I cant find the details on the rules for basinette use on LAN... I understand that infants of up to 40lbs are allowed to use these, but cant find other details.... anybody have this information...?

Thanks,
Gaucho100K

Seat guru has the answer:
"Bassinets must be requested from sales service at least 24 hours before the time of departure because the number of cribs is limited and varies from flight to flight. The availability service can only be pre-confirmed in the economy cabin classes that permit advance seat assignment. Otherwise, availability of the service will depend on the seating availability at the time of billing. Only infants up to 4 months old, weighing less than to 15lb/7kg and measuring less than 28in/71cm in height can use the crib.

You must request infant or child meals 48 hours in advance."

From the Special Services page:

Reviving this 5 year old thread to say that my wife and 5-month old son are travelling SCL-AKL in Y in a couple of days, and I am shocked to find that there is a charge of U$140 each way for a bassinet!!

I never heard of this on any other airline, AFAIK bassinet is always free of charge... are we paying for the bassinet itself, or for the Space+ seat assignment?

The charge is a couple months old. It was in fact free until late last year. The payment is for the BSCT service (which is tied to a front row assignment).

The payment was introduced from an ancillary revenue perspective, but it also intends to manage demand for the service (which, although marginal, does have processing costs and, since no more than 2 BSCTs are available on any given flight, reducing the amount of requests reduces the amount of people complaining for not getting the assignment)

Keep in mind that if you get the service confirmed, even though LAN will make every possible effort to seat both adults on the front row so they travel together, the only guarantee is that one of the adults will be able to seat on row 12.

Talk about ancillary revenue; it's basically: "pay U$140 or travel 14h in a cramped middle seat with an infant on your lap".

its much the same as for tall people whose legs don't fit in a standard Y seat having to pay extra for a PE or J seat - just so they can actually fit in the allocated space.

So, to add insult to injury after paying for this fee for a bassinet which only fits a 71cm baby (our 5 month old is exactly 71cm tall), LAN managed to lose the stroller. Was due to be gate checked, but apparently they put no labels on them. Flight left 4hrs late, and stewardess told my wife to just leave stroller on the side of the plane�s door, and someone would pick it up � clearly no one ever did, and I fail to see how an untagged stroller will now ever make its way to New Zealand�

Definitely not an infant-friendly airline.