LAN airlines

[cavydad]

LAN airlines appears to have the most direct route from Los Angeles to South America including Cuzco and Buenos Aires.

 

The prices also appear better than other airlines to South America.

 

What experiences - positive or negative have people had with this airline?

[Fattony]

They're a good airline (with several divisions, including LAN Peru, but I don't what differences in quality, if any, there are). A major carrier in South America and across the Pacific (to Oz and NZ). We flew them from Santiago to LAX. They're currently in the process of merging (more or less) with TAM. They're in the Oneworld Alliance, with American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia and others.

[YAC]

LAN airlines appears to have the most direct route from Los Angeles to South America including Cuzco and Buenos Aires.

 

The prices also appear better than other airlines to South America.

 

What experiences - positive or negative have people had with this airline?

 

We just finalizing our air travel a couple of weeks ago and what an ordeal! We were able to use our frequent flier miles with American for the SFO-CUZ leg but I was able to only get my 3rd choice even at 3:00 am PST on the first day that the seats were released! American's return flight from Iguazu Falls, Brazil to SFO via Lima was not available because it is a codeshare with LAN. LAN's flights for the entire month of January 2013 for return were not even open! However, I was able to get one way business seats for $1600 from IGU-SFO via LIM. It was interesting that the same LIM-SFO flight was $4500! Since both of our international flights were on LAN, we were able to purhcase our 3 segments minimum intercountry tickets with LAN's South America Pass; which was 40% less than American's One World Pass. American's One World Pass was actually the same retail cost of purchasing the segments via LAN. So, do your homework before and make sure you follow all of the caveats in these tickets! I hope this helps! It's our first time in South America:D

[reynoldswrap]

YAC - can you elaborate on what the LAN South America Pass is? thank you!

[rjmaype]

You must have a round trip ticket to South America.

 

You are then eligible to purchase one way tichets inter South America cities at a substantial discount.

 

First make a reservations (do not purchase) roundtrip.

 

Use that reservation number on the LAN Website to plan all the one way flights and see the discounted prices.

[Fattony]

You must have a round trip ticket to South America.

 

You are then eligible to purchase one way tichets inter South America cities at a substantial discount.

 

First make a reservations (do not purchase) roundtrip.

 

Use that reservation number on the LAN Website to plan all the one way flights and see the discounted prices.

 

Need to buy it before you leave your home country, I believe, just as with a Brazil air pass.

[reynoldswrap]

Need to buy it before you leave your home country, I believe, just as with a Brazil air pass.

 

YAC and Fattony - thank you for the info, but I do not see on the LAN web site where to enter the record locator for the round trip from US to SA - thank you again for your help!

[YAC]

You must have a round trip ticket to South America.

 

You are then eligible to purchase one way tichets inter South America cities at a substantial discount.

 

First make a reservations (do not purchase) roundtrip.

 

Use that reservation number on the LAN Website to plan all the one way flights and see the discounted prices.

 

Lan South America Pass website to figure out the costs of each "segment". http://www.lan.com/en_us/sitio_personas/southamericanairpass/index.html?otid=421896&s_cid=USEN_interno_2010may10_banner_3_SAA You need at least 3. We did CUZ-LIM; LIM-SCL, and AEP-IGR (Iguazzu, ARgentina); Our international flight: AA miles SFO-CUZ and purchased business class tickets one way IGU (Brazil) - SFO via LIM.

 

Best to call LAN to purchase the tickets. They told me that LIM-SCL is a very popular flight. As I recall, SA Pass was $202 for this segment; and regular fare was about $600. My international tickets were purchased via American on LAN flights. LAN had the record locator number with both AA and ALSO LAN (LAN uses differnt numbers). Note that if you fly LAN, the intercountry tickets were less than if I purchased them through American's One World Pass. Since I was flying LAN roundtrip, I qualified to purchase it as a South America Pass via LAN! Confusing!;)

[reynoldswrap]

rjmaype and YAC - thank you so much for the detail info - it is greatly appreciated!

[Glendakayself]

We just finalizing our air travel a couple of weeks ago and what an ordeal! We were able to use our frequent flier miles with American for the SFO-CUZ leg but I was able to only get my 3rd choice even at 3:00 am PST on the first day that the seats were released! American's return flight from Iguazu Falls, Brazil to SFO via Lima was not available because it is a codeshare with LAN. LAN's flights for the entire month of January 2013 for return were not even open! However, I was able to get one way business seats for $1600 from IGU-SFO via LIM. It was interesting that the same LIM-SFO flight was $4500! Since both of our international flights were on LAN, we were able to purhcase our 3 segments minimum intercountry tickets with LAN's South America Pass; which was 40% less than American's One World Pass. American's One World Pass was actually the same retail cost of purchasing the segments via LAN. So, do your homework before and make sure you follow all of the caveats in these tickets! I hope this helps! It's our first time in South America:D

 

YAC, When booking the LAN codeshare flights with AA miles, do you need to call American, or will the flights come up on the AA website when available? We are still a year away from booking flights for our March 2014 cruise, but I've been checking the flights available with miles for March 2013 as they are released to get an understanding of what to expect. I have not seen any LAN flights available either with miles or when "all carriers" is checked for a paid-fare booking. I purchased codeshare flights with AA miles to Europe several years ago, and that required a call. Just wondering if that is still the case.

[YAC]

YAC, When booking the LAN codeshare flights with AA miles, do you need to call American, or will the flights come up on the AA website when available? We are still a year away from booking flights for our March 2014 cruise, but I've been checking the flights available with miles for March 2013 as they are released to get an understanding of what to expect. I have not seen any LAN flights available either with miles or when "all carriers" is checked for a paid-fare booking. I purchased codeshare flights with AA miles to Europe several years ago, and that required a call. Just wondering if that is still the case.

 

I had to call AA directly and was fortunate to get our flight. LAN does not release a lot of their flights even as a codeshare with AA. The other frustrating thing is that my flight times is ever changing! They've added another flight from LAX-LIM, which is not released for miles yet and our flight was moved up 3 hours; which made us rearrange our LIM-CUZ flight and subsequently that was changed by LAN from a 6:30 am flight to a 4:30 am flight; in which case I had to call to get the 5:30 am flight! We're staying in Lima for less than a day and needed to get our within the 24 hours to use it as our SFO-CUZ without paying the extra $$ for LIM-CUZ! My mistake was I already purhased my CUZ-SCL via the South America Pass by calling LAN - less expensive if you have at least 3 segments within SA; but the change fee if $50 -should have waited a little; but I was told that LIM-SCL is a very popular flight and they mgiht not always have the space for the "pass"! I felt I HAD to be in SCL before the cruise started, so I went ahead and purchased the tickets! I hope that helps! Note - it was best to call LAN to purchase the inter-SA routes than AA; but you have to be on a LAN flight international to qualify! :cool:

[Glendakayself]

I had to call AA directly and was fortunate to get our flight. LAN does not release a lot of their flights even as a codeshare with AA. The other frustrating thing is that my flight times is ever changing! They've added another flight from LAX-LIM, which is not released for miles yet and our flight was moved up 3 hours; which made us rearrange our LIM-CUZ flight and subsequently that was changed by LAN from a 6:30 am flight to a 4:30 am flight; in which case I had to call to get the 5:30 am flight! We're staying in Lima for less than a day and needed to get our within the 24 hours to use it as our SFO-CUZ without paying the extra $$ for LIM-CUZ! My mistake was I already purhased my CUZ-SCL via the South America Pass by calling LAN - less expensive if you have at least 3 segments within SA; but the change fee if $50 -should have waited a little; but I was told that LIM-SCL is a very popular flight and they mgiht not always have the space for the "pass"! I felt I HAD to be in SCL before the cruise started, so I went ahead and purchased the tickets! I hope that helps! Note - it was best to call LAN to purchase the inter-SA routes than AA; but you have to be on a LAN flight international to qualify! :cool:

 

Thanks. We are not planning to do any flights within South America, so our plans should be easier. (I hope.) It sounds like you have a second job keeping up with your flights.

 

As I said before, we have over a year before the flights will even be released with our cruise boarding in Buenas Aires 3/2/2014. I'll continue to monitor and try to formulate a strategy.

[greatam]

YAC, When booking the LAN codeshare flights with AA miles, do you need to call American, or will the flights come up on the AA website when available? We are still a year away from booking flights for our March 2014 cruise, but I've been checking the flights available with miles for March 2013 as they are released to get an understanding of what to expect. I have not seen any LAN flights available either with miles or when "all carriers" is checked for a paid-fare booking. I purchased codeshare flights with AA miles to Europe several years ago, and that required a call. Just wondering if that is still the case.

 

AFAIK, there are NO LAN codeshare flights out of DFW to Buenos Aires. You have to fly AA to JFK or LAX to get on the nonstop codeshares on LAN AND they ONLY fly to SCL, change planes, THEN fly to EZE. The codeshare from JFK nonstop direct to EZE is a LAN flight number on an AA plane

 

There is a DFW/MIA/EZE flight sold which is AA to MIA, LAN to EZE but it is NOT a codeshare.

 

I fly to South America (primarily Chile and Peru) 4 times per year for business. I fly AA or LAN 95% of the time. I buy the tickets as a general rule and then upgrade to business with miles. It is often difficult to get those upgrades on the LAN codeshare out of JFK, even though LAN is slightly better than AA (AA has improved a lot with new seats, new IFE, etc. etc).

 

And those codeshare flights go DIRECTLY to SCL from JFK. They DO NOT fly to EZE. There is the codeshare from LAX or JFK that stops in LIM but again, that flight continues to SCL, so any way you look at it, you have to take a connecting flight to EZE.

 

Don't hold your breath that you are going to get a LAN codeshare. Award tickets are getting more scarce, even for a top tier AA flier like myself.

 

Use your miles for the AA nonstop from DFW to EZE which would be my 1st choice. Second choice would be the AA DFW to MIA, then LAN to EZE. BUT you have to use the "partner" awards, as it is not a codeshare. And yes, you still have to call although that is supposed to be changing.

[Fattony]

LAN is merging with Star Alliance member TAM. Will LAN leave Oneworld?

[4774Papa]

We had a good experience on LAN on our one way trip (Infinity Repo cruise) from Santiago to Miami.

LAN did not charge us for two checked bags per person!

[Glendakayself]

AFAIK, there are NO LAN codeshare flights out of DFW to Buenos Aires. You have to fly AA to JFK or LAX to get on the nonstop codeshares on LAN AND they ONLY fly to SCL, change planes, THEN fly to EZE. The codeshare from JFK nonstop direct to EZE is a LAN flight number on an AA plane

 

There is a DFW/MIA/EZE flight sold which is AA to MIA, LAN to EZE but it is NOT a codeshare.

 

I fly to South America (primarily Chile and Peru) 4 times per year for business. I fly AA or LAN 95% of the time. I buy the tickets as a general rule and then upgrade to business with miles. It is often difficult to get those upgrades on the LAN codeshare out of JFK, even though LAN is slightly better than AA (AA has improved a lot with new seats, new IFE, etc. etc).

 

And those codeshare flights go DIRECTLY to SCL from JFK. They DO NOT fly to EZE. There is the codeshare from LAX or JFK that stops in LIM but again, that flight continues to SCL, so any way you look at it, you have to take a connecting flight to EZE.

 

Don't hold your breath that you are going to get a LAN codeshare. Award tickets are getting more scarce, even for a top tier AA flier like myself.

 

Use your miles for the AA nonstop from DFW to EZE which would be my 1st choice. Second choice would be the AA DFW to MIA, then LAN to EZE. BUT you have to use the "partner" awards, as it is not a codeshare. And yes, you still have to call although that is supposed to be changing.

 

Thanks for the info, Greatam. I am not seeing any non-stops available from/to DFW with FF miles on the AA website. We'll probably purchase the non-stop from DFW to EZE and from SCL to DFW unless we decide to go through MIA.

[Glendakayself]

EDIT: I've been checking what is available with AA FF miles from DFW to EZE each day as a new date in March 2013 is released. Today, for the first time, a non-stop appeared for 50K for Business. That is encouraging. Maybe, when our flight dates for our 4/2/14 cruise are released I can jump on the FF site in the "wee" hours and grab a couple of seats!

 

Thanks again,

[Fattony]

We flew LAN non-stop from SCL to LAX after a cruise and thought it was quite nice. Modern plane. They were more expensive than others, so I booked our flight on Avianca, with a change of planes in Bogota. An hour out of SCL, the Avianca pilot announced they had to return to SCL due to an unexplained (well, I didn't understand it) mechanical problem detected on the computer. We had to circle SCL for an hour to burn off fuel (didn't dump fuel, nor was it an emergency landing). The plane later continued on to Bogota, but my wife was too nervous to fly, so Avianca ended up putting us up for the night at the Holiday Inn across from the terminal. The Avianca reps were very understanding. The Avianca flight the next day was full, so they put us on the non-stop LAN flight. I would not hesitate to fly either airline.

[ShopperfiendTO]

Maybe it's a South American thing, but LAN seems to change their flights times regularly. It happened to us.

 

At least if you provide your e-mail they will send you an e-mail about the time change. Problem is that they can do it two days before your flight when you may not have ready access to the internet like they did to us!

 

I say that it may be normal because we booked a private tour that depended on the LAN flight and the tour company sent us an e-mail about the flight change as well asking us to confirm the new time, so they keep on top of it as well, which suggests that it is a pretty common phenomenon.

[Coolcruise02]

Maybe it's a South American thing, but LAN seems to change their flights times regularly. It happened to us.

 

Us too!! Just keep checking even if you don't get an email from them. The LAN plane was great and good food. :)

[Sandy R]

We booked LAN through AA for our March 2012 cruise. Used miles for business class, L.A. to Santiago, non-stop. Our experience was wonderful. We took off within 15 minutes of the scheduled time and landed on time. I'm allergic to down and knew that business class pillows and duvets were down. When we boarded, I told an FA about my allergy and she immediately got DH and I each, a packaged set from economy class, containing a non-down pillow and blanket. Food was very good. DH especially liked that before pouring a glass of wine, they have you taste a sample. The FA's were great throughout the flight. Since our flight was 11 hrs., we slept comfortably as LAN has lie-flat seats.

[azevedan]

We flew LAN from JFK down to Guayaquil and then on to Quito, then back from Guayaquil to JFK. The flight was very late leaving JFK, which wasn't their fault. What *was* their fault is that we (in economy....no 'lie flat' beds for us :rolleyes:) got *nothing* for breakfast on an overnight flight. I had to go back and beg for a drink. There was a nun in front of us...she managed to scrounge an apple out of them. I suspected it might be a diabetic thing, so we gave her a pack of the peanut butter crackers we had packed.

On the return trip, the flight attendants stood guard over the drawn curtain to economy class and would not let anyone off until the first and business had completely cleared. I could see that business class was empty except for one or two people still packing up their stuff into their carryons (we were up front in economy), but we were still held back. We had our luggage with us (backpacks), so this *really* frosted me (since we wouldn't have to be waiting at baggage claim anyway). I told the flight attendant that I had flown all over the world and had never experienced such behavior (true statement, although I did subsequently see it (to a lesser extent) on an Air France flight.

[Fattony]

We flew LAN from JFK down to Guayaquil and then on to Quito, then back from Guayaquil to JFK. The flight was very late leaving JFK, which wasn't their fault. What *was* their fault is that we (in economy....no 'lie flat' beds for us :rolleyes:) got *nothing* for breakfast on an overnight flight. I had to go back and beg for a drink. There was a nun in front of us...she managed to scrounge an apple out of them. I suspected it might be a diabetic thing, so we gave her a pack of the peanut butter crackers we had packed.

On the return trip, the flight attendants stood guard over the drawn curtain to economy class and would not let anyone off until the first and business had completely cleared. I could see that business class was empty except for one or two people still packing up their stuff into their carryons (we were up front in economy), but we were still held back. We had our luggage with us (backpacks), so this *really* frosted me (since we wouldn't have to be waiting at baggage claim anyway). I told the flight attendant that I had flown all over the world and had never experienced such behavior (true statement, although I did subsequently see it (to a lesser extent) on an Air France flight.

 

I've seen this lots. How many minutes do you feel it delayed you? I've found more delays from people in front of me in economy needing to unload multiple, big carry-on bags from the overhead bins. I don't see how the fact that you had backpacks and wouldn't need to wait at the baggage carousel affects when you should be able to get off the plane. You still had a shorter wait. Your lecturing the attendants, who are following instructions from their airline, is not likely to get you off the plane quicker anywhere I can think of. Contact the airline's customer relations directly.

[BridgeMates]

I've seen this lots. How many minutes do you feel it delayed you? I've found more delays from people in front of me in economy needing to unload multiple, big carry-on bags from the overhead bins. I don't see how the fact that you had backpacks and wouldn't need to wait at the baggage carousel affects when you should be able to get off the plane. You still had a shorter wait. Your lecturing the attendants, who are following instructions from their airline, is not likely to get you off the plane quicker anywhere I can think of. Contact the airline's customer relations directly.

 

I agree with you. Obviously they take care of their first/business class passengers. I'm sure he made an impression on the flight attendants when he complained! :rolleyes:

[greatam]

We flew LAN from JFK down to Guayaquil and then on to Quito, then back from Guayaquil to JFK. The flight was very late leaving JFK, which wasn't their fault. What *was* their fault is that we (in economy....no 'lie flat' beds for us :rolleyes:) got *nothing* for breakfast on an overnight flight. I had to go back and beg for a drink. There was a nun in front of us...she managed to scrounge an apple out of them. I suspected it might be a diabetic thing, so we gave her a pack of the peanut butter crackers we had packed.

On the return trip, the flight attendants stood guard over the drawn curtain to economy class and would not let anyone off until the first and business had completely cleared. I could see that business class was empty except for one or two people still packing up their stuff into their carryons (we were up front in economy), but we were still held back. We had our luggage with us (backpacks), so this *really* frosted me (since we wouldn't have to be waiting at baggage claim anyway). I told the flight attendant that I had flown all over the world and had never experienced such behavior (true statement, although I did subsequently see it (to a lesser extent) on an Air France flight.

 

I fly first/business 85-90% of the time and 100% on long haul flights. There is almost NOTHING that makes me madder on a flight than the FA allowing coach passengers with all their many, many bags trying to push through business/first class when first/business class passengers are still trying to get off the plane.

 

Business/first class passengers PAY (whether via money, miles or airline status) to sit upfront, be the first off the plane and all the other perks that come with the front of the plane. Why should coach passengers (who paid far, far less) be allowed to push through the business class cabin when business class passengers are still trying to get off the plane??

 

Obviously you haven't flown much because top of the line airlines ALWAYS clear first and business before they let the coach passengers off. Some of the US airlines forget this on occasion but I have RARELY seen it on foreign airlines.

 

As for your complaint with no food on an overnight flight-that is a function of catering (SkyChef primarily) and if the plane left JFK very late (the usual flight leaves about midnight and arrives before breakfast time), catering may not have been able to get the order to the plane. Not an excuse, just a simple fact of airline life.

 

Also, since the plane arrives so early in the morning, I am sure the airline has had complaints about waking everyone up at 4-4:30AM so breakfast can be served. This is now a fact of life with early arriving aircraft (before breakfast hours). It is also the policy of many airlines to NOT serve food in coach during "non food" hours and your flight certainly meets those conditions. US Airways overnight nonstop from PHX to JFK has quit serving breakfast in first class UNLESS you ask for it. Just too many complaints about being woken up way too early.

 

One big reason I fly LAN as much as I can for my 4 yearly trips to South America is because they DO value their premium passengers. Their service is better than any other airline on the USA to South America routings. And they DO let first/business class passengers COMPLETELY disembark before they let coach off the plane.