LAN LANPASS - Held captive on flight 2026 CUZ-LIM for 15 hours - January 10, 2012

Am finally in my hotel room in LIM after being held captive on a flight from CUZ to LIM due to the mess in LIM today. Boarded plane in CUZ around 10am and sat on the tarmac for a couple of hours before we took off. Flight was diverted to Pisco where we landed around 1:40pm and sat until midnight. No one allowed off the plane in Pisco. Plane finally arrived in LIM around 1am.

15 hours on a plane for a flight that should've taken 1.5 hours. Throughout the ordeal LAN never apologized and just kept saying it isn't their fault it is the airport's fault. The circumstances that started it may have been due to the airport and not the airline but there is no reason the airline should have kept passengers captive for 15 hours on the plane.

LAN is also pointing the finger at the airport in their statement here (http://www.lan.com/es_pe/sitio_personas/noticias/comunicados-de-prensa/a-nuestra-comunidad).

They say that Pisco airport didn't have "services, equipment or personnel" to allow passengers to disembark. The crew also went over their maximum hours so they couldn't operate the flight to Lima.

Wow lexi, sorry for you, that would have made me go mad!

This kind of airline behaviour is exactly why in the Sates they passed the law that if you had to sit on the tarmac for more than 7 hours there are big fines to the airline... which has proven to be a double-edged sword though, airlines are cancelling more flights in the States to avoid risk of the fine.

Wow, now for all those people that ask

"Flying CUZ LIM | LIM LAX, how much time do I need between connections?"

The answer will be 15 hours.

LAN is also pointing the finger at the airport in their statement here (http://www.lan.com/es_pe/sitio_personas/noticias/comunicados-de-prensa/a-nuestra-comunidad).

They say that Pisco airport didn't have "services, equipment or personnel" to allow passengers to disembark. The crew also went over their maximum hours so they couldn't operate the flight to Lima.

What I find interesting about that statement is it is dated January 9. If this had also happened the day before, why would LAN continue to divert the next day to an airport "without services"?

Also, the fact that they wouldn't allow us off the plane is ridiculous. Other planes had stairs pulled up to them to allow offloading of people. Also, at 11pm when we finally taxied a few hundred feet to refuel, miraculously passengers were suddenly able to leave the plane and came back with cold drinks and snacks. Why hadn't that been permitted in the 13 previous hours?

Why did LAN ever allow this flight to depart from CUZ in the first place and/or return to CUZ or another airport with services?

Completely frustrated, tired, and hungry. Off to have my first meal in 24 hours since no food was available when we got to the hotel last night.

Wow, now for all those people that ask

"Flying CUZ LIM | LIM LAX, how much time do I need between connections?"

The answer will be 15 hours.

Thanks for this post. I needed a good laugh after yesterday. :p

Having done a similar flight a month ago I feel for the OP's frustrations. If it had have been me, the prospect of one packet of HAVANA snacks in 13 hrs would have sent me into a homicidal mode. I do assume the crew gave those out? And I hope it wasn't obvious to the passengers when the crew consumed their meals?

More importantly, what COMPETENT airline would even allow the flight to board in the first place kowing that LIM - the destination and country hub was a problem - unless they had no idea that doing runway works in LIM in the fog might impact on operations :rolleyes: Or was this just one big "surprise" to everyone?

Incredibly unacceptable and I am so sorry you and your fellow passengers had that experience. And probably what's worse is there will be no recourse for your troubles.

I finished a month of travel within SA on LAN (OneWorld Visit-SA tix) with just one moderately serious glitch, but did learn that whatever happens is CERTAINLY NOT LAN'S FAULT. Their whole culture must have grown up based on believing that 'the dog ate my homework' is a respectable answer.

Note that 'just one..glitch' does not mean that I came away with LAN at the top of my favorites list. I spent the month in a paranoid state waiting for them to do something else to me, perhaps because their ground staff seemed generally humorless and unforgiving. Because my Spanish was rudimentary so I took advantage of their English?

I finished a month of travel within SA on LAN (OneWorld Visit-SA tix) with just one moderately serious glitch, but did learn that whatever happens is CERTAINLY NOT LAN'S FAULT. Their whole culture must have grown up based on believing that 'the dog ate my homework' is a respectable answer.

The whole of South America grew up learning that externalising blame is acceptable. It's called Catholicism. Nothing is anybody's fault. Did you also notice that in the absence of knowing the correct answer to a question then a lie, a guess, or answering a question that wasn't asked is preferable to saying that you don't know the answer? Lies also come in useful if they know the answer but think you might not like it.

It's OK once you learn to play the game and join in.

When asked "Did you have sex with my sister?"

The answers become

a) No
b) 4 o'clock
c) Your god made me do it to test your faith

I think that's funny but I am not really sure.
BTW, any pics of your sister?

I think that's funny but I am not really sure.
BTW, any pics of your sister?

a) I don't have a sister
b) I have sent you a PM with a link to her her website.
c) whatever

Point being, if you come on a trip to South America it is easy to take home with you an impression that LAN is hopeless and nothing is their fault but it just so happens that they are the only people you have a professional relationship with. Stick around, get a mobile phone contract, open a bank account, try and rent a car from Hertz Bogotá etc. And you will see that the whole continent suffers the same condition.

And it is even imbedded in the language! Whenever you drop your beer bottle it is acceptable to say “Que se rompió”, as in the reflexive, “It broke (itself)”. No blame there. :)

I agree with the above, at least there are parts of LAN that are professional. Not to be found in the telephone companies where you have to have a chat with their lawyer to get it (maybe) resolved, even though you have proof in your hand and showed it to 5 minions before. :mad: Or the banks where the branch office sends you to the head office for (no) satisfaction. :mad: Or.. most everything. It is endemic. But you do learn, and it does get a bit easier when you learn to read the body language and the I-can't-do-anything-more smile. But for sure, the frustration when you first encounter it is understandable.

I feel for the OP - this shouldn't happen to anyone

But you guys made me laugh with the observations on SA life. I think as a visitor to the continent you have to be careful not to walk away with the impression that nothing works. Well, maybe it doesn't, or at least not hoy, and not tomorrow either, but maybe manana.

But, learn and deal with it and you can enjoy a whole continent. And laugh when you give it back to them the same they give it to you.

By the way, and to take this back a bit more on topic, I've met several LAN head office employees in a professional capacity, and actually they're pretty good usually. Maybe it is the Latin attitude to service professions, and the inherent reluctance to take decisions at lower levels that might cause these service breakdowns.

On the upside of course, LAN has a modern fleet, an excellent safety record and all the alfajores you could ever wish to eat. Their shonky customer service is relative as when they took over Aires Colombia complaints against the airline dropped by 60%*

So one man's "Irritating denial of culpability" is another man's "Thank god the Chileans arrived"

*Source, my taxi driver so it isn't necessarily true

On the upside of course, LAN has a modern fleet, an excellent safety record and all the alfajores you could ever wish to eat. Their shonky customer service is relative as when they took over Aires Colombia complaints against the airline dropped by 60%*

So one man's "Irritating denial of culpability" is another man's "Thank god the Chileans arrived"

*Source, my taxi driver so it isn't necessarily true

You certainly wouldn't hear the Peruvians say that :D

And it is even imbedded in the language! Whenever you drop your beer bottle it is acceptable to say “Que se rompió”, as in the reflexive, “It broke (itself)”. No blame there. :)



An American friend of mine says that too, but I am not sure it is more prevalent in Spanish than English.

"I fell pregnant" seems to me to be somewhat passive and underplays the role that 20 minutes of sweaty naked wrestling played in the scenario.

oh my goodness. so many laughs in this thread. hahahaha

By the way, and to take this back a bit more on topic, I've met several LAN head office employees in a professional capacity, and actually they're pretty good usually. Maybe it is the Latin attitude to service professions, and the inherent reluctance to take decisions at lower levels that might cause these service breakdowns.

Spot on. Employees in peru live in fear of being reprimanded, docked pay, or losing their job so they go BY THE BOOK, find a rule, hang your hat on it, no out of the box thinking allowed. Not just at Lan. Had a problem with AC and the peruvian employees in LIM acted exactly the same, found a rule and stuck to it. A quick email to AC president in canada solved the problem... a quick email to Lan president... well, impossible.

I don't mind employees sticking to the rule so long as it is the right rule.

However its often the case that they will stick to a completely irrelevant rule, and repeat it in perpetuity making the presumption that the problem is that you don't understand their irrelevant rule and not that it has toss all to do with one's circumstance.

I don't mind employees sticking to the rule so long as it is the right rule.

However its often the case that they will stick to a completely irrelevant rule, and repeat it in perpetuity making the presumption that the problem is that you don't understand their irrelevant rule and not that it has toss all to do with one's circumstance.
So true, so true: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lan-lanpass/1293172-sign-here-please.html

On that very day, I was held captive in the LIMA airport for 14 hours. Flight to MIA at 12:40pm constantly delayed before being cancelled at 5pm.

What kind of sc@@@bag decided to change the ILS system in Lima when the weather forecast was for a foggy day? And obviously not deliver overnight...

Unfortunately, the airlines and ultimately the passengers have to fit the bill when unaccountable and corrupt management decide such move.

Lima on January 10th was not a pretty sight with 95% of flights from all airlines cancelled. I noticed that TAM was serving lunch tickets to their passengers while LAN was not though.

In addition to that was the typical LATIN American FIASCO+FIESTA when something goes wrong with people climbing on the gate check-in podiums, shouting, scanding, asking for a "Gerente" (as if he would fix the ILS), people not following the queue but circling podiums and basically not letting gate agent do their job... Well a mess..

What an experience! I finally got old of a very competent and dedicated employee that was able to rebook me on DL direct to Atlanta instead of LAN to Miami followed by another reservation on AA to ATL. I can't complain...and I was glad to get out of that ordeal.

Incidentally, Chavez airport claims being the best airport in South America. With a single runway, what a joke...

Minos

Incidentally, regarding that very day (Jan 10th) I find it dubious to claim weather problem because:

- until 12h20p it was indeed bad visibility at the airport but a ceiling definitely over 200ft and a visibility well over over 2km

- from 12h20p till 1:40pm it was broken clouds at about 2000ft with pretty good visibility (over 2km)

- from 1:40pm on until dark it was cloudless and sunny

Now at this point, their pilots had timed out.

So in the end, I call it operation limitations due to defective equipment plus operation problems because of lack of crew. Blaming weather for the sake of escaping responsibility is a slight shortcut.

Minos