Good afternoon

Here follows a substantial complaint about your reservation and customer service departments.

In the past few weeks I have called LAN and TAM several times in several countries, to try and make the reservation below. Agents failed to deal with enquiries in a timely manner, calls disconnected numerous times, and I was never called back despite giving my number every time for this purpose. I frequently had agents who did not speak adequate English or even adequate Spanish.

Booking references XXXXXX and YYYYYY never completed, because they kept lapsing – it seems the times I was given for their expiry were wrong. YYYYYY was even paid by phone with a credit card on about 7th April, and agents deny the call ever happened. No ticket was ever issued.

ZZZZZZ finally booked after several attempts, including the reservation lapsing because the agent did not call back with pricing as promised. I could see online that some of this reservation was still in existence, but the agent today told me it was my fault that the itinerary had been stripped of half its flights for some reason.

It is by chance that the ticket was available at the same price – thanks to Guillermo who was the only really competent agent I spoke to. Even when I finally got the reservation I wanted, there was a mistake that had to be corrected with another half an hour on the phone, and also I was never quoted for business/premium class as I requested.

Not only that, but on a separate booking from Fortaleza to Salvador, in the middle of the World Cup when I needed to fly between two games on consecutive days, TAM decided to cancel my flight! They then refused to rebook me onto the only other direct flight that would have got me there, and said there were no connecting flights. I managed to find one routing myself, a horrible overnight yo-yo via Brasilia, which they grudgingly rebooked me onto. No offer of any compensation was made for this either, which is going to leave me totally exhausted.

I have just checked my phone records and bills, which I am happy to send you copies of. So far I have spent $200 on phone calls to your airline – and a total of NINE HOURS wasted on phone to make the booking. This is absolutely unacceptable. I called to complain just now and had another 20 minutes on hold. Francisco Gomez, the supervisor, says there is nothing that can be done except to tell the agents to do better.

I find this to be a completely inadequate response to the shambolic service I have received so far. You may also note that I am a British Airways Gold Card holder, the equivalent of LAN Comodoro – I would be amazed if you would treat one of those in this manner. On other airlines I fly with, such as BA or American, such shocking incompetence and the inconvenience and expense caused to the customer would be recompensed in a number of ways – credit for a future flight, frequent flier miles, or vouchers for courtesy upgrades.

As I have already spent my money and do not currently collect miles with LANPass, the first two are irrelevant to me. I am aware that LAN has a system for applying upgrades to flights for its senior fliers, subject to space availability. So the very least I expect is for me to claw back the 9 hours I have wasted by having this applied to my itinerary so I might sit in comfort on your planes, as and where a higher cabin is in operation and seats available.

You should further note that I expect to return to Latin America on business on a regular basis from now on, and usually fly international business class. I also control a substantial travel budget for my company, and influence a much wider circle of friends and associates who take my recommendations seriously on such things. I would only be happy to consider using and recommending LAN in the future, if the manner in which you deal with this complaint is sufficient.

I look forward to your swift response.

Regards

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