In February my SO and I and traveled to Machu Picchu via Lima and Cusco. We have been planning this trip for really long time. It would have been an awesome vacation had LATAM not ruined it by loosing my luggage. We spend 4 days in Lima initially and then we flew to Cusco on February 12. This is what happened:

• We took flight LA 2075 on the 12 of February from Lima to Cusco. The flight was continuing to PEM - Puerto Maldonado.
• My bag was not unloaded at Cusco - even if it was correctly tagged. I heard from the ground staff at Cusco that this happens often
• My bag reached Puerto Maldonado - nobody claimed it
• My bag was not put back on flight on LA2074 - on Feb 12 - even if I had already reported it lost and asked the staff at Cusco to call at PEM
• My bag was put on LA2074 from Puerto Maldonado to Cusco on 13 of February - and it arrived at the hotel late evening, more than 24 hours late.

I have kept the luggage labels for the above this why I know it was never unloaded at CUZ and it reached PEM.Unfortunately our tour for Machu Picchu left early morning on the 13th of February so I did not reunite with my bag until February 16th when we returned to CuzcoWhat is really disappointing is that LATAM does not have a way to track bags - when i noticed it was missing, they had no system that would tell them where it was - at the time I reported it lost, the plane was still at Cusco loading and getting ready to take off for PEM - there was plenty of time to unload my bag.So from the time i reported it missing until the time the hotel called me to tell me that they had it delivered, my bag's whereabouts were totally unknown. The social network / facebook agents were kind enough to create a case for me on line so I can check status on line - but even that tool did not work - even after my bag was delivered the status was "We are in the process of locating your bag, please check back later"

I followed up with LATAM after I returned back in US and submitted all the receipts / expenses for items I had to buy out of pocket while I did not have access to my bag, which were submitted to Cusco for compensation ( i guess this is because this is where I filled the missing bag report?) but i have not heard anything back yet. Actually I am not that hopeful I would ever get compensated.

Frankly we made the best out of the 3 days I did not have my bag - the most essential items, medicine, travel documents, toiletries, a couple of changes of clothes etc I had in my carry on (i learned this lesson from my years of traveling) also I shared with my SO a few other hiking clothing items - however had to buy a hat, a raincoat - Feb is rainy season in Pachu Picchu, and sunscreen (UV is super strong at that altitude) all of which were in the checked bag. Also we missed our tour of Cusco and the surrounding areas on Feb 12 (Santo Domingo, Plaza de Armas, Sacsayhuaman, Puca Pucara etc ) since we were delayed having to fill in the missing bag report - and nobody from the ground staff at the airport seemed to know what they were doing or who we should talk to. ;-(

On my return from Cusco to Lima I was dreading checking my luggage in - although we had no issue.After this experience I would never trust traveling with LATAM ever again. Very substandard customer experience and their lack of bag handling abilities is inexcusable. Don't trust them!

--HAF