LAN LANPASS - Certain major schedule changes eff. late 2012

Check your itineraries on N/S America routes -
I can't tell the exact date of the major changes, but it appears to be sometime in September. The most drastic change I can find is the SFO/LIM routing, which is now an evening departure, with after-sunrise LIM arrival, meaning you don't get to SCL or EZE until the afternoon. LIM/SFO becomes a day flight, meaning the SCL or EZE connection leaves before dawn's crack, and will not even have lounges open at either SCL or EZE.

Of course, the only certainty with this schedule change is that there will be more schedule changes.

Thank you for the heads-up Eastbay! So they expect me to fly from JFK arrive at LIM at 11:20PM and then wait around (in the world famous SUMAQ lounge!) until 8:30am for my connection to EZE.

Are they obliged to re-book me on a better connections? I'm not really sure what the protocol is.

Fortunately the changes are only affecting one flight so far --- everything else seems to have escaped unscathed......so far!

Eastbay, I owe you a special thanks once again! ^^^

Due to your warning I was able to call LAN and be booked on a much better connection than I had originally.

This is not the first time I have been booked in connections that I did not like because the flights I wanted were either more expensive or unavailable for upgrade or both, and then was able to change to a better combo due to LAN schedule changes. Sometimes they really open up much better options. I wonder if they are able to force upgrade availability if they are amending a reservation due to schedule changes. In any case it is a very happy ending. :)

In any case it is a very happy ending. :)

Just wait. The year is young. It ain't over. :eek:

Just wait. The year is young. It ain't over. :eek:
Oh, don't I know that!

It appears as though in my case at least that the flight whose cancellation resulted in the layover which resulted in my being able to book on a better flight combo has now been (at least for now) reinstated. So perhaps this was one of those brief windows of opportunity.

I must say also that in addition to being so happy that our fellow Flyertalkers give us a shout when these things happen, LAN in this case was super efficient, fast and polite; I couldn't have asked for a better customer service experience. Of course it's a lot easier to be satisfied when things go your way, but since I do more than my fair share of complaining about LAN I also like to remember that somethings they do get things right.

We were booked on the 1:10 am LIM-SFO flight back home, and we are much happier with the new 9:15 am departure! ^

We were booked on the 1:10 am LIM-SFO flight back home, and we are much happier with the new 9:15 am departure! ^

For O/D SFO/LIM, the new schedule isn't bad. For O/D SFO/SCL or EZE, it is crap. You used to have a full day at your destination on both ends. Now, you pretty much lose a night of sleep on the northbound (with approx. 5am departures) and lose the entire day on the return, instead of getting to the airport shortly before bedtime, and a full day upon SFO return. It also makes onward same day Chile or Argentina connections a lot less appealing on the southbound, and nearly impossible on the return, unless a red-eye domestic bank is beefed up.

Thanks Eastbay1K.
Although for my LIM-SFO return flight on Nov 13, I noticed that LA2608 is still departing at 1:20 am! I thought all LIM-SFO flights were changed to 9:15 am departures?
Very strange. It looks like there is also a LA2610 departing on Nov 13 at 9:15 am.

I wonder if my flight schedule on LA2608 will be changed soon as well to the 9:15 am departure?

This is beyond frustrating.
LA 2609 SFO-LIM was changed to an evening depature a few weeks ago, arriving in Lima in the morning. This made it impossible for me to catch my LIM-IPC flight which departs at 1:20 am. Called up LAN and had to change my SFO-LIM flight to 2 days earlier.

Checked the schedule again today and the SFO-LIM time changed back to the 12:45 pm departure again! :mad::mad: So now I need to try to change my flights back to my original itinerary. I really wish LAN would stop playing around with their times. Knowing them, they will probably change the schedule a couple more times before departure :mad:

This is beyond frustrating.
LA 2609 SFO-LIM was changed to an evening depature a few weeks ago, arriving in Lima in the morning. This made it impossible for me to catch my LIM-IPC flight which departs at 1:20 am. Called up LAN and had to change my SFO-LIM flight to 2 days earlier.

Checked the schedule again today and the SFO-LIM time changed back to the 12:45 pm departure again! :mad::mad: So now I need to try to change my flights back to my original itinerary. I really wish LAN would stop playing around with their times. Knowing them, they will probably change the schedule a couple more times before departure :mad:

I am dealing with similar. Tomorrow I have to deal with them now on an EZE/LIM/SFO with my EZE/LIM flight leaving at about 8AM (instead of 445A) but my LIM/SFO flight leaving 7 hours before I depart EZE. :eek: :mad:

Yes -- I see that I now have 18:20 (yes that's EIGHTEEN + hours!) between flights at LIM! This will be the third time I have had to change this connection in the last three months!:mad:

Thanks for the heads up anyway!

Maybe this time I should just leave it alone this time and assume this is a seasonal change and that it will change back in September?

Yes time to re-juggle my vacation. Good thing I didn't book hotels or connecting flights yet. I hope this is the final change!

Yes time to re-juggle my vacation. Good thing I didn't book hotels or connecting flights yet. I hope this is the final change!

You can hope ... but ... between now and the fall, there will be another couple of changes. One will be because of adjustment for seasonal time changes (in fairness to the airline, Chile has extended their summer time without much notice, more than once in recent years, and Argentina had an internal summertime revolt in the provinces causing it not to occur), the other will be tweaking schedules.

I have to admit that I called and they re-booked me into a much better combo than I started out with. Each schedule change has netted a benefit for me in the end. It also helps that they were polite and efficient about it.^

LAN is seriously going to be the end of me.

For those of you who have LIM/SFO flights in the fall... check your itinerary because they have updated the schedule once again. I had a SCL-LIM-SFO itinerary in November with a 2 hr layover in LIM. Noticed that my LIM-SFO suddenly was changed to 2 DAYS later! Called in and they said that the LIM-SFO flight on my original date had been scrapped. :mad::mad::mad:

LAN is seriously going to be the end of me.

For those of you who have LIM/SFO flights in the fall... check your itinerary because they have updated the schedule once again. I had a SCL-LIM-SFO itinerary in November with a 2 hr layover in LIM. Noticed that my LIM-SFO suddenly was changed to 2 DAYS later! Called in and they said that the LIM-SFO flight on my original date had been scrapped. :mad::mad::mad:

That happened to me in January - fortunately it resulted in an extra day of vacation that worked out well. But sometimes it is just so frustrating.

LAN is seriously going to be the end of me.

For those of you who have LIM/SFO flights in the fall... check your itinerary because they have updated the schedule once again. I had a SCL-LIM-SFO itinerary in November with a 2 hr layover in LIM. Noticed that my LIM-SFO suddenly was changed to 2 DAYS later! Called in and they said that the LIM-SFO flight on my original date had been scrapped. :mad::mad::mad:

I'm glad I keep checking this thread... I think this is the second time LAN has changed the SFO-LIM flight in the last month? The first time they flat-out cancelled the flight on 8 Jan, so I had to leave a day earlier. Now they've moved SFO-LIM back to a morning flight and leaving me with 8 hours in LIM. I'm not sure if I should even call to fix that yet, seeing how they'll probably change it again!