My wife and I are going to Argentina for 2 months beginning in January. We decided to use the LAN South American Airpass because LAN seemed to have a better reputation than Aerolineas Argentinas. The Terms and Conditions of the Airpass state that to qualify the traveler must have "...purchased an international flight arriving in or leaving for South America that is operated by LATAM Airlines Group S.A. and its subsidiaries (LAN, LAN Peru, .....and TAM Airlines)..."
So we booked a flight with TAM.com from Miami. The outbound legs are on LAN, and the return legs on TAM. Seems to me we will be on flights operated by LATAM as required by the Terms and Conditions.
But, I couldn't get the Airpass booking to work on line, so I called the call center. They are now saying that despite the wording of the Terms and Conditions, the ticket has to be purchased from LAN.
I'm looking for any suggestions on how to proceed. The woman at the call center would not let me speak with a supervisor. The Miami phone number published by LAN goes to the call center. I'll call TAM tomorrow, and I'll call LAN again. But any thoughts from here will be appreciated.
This is the biggest negative when booking with Latin American carriers.....their customer service on the whole is atrocious.
I agree with you, the wording seems to indicate that a ticket on any LATAM group qualifies for the pass.....I can't see how it could be interpreted any other way.
All I can advise is that you phone again and if you get the same answer ask to speak to a manager.
Indeed... LAN's customer service is a DISGRACE.... its sad given the fact that their product in the air is a good one, but on the ground, they are hopeless. Wish you the best of luck and please do report back if you have a chance.
__________________ Come to Argentina & try the Wines from the RIGHT side of the Andes... Visit Terroir Fine Wines - www.terroir.com.ar
Thanks. We have finally found someone to tell us that, yes, the international flight does qualify. However, when I try to book the airpass, I get a message that an error has occurred and I need to change my flight combination. Sales says all the flights are available, but she would have to charge me a booking fee to do it over the phone. She says talk to LAN.com. LAN.com says that all they can do is report the problem, and I should try again in a few hours. I'm reporting this more for your amusement than anything
LAN are at the moment changing over their booking system from Amadeus to Sabre which is probably not helping matters.
Glad to hear you do indeed qualify for the pass.....that's a big step in the right direction. Do keep us informed of proceedings as it will help others who find themselves in a similar situation.
Remember that there is still a lot confusion because of the implementation of LAN/TAM fusion. If the next time you have any issues, you might want to call again before speaking to manager.
By the way, in some cases buying normal LAN tickets is cheaper than the airpass. Normally LAN's international tariffs permit stopovers and the acceptable routing can be quite strange. For instance, Lima-Santiago-Lima with stopovers in Sao Paulo and La Paz.
