LAN Business Class experience
 

I just flew LAN on a business class fare to Santiago with domestic flights within Chile. Must say I was totally underwhelmed with the international legs.

The crew were too busy chatting with each other on the LIM-SCL flight that there were no welcome drinks nor did they take any orders for breakfast for the morning.

On the SCL-MIA flight it was the worst first class meal I have ever had in my years of flying. Just inedible. Not to mention the seat amenities had seen better days.

On top of all, the priority tags mean absolutely nothing. On all my flights they were the last ones to show up. Noticed other business class passengers waiting for bags along with me, so it is not an isolated incident.

The only positive aspect of LAN was the consistency of the domestic flights. On time, good service and attentive crew members.

Is it just me or do others have similar experience?

I'll second what you say about domestic flights, at least in Peru. I do lots of them and they are consistently pretty much on time, clean aircraft, attentive FAs, almost always a pleasant experience. PLUS they serve free premium beer! I note they just changed to a slim line Cusquena can – very stylish.

On international I look forward to the meals... and wines. Never had an inedible meal. Surely you could have spoken up and surely they would have offered you a replacement. I do think there is a cultural difference sometimes. They do their service as trained (which is a good service protocol IMHO) but should you want something more, you need to ask. If asked, they fall over backward to do it, but they don't pester you all the time asking if you need something.

Note, I know the service protocol well, so when I want some variant I just ask ahead of time and 100% of the time they are more than willing to adapt it to what I prefer.

Knowing their service protocol is important. My biggest issues with the protocol is there isn't a pre-meal beverage (unless you ask and even when you do, sometimes they forget) and typically the meal is rushed. I just eat at my own pace and if they bring out the next course prior to completion of the prior one, they'll just take it back to the galley.

I have had a few inedible meals, the worst being the lamb goulash (or whatever it is called). Yet the same meal has been decent on other flights. The dish keeps on recurring. One flight, myself and my seatmate could barely chew it. I kept spitting out globs of grizzle and fat, and she gave up altogether. It appeared once again on my menu a couple of days ago. I had something else. The current wine rotation is very good.

My most recent crews were very nice, and once again, reinforces my opinion that the LA crews are more consistently better than the LP crews. (I have no experience with LP domestic). 4M inflight is having some labor issues, but the OP was probably on LA the entire way. (Was LIM/SCL a 3 digit or 4 digit [starting with 2] flight #?) Also, the service protocol on regional meal flights that aren't the continuation of a longhaul seems to be that the meal selection is taken and assembled from the cart as they come down the aisle.

Bags? The priority tags are decorative, typically. "Back in the day" (on Lan Chile), my luggage would typically be coming out right as I'd get to the SCL baggage belt. Nowadays at any airport, it comes out whenever.

I don't think LAN J food is anything to get excited about either, it certainly errs on the side of "safe" with meals like the large chunk of meat, the gnocchi, the ravioli and the giant flying cous cous. (Does anyone know why cous cous is bigger on airplanes? LAN is not the only carrier to turns its back on regular mini cous cous)

I also found it a bit odd on my last segment MIA BOG that they insisted I choose something to eat the minute I boarded and sat down.

I actually think LAN is missing a trick somewhat. They play on the credentials of their Chilean wine. They are also the de-facto flag carrier of Peru so why not take the same approach with the meals and get a big name Peruvian chef on board to design at least one meal option?

As for amenities, the seat is still a no-nonsense flatbed that lets you fly feet first without any jaunty angles or shared herringbone footwells. I like that. The IFE really blazed a trail about 11 years ago, and the hardware is still the same but they have somehow made a complete balls-up of the software. So the IFE still has one of the best choices in the sky and a wonderful and eclectic music selection but seems to have become lumpier to use over the years.

I note the OP lists their location as DEN. There is certainly a cultural difference in crew between LAN and US carriers. Personally I prefer the stand-offish "ring if you need anything" attitude to the sometimes excessively informal quips and chattering of FAs on US, AA and UA that I have experienced. It's horses for courses, you simply will not get a LAN FA trying to engage in conversation or going off piste with the service.

(1) There is a "panel of chefs" and one is from Purru. I believe that the menu still says that. And I don't recall that he works for Purina. But it is all about the execution when making food for thousands.

(2) The IFE glitchies seem to have gone away with the new generation J seats, in my limited experience with those aircraft.

Really? A Peruvian? He must be softly spoken and get voted down frequently in the team meetings :D

I once got asked "You want meat or pasta?" on a LIM BOG segment in PE and the meat option was lomo saltado which the FA had embellished by telling me "it's Peruvian" Nothing else Peruvian ever served to me though, apart from the odd Inca Kola or Cusqueña. Ají de gallina is clearly made for aeroplanes, and papa a la huancaína is the perfect side salad option.

This is good news. It is frustrating that they launched such good IFE so long ago and then set about breaking it.

The LIM-SCL flight was a 2xxx code.

I think the seat has seen better days on the 767s. There were no noise cancelling headphones and the jack was hmmm "jacked up" as it took 2-3 headphones before I could find one that worked. I did figure out the cultural difference that once the LIM-SCL flight was completed that I started asking them for things rather than waiting for it.

But the point I was also trying to make is why does the domestic flights have more predictable service and attentive FAs than the intl ones.

BTW it was interesting to note the number of friends and family members of FAs who got to move to Business class once the door was closed. They were more attentive to their needs than to the rest :)

Did you tell them that there is a problem with either the headphones of the headphone jack in the seat? I have never had a non-functional seat, but I have sat next to seats which have been taken out of service due to being inoperative, I have also been denied upgrades on account of the seat's IFE is not working.

Cool

Maybe because on an international flight in J then there are more parameters and you might rightly have higher expectations. A Chilean national service is

a) Prepare cabin for take off
b) Give you a drink and a snack box
c) Prepare cabin for landing

What are you comparing? I am sure the above elements were the same or sufficiently similar on both flights.

I have never knowingly seen this nor drawn such a conclusion. More details?

I saw them move a very old wizened guy up front once. Really old, really wizened. Thought it was a class move, they attended him well, blankets etc. But I have no idea if he was family or friends, how could I conclude that?

LAN provides noise-cancelling headphones on all flights in the Premium Business cabins. Also, I'd love to know which specific 767 you were on...

My seat was taken out of service once and was given a window seat which I hated (climbing over someone to get out :eek:) I did tell them about the non functioning jack and we went through 2-3 headphones before finding one that worked.

Really. The 767s I was on were MEX-LIM, LIM-SCL, SCL-MIA and none of them had noise cancelling headphones. The rest were domestic 767s and 320s.

I saw the FAs chatting with them whilst waiting to board. You could see clearly some of them were boyfriends/husbands or kids. When we boarded they were in coach and once the door closed, they moved up.

I was comparing them to the service on Asian business class - ANA/Singapore/Malaysia/Thai. Which I rate to be more attentive than European/US carriers. The benchmark for me is the service on SQ SIN-LAX-SIN nonstops.

OK, I thought you were comparing International J to Domestic Y.

"Originally Posted by TravellingMan View Post
BTW it was interesting to note the number of friends and family members of FAs who got to move to Business class once the door was closed. They were more attentive to their needs than to the rest "

I take at least twenty-five LAN flights a year (mostly international) and have never seen this.

I have never seen it either. Usually J is filled by people using upgrades anyway.


I think one of the reasons domestic flights have better service could be because the flight attendants are new and not as jaded.

IMHO I have had much better service from LP then from LC crew, (for example when the LC ISM Ximena, grabbed my dessert for herself and left me with fruit).