Lan-Chile Airlines

Recently flew to chile with my wife and young son. On the way there the seat were too tight, and we had no space. The food was OK and the services was OK. On the way back it was even worse. We were separated despite using the computer and calling the day before to make sure our seats were together! They took forever to load the plan, and were extreemly unhelpful and unorganized! We finally worked it out with other passengers, but Lan was useless and impotent. The only thing they got right was giving us a free drink for doing their job for them! Terrible! But I gave them two stars as the flight down was OK, and the plans are nice.

I’m flying international for over 40 years with few problems, this is the absolute worst customer service extortion in my experience.
I was 2 hours & forty five minutes early for a JFK-​BUENOS AIRES flight and was told the check in was closed. Nobody at JFK to assist, called the LAN 800 number which is a very bad internet line tol Chile, it was almost impossible to understand them. Then they said I must pay $ 650. extra for a flight the next day. This is criminal.
One month later I found out the new fare did not give miles, I spent a small fortune and no miles, fuk them. They never mentioned this when I paid the extra $ 650.
NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, EVER, FLY THIS AIRLINE, PERIOD!

I used Lan-​Chile for years and in general they are OK. But last February when we had a snow storm in NY they canceled my flight and wanted to charge me the current fair in order to book me in another airplane. After one week of fighting I was able to get on airplane and go on vacation. Needless to say that I lost one week of my vacation.

I had the unfortunate idea of booking a LAN ticket via Expedia for a recent trip to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy the insurance policy (although in reading the rules I found out it wouldn’t have been applicable to my situation anyway) and due to my mother being hospitalized repeatedly, I had to change my flight — no joke — four times. Since I didn’t know how long she’d be in the hospital I hoped to get a credit with the airline to fly at a later date. After being told by Expedia to call LAN directly and calling a maze of customer service numbers, I was very rudely informed that theirs was a «use it or lose it» policy — no matter what the reason for the change — and there would be no refunds or credits. I explained that it was a medical emergency and would gladly provide a hospital note if need be, but my plea fell on deaf ears.
So, now after having to re-​book my flight several times thru Expedia and paying change fees out the wazoo — I just hope that the airline flight will be as nice as all the reviews say because I have NEVER DEALT WITH RUDER airline customer service. Either way, I will never use LAN Airlines again.

We’ve been on the phone for 2 days trying to make new reservations on tickets already purchased. They want $ 430-​$ 530 more for each ticket although I cancelled the reservations in time when my husband had a stroke. Now he can travel it but now we can’t afford it. They may be having big $$$ problems because half of their phone lines in the U.S. and in Chile either lead to answering machines or disconnected notices.
What an airline!

Recently, I flew LAN Peru to/​from Lima to Tumbes, Peru.
What an airline! Better than anything with a US Flag on its tail wing. In remarkable contrast with most services in Latin America – this company is epitome of efficiency that’s also incredibly punctual – with 30 minute aircraft turn-​arounds (eat your heart out SWA).
Plus a young, mostly Airbus fleet. All leather seating. Individual seat-​back televisions with choice of a dozen tv shows or movies (although not live satellite feed).
And great attendants. If headed to South America – fly LAN out of NY Kennedy, Miami or LAX. BTW they are a OneWorld affiliate airline – so they have code shares with AA and you can earn and use your AADVANTAGE miles with them.
One final FYI: If booking LAN for domestic S. American flights – the LAN​.COM website charges more than twice a Peruvian’s fare when you identify yourself as a U.S. resident (my LIM-​TBL flights were $ 150RT for peru site users to $ 450RT for US users!). Yet, she site won’t accept .U.S. Credit Cards from peru users So, I went through a Lima travel agency and it cost me $ 225 – still half the $ 450.

Back in June, I flew LAN Peru (same parent company as LAN offspring LAN Ecuador, LAN Chile, and LAN Argentina) to Lima. Like Maria, I enjoyed myself so much, I could have flown there and back and would consider that a respectable vacation. No, I kid. But a pleasurable experience.
First of all, they don’t treat you like you’re 5 years old or developmentally challenged and assume you know to put on a seat belt to avoid propelling through the air during turbulence. If you don’t, you have no business flying. Airlines in the U.S. waste SO MUCH FRICKIN’ time when the seatbelt NAZI goosesteps though the aisle, telling you to put your seatbelt on, stow your belongings under the seat in front of you or in the compartment above. And does anyone really pay attention to the safety demonstration? If God-​forbid, we lose cabin pressure, need to make an emergency water landing, or there’s a monster on the wing, I’ll be one hysterical hot mess trying to consume the entire plane’s worth of alcohol to calm my nerves. What’s my excuse now, I hear the peanut gallery asking?
But I digress. yes, no unnecessarily long safety demonstrations. And guess what? They actually depart on time. Right on the dot.
Can we talk about GORGEOUS flight attendants, male and female? Not some middle-​aged matron named Shirley from St. Louis wearing copious amounts of blue eye shadow who snarls when you have the audacity to ask for the whole can of Diet Coke. Good, multilingual movie selections on the back of each seat.

I had the pleasure of taking LAN Chile from Buenos Aires to Santiago a week and a half ago. When the flight ended, I almost had to be dragged from my seat!
They have these nifty screens on the back of every seat, and it is not just for watching movies or TV or airline safety business. This one has loads of music on it, and you can actually make a playlist, which is great for long flights. You can also learn useful phrases in French, Italian (Io sono Americana!), German, Japanese (Toire wa doko desu ka?), Russian (Sdrazvuytye!), etc.
There is slightly more leg room between rows, and they actually feed you. No, you don’t have to pay for it. And it’s good food. We just got a snack, but I wonder what dinner must be like… The blankets were of alpaca wool and the earphones were free. The plane took off and landed on time. The bathrooms are clean, and they even have special Eau de LAN Chile cologne so you don’t get off of a long flight all stinky and whatnot.
The view of the Andes was phenomenal, too.
As God is my witness, I am never flying American to Argentina or Chile again. Apparently, American is getting so bad that the pilots don’t even show up on time anymore. Anyway, I don’t even care that to get to Buenos Aires, I have to stop in Santiago first. This is an excellent airline. LAN used to be Varig Airlines, and there’s also LAN Ecuador, LAN Argentina and LAN Peru. A note about LAN Peru: I took this from Santiago back to Buenos Aires, and I was extremely disappointed. We still had the good service, the sandwiches and a little entertainment, but it just wasn’t the same…
*A tip for American, Canadian, Australian and Mexican citizens flying to Chile: It costs $ 100 to get in the country. They call this «Tarifa de Reciprocidad» or something like that: Reciprocity tax. This is because our wonderful US no longer grants visas to Latin Americans unless they have jobs or own a home or property. So the US consul takes money paid for the US visa whether they grant it to the traveler or not, and I’ve heard they’ve made a pretty penny off this strategy. I can’t blame the Chileans at all. Nope.