A little LAN bashing (or praise) please
 

I hate to admit it in such a public place but I'm almost completely a South America virgin. Just a couple of quick visits, well chaparoned. Barely touched her. So all I know about LAN is what I read here, and through my eyes it doesn't seem to be a pretty picture. Bluntly: do I read too much into the posts, or are they likely to make my trip miserable if I add SA to an AONEx?

In the air LAN is a classy airline. On the ground they tend to have an attitude, very difficult to describe but it's there. So, if your flights work as scheduled then you will be happy, I can almost guarantee it. If you have to deal with LAN's ground staff then it's a toss up, anything could happen.

But, if I can be so bold, why let a little pissy thing like this stop you from visiting a great continent? If LAN is better than SQ, or worse than Air Disaster, so what? just go, because the real good stuff starts when you get there, not in the air. I can't imagine avoiding South America on account of an airline, for Pete's sake!. :)

Not a LAN virgin
 

I've flown LAN from LAX to LIM in J. Nothing other than a pleasant experience. The lounge they use is great at LAX, the service was very nice in the air. I've never flown them coach, so no input there.

LAN is dropping almost all of their F service (something like 2 planes with F after their conversion is complete), including all flights to US will be J only. So a bit of a waste on an AONEx. My limited experience on LAN (dozen flights) was that their F was excellent, J was average (not really better than AA J on the same routes) and their ground handling is abysmal. My one ticketing change (on a J ticket, not DONEx) took an hour to process (change of time, same date/route/class), most airlines can do that in under a minute. I definitely got the impression that the ticket agent viewed their job as entertainment rather than a job to be done. IB is the same way on the ground (but also not that great in the air, though much better than IB used to be); curious that LAN has this in common with IB. Overall LAN is ok to fly, and it does seem to be getting better year by year.

Why? Because despite near-sonic jets, it's a huge planet with more corners to poke around in than I'll ever get to, so we consider all kinds of things in picking among the possibilities.

Getting there may not be half the fun, but having a snotty hotel clerk or airline personnel can spoil your day. If things go really badly - the hotel is overbooked or the airline has to cancel - having a champion instead of an antagonist on the other side of the counter can make an even greater impact on one's disposition (and well-being).

I asked the question because in my very unscientific analysis it seems that LAN gets significantly more serious complaints in this forum than any other OW carrier. I realize that one will almost always get acceptable treatment and a decent ride on even the worst of the world's airlines, but if "many" of LAN's non-flight personnel routinely exibit an 'attitude' and LAN routinely exhibits indifference to pax when delays and overbookings occur, my lack of luck will have me encounter a couple of those situations and I'll say to me, "I told you so".

Thus my posting, intended not to reinforce my opinion - I'd much rather the community tell me those things almost never happen. (But it seems you're saying "yeah, that's them, live with it.")

What's the alternative? Have you stopped flying AA after they stuffed you up royally at LAX some time ago?

LAN staff (not the flight crews, which are great) can be a real PITA at times, but as an airline they fly where I want to go, and for me that's all I want/need to worry about. But hey, that's me, others will differ, and that is what makes this place so great to be a part of.

Rather paradoxically LAN can also have some of the most generous ground service (maybe to offset the bad). I remember one FTer being downgraded on AONEx due to equipment change, and getting some very nice compensation from LAN (probably due to a misunderstanding on LAN's part as to the OWE rules). So sometimes incompetence can work to your advantage. Also I get the sense that some LAN ground agents are very polite and try to be helpful to premium pax (but also my sense is that is 10% of LAN and not 90%). IB once gave me a meal voucher for USD 150 on a delay that was IB's fault; normal is USD 30 ... they volunteered it and I was amazed by it (and wasn't able to spend it, of course, so it cost IB much less). There is a real dichotomy to these airlines (IB and LA).

LAN is a great airline and I fly them often. You should expect no problems.

I've flown LAN internationally in J and from MDZ to SCL in Y and don't have any complaints (and it's certainly better than flying in AA 757s in Latin America). Everything appeared to go smoothly on my flights, so I can't comment on their customer service skills when something goes wrong.

My most memorable event was when the F/A was shouting at the ground staff to let me use the Neruda lounge since I was arriving at SCL in business class. True it was 5:30 AM and from Quito (not a long-haul flight) but that published benfit did not make any such distinction. Had to wait in the other LAN lounge until the Neruda lounge opened (wanted to showere before heading into SCL).

It is a little easier to arrange these days. Just a side note about this "arrival lounge" benefit: have a reasonably long shower if you want, but do not linger in the lounge too long afterwards, otherwise the immigration people will come looking for you. The problem is that they have to "close" the flight, and they have a limited time window in which to do it.

I've found LAN to be above average in everything but ticketing (I'd never get them to do anything to a OWE ticket)

Had one great ground handling experience in SCl when arriving on a delayed flight from GRU missing my onward connection to JFK. I was in First and they met me at the aircraft door, payed my "Australian citizen reciprocity fee" ,had a car take me to the Sheraton Hotel, fed me and picked me up the next day.

While the accomodation may be all pretty standard the way they handled it was exemplary.

I wouldn't hesitate to fly Lan. For the number of times I've flown them, I've had a few "not the best days", but within South America, they are the best thing going, and definitely no worse (and actually, better) than US carriers on routes of similar length. When I first started travelling around Chile and saw how they were gutting the front cabin on their formerly-2 cabin planes, I hestitated. Instead, I found myself on efficent, generally on-time, flights up and down the country, enjoying it in ways I never otherwise would have (as I wouldn't have gone!).

Just be prepared for rigid rulefollowing. Very rigid. A fair tradeoff for clean safe generally newer planes, which generally fly ontime. I've flown at least 30+ Lan segments, and can only remember 2 notable delays - one @ LAX, where they handed me a $25 food voucher at check-in due to a 2 hour delay, and another @ SCL where smoke from a nearby fire shut the airport. I don't know if I have been late more than 30 minutes on any other flight, and other than 1 trip where they put me on an earlier flight and told me my luggage wouldn't make it and they'd bring it to my hotel a few hours later (and they did), the luggage is usually there (except for LAX) within 10 to 15 minutes of getting off the plane.

I've done SCL-PUQ-SCL-SCL-GRU//GIG-SCL-PPT-IPC-SCL-AKL on LAN in Y this year on a LONE4 and I never had any problems at all. Ground staff were always friendly, I was always greeted with a smile and they did their absolute best to help me, for example if I wanted to change a seat. No prob getting the prio-tag as well.
In the air, I was pleased that they served nice food in Y, even on domestic flights (the SCL-PUQ flight made a stop in PMC, and we got a sandwich SCL-PMC and a hot meal PMC-PUQ!).
Maybe I was lucky, but I would definately fly LAN again, I felt much more welcome on LAN than on Qantas.

Earlier this year I flew few segments on LAN in J and F. They were still flying 3 class planes at that time. F service, food and wines were superb, but the J segments were just ok at best. The service was quick and non existent after food service was done. I had to ring the call button for anything, no walk throughs by the FAs, etc....I also found the ground crews to be very uninspired, very rigid and not willing to "think outside the box". i.e. I have OW Emerald staus. I was flying on a F OW award ticket. On the SCL-IPC-SCL route they used the same 3 class 767s they used on other routes but sold as 2 class. Row 1 is blocked out so you can't get a seat assignment online. Phone agents will just tell you that the seats are taken. TAs, GAs and CSRs will tell you the same thing after checking their computer, yet the flights went out with 1 or 2 people (I imagine it's their own elites) occupying row 1, with 3-4 seats empty. I was somewhat miffed at their inability to take care of a OW top tier status holder, but I learned my lesson.

Move on to few months later, actually just couple of weeks ago. Flying LAP from MIA-LIM-MIA in J. LAP uses LAN 767s on this route. Since LAN is in the process of refitting their 767s to a 2 class planes, the outbound was scheduled to be with the new seats and row 1 was available on line because now it was showing as a regular J section with 6 seats across. I picked 1D. Unfortunately there was an equipment change few days before, fortunately I got to keep 1D, the "throne" in the sky. :D (it's a single seat in the middle). For the return, I had 2D but I knew why row 1 was blocked, so once again I started to lobby at the airport for row 1, and actually telling these folks what's going on. "Sorry Sir, but it seems like the seats are taken"....is all I got from everybody. I board and wait until the boarding is almost done, and sure enough 3 row 1 seats are empty. I ask the purser if I can occupy one of the seats once the doors are closed and quietly mention my OW status. Finally I got a person that had some sense. She took it upon herself to walk back to the gate, have the GA come back and reassign me to 1B. This was the same guy that just minutes ago told me no. Sorry for the rant, but I just wanted to give you an idea how LAN ground crews are useless. I can't even imagine if something went wrong....


OTOH, I noticed a HUGE improvement in J on these 2 class flights. It's not as great as the old F experiences, but only a notch below at worst and many notches better than the old J. Service improved, the food/wine is the same as the old F.

I also flew LAP LIM-CUZ-LIM on a 1 class plane. Nice in the air experience but once again a miserable experience on the ground. Gates moved without any signs nor announcements in CUZ. I'm an experienced flyer so no problem for me, but there were elderly tourists from US, Germany and UK that were totally confused and only with my help were able to make the flight back to LIM.

I will give LAN/LAP credit for having great on time performance and very clean planes.

Now that I experienced the "new" J class service I will also have no problem flying them again. I have not experienced the new seats yet. With lie flat J seats the overall experience should be great.

I would not hesitate to fly LAN again and highly recommend the airline. I just wish the airline would give their ground crew employees the freedom to "think outside the box" when necessary.