Living in Peru : your everyday companion

(Written by Carsten Korch)

I have been a happy LAN Peru traveler for many years and via the Chilean based airline, I have seen most of Peru as well as a few other places around the world. I never had any complaints and things normally went smoothly -from making the reservation till the end of my journey.

Of course, on-line booking wasn't always around, but today I plan and book everything on-line including my travel arrangements. It is simple, fast and painless, most of the time. However, my recent experience with LAN has been up and down, from trying to use the website to get what I need, to actually paying for my airfare.

I guess the main problem is that each costumer service agent has a different explanation to why I'm never able to book and pay for my airfare on-line. According to the LAN costumer service agents that I have talked to, everything should go smoothly when I book and travel by myself, or with my family. But when making arrangements for my family to travel alone, I have to reconfirm the reservation and payment by calling and/or faxing LAN, or even visiting their local office here in Lima or at the airport. I can't remember when I didn't have to call and reconfirm every single detail. When calling their helpline (213-8200) I can never get through the correct department and subsequently I have to be transferred to the correct LAN.com department, which never takes less than 10 minutes.
The latest example -my recent family trip to Iquitos earlier this month.

Some of the basic functions on LAN.com should be improved and designed to be more user friendly. A nice gentleman at LAN.com confirmed that they are aware of many of the problems users are facing and 'LAN is working to solve them.'

Here's an example of what to look out for:

You have to be extra careful when you choose the date of your journey. The calendar on LAN.com is always a month ahead of the actual date. When you choose a date in the present month the system doesn't automatically change to the same month, which has often caused costumers to book their return trip for the following month on several occasions. This also happened to me once and cost me a fee to change my travel date. This fee, by the way, varies depending on who you talk to. The telephone operator once gave me and family a price and when we arrived at the Cuzco airport, the price was completely different (and it wasn't cheaper).

To be fair, we compared 4 other airlines and their on-line service. Their on-line systems seem to be much more advanced at avoiding the date problem, which is apparently isn’t all too hard to fix.

You might say that it’s my fault for not double checking the dates when making my reservation and you're right. But when planning your trip on-line, things are supposed to be simple and user friendly, apart from the other advantages that come with on-line booking like avoiding long lines at the airport.

Repeating myself:

When I get through, the costumer service agent normally asks for my booking number and credit card details. Sometimes, they demand that I go to one of there main offices in Lima or at the airport to verify who I am. Most of the time LAN asks me to send them a fax with a copy of my credit card to protect me against fraud (can’t the simplest thief figure out how to send a fax with a copy of my credit card?).

Is this normal?

Last week my mother in law asked me to book a ticket to Cuzco and we decided to send her on LAN Peru flight LP 095. We received the confirmation immediately, and as part of my usual routine, I called to confirm my credit card details, which became a night mare. Everything was settled and I could finally relax, so I thought. A couple of hours later I received her travel itinerary and instead of flying with LP095 she had now been booked on LAN 025, which departed a couple of hours later.

One would think that LAN.com would contact you and inform you that your flight has been cancelled and then leave it up to you to decide, but not LAN. LP025 was booked and confirmed without my permission!

I wrote LAN’s management as well to their customer service department (servicioalcliente@lan.com). After hearing nothing from them, I decided to call a telephone customer service agent,
The agent told me to be at the airport at 2 AM in the morning (PL095 leaves a 4 AM) as the first confirmation I received from LAN.com said. There, a costumer service agent would inform me that the plane had been cancelled (like my second confirmation from LAN.com already stated) and they would offer to change the flight to something that was more convenient.

At this point I had already wasted an hour. I asked for a supervisor, as there was no way I was going to the airport with my mother in law at 2 AM in the morning, only to return that same afternoon. I think I was a little too nice during the telephone conversation, so I decided to step it up to get what I wanted.

Let's just say that I was angry and diplomatic at the same time and I got what I wanted and not what LAN wanted to give me. I had to use all of my effort to reach a settlement.
How can LAN cancel a plane 3-4 days ahead of time and then not inform their customers and leave them out in the cold, so to speak? They have all of my contact information but it seems as if LAN’s policy is: "let the customer get back in line and START ALL OVER AGAIN". Right!

We would have liked to hear what LAN’s explanation is, but after numerous attempts to get their side of the story, they have not answered our requests.

Some readers claim that LAN doesn't care about their costumers unless you are a member of their "Comodoro" class, which according to some of our readers , treats their passengers extremely well. I'm not a "Comodore" member and after this article I'm sure I won't be a welcomed member.

If the president of LAN Peru or anyone else from the LAN organization reads this article, I hope that some type of explanation will surface regarding their drop in service. Perhaps, they can also explain why no one from the LAN Peru company has responded to our e-mails. LAN Peru is invited, as all of our readers are, to leave their comments below. We would like to hear your thought, opinions, and experiences, good or bad.

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I second everything you say.  I had to confirm my flights at a LAN office in May to travel to Buenos Aires and Santiago, and I have experienced problems in the past trying to pay for tickets online. This never happens with LAN offices abroad; in Buenos Aires, I checked-in online without problems.  LVB

I have flown LAN Airlines several times, and have never had a problem.  Hopefully, your experiences are the exception to the rule

LAN as a company has a good reputation all around, but as a Peruvian I fell that is truly a shame that Peru doesn't have  its own commercial airline company.

I miss Aero Peru, Continental, Faucett and alike !

ugh...first of all...let's look at the local competion...Gol and Taca...workmanlike, but essentially cheap and cheerful...with few nonstops to el norte...

two things about lan...they are better than any US based airline (not saying much)...and by far the best in the region...but they treat peru-based passengers like dogs...i can never buy anything without calling once, twice, thrice...maybe get someone who has a clue...or switching hell...maybe get someone who hablas ingles...maybe not...and then...(and what an endless, useless exercise it is)...half the time I call the number in chile - guess what, they answer that one pretty fast...lan lesson for this week...they had 2 flights a day to Los Angeles...they cancel one of them...and DOUBLE the price for the remaining one...but hey...that's capitalism...(and why I'm flying continental...)

I'm travelling for the first time to Peru later in the month - from Sydney to Lima via Santiago. Like you, I do everything online. LAN was the exception.

Online, my  cabin class of choice was available as well the the return dates I required. Unfortunately I had several difficulties with their website in attempting to book and pay. My attempts to resolve this by phone to local LAN office were met with disinterest and downright rudeness.

LAN being the sole carrier on this route, I eventually resorted to a commissioned agent.  E-ticketing wasn't an option. Also,
By the time it was finally sorted I was neither able to travel in the cabin class of my choice, nor obtain the return dates I required, as seats were no longer available. 

I'm connecting with the flight from Sydney four hours after a prior long-haul flight -  so comfort was an important consideration that ultimately had to be compromised. Equally, not being able to return when I intended will have consequences I would have preferred to avoid. 

An airline's web-based offering is not only an integral part of its commercial business, it's a direct  and often first interaction with their customers. If poorly handled it can have dire consequences for all parties concerned as well as impacting the region it serves, is operating from, and is identified with.

For my part, I'm hoping that my actual travel experience with the airline, together with my "Latin American adventure," will reduce this to a minor hickup.

My husband and I went to Iquitos via LAN last week.  We had a wonderful time.  We were there for four days and planned for 3 nights.
We booked a five star hotel in Iquitos.  When we got to the airport for the return trip we were informed that my husband had been a "no show" on the trip to Iquitos and therefore his return flight had been cancelled.
Imagine my surprise, I had thought he was sitting right next to me on the flight into Iquitos!  Anyway, they had us wait to see if there were any vacant seats.  There were none.  And then they sent us to a 3
star hotel ( we asked to go to the same hotel where we had been staying), gave us $200 LAN credit each and told us we were entitled to dinner.

That's not the end.  When we went to order our meal we were told in
the hotel restaurant we were limited to 10 soles.  I have been using LAN
for a while, this was my first bad experience, but it was pretty bad.

Early May my daughter was travelling to Buenos Aires, at the counter she was told in a not very polite tone that this flight was"regional", was allow to a 10 Kg. suit case - She needed to pay $150 per extra weight or luggage. She was never adviced as how much weight or how many pieces of luggage was she allow to take. She was following the International rule of 22 kilos per luggage and two suit cases allowed.  Fortunately she could pay for the extra weight and luggage , nevertheless I wonder what if I woud not have been there at the airport to help her solve the problem???

INDEED I DO MISS AERO PERU, AERO CONTINENTAL...AS A PERUVIAN I FEEL ASHAME AND ANGRY THAT WE DO NOT HAVE OUR OWN INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL COMERCIAL AIRLINE COMPANY....WHAT ARE WE PERUVIANS TO DO ABOUT IT????

My experience with LAN has always been great. If I compare it with the US airlines, their flight service is by far much better. Perhaps they should improve their web-based ticketing.

Well, let's all gang up on Lan. Hummmmmm. seems to me that as usual Peruvians a very fickle bunch including our newly famous imported Danish owner of this web-site. Why wasn't anyone complaining when we had one of the oldest privately owned Airlines in the world, Faucett. Or the terrible Aero-Peor, Continental, flew once but never again. American de Aviacion was really great, don't really know what happened there. But I don't think Fujimori really did anything for any of the local carriers, bad or good that they might have been. I have been in Peru for over 25 years so I can personally speak from experience. Truthfully, Faucett was the best until that ratero Zanatti got too much involved. Many a time i'd be waiting at the airport for my flight to Pucallpa, I'm talking dozens of times folks, and we had to wait for him. Seems he had a cattle ranch in Pucallpa and they were bringing in cattle from the states to PCL. Hummm.
Lan, if you don't like it, where were you when we needed your complaints. I have flown Lan since 1976. All over Chile, including Easter Island, and throughout all of South America. I was so happy when Lan started in Peru. Finally a almost World class carrier with some good manners and some real sense of responsability. Look what they have done in less than 5 years. I have had wonderful experiences and relacions with Lan, and NO I AM NOT AN EMPLOYEE OF LAN.
1. Remember, you are still in a third world country, as much as I love Peru, that is the honest to Gods truth
2. Anywhere you fly these days you will encounter problems with any airline, be it US based or otherwise.
3. If you really want to experience flying Hell, try to fly LAB, that's Lloyd Aereo Boliviano. If I get started on them from what happened last year in Bolivia I'd be here until next week.
4. If you are unhappy, please, remember to open up your mouth. That;s what you have it for. Screaming and raising your voice will do nothing...Plus didn't your father ever tell you, if you want to get something done, don't speak to the clowns, speak to the owner of the circus.
Thank you and keep flying Lan.
Stephen

I would like to join in the LAN bashing because I've noticed the same quality decrease, both in hiring/training and operations.

En nuestro vuelo de Los Angeles a Lima (Lan Peru 605 - Diciembre 20) una azafata bromista pero de mal gusto se dirijio a su companera remedando el acento del espanol de mi senora quien fue a pedir un vaso de agua.

El servicio de ticket counter del aeropuerto en Lima fue dificil tambien.  Vuelo LAN PERU 604 – Enero 3, 2007 - Viaje de familia, 2 adultos con 2 ninos. Destino final: San Francisco, sin embargo las maletas fueron impresas para llegar solamente a Los Angeles.  La razon que nos dieron fue que LAN no tiene “partnership” con United.  Otro problema fue que nos dieron solamente tres asientos porque el vuelo estaba lleno. Despues de mucho reclamo el cuarto asiento nos fue dado.

 

Fine, LAN is a good airline carrier, with some imperfections as most companies, but it's not a Peruvian company.

Yes I want to see an airline company representing Peru, in our own country. A company that can be as good and even better than any other. I would rather fly on a national company, just because it's from my country. Silly? no, I call it patriotic. For now, TACA and US airlines are my first choice for sure.

Yes, it is silly.  This philosophy is what drives governments to run and subsidize money losing airlines.  This is not goverment's business.

I never mentioned that a new Peruvian national airline should be state-owned.

We've been flying in-country and regional and international flights for 2 years with LAN now, and only in the past 3 months or so it seems their booking and service has gotten a LOT worse.  I recall being able to book completely online, pay for it, confirm, the whole nine yards before, but now I have to call their customer service line (if you can call it that) to "complete" the transaction.  Otherwise it now cancels if you don't call withhin 24-48 hours.  If you're not really checking your email you could miss it... 

Course, I completely LOST a flight that way, because they never sent any kind of email whatsoever.  I made several different ticket purchases all during the same week so when I couldn't find the email a few weeks later to tell my sis-in-law her flight times (gift ticket), I called to find out what the info was.  I was informed that I had never called to confirm and thus the purchase was cancelled (funny, I gave them my credit card number...) and I couldn't get
the same fare by a long shot.  Of course, this took 5 people and 45 minutes to tell me nothing of use or even help me find a similar flight time at that price, and when they transferred me to someone who didn't speak any English (I pressed for English for a reason!, I realized what a waste it was going to be and just went straight back to the beginning to get a similar flight at a similar price - which I could find eventually, but somehow their service agents couldn't... 

I've had more problems since then confirming by phone the flight I should be able to confirm online, long wait times and the like.  It's no more secure, just adds another annoying step to the process. 

But our personal favorite was when my husband was flying alone with a broken foot and they took his crutches from him to store.  Which would have been fine except that, despite asking for them 10 minutes or so before landing, the flight attendant never brought his crutches and he was left sitting there while the ENTIRE plane got off.  When the whole flight had emptied he finally got one of the flight attendants' attention and they had trouble finding them!   To date he has received no apology or recompense and it has been about 3 months. 

I used to be pretty impressed with LAN by any country's airline standards but lately...

I am not concerned where an airline´s owner is, I am concerned about service.  I have flow on Aero Condor, Star Peru, Lan, Tam, Aeropostal, Gol and Continental (USA).

By far, the worst service and the greatest failure of customer care came from LAN.

For me, that is the bottom line.

Continental Airlines.....No problems period.

I think that LAN is an air line without scruples, since having great economic power, is not able to offer an optimal service. The problem is that the Chilean industralists always estan pending of the money, and not of the service that offers. I never will more return to travel in a Chilean company.  Good luck friends.

That´s what happens when a company comes to a country to control the market. They´re always promising good service, price value and so on, but in the end, when they have control, they do whatever they want. No respect. People in Peru are SOOOO TIRED of these chileans coming to this wonderful country like vultures. Anyway, considering other factors, I´m glad most people are realizing how bad is their service, and raise their voices. Tickets are expensive, so you should get what you pay for, and also claim vigorously when you get bad service. Hopefully there will come other companies in the future, and give us the service and attention we deserve as customers. Almost everytime my family came from the US, they´ve had all kinds of problems. This also happens with another company we used a lot in the past, called SkyBox. When it was american owned, it worked flawlessly. Since Lan Chile bought it, it´s a nightmare. That indicates me that in every bussiness they get into, they just care for profit. Seems that most chileans have the ripoff mentality, a good reason not to go to their country or use their companies. Don´t bother calling customer service or sending mails, here or in the US: they won´t answer. No respect...

When will be the day that this chileans- rotos will stop inflirtating in Peru and robb and takin everything what Peru has, it is delighting to have what our country has and Chile pretend to be european. Let me tell you how ignorant!! I am married to an european, lived and study in Europe, american citizen for 23 years and toured in Peru and all over South america, the day that those politicians not patriotic stop robbing or give the country away for peanuts, that will be the day Peru will be proud to be what it is. I have been a tourist guide with viasa and KLM airlines for years, those flights came super loaded, specially europeans as german, danish, italians, and swiss. They appreciate our country for its rich culture, of ancestors, the lost city in Cuzco as MacchuPicchu, PERUVIANS LOVE YOUR COUNTRY AND BE PROUD WHO YOU ARE, AND SHOW THE WORLD HOW INTELLIGENT YOU ARE AND BE UNIFIED. NEVER FORGET WHERE YOU COME, CLASS COMES WITHIN YOU NOT WHAT YOU WEAR, THAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU HAVE CLASS, I BET THOSE WANNA BEES ARE IN DEBT EVEN THEIR SOULS, and not happy in Life!!!!

WE ALL PERUVIANS WISH TO FLY IN A PERUVIAN FLAG AIRLINES,
NO DOUBT WE WILL HAVE A TOP SERVICE WITH SO MANY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN THE PAST.THIS TOGETHER WITH A TOP ARLINES MAINTENANCE IN PERU. SO WE WILL BE PROUD AGAIN TO CARRY OUR FLAG ALL OVER THE WORLD.
WE NEED  HONEST AND FAIR INVESTORS WITH THE CAPACITY TO
OPERATE IN PERU AND OUTSIDE PERU AND HAD THE PROTECCION OF
INTERNATIONAL OPERATORS AND NOT TO GIVE
AERONATICAL LICENSES TO PIRATES OR AIRLINE GANGTERS, TO COMPETE UNFAIRLY  WITHIN OUR TERRITORY

You are right about that. It is so sad because Peru has everything, rich in resources, gold,silver, oil fruits, vegetables, minerals. No part in the world even if they are industrialized or third world country as many politicians sell the country for peanuts, and take over the resources away from us for cents, that's the way the big countries control and take everything from our country but our country with all of those problems they are not wannabees, some day Peru will have their own airlines and managed by Peruvians who doesn't exploit and sell our country, I am proud to be Peruvian and never regret to be!!! by the way europeans who come from the old continent, they are educated and they know what Peru is about with sierra, selva and costa. Salud y arriba Peru!!!! We will never be quiet, this is a democratic country and by the way I have 3 nationalities, and educated. Do your research that many people by the time the finish high school don't know how to write and speak english clearly. I speak and write 3 different languages fluently!!!! Viva Peru y salud con Pisco sour y ceviche Peruano 100%.

It was very interesting reading all the comments of this subject. I have flown with many airlines all over the world including LAN. I believe that my experiences with Lan are on the whole good experiences. Unfortunately I cannot say that of my experiences of U.S. carriers, in my experience they are the worst airlines in the world, service stinks, rude employees and no complaints are ever upheld by companies. I'm speaking of American Airlines in particular, but delta, united, continental and us airways are not far behind them.
If you want to look at far superior quality of service, then look at the European airlines, they know how to treat customers. Their service is so superior to US carriers that its embarrassing. I'm speaking mainly of British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, KLM, Lufthansa and Air France. If the US finally adopt the open skies agreement and let fair competition into the US airline industy, the US carriers, as they are now, wouldn't stand a chance against these superior european airlines. Also, the last thing an airline wants to have, whether it's the national flag carrier or not, is to be state run by the government, this is a recipe for disaster. 

These comments prompted me to contact Lan about my bad experiences to see what they had to say.  I had written before, but they never replied, so this time I wrote and called and then dropped by their office on Pardo in Miraflores.

That initiated a chain of events that shows me that my concerns about the inability of Lan to provide quality professional customer serivce are valid. 

At first, things looked good.  They were very apologetic and said they would find out why my original complaints went unanswered.  After taking a few days to investigate my complaint, they determined that my problems were indeed their fault and they decided to compensate me with a rather generous gift certificate.

I THOUGHT things were looking up...

But they then told me when and how to get the gift certificate, so I went to the office they told me too with the documentation they said I needed and 3 times over a period of over a week, no one knew anything about the gift certificate, though I continued to write and get confirmations via email.  I had reservations i wanted to use to replace the vacation I lost due to their previous problem.

By the time they figured out what they did wrong, I had lost my reservation and to reclaim it, the price went from $150 to $400, the amount of my compensation.  They admitted that they screwed up yet again, but refused to honor my original reservation for my ticket.

I decided to use my ticket and take the trip at the high price, use up my entire gift certificate and never walk through their door again.

They are not professionals, but rather children playing a game with my time and money.

SEE! I told you... I agree completely with you, my friend (that is, Americorps). I've also traveled by KLM. Nice people, friendly and beautiful stewardesses, too ;-) you couldn't ask for better service. That's what we would like in this country, solid airlines, good service, a lot more respect for customers, and those chileans kicked back to their country forever. They aren't honest, period. I wonder if some of these few people that believe LAN is a good company, aren't related or work there. Chileans invest in other countries to take advantage and rip-off customers. No wonder nobody likes them in any country that limits with Chile or have chilean companies. Take my word, stay away from them. 

We do not agree, your motives are bigoted and that makes you souless and without any legitimate merit in the conversation.

There is nothing helpful, positive or redeaming about bigotry, it is the worst of society.  I am talking about a business ethic, not an entire race, religion, ethnic group, sexual orientation nor country.  To classify a large group like that is simply dispicable and even though we both dislike LAN, I disavow any affiliation with you because your words turn my stomach. 

CLEAR?

Jeez! Does my opinion upset people? Glad you don´t see my sofa... yuk!

Can you post pictures of sofa so that we can all make our own decisions? :)

UPDATE:
I'm pleased to report that my actual travel experience with LAN from Sydney via Santiago return, as well as several flights regionally, was overall - excellent. For me, this was the case in all classes travelled. It was everything I expected of a OneWorld carrier and compared very favourably with all other carriers I have flown within that alliance.

well 1st of all i like to say that i have not yet flown LAN but i am about to do so and reading all this this makes me think will they be worse than iberia?? after all i cannot think of a worse airline to fly to peru with reagardless of which class you fly because i am a frequent (gold status) so most of the time i get free upgrades and to me it seems that these airlines have no intention of caring for their passengers they only care to increase their profit. now i live in london and work for lufthansa technik as an aircraft engineer and having flown many times to south america with different airlines except LAN i think they make the most money on this route because they use all their old planes (except KLM) meaning they charge us lots of money for flying on an airplane that has less than 10mnths of service life moreover going back to the LAN subject LAN is expanding and has bought new airplanes which they will only use on their intercontinental routes so i guess all their old bangers will be used in Peru and wherever else in south america they fly. i will give them a try as i am going to peru and will be flying all over i hope they are not as bad as some people say. well the other thing about having a national carrier in Peru i think is posible they just need to do the right market research and instead of using old big planes they should look at using 40 to 50 seater airplanes to maximise turn around tiems and make it more economical.
oh before i forget i think the worst airline Peru had was Aerocontinente i was frightned to death and i coud not wait to get to my destination as i thought the plane was not goin to make it. (it was a 727-200 30+ yrs old!!!) 
well anyway flying is the safest method of transport so keep flying and widening your horizons.
good luck and all the best to you people.

and VIVA EL PERU!!!!!
  

Expect to be pleasantly surprised. Happy travels.

tengo una queja de lan el dia16 de febrero del 2008 con el numero de vuelo 567LIMA LA PAZ STA CRUZ se ha estraviado una maleta con la scosas de mi hijas y mia. Me llamaron de CHile Para decir las caracteristicas mas la relacion d ela scosas y fotocopias de mi documentos mas el numero de vuelo de la perdida de la maleta con fecha quisiera ponerme en contacto con una persona en donde pueda mandar lo requerido
pueden ubicarme en mi correo o al numero telefonico de 2808859 o al 4509453 lima peru.gracias
    lima,18de marzo del 2008......

As I read this blog, I have been on the phone with LAN.com for almost 6 hours now.  Yes, SIX HOURS.  Because of so many glitches with their online system, it took me over 2 hours earlier and 3 calls to LAN.com just to get a reservation code.  When I received the code, I was instructed to go back into their system and enter my reservation code and pay separately.  I did so, and got a message that they could not process my credit card online and I needed to call LAN.com again.  That was 6 hours ago.  I sincerely hope it is safe to fly on this airline, because if they run their flights the way they run their reservation and payment system, I'm headed for a crash and burn experience.

Who let Lan in Peru? They are just like the spaniards taking everything from Peru and leaving nothing... sham on Peru

I have had a good laugh at many of the comments, but the last one wins the cake: 

 Fran jones says :
11 February, 2009 [ 07:49 ]

Who let Lan in Peru? They are just like the spaniards taking everything from Peru and leaving nothing... sham on Peru

Well, shame on you for your ethnocentric views. It is high time that we stop blaming others for our shortcomings. If we want our own airlines we should step to the plate and do something about it.

On my way from Australia to Lima I recently connected with LAN from Buenos Aires. My suitcase weighed around 35 kilos and I wasn't charged anything for any excess. However when I went back to Buenos Aires my suitcase weighed 26 kilos and I was charged US$46! When I claimed the reason for that since I hadn't been charged before, plus all international flights allowed for increased baggage weight the attendant said that the flight to Buenos Aires was considered as "A regional trip" and as such all domestic flights applied to it.
In my view for as long as they have the monopoly in Peru those Chileans will get away with whatever ripoff they want to come up with.

To the comment Heinz has posted...in my opinion, the airline regulators,  "Better Business Bureau" and/or the government should be monitoring how some businesses are conducted.

LAN and any other airline can't 'change the rules in the middle of the game'. They must honor their pledge for service and tariffs alike.

We, as consumers ARE 'stepping to the plate'. And eventualy, we'll find another airline to trust our money to. We'll still be flying on our FAVORITE wings !

Alas, I guess I'll have to put my two-cents worth in also.  I too have flown LAN and have had horrific experiences.  If I go into them, I'll just be repeating what many of you already have said.  But, it's easy to say that we should have our own airline(s) but, big but, who is going to do that.  The government?  I don't think so.  They're the ones who are responsible for us not having an airline to begin with.  And, who is going to invest when there is so much corruption within.  Someone, and I don't mean the people of Peru, but someone filled their pockets when they handed over our God-given rights over to the Chileans and nobody stopped them and now we are crying foul.  When we get honest leadership with the country's interest at heart and not their pockets, then we can proudly take our country back and nationalize our airlines, train services and utility companies, etc., that belong in our country.    These foreigners come into our country and then treat our citizens with disdain and disrespect.  Who's is responsible for this and what can we do about it?  It's time to take our country back. 

Remember TANS?  Crashing in the jungle is the reason the airline was discontinued.  I personally experienced a landing that caused the oxygen masks to come down.  Aerocontinente landed so hard we bent an axle and had to wait 3 hours in Chiclayo for the repairs to be made.  Aerocontinente was transporting more than bodies.  Perhaps that had something to do with the reckless piloting.    Lan is a safe airline.   We left JFK airport during a blizzard and only Lan took off that night.  Chilenos know snow.  Lan Peru consists of the best Peruvian employees from the dissolved airlines.  Rigorous 18 month employee training.  Only the top 5% make it to be flight attendants; the pilots as well I am sure.  I don't wan't to spend 2 months in the andes resorting to canibalism because my plane crashed.  thank god Lan has quality aircraft.  Peru is a geographically diverse country and tourism depends on safe transportation.  Buy your tickets with that in mind.  I have never visited Chile, and do care to but I love Peru.  I live in New York but plan to live in Peru soon.

LAN's customer service IS absolutely appalling. They will NEVER admit any sort of liability and seem to have taken a few lessons from their old leader General Pinochet. Whatever you do, do NOT book with LAN on the telephone as you will have no proof of the price you are quoted. LAN have been known to overcharge on the telephone and then you are pretty much screwed because they claim that website fares are different and it's just your tough luck. I encourage all of you posting here to add these comments to the facebook group entitled Do Not Fly With LAN Airways. The only way we can change their attitude is to put pressure on these people, they have no serious competition and think they can do what they want.

Julie

So LAN EMPLOYEE FAMILY MEMBER thinks that the fact that LAN was the only airline to take off in that blizzard at JFK shows that they are one of the safest airlines??? Surely if all the other airlines (of which there are dozens at JFK) deemed it unsafe LAN should have as well. What planet is this person on?