creampuff

I'm in the process of booking a RTW ticket on an OneWorld Explorer fare (a "DONE5 = biz class 5 continent fare). This includes the following proposed legs on Lan Chile:

Los Angeles - Santiago
Santiago - Easter Island
Easter Island - Santiago

Ticket is being issued by American Airlines. It is a RTW ticket so there are a total of 16 flights, the rest on other airlines.

There are 2 x adults, 1 x child and 1 x infant travelling.

The American Airlines around-the-world pricing desk has just heard back from Lan Chile. Lan Chile says they will not allow lap infants in business class. They say infants require their own seat in business class (ie you need to buy them a full seat ticket = expensive), but can go on lap in economy. Lap infants are allowed on all the other airlines; only Lan Chile is the problem.

The chance of my buying an entire additional business class ticket for the entire trip to satisfy Lan Chile, at a cost of around US$5,000 is basically zero. It is more likely Lan Chile will get the big bzzzzzztt all together for this trip and we would substitute other stops and other airlines, all of which do allow lap infants.

Does this Lan Chile no-lap-infant in business class rule sound correct?

Eastbay1K

http://www.lan.com/es_cl/sitio_perso...lto/index.html

Los bebés o niños en cabina Premium Business pagan tarifa adulto.

(The babies and children in Premium Business cabin pay adult tariff.)

fedechat

Remember the slogan
LAN
"el espanto de volar"


LAN doesn't like free rides, that's why they offer free infant on laps in economy, that way you fly uncomfortable and you may decide to paid for an extra seat. In business, you pay more and have extra space, but they don't like the idea of having an infant in lap in a comfortable way. In the other hand, infants tend to cry and they may disturb other business passenger, that's why you have to pay for a seat, other passenger can't complain because is not a "free seat" or at least, they can't complain to LAN.

creampuff

On the other hand 3 x people who would otherwise have bought a business class ticket on LAN, may decide that LAN (being one of the only airlines in the entire world to do this), isn't being reasonable and so just not fly on LAN at all. Thus LAN gets 100% of nothing, instead of 80% of something (3 tix plus 10% infant is about 80% of 4 tix).

That is what is going to happen in this instance.

bingocallerb22

Yeah, sort of a weird rule... they have lots of them. In spite, they do make a profit year over year... don't know the arithmatic but perhaps they will make up the loss of your tickets by someone who pays for the infant?

postular

Sorry --- but I'm with LAN on this one.

creampuff

Why is that?

Of all the airlines in the world, the only restriction of this type that I know of is Malaysian doesn't allow infants in first class and S7 (Russia) makes them pay for a seat.

That is a lonely group of 3 airlines.

JohnnyColombia

This is not really going to happen in this instance though is it? This would only hold true if LAN blocked out seats for pax that were thinking of buying them and then decided not to.

What will actually happen is that LAN will sell those seats to someone else that either does not have an infant or is prepared to pay for the seat for their infant. If by chance there is a spare seat on your dates then a lucky Comodoro might get an upgrade having already paid for a ticket in an expensive fare bucket in economy.

Perhaps it is to preserve the integrity of the business product. They are entitled to make their own rules and you are entitled to not fly them on that basis, although I am curious as to how you'd get to IPC on a DONE5 without flying LAN.

creampuff

Well LAN may or may not sell those seats to another business class passenger. Lan might end up with revenue from those seats, they might go empty. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has been thinking of flying Lan in business class with an infant (many other biz class flights I've been on on other airlines have infants in the cabin), so presumably there are other passengers who may also decide not to fly Lan. Lan could also allow lap infants and sell the seat they want the infant to occupy for a full adult fare to some other adult, thereby gaining an infant fare plus another adult fare without needing to increase their seating capacity.

Lan can do what they like with their airline; overall I don't think excluding a group of passengers (adults with infants) is a good business move, which may explain why almost no airlines do it and the one other airline that does it, Malaysian Airlines, does it in first class only and is in abysmal financial shape and was in bad shape even before MH17/370 (S7 which I metioned before on further research I'm now unsure if they do exclude lap-infants or not).

So overall, yes this has irritated me so I've moved ALL the flights I could away from Lan Chile, including the intercontinental flights to South America which are now on American Airlines. For the trip to Easter Island, I may buy a separate ticket there in economy on Lan or I may just delete Easter Island from this trip and pick another destination.

As I said, Lan are free to impose the rules they like, passengers are free to choose other airlines.

bingocallerb22

Easter Island is quite special to visit so hopefully you can find a way to enjoy it.

creampuff

I suspect we will end up on a Lan Chile flight booked from Santiago in economy

creampuff

The next questions.......

Can infants go on the lap in business class on TAM?

Is H class on TAM business or economy?

JohnnyColombia

Hmmmm I wonder if anyone will know this.

I completely understand your frustration creampuff. I am sure if I wanted to take a lap infant to IPC in LAN J then I would be a bit miffed too.

Probably for every one of you that would avoid LAN because of this rule, there is a postular in the broader network that would favour LAN because of such a rule. I had no idea such a rule exists until you mentioned it. One thing that none of us can question is that LAN is pretty apt when it comes to making piles of money so at the end of the day, they probably don't care what any of us think anyway.

JohnnyColombia

LAN does not mind how you get there, so long as you give them your money

postular

As someone who almost always pays premium fares, I favour any policy that requires every pax, regardless of age (or relationship to the airline crew), pay for their seat.