I was told today that Lan Chile will not confirm First Class 1world explorer fares in F class. Thus, I was only confirmed in business. I looked at their website and saw that their two three-class configured planes, a the A340 and B767-300, only offer F class in the first row (5 seats total).

Does anyone else know anything about this?

Flew eze-scl-ccs//bog-scl-eze-jfk on LA in Nov/Dec on a Oneworld RTW 1st class ticket. Generally, they were more forthcoming in releasing an A class seat than AA from South America to North America and within South America I had no problems getting a confirmed A class reservation. ITN gives A Class availability on Lan Chile although I didn't always find it to be particularly accurate. You may find that on certain days of the week, no seats are released for A class bookings until very close to departure date. My advice would be to always have the ticket issued in A class even if it has to be issued as an open segment and confirm in D class and waitlist in A. At least you won't have to argue with airport check-in about what class you are entitled to fly if a 1st class seat is available on the day.

3544quebec,

That sounds like a good strategy in general. Had a related problem a couple of years ago with CX. I was booked on an F class rtw, but was only in J on a flight out of CGK and had to pay to upgrade that segment when a F class seat opened up at the last minute. The counter agents in Jakarta seemed completely befuddled by my award ticket and just focused on the booking class indicated on the ticket.