My GF and I are planning a trip to Chile. Anybody who has experience with LanChile in coach (of course ;-) on long hauls?

Interested in
-Reliability
-Service
-Entertainment

Reliability?
Service?
Entertainment?

What are they? Lan Chile has NO idea I can tell you. No movies on 6 flights I just took on 737s, 2 of them being "International". No headsets, no music on ANY flight. Yes, I bet flying Madrid to Santiago is a different gig but I can only comment about my experience. I flew the rest of the way on a superb Airline - United!

See: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/003912.html


These Lan Chile guys were a disorganised shambles I am afraid. I flew Santiago to Puerto Montt to Puntas Arenas to Falkland Islands and back. Six 737 flights in recent weeks from which I just got back, so comments are current. First tried to use my zillion Qantas points to book reward tickets. "No way - Falklands is not part of South America". "But you do fly there right? It is off the coast of Argentina. Is there perhaps a higher point table I can redeem? I can after all use points for other non South American cities." "No we want money, not points".

Getting the paid tickets issued was a major WAR with them. Sydney GSA were totally useless and insisted or cash and no credit cards. They cancelled the entire booking when their totally arbitrary advance booking period expired (on a "7 day advance purchase" fare ticket!) Phoned Chile and they were all but useless, as my Spanish is very limited and their English was similar.

Then phoned Miami Lan Chile, the USA base. I have my phone account here for December. 1-800 calls from here to USA are NOT free. My account is for about $A100 after about TEN calls to get these tickets booked, and confirmed. It was like trying to buy a house. I needed to wait up to midnight to actually get the USA staff, not the Chile ones. They take the card #, they need to send stuff off to the moon for approval. "Phone back Manana" stuff all the time. Phone back Manana and it still is not done. No-one knows about it. "Try us later" stuff. Everyone quoted different fares and rules.

I NEVER at any point could get them to fax or email me ANYTHING whatever proving I had 2 HK seats booked, paid for and CONFIRMED. "Not policy". (Tickets were over $US700 each). I asked 6 times. All staffers off handedly promised they'd ask around, but it never happened, so needed to collect TIX in Santiago, wasting an hour or so. Had there been a mess up then I was doomed. I was flying out Dec 23 and back Dec 30 on a ONCE a week flight, and knowing how Latins overbook like crazy around Xmas this was VERY unsettling. (As mentioned earlier they were overbooked by 10 in Puntas Arenas, and most seats had handwritten dupe boarding passes! Nearly a RIOT on board. Delay to depart about 90 minutes while entire crew counted heads about 3 times each. A grade schooler could have told them how many were on board in 4 minutes.)

At NO point on my flights Falklands-Puerto Montt-Puntas Arenas could ANYONE add our AA flyer #s in. "Not possible". Wasted much time on this. Delays, no announcements in English when a take-off aborted twice and plane went back to gate twice. Sitting on tarmac for 40 minutes etc. Very worrying. Lots of chattering over PA in Spanish though, and plane full of mainly English speaking tourists - we were going to a British Territory after all!

Hey, we got there and back in one piece and for that I am very thankful. However Lan Chile is the ONLY commercial airline able to fly you to Falkland Islands from ANYWHERE in the world. If not, I'd never have flown them. Asked them about pre-booked seating. Much muttering. Whatever they told me and "allocated" never happened in practice. They seated us apart at one stage. One flight steward let pax scream at each other about all being in wrong seats as per "boarding passes". Did not care - the Latin shrug and went back and made himself a coffee.

Waiting for bags in Puntas Arenas 2 very young kids were running and playing on moving luggage belt for 20 mins - even going into the "tunnel". I was horrified. Lan Chile Staff ignored it all. So did the parents, until I intervened. Total chaos. They only receive ONE It'l flight a flight there and yet staff had no idea what to do with bags, customs, re-checking etc.

They took a Swiss Army knife off me from hand baggage in Puerto Montt and said they'd check it thru to Falklands. One tiny Swiss Army thing with a long white tag affixed, on a luggage belt, I kid you not. I protested and said surely it was bound to be stolen or lost en-route - why not simply hand it to the flight purser for collection on arrival? Gave me a bag chit, and of course it never arrived. No-one wanted to know about it. Compensation is $US9.07 per pound for checked baggage someone gruffly pointed out!! (The ticket folder confirms this!) So my Swiss knife will one day (maybe!) get me a "compensation" check for what - $2 bucks American, that my bank will charge me $20 to exchange.

Lan Chile. NEVER again, unless there is NO other choice.

If anyone knows an address or "real person" I can contact re the "lost" Swiss Army, please advise, and the $100 phone bill, as on principal I'd like to follow it up.

They may be part of the One World alliance, but my experience of dealing with Lao Aviation or Tarom Romanian Airlines was about on par with Lan Chile I am afraid. Can only hope others have had better experiences.


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~ Glen ~

[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 01-07-2001).]

And now for a different perspective:

I flew Lan Chile in 1998 Lima - Santiago - Easter Island - Santiago - Antofagasta - Iquique - Arica - La Paz.

Every flight was on time and the service (in Economy Class) was outstanding (far better than most international trips I have taken on US airlines).

Among people who fly frequently in South America, the general consensus is that Lan Chile is far and away the best South America Airline. I am not doubting any part of the ordeal recounted by the previous poster, but I believe his experience with Lan Chile was very, very unusual.

dogcanyon. Yes I once flew Lan Chile from Tahiti to Easter Island to Santiago and that was fine. It was in Business Class tho. You may miss the point I make. The equipment on the SCL-MPN run is an old 737 with real tighly packed seats, no first or business cabin whatever, and NO audio or video facilites whatever. Try that on a 7 hour "International" flight and it is no fun.

I visit South America once a year on vacation and like it, and there are far better (Varig) and far worse airlines than LA, I know this from personal experience. Just that this trip was a total disaster, and nearly all caused by LA staff and procedures, the old plane discounted. Oliver started the thread asked for comments, and as I have just got off this routing, and as there is no Lan Chile forum, these experiences may assist him. BTW there was a call for a specific Lan Chile forum only recently - Oliver may like to bring it forward :

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum73/HTML/000179.html

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~ Glen ~

a few years ago, i flew lanchile from santiago to easter island and had no problems. they were overbooked on the outbound and asking for volunteers, and on the return we actually left the gate a few minutes early. i sat in coach, and it was fine.

has anyone tried to use lan chile miles to get an award on Lan chile? is there an expiration on using the miles? and how long does it take to get an award ticket issued?

Stealthflier, the itinerary I mentioned earlier was an award ticket using AA miles.

I flew in june 2000 as a part of my oneworld rtw three times with LA, all economy: EXE-SCL, LIM-SCL, SCL-BOG. I found them really okay. The service might not be top, but it is still good by any Latin American standards. Of course there are no movies on a 737 (has anybody ever seen one on a 737?) but on the larger planes they show you some. Recently I also read that they have new Airbus for the long haul flights. I think you can even see some pictures of these new planes on their homepage www.lanchile.com. In general, I think they are as good as an oneworld airline should be � and much better than Iberia anyway.

You'll have to excuse my pal ozstamps, he's young and doesn't have a lot of travel experience, on top of that he was stranded on the Falkland Islands (by his own poor judgement) for a week with not much to do except interact with the sheep and a few islanders, and didn't even have internet access to keep himself entertained, so it's not unexpected that he would re-enter civilized society with an enhanced attitude problem.

Juhapae ... welcome to these boards.

Today's new tip for you is that all 737's are not configurated the same!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum7/HTML/000066.html

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~ Glen ~

the majority of 737s in service do not have entertainment systems. some of the 737-700 and 800 series do as they are designed to be lonher haul flights, and have had to make this addition. these planes, i believe, are no more than 3-4 years old. it may go back as far as the 500 series, but i'm not sure about that.

I flew MAD-GRU-MAD in economy on LAN Chile about 18 months ago. I think the plane was a 767. All aspects of the flight - service, comfort and reliability - were just as good as the equivalent class on the main US and European carriers.

So the implication of the thread so far seems to be that the experience is very equipment-specific. Unless you're flying a long distance on one of the 737 horror stories (see above), IMHO, you have no reason to worry.

Here's my comments based on flying Lan a couple of times a month:

All in all, they run a very good operation, notwithstanding Oz's issues. I'd say their 767 is the most comfortable coach class I've been on, bar none. Food is decent, schedule is reliable, entertainment is OK (if you can fly business or first, you'll experience some of the best seats and service available anywhere).

As to the lack of movies and music on the 737's...that's the way it is. In fact, I can't think of many 737's anywhere with inflight entertaiment (Varig comes to mind). Lan flies 737's domestically and on some international routes (La Paz, a couple of runs to Buenos Aires, and, of course, the Falklands). Good news is that Lan is taking delivery of A320's as we speak, which include movies and music. They will be replacing the 37's. I flew one last week, and it was fine. They are also introducing A340's, but I prefer the 767, inflight video games notwithstanding.

To Oz's specific problems, I can't comment. All airlines have bad days, and maybe you picked them (think of it as a reverse-lottery). I'm not surprised they wouldn't allow tickets to the Falklands on points, given that Lan owns the one flight connecting the islands to the world. Can't imagine what the issue was with ticketing.

Finally, Lan has just recently joined OW, so there might still be some issues getting everything working properly. I'm currently having trouble getting some AA flights credited to my LanPass account. Oz, if you need an ombudsman in Chile vis-a-vis Lan, drop me an email. I won't be back for a couple of weeks, but they do have an office close to my house. And I speak Spanish

Thanks for the offer JimB! If the e-mail I send them does not work about points, I will take you up on your kind offer.

And re 737s offering in-flight entertainment, you may have missed the link I posted above:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum7/HTML/000066.html

I am here to tell you that 737 flight was more enjoyable in Business Class than most 747 ones on all airlines I have taken in J!


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~ Glen ~

[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 01-09-2001).]

In Feb 2000 I flew LanChile via Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo-Santiago-Lima-Los Angeles and had absolutely no problems whatsoever.

The service was excellent and the flights on time....every time. Great seat pitch too and it was on a near empty 767.

I'd go back to them any day.

What about the flight that goes from South America to Madrid and Franfurt? Is it ok? Is their C and F comparable to BA or AA?