Troubles with Lan - what to do?
 

Flying on another AONE4 through Latam and once again experiencing huge troubles with Lan. These guys are hopeless. Tried to do a reissue in SCL and they told me that since it was issued on CX ticket stock that I needed to get CX to do the reissue - jsut a little hard with no CX offiec within 6,000 miles - only a local (hopeless GSA). Then they looked at the original issue (AA ex CAI) and said it was "issued incorrectly" - basically they claimed there were no OWE prices in EGP. Anyhow ended up having to go to the AA SCL office and got them to reissue even thoguh I had no more AA sectors.

This is probably my 10 or 11th AONE/DONE ticket that I haçve traveled to LAtam on - each time LAN is hopeless - never can reissue. they try to make up charges, they Will not book any other OW sectors, Never release A class seats even when showing on CRS´s etc- seems like they are not really a part of OW - could understand a few years back but boys it has been 5 years already- get with the program.

2 questions

1- does anyone have an address contact at OW I can send something to? Just feel that the AA guys in Latam are getting a lot of extra work becuase LA is so bad. I really owe the AA SCL staff one and they asked for me to write something since this sort of thing happens all of the time.

2- Wondering what this forum thinks of dumping LA and getting another carrier on OW for Latam - not like SCL is a convinient hub for anything anyway

What about Taca - they do code shares with AA and IB? Not bad coverage for north area of LAtam

Aerolineas A has gotten a lot better as well and are begining to expand again

TAM would be great (jsut introduce flat beds for J class) but they seem too close to Varig (and by that probably Star).

Any thoughts?

Being SCL based I beg to differ.

Somewhere on this forum is the 1W office address in Vancouver. I really want to get this "alliance" (or is that marketing hype) to work. Is it time for consumer power?

I haven't got time to search now as I have to catch a flight.

Good luck and may the A class seats be with you.

1W address thread.
 

Thanks - appreciate it - hope OW can sort out Lan or find us a new dance partner for Latam.

"power to the passengers"!

Lan is, by far, the best Latin American partner available out there. You really do not want any of the other suggestions you mention. Sooner or later Lan is probably going to be under 1 more consolidated umbrella (not the hodgepodge of do I collect miles with this one and not with that one, etc...) as the by-far dominant and premier, and financially solvent carrier in South America.

That said, I am not a OW member, but have flown LA extensively through their AS partnership.

Here's my take on the situation.

(1) OW should have some sort of ticketing office/facility @ SCL, and/or specifically delegated to certain people @ AA or LA @SCL. LA agents are "strict constructionists" as far as rules go, no matter what anyone else says. AS even said to me "oh you don't need a reissue - just bring the other ticket there and since its the same route, etc... no problem. I fortunately told them that in the real world, that's not how it works and I'm not flying on an AS-issued LA ticket unless I am holding tickets for my actual itin.

I would suggest bringing the issue up with OW as far as isolation in Chile should any OW issues arise.

(2) Another airline's CRS will not necessarily show you the actual inventory in another airline, unless it is showing you the OA's inside link. It is just how it is. Something that Apollo (Galileo) may be showing as F4A4 may be in reality F2A1 or even lesser. LA is not lying, or doing anything wrong in this respect. As you know, LA has one row of 5 seats of F, in all 3 cabin planes. Its very hard to get an A or Z seat. But when you do, its just a great experience. Unfortunately, the frustration in getting them has caused me nothing less than a lot of aggravation. In this technology day and age, I don't know why all CRSs don't use the inside availability of the OAs automatically, without inputting an extra code to the request (which you just can't do on a web-based program).


Suerte!

In SCL with LanChile
 

It took me nearly an hour to get my ex-CAI RTW re-issued.
The trick, was to calculate the price in US$ they told me, not EGP.
Try suggesting that and see what happens.

Oddly having had my ticket re-issued they changed the plane to two class (I was on a AONE5), they offered my MCO's for the downgrade which is not in the OneWorld rules.
The staff at SCL and Rio told me that I could cash these at any ticket office.
Upon presenting them at JFK I was told that they had to be sent in to Miami for refund.
Well after several months of waiting (3 months from submission), I got a cheque in US$ from Lan, so I am pretty delighted and it will pay a good part of my 2005 AONE5.

Sometimes incompetence has its advantages. Congratulations on your refund (which is against the OWE rules so LAN made a big mistake in your favour). LAN has always struck me as well intentioned, just inept and they make the simplest activities a struggle (in my limited experience with them).

There is male supervisor at SCL who seems to know what he is doing on RTW's.