My name is Esperanza Garcia. I am an abused customer of Lan Airways who was held in a foreign airport for 17-long hours two weeks ago.
I took the TAM Linhas Aereas Flight 8221 operated by LAN Airlines from Rio de Janeiro (GIG) at 5:20 PM to Santiago (SCL) on Wednesday Jun 27. The flight was fine and on time. I continued on using Qantas Airways Flight 322, again operated by LAN AirlinesFrom Santiago (SCL) 11:40pm To Sydney (SYD) with a stop-over in AKL – Auckland. Upon my arrival in Auckland (around 5 AM), the passengers on the flight were told that the plane was broken and that we had to take another plane. The passengers were informed to head to the customer service desk. Upon my arrival at the customer service desk, and after a long line of exhausted customers, I was finally handled by a personnel, of whom I had informed about my connecting flight to Sydney and that I had a following flight to Manila which would leave on at 11:15am on that day, Jun 29. I was told by the personnel to wait another hour longer, given a breakfast voucher, and that there was still time to make my flight. So, I took his advise.
After another hour of waiting I returned to the busy customer service desk full of other passengers awaiting to hear about their next flight out of New Zealand and waited in line for another hour to get to another customer service personnel who at this time was a Lan Airline representative. Upon informing him about my situation, and inquiring that I needed a shower or access to the business lounge to shower, he had continuously informed me that there was a shower on-site, but they could not provide me with a towel and as for access to the business class lounge, since my flight was a Qantas Aiways flight, he could not help me with my request because he was unable to contact Qantas personnel to address my request.
By this time, I was already frustrated and exhausted, as I have been traveling for the past 12 hours and I was not being handled well by the customer service desk. After four hours of waiting in the Auckland Airport (around 9 AM), I was finally told by the customer service personnel, who at this time was Jun Wong Lee, that there were no more available flights to Sydney where I would make it on time for my flight to Manila and that they had found me a flight to Manila that would be leaving on June 29 at 23:59 PM via Air New Zealand. When I had realized that I would be stuck in the NZ airport for 17-hours, I had requested for access to the business lounge, for a seat-upgrade, and/or a hotel so I can rest and shower. None of my requests were granted. I called Qantas Airways who had informed me that because Lan Airlines was the carrier, Lan Airlines should be the one who would be responsible for taking care and responding to my requests, which clearly, they weren’t.
To my surprise, I could not even be given a hotel because I was told by Jun Wong that because my flight was departing at 23:59 on Oct 29, not a minute later, making it October 30, that they could not provide me with a hotel. Again, I kindly requested for access to the business lounge, and was refused my request. I had requested to speak to a manager, with whom I was told would be arriving at 3PM. I return at that time (after 10 hours being in the airport) and finally was able to speak to Air New Zealand manager, Greg Ball, who understood my situation and provided me with access to a shower in their business class lounge.
After traveling from Rio-Santiago-Auckland for many long-hours and being told that I was going to be stuck in the Auckland Airport for another 17-long hours, I was not given access to a decent shower until I had to fight for it. I can not believe that this is how Lan Airlines treats their customers, as this is not how ANY customer flying should be treated. I feel abused by Lan Airlines and incredibly frustrated by this situation. I have filed a complaint to Lan Airline and have yet to hear from them.
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