ttuna3

"Wonderful" experience with the Lima ground staff on the October 17th-18th. Flight 2604 from EZE delayed 2+hours for a mechanical. Get to Lima and there are 40+ people needing to be rebooked to Los Angeles, Miami and Bogata. Of course we can see the planes for them taxiing out as we're coming in. Get to the lobby and the usual chaos is in full force. Long lines and of course no premium service available for a Premium Silver in paid Premium Business. Am assured that they have protected me on next flight out (LA600) at 0100 and after a 50 minute wait get up to the desk, wait for another 5 minutes to get an agent back to their computer (only 3 of 4 computers having agents the whole time) and then being told there were no more business seats available, telling the nice agent that I had been told by both EZE and her co worker that we had protected J seats. Now there's a 20 minute delay while she's talking to control about releasing the seats going back and forth on the desk phone and her mobile. Finally get a seat, lounge invite and a couple of meal vouchers. Vouchers were for a very limited selection and the invite is for the VIP CLub (not SUMAQ) with no showers. Luckily the lounge dragon was able to get me into the shower at SUMAQ and had spent a lot of time dealing with LAN on the time limits on the lounge access for everybody delayed. Of course there were no visible LAN people on the concourse most of the afternoon (1330-1630). Get to flight to LA, boards on schedule, and even looks like we'll get out early. Then a 50 minute wait, captain says they're waiting for a connecting passenger. Nobody shows up and we finally push back. Seemed a little strange since they had a bunch of misconnects in the afternoon and of course everything was out right on time. Next fun was getting to LAX an hour late and no bags. LAX talks to somebody and they're supposed be on LA2604 that night since they didn't retag them in Lima for LA600 (only had 10+ hours to get it done). They miss that one and are supposed to be on 2604 that afternoon per LAN baggage services. Miss that one and get to LAX on the 19th and get to me at home around 10pm that evening. Looks like somebody in Santiago needs to get on the Lima management team for this one (and plenty of other minor issues there as well). Of course there wasn't a management type to be seen anywhere in Lima the whole time. Final fun is that they changed the tickets and of course now there's no record that I was on the flights. LANPass needs the boarding passes to try to fix this. Of well, just another day at LIM.

Eastbay1K

They desperately need a CS counter upstairs. There used to be one, and apparently se fue because I can't find one anymore.

They seem to be programmed to rebook in Y. And then, in my one experience with a misconnect (as opposed to just spending most of the night there due to a delay), after pointing out that I paid for J, they then put me up front, but put it in U, which I didn't notice right away, which meant more of an ordeal for partner credit.

bingocallerb22

How right you are! How the largest airline in the country doesn't have an office in their major hub is mind-boggling. Can't remember the details, but do remember being instructed by the ticket counter by domestic arrivals that I needed to leave to leave airport and go find a LAN office in town to fix it. Say what?

And not even a telephone! On a different occasion, I booked a last minute flight the night before, of course, LANPASS computer system fail wouldn't let me pay. Arrived early at LIM, ticketing kiosko could pull up the reservation, but couldn't accept payment because it was a LANPASS tix (say what?). I needed to phone LANPASS to pay. OK, where is the LAN phone to do so? �Don't have one, airport won't let us� - rating a full 100% on the BS detector � �you need to use the public phones� OK, but the fight leaves at 08:50 and the LANPASS office only opens at 09:00! Then go to an office. But they don't open until 10:00! Why is there not an office here in the airport? Reply: A LAN smile.

phlashba

Truly shameful! Sadly though none of it surprises me in the least.

ttuna3

Update.

LAN has actually admitted to a CS failure on the first contact! Tossed 10K kms to me for the trouble. Since I had to send the baggage and second delay issues as a second part I'm still waiting to hear back on them as well as getting the flights credited. (They're in the back office so maybe they'll post by Feb 2013?)

Yes I bought a lotto ticket today...

Eastbay1K

That is a much more positive response than I've ever had - I only sent one substantial complaint a couple of years ago, and didn't ask for anything in particular, and was met with essentially a "we don't owe you anything" reply.

ttuna3

I didn't ask for anything so it came as a real shock. I can't remember ever getting anything except "too bad" from an online complaint before. I'm not so sure that LAX didn't set something in motion. I had to make a mad dash to catch my train up north but there were about 10-15 people looking for their bags, most of whom I remember seeing in line at Lima and the CS agents in LA making lots of calls. I had another seating issue with LIM last year and EZE upgraded me all the way home a week later without pulling any coupons. That I think that one came from the Onboard Service Manager who was absolutely furious when she found me in the back middle middle after a grand tour of a 767 Y cabin from the GAs.

Maybe the gods will finally do something about Lima, but I'm not holding my breath

bingocallerb22

Well, that�s a positive sign, some compensation. Curious,
(1) can you tell if it derives from the LanUSA side of things and
(2) did they indicate which problem they were compensating for?

ttuna3

Hi BingoCaller,

1) Most of where it came from is just a feeling since I had to call them from BsAs earlier about km crediting when they reworked the flights coming down. The letter came as a pdf attachment with no return address on the letterhead. Also the english didn't seem to be the usual South American style I've seen before.

2) I'm positive it's for the fun from at LIM (from EZE) before boarding to LAX since I wrote the original complaint from the lounge at LIM and had to forward it to the new elite e-mail address when it kicked back from the old ones. The fun with the second delay and the baggage hadn't happened yet. Knowing how things happen a LAN I waited until I heard something back from them so there weren't two cases in the system that would never get resolved.

LAX dealt with a connection problem for me on the outbound noting a communication problem on rebooking a flight that was rescheduled/not rescheduled (ontime?) so there was something in the system already about problems on this trip.

Maybe they've realized they've got a problem (LOL) and need to do something.

fly747first

But to be fair, LAN employs some of the most incompetent people on the planet, though the LIM agents in my experience are the worst.

phlashba

I think you may be correct; I am reminded of my last connection in Lima -- there must have been seven or eight agents at the gate and it seemed as if none of them had ever witnessed passengers boarding an aircraft nor had the slightest notion of how to go about organizing it.

As I said to one of the agents:

"So you weren't expecting us?"

FLLUAFlyer

One thing I have noticed about LAN staff in most of South America and even in the US (contracted staff), is there lack of empowerment by the airline itself. Granted this is prevalent throughout South America and especially in Peru.

But the LAN ground agents have little power to "bend" any rules due to IROPS, and even if they do have some leeway are scared to use it for fear for their jobs.

Even the AA staff in LIM has has much more power to take steps if the events warrant them. As has been pointed out in this forum, LAN will book any misconnects into Y (for fear of accidentally booking someone into J) if they rebook you at all.

A number of times I have had AA flights cancelled at the gate and had the GA endorse my ticket over to LAN on the spot (and yes, they still are employed by AA)!

fly747first

Just last month, I was flying Premium Business LIM-LAX and when I showed a hard copy of my ticket, the guy supervising the entrance to the Premium Business line left me waiting for 5 minutes while he went to verify with a check-in agent and was very rude about it. Thus, I had no sympathy for such a poor employee and I got him in trouble with his supervisors.

Matt340

Hey, fly747first, by any chance are you young enought to not have gray/no hair? I've had agents screen me at the entrance (I'm 22) because they think I might be trying to skip the economy line.
I never carry a hard copy of my itineraries, I used to realy on the CheckMyTrip app, but now have to cope with the VirtuallyThere webapp

bingocallerb22

[QUOTE=CVCONDE;19637636]One thing I have noticed about LAN staff in most of South America and even in the US (contracted staff), is there lack of empowerment by the airline itself. Granted this is prevalent throughout South America and especially in Peru.

But the LAN ground agents have little power to "bend" any rules due to IROPS, and even if they do have some leeway are scared to use it for fear for their jobs. QUOTE]

Ah, el dedo en la llaga. But this is not only a LAN problem in Peru/SA. I have experienced exactly the same thing with, for example, with Air Canada agents here... and Claro, and... don't get me started. One of the major reasons foreign folks feel affronted by wretched CS in Peru.