Weird E-ticket from LAN, is it normal?
 

Hi everyone,

first post so I hope I got it in the right place.

The last few tens of flights I have used have all been eticket based whereby I either print from an online provider or receive a 'letter-type' eticket from an agency. I then take the so called eticket (with it's reference number at the top) to the airport on the day of travel which magically gets converted to a proper flight ticket at the luggage check-in or the express check-in machines.

Now, I've just been a bought a ticket from Ecuador to the UK from a LAN office in the main shopping center. I was handed three flight ticket-sized pieces of card which looked like the actual tickets should have been printed on them. What I got was a customer receipt with 'not valid for travel' printed on it; an itinerary card with the same thing stamped across it and then a completely blank (in the respect of livery, airline graphics or text) card which just had my name and air flight numbers and travel dates on it. Nowhere is there a booking reference or recognisable E-ticket number. The LAN agent assured me that this is all I needed but didn't give much else in the way of instruction on what to do with the cards. He did print off three other cards as well which did look a lot more like flight tickets but shoved them in a cupboard behind his desk.

So, does anybody have any experience with these weird e-tickets. Do I just turn up to the airport on the date of travel? Do I need to do something with the online 'print ticket' options? There are no instructions on LAN's website and I can't afford to lose my seat with faffing around. I tried to call LAN but my Spanish isn't good enough to understand over the phone.

Any help guys would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I don't believe any LAN ticket office will issue you anything other than an e-ticket. The LAN telephone services have English-speakers - call and ask for them to verify your ticket numbers. Also you can go to checkmytrip.net with your confirmation # to view your reservation to see if all that is in order.

(This should be moved to the other North/South America Forums).

Thanks Eastbay1k the link is very helpful. sorry about the forums but I couldn't find the South America ones from the front page (it was somebody elses post there that lead me to flyertalk but I couldn't see it once I joined).

I actually can't see the confirmation number on any of these pieces of card though; once I have it I will check the link. Thank you.

adam.ec, welcome to FlyerTalk. I'll gladly move this to our Other N. & S. America airlines forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

I always bring the e-ticket I print out with me to the airport. They don´t even glance at it, just ask for my passport.

The e-ticket is not a screen or email printout. It's a record in the database. The printout is for the passenger's information only.
There should be a ticket number or 6 character locator in whet they've given you, so you cn try to find the ticket number in checkmytrip.net

Thanks for all the answers guys. I did finally manage to get through to an English speaking operator at LAN. It seems the local office did make a mistake which seemingly they couldn't be bothered to correct. There was no code anywhere on the cards I was given but LAN did find my booking on their system and provided me with the ticket code that I needed.

Just as an observation for others traveling from Quito, LAN do expect you to check-in online and this can only be done, obviously, with the ticket code. Also, they recommend I use a system like checkmytrip.net as it can sometimes provide information about changes to the airflight which can be confirmed with them afterwards. Glad I called them, could have been in trouble with that one. Thanks all.