LAN Airlines

LAN double charged me for the purchase of a ticket from Bogota, Colombia to Leticia, Colombia on April 13. I contacted LAN on April 14. After a couple of weeks, they agreed I had been overcharged and was entitled to a refund. They agreed to reimburse me via my Colombian bank account. That was at the end of April. I have been waiting and no refund has been deposited into my bank account. I have talked to call center reps, customer service reps and even visited LAN office in Bogota in person. NOTHING.

 Customer service is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE.

AVOID LAN at all costs.

My wife and I were returning home from our 50th anniversary tour from Santiago Chile.

Our flight LAN530 was to be departure at 9:25pm. We checked in on line at 6:00am.

On the way to the airport our taxi brock down and we arrived to the counter for checking in our luggage one and a half our prior departure, but representatives refused to take our luggage. At Santiago airport communication in English was the greatest challenge (nobody spoke English).

It took us 45 min. to come to the counter and be able to communicate. We were told that valid and we have to buy new tickets. At 10 at night with sick wife we did not have a choice, but pay $1654 for tickets. By any definition it is an EXTORTION. It is absolutely impossible and worthless to try to contact or communicate with LAN Customer service – they are not responding. Under no circumstances I would ever use or recommend LAN Airline.

Lan has bad customer services, this employee was very rude and made nasty comments because she did not wanted to help Find another airlane with better customer Service

It is the worse airline I ever had. They have old planes and flights are delayed or cancel without warning. They refuses to find you other airline to finish the trip. The staff is unexperienced, immature and lack human relations. They do not know what they are doing. They walk around eating, laughing and talking when people have been waiting for hours to leave.

This was the second time I used LAN airlines. Two years ago, I traveled from Bogota to Cali and the day I needed to travel I tried to do the check in online. To my surprise, my flight was not scheduled anymore. I did not receive any notification, when I called they said it was cancelled. This was awful as I had many plans that day and a ride. I sent a complaint to Lan but I never got any answer.Now, on 4/20/14 flight 2589 from Quito to Cuenca, my flight was delayed over 4 hours because Lan's plane was not working. It spoiled our plans in Cuenca and our ride to the hotel. Then, that plane had a terrible sound when was landing, it was scary. Then on 4/26/14, flight 2588 we had the same problem we were delayed about 4 hours and we nearly missed the connection to Colombia. It was very stressful and upsetting to be in small airport tired and hungry. When we arrived in Quito the plane made such horrible noise, we were all afraid.

LAN's planes are not safe. Their service is the worse and they took part our time on vacation to fix/patch the old planes. I will never use that airline, it is too dangerous and they have an awful service.

I just wrote a lengthy review and the internet kicked me off. Therefore, this will be short. STAY AWAY FROM THIS AIRLINE. They Over Book their flights, separate your party and put them actually on a different plane leaving hours later when you are trying to come home. No one helps you and believe me they don't care. Flight Attendants are rude and I think actually don't like Americans. We flew to Chili, Rio and Argentina. They Screwed up all of our seats every time so we could not sit together.

This is April 2014. Pay more money the emotion devastation isn't worth the cheaper flight.

My checked bags were ransacked when i flew from Montevideo to Santiago to Miami. I lost all valuables I was carrying: a cell phone, GPS and even snacks like Alfajores. When I confronted the airline their customer service was non-existent. They asked if I had receipts for the items stolen from my checked luggage, otherwise they cant do anything. I bought these items last year and don;t typically travel with receipts....so I was SOL. Never use this airline...they don't care about their customer or reputation. They have cheap flights because otherwise they wouldn't have passengers. I learned my lesson....you get what you pay for....except they took what i paid for and kept it for themselves. HORRIBLE>>>>DO NOT FLY!

You buy a ticket 6 months in advance and planed a family vacation and the day of leaving CANCEL FLIGHT after that is just a scrumble to get to my destination 24 + hrs umbelivable late flight connection with not enough time I just dont know what to say anymore Cuntrys should block airlines with this type of record.

This is the worst airline I had to deal with. I would give it no stars if I could. Customer service is non existent. They don't know what their policies are, communication is terrible, they must have a cheap phone system.

I needed to exchange a ticket and the fine was $150 and I found a ticket online which was $80 more than what I paid. They ended up charging me $450 with the lame excuse that the ticket price online is not the same over the phone. They also told me that I lost all the value of the ticket I purchased originally, given that other employees had told me before that I could exchange them until midnight. NEVER USE LAN! I know we won't.

I have family in Chile and in the past flew American thru Dallas or Miami to Santiago. It's a very long trip, so when LAN announced a flight from LAX to Santiago a few years ago I was thrilled. I live in CA and this would make the trip MUCH easier.

What LAN didn't tell me was the flight often stops in Lima, Peru for a layover of a few hours. They also don't tell you that there is apparently no rhyme or reason as to whether it will stop or if it will go direct. Every time I book a flight the ticket agent on the phone says one thing but the exact opposite happens when it's time for the flight. Annoying, yes, but not necessarily a deal breaker. Prices are good and the planes are brand new with TVs in headrest. Watch a movie or two, take a nap and next thing you know you've arrived.

So, why the bad review? Well, I usually travel around Christmas which is the busy season. LAN ALWAYS oversells flights. On my return flight to LAX last year, while waiting to check in they asked if my family and I would be willing to be bumped to a flight the next day in exchange for $1000 voucher for each of us (we're four) and a free nigh in a hotel with shuttle service. Our plans were flexible, so we accepted.

Was told to move to another line to get our vouchers. Spent the next FOUR hours waiting in line. There were 30-40 people waiting in line with only one ticket agent attending to us. Meanwhile, I counted at least a dozen LAN agents standing behind the counter, apparently with nothing to better to do than gossip. Witnessed several other passengers waiting for vouchers approach these non-working agents (two wore supervisors uniforms) to ask questions. Every passenger was either ignored or given different information. For example, one man asked if his luggage would be pulled and held for the new flight. He was told yes. Another passenger asked the same question of the same agent five minutes later and was told no his bags would not be held.

When we finally go to the counter, they agent had no idea how to properly complete the voucher form, despite the fact she'd already processed forms for at least 15 previous passengers. It took her 1.5 hours to process four vouchers. Supervisors were called to help twice and they were equally useless. Vouchers are carbon triplicates, with LAN keeping two copies and the passenger getting the bottom one. Well, the bottom copy was so faint we had to have the agent trace her handwriting to make sure the numbers were legible.

Returned to the airport the next day for our new flight. Oversold. Again we were asked if we would accept a voucher to take a later flight. No way. We board plane to find total chaos. They had double booked multiple seats, in some case they were triple booked. Most of these passengers had already been held over one day, so no one was willing to back down and get off the plane. It took nearly THREE HOURS to resolve the problem. My family and I were asked to change seats four times.

It gets better. Flight landed in Lima at 2am. Same problem. Many seats double and triple booked. At this point, the passengers had had enough. The ENTIRE plane was chanting LAN SUCKS! and the equivalent in Spanish. It took another THREE HOURS to resolve the mess.

Several months after we got home (we live in the Bay Area), called LAN to redeem our vouchers. They declined to honor them. My wife (native Spanish speaker) called four times and spent on average 30 minutes on each call fighting to get our vouchers honored. No one at LAN cared. Finally, on the fifth call she was told LAN would honor the vouchers if presented in person at LAN's offices in LA. We're supposed to drive 6 hours or fly to LA to redeem vouchers? Not on my watch. My wife spent more countless hours fighting with LAN before they finally accepted the vouchers.

We made the reservation in July, our flight is coming up this December. Fingers crossed things go well. I originally thought a mild inconvenience would be worth vouchers that would cover round trip tickets for two in the future. Man, I'll never make that mistake again.

God bless American Airlines!