Pre-booked and prepaid flights and land tours for South America some 6 weeks prior to leaving Australia. The land tour booked and later experienced included 5 flights, of which 4 were with LAN. Buenos Aires to Lima LAN 1st April LA2604 (flight in question) Lima to Equitos LAN 2nd April LA2380Equitos to Lima LAN 4th April LA2375Lima to Cusco LAN 4th April LA2071La Paz to Buenos Aires Aerosur 11th April SL210 I felt the fees were high, so I searched on the internet for every leg. I could easily have lowered it by a few hundred dollars, including a flight with Aerelineas Argentinas which was much cheaper. However knowing little of the South American airline industry, I decided to go with the recommendation of our travel agent and pay the price. It is interesting that later we had to delay a day, and hence shorten our trip by a day due to availability of flights. I guess, the non-negotiable fees and the change in plans should have triggered some concern. But silly me, thought a contract is binding! So here, I was robbed of a consumer’s right to choose by misrepresenting the facts! We were picked up at 0530 hrs and driven to Buenos Aires EZE International airport, and accompanied by our guide to the LAN queue for the booked flight. We were left in queue, as no doubt, the guide, believed, as we used to believe, that having prepaid the flight and turned up on time, we will be on the flight! The flight was LA 2604 from Buenos Aires to Lima. (The number still sends shivers up my spine!) We were in queue by 0605 hrs! While in queue we started to talking to an English woman behind us, when we were approached by a LAN representative to ask us if we were staying in LIMA or flying on. We, as did the person behind us, explained that we were flying on, though not immediately. The representative took the person behind us away, to be seen later way ahead in line! The representative did not look at any paper work or ask any further questions. Few minutes later, another representative approached us, asking if we would mind catching a later flight. We made it very clear that we wanted to get on the current flight as we had a fairly tight schedule! (We were doing a 12 day tour which included 5 flights and their accompanying airport waiting. So we were not keen to waste a day, or in mathematical terms around 8% of our holiday!)
Later on, the queue was divided into two. (This seemed random to me, but who is to know.) The effect of this was that people behind us, (that had waited a lesser time) actually were processed before us! At around 0735 we got to the check in desk. The attendant pressed a few buttons, took our passports, and excused herself. She went off for some 5 minutes and returned to inform us there were no seats left on the flight! (Why she did not know this before she identified us, I don’t know. But if one was paranoid, one would conclude, that we were targeted by the airline, following whatever logic.) We questioned how this could be, given we booked and paid months before and confirmed! We got the same response that there were no seats! We pointed out that this could only happen if the airline had overbooked, and that we felt they were in breach of contract. The girl, obviously uncomfortable, said she will get a supervisor. We were moved on to another desk, where we waited for attention for around 10 minutes, as a huddle of about 4 people whispered to each other, ignoring us. Another employee (I would be willing to take a bet, was not a supervisor) then came with the ‘we have no seats’ message being repeated. We appealed several times:“We want to be on this flight! ”“There must be some seats somewhere, in first class, near the captain, anywhere! ” (perhaps we should have suggested we fly the plane!) This went on for some 10 minutes with the same response each time:“there are no seats left on this flight…”Never an apology, never an acknowledgement of fault or error, merely the fact that we clearly were not going to get on the flight! I felt frustrated, helpless and bullied. The fact that they asked in queue and then ignored our request after keeping us waiting for another hour only heightened my frustration. This girl was obviously not a supervisor, which again heightened my frustration. LAN’s overt lack of significant attempts at enticing guests while in queue ….. I cannot believe that if the enticement was sufficient that you could not find, locals who would have gladly taken the later flight! But why bother, when you could just bully people into fixing a problem that was clearly created by yourself! We also asked the LAN representative to contact our prepaid LIMA ground transport, who were meant to pick us up at the airport in LIMA to reschedule. She took down the phone number. We were then rebooked onto a flight 14 hrs later. Landed at LIMA at 2210 local time. There was no land transport! Tried to phone using airport assistance, who were very good. They informed us that our transport had been cancelled! After looking around for some ½ an hour we found a LAN desk for enquiries. (not that it was labelled as such. It was just the check in desk for departures at the end of the row. Almost like they really did not want to be bothered by their clients problems!). We relayed our issues and the girl got on the phone to obtain approval, presumably approval to organise land transport. As I waited for another 15 minutes while she was still on the phone, I suggested I will make my own way. We got to our accommodation in LIMA past midnight, tired, exhausted and bitter. The next morning I woke up refreshed and went for a walk, starting to feel relaxed, and determined to try to enjoy my holidays. The story unfortunately does not end there! In the Amazon 2 days later, I logged into my email account and there were several emails from my agent. She was concerned as LAN had informed them that we were a ‘no show’ and they were going to cancel the rest of our tour! (I do not understand, how the airline feels that they own seats that they have sold and collected payment on! But here I was in the Amazon, with limited resources, not sure that I am going to have a flight tomorrow). I emailed my agent, but off course knowing that by the time they are able to action this, I would either be on the flight or not. Found a LAN site, and emailed them. (interesting the drop down menu has several choices, like ‘claim’, ‘suggestions’, ‘congratulations, ’ and other but no ‘complaints’. I guess they can honestly say they do not receive complaints!). The email to LAN included the fact that I could potentially be stuck in Equitos. I received a response 4 weeks later!!! I also got our guide to confirm our flights and get us boarding passes, which he did first thing in the morning. That allayed our anxieties somewhat, but off course at this point we had no faith in LAN and its employees. Basically a boarding pass does not mean a seat!
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