Lan Peru?
 

Lan Peru has a great deal to Buenos Aires this fall that I'm looking into. My question is if Lan Peru is as reputable as Lan Chile is? Did Lan Chile buy some fledgling buckshop rattle trap airline in Peru and call it Lan Peru?

Thanks,

AZJ

I will be flying on that airline from Lima to Iquitos in a week or so, return in another week. If you see new posts on my website, Free Frequent Flyer Miles after September 20, I will have survived it.. ^

Flown them many times and they are fine. It is not a rattle trap airline and at no time have I ever felt unsafe. Just one man's perspective.

I already answered in your cross-posting.

In March 2004, I experienced 4 LAN Peru domestic flights, which were all equal standard to LAN Chile. One exception was a technical problem from AQP to LIM resulting in an aborted take-off (but I guess it could have happened to anyone).

When Lan Peru was started just a few years ago, all the planes were brand new. I understand they have one of the youngest fleets in the world.

Very good! Thanks to all. Planning on an EZE trip in December.



AZJ

Out of curiosity, what is the routing and what is the price of the trip?

Routing MIA-LIM-EZE same on the return. YOu have to fly flights 515 and 514 and commence travel by 12/9/04. The proce is $384 + tax. I think it prices out something near $450.

AZJ

MIA-EZE for around $400 during Christmas? Sounds too good to be true. I honestly hope for you it is right, but the only published Lan Peru fare I see on that route is for all travel to end on December 9, not commence.

Viajero... I'm not making this up, nor am I mistaken. I priced this exact fare on their website using the dates I want to travel.

Here's the link to the press release regarding this sale.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040831/315559_1.html


AZJ

Wow, that is good. During the argentinian financial crisis they had fares that low but I havent seen them often since. Good luck and have a good trip. Just make sure that the fare rules dont specifically exclude mileage earning and you should be good to go.

Well, it was never my intention to suggest you were making it up. :)

But, never mind that, you are right!, even though you are not allowed to fly certain days around Christmas/ New Year, it certainly looks like a dream fare.

Good find, go for it!.

Full LAN Pass miles (don't know about other FFP) plus web bonus of 10.000 Kms, if applicable. Not bad at all.

Thanks again... I ended up finding a deal on travelocity - $880 for r/t travel IAD-EZE on UA and 6 nights at the Sheraton Libertador. We figured we couldn't really beat this. I was looking forward to flying with LAN but alas, when part of a group one can be out voted.


AZJ

Good flights
 

The Lan Peru plane I flew on between Lima and Iquitos was a very new A-320. And they served a hot sandwich on a 1 hour flight! (But the price seemed expensive, so I guess they could afford the food.)

I flew LAN Peru Lima-Cuzco-Lima last week for about $147 r/t (booked via the very easy-to-use English-language website, from the US). The flights were just fine, A320 and a hot sandwich for me as well.

The only downside I can say, and it is fairly significant, is that the flight times (and once, the flight NUMBER) changed three times between the date I booked and ticketed this reservation online and the dates of travel. Issues: (1) One of these time changes was significant enough that I had to call LAN Peru and change the flight altogether. Because I'd booked online, the change was a huge production, requiring several phone calls with several CSRs, and eventually a simultaneous phone-internet session with the one CSR I got who actually spoke English well enough to understand what I was asking about. I was dialing a US-based toll-free number for this call, so I did expect someone who is perfectly fluent in English. (2) The three time changes were all communicated to me by e-mail, but ONLY IN SPANISH. I can read fine in Spanish, so for me this wasn't a big problem, but my travel companion who'd also booked online doesn't speak or read it. It was up to me to tell her that our flight times had changed.

Yes, I know it's Peru and (tyranny of low expectations aside) I should not have expected first-tier customer service. But this second issue could really be problematic for a non-Spanish speaker.

I do have one question for the OW folks here: I remembered ahead of time to credit my LIM-CUZ flight to BAEC as I was checking in, but forgot to do this for the return. I then checked my BAEC account and discovered that I got a measly 125 miles and zero tier points for this flight. I have an account with AA as well--will I get more miles for this flight with them? Or should I just send the second stub in to BA?

I understand your comment regarding the email, however, it's a Peruvian airline with a ticket flying from one Peruvian destination to another Peruvian destination. Other than a few tourists here and there, it's a safe bet that the ticket holder is going to speak Spanish. It's the same as expecting AA to send an email in Spanish on a purely domestic itinerary. Even with a flight like CRP-DFW or ELP-DFW I dont think that it would be expected. In any event, Avianca does the same and all correspondences are in Spanish. South America tourism is generally people from other South American countries and Spain. Obviously, Spanish isnt an issue. Then you have a few Europeans, many of whom speak a language similar to Spanish. Then you have a few Japanese, many of whom will speak neither Spanish or English but many will speak much more Spanish than English (read: mining). Then you have a few Americans and Brits. In the grand scheme of things, that's a pretty small number that the airline would be catering to. I agree that it is nice and that it probably should be done, but I am just saying that it is understandable that it is not done.

The problem with the ticket is a different matter and I believe you should send a note to Lan Chile in Renca and/or Lan Peru in Lima. Don't bother sending anything to the US offices.

Finally, I believe you should receive 500 miles for the segment on AA plus any applicable bonuses.

When I flew LIM-CUZ-AQP-JUL-AQP-LIM on LAN Peru, most of the passengers were tourists (usually American, British or German) visiting Cuzco or Lake Titicaca.

I have to agree with JuPe on this one, I'm afraid. I bought the ticket from the English-language website, so why can't the automatically generated message notifying me of the flight change also be in English as well as Spanish? The announcements on board the flight itself are in both languages--I presume for the benefit of non-Spanish-speakers!

Thanks for that. I'll ship it over to AA and see what they give me. It can't be any stingier than BA!

Hmmm. For "Bonus" miles yes but not for regular "Mileage". My latest example on LA Santiago-Mendoza as a lowly AA Gold. Flights were in deep discount coach.

Not sure I understand. You got 500 miles plus a 25% bonus for being gold for a total of 625. The 25% is what I was referring to as an applicable bonus. Plats and Exec Plats get 100%. As far as how it shows up as 122 503 625, all sub-500 mile flights show up that way. So a plat would have posted 122 878 1000.

Super. I am AA Plat, so I should end up with that for my return flight. I'm also BA Gold so I don't really understand how I wound up with such a measly mileage posting over there!

I gave Lan Peru my AA number before flying. Full miles for the flight posted on AA with no problem.