market, but now as LATAM is horrible!

✅ Trip Verified | Medellín to Bogota. I’ve been abandoned here in Cali. I have an important meeting in the morning. This is why I chose to fly and not take the bus. There is no communication. Also, the gate area had a scandalous movie on, the water isn’t drinkable from the faucet. Yet, we’ve not been given anything.

Not Verified | I flew from Adelaide to Lima. On the way to Peru, I had no complaints regarding the company, they were fine. The day prior to leaving the country, I was in Cusco and checked into the flight (Lima to Santiago) and received a boarding pass with a specific seat number on this particular plane. I arrived at 10.30pm to check-in for my 2am flight in Lima the following morning only to be told that I no longer had a seat on the flight although I had a boarding pass with a seat number. I asked them how this was possible and they initially blamed my travel agent. When this was further questioned, the lady behind the desk then told me that there was a last minute change of plane and it is now smaller. I was extremely disappointed as this meant that O would miss 2 connecting flights and not be able to leave until 1pm the next day. The offered me a night in a hotel and transport, however, this doesn't change the fact that I was extremely inconvenienced. Due to this I would not recommend this airline and would do my best in the future to avoid travelling with them.

✅ Trip Verified | New York to Santiago via Sao Paulo. Terrible customer service. They left our bags in Brazil and took 6 days to get them to Santiago. They wouldn’t allow us to make a claim for reimbursement until the bags had been lost for over 24 hours. On the way back, we bought a jar of honey inside the airport (post security) and they wouldn’t let us bring it in the plane claiming that the shop was not duty free and the airline would not allow for "liquids" of over x ounces from non-duty free shops. This was all post decided by the attendants that were checking hand luggage while boarding (at the gate). They said we could go back to the store and try to get our money back, but we could lose the flight if we weren’t back on time. The 4 hour flight from Brazil also had no working entertainment. We travel a lot, and this is the worst experience we’ve had so far with an airline.

Not Verified | Auckland to Santiago. Phoning this company is a nightmare. Phoned 7+ times now, spent more than two hours to claim my miles I earned from previous flights. Prior that, I phoned (two months ago or so) to claim these same miles, I was told that they were 'getting transferred' that never happened. They never transfer your miles, this is not the first time, so if you flight with LATAM and expect to get miles, you have to be a dreamer or a big fighter with lots of patients cause you will have to phone, and fight with half this useless company.

✅ Trip Verified | Lima to Santiago de Chile. The flight was operated by a B787. As it was a morning flight, breakfast was served. Only one choice, an omelette, was available with tea or coffee. As it was a short 2 hour flight, I did not use the inflight entertainment system. Even for this short flight, a blanket and pillow were provided. Service was okay on this short sector.

✅ Trip Verified | Somehow LATAM always manages to make the boarding process more stressful by doing as little as possible for the customer. This time, they made it impossible for me to get my boarding pass online and at the airport kiosk. At the counter, even though I fully and precisely informed the agent of my final destination, she did not book me all the way through and at the gate the LATAM agents kept us barricaded off till boarding time and allowed no time or opportunity to ask them questions. This also prevented me from checking in online or at a kiosk for the final leg of my journey leading to even more wasted time.

✅ Trip Verified | Lima to Guayaquil. Had to bribe someone for my paid airline seat! Arrived 3 hours early to my flight and they told me they gave my seat away and to come back tomorrow with no compensation. I informed them I have to catch a tour the same day. They told me to wait to see if anyone is willing to change their flight. I waited 2 hours at the counter with no luck. I then held up cash and yelled to anyone in line heading to Guayaquil I am willing to pay for their seat. I thankfully had a taker. I can’t believe I had to bribe someone for a flight I paid for, checked in online and had a seat reserved! Apparently Latam doesn’t guarantee anything until you are physically in the airplane.

✅ Trip Verified | Sao Paulo to Paris. I decided to give LATAM a second chance after a bad experience between Sao Paulo and Frankfurt two years ago. After all, they have new A350s to Paris, with their "new" Premium Business cabin and service. Check-in at the GRU was fast and efficient, but the Business class boarding pass was a piece of paper similar to a fast-food ticket. I was directed to a beautiful but crowded lounge with good little bites and drinks options. This time, getting on board was on time, and I found the wide cabin looking nice in the mood lighting and properly cleaned. A undrinkable "welcome" Chilean sparkling was served and the crew distributed menus and small amenity kit. Unfortunately, double seats (2-2-2 configuration) are not private at all and I had a very annoying passenger sitting next to me and complaining loudly about the poor food and service throughout the dinner time. I cannot blame him as the food was of very bad quality as well as the wines, certainly not suitable for a Premium Business class or even an international economy class. With everything in a little tray, which was dirty and well used with lots of cracks and tears, they served a choice between a simple salad or small soup, a hard loaf from the basket, the main course of braised beef with vegetables and a slice of canned pineapple. From the wine list of 3 red wines, 1 Argentinian and 2 Chilean, only one of the Chileans was available, a cheap and inedible, acid one. The two flight attendants were polite but unable to attend the full cabin of 30 passengers in a timely manner, and while they were trying to hurry, they often forgot items such as drinks, water, bread or jumping a few seats which left some passengers really upset. It was impossible to get a second round of water, (hard) bread or drinks, but for the low quality wine, I did not complain. After dinner, toilets were already so dirty with water on the floor and other debris, very disgusting, but deteriorated even more during the flight. For entertainment, no wifi, and the system loaded with some movies and music had to be restarted 3 or 4 times due to a malfunction. At least the seat was flat and the A350 is a wide aircraft with large windows and high ceiling and I was able to sleep for a few hours. In the morning, a terrible breakfast was served with a dry and tasteless omelette, a hard bread but okay small slices of fruit and coffee. Although it is a flight of almost 12 hours, no snacks were available or any kind of service provided during mid flight. Fortunately, the flight arrived on time and I was able to quickly connect with Aeroflot for a shorter flight but for a much better experience. I travel twice a year between Sao Paulo and Europe and use different airlines. There is no reason to travel with LATAM if you can choose Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa, Tap or Swiss for the same fare.