Expat Community > Ecuador

ajohans
Joined 2010
Posts: 68

LAN airlines

13 years ago

Many people have praised LAN over other airlines, and I have used the airline many times within Ecuador without issue until now. It appears to me that they offer good service until something goes wrong, then they claim they are able to do nothing.

Case #1 my husband and a friend bought round trip tickets UIO-GYE for a friends wedding. They went to the airport and checked in. They went into the waiting area and when he went to get on the flight they closed the flight in their faces claiming that there was nothing they could do because then the flight would be delayed (one minute for them to get on the plane). Then my husband was able to get on the next flight which was delayed 10 minutes because in that case they allowed other passengers to get on. His friend never made it to the wedding that weekend because of this. LAN agreed to refund the friends ticket but he is still waiting to see the money.

Case #2 Last night we had reservations for GYE-UIO at 7pm. When we got to the airport they told us the flight was delayed due to weather conditions in Quito until 9:30pm (no flights from other airlines were delayed or cancelled...). In the end we got on the flight and went to Quito, but were unable to land because of the weather conditions so we were sent back to GYE(around midnight). By the time we returned, there was another LAN flight that had already returned. For those passengers LAN offered them a hotel stay and a guaranteed flight at 5am. For us they offered nothing and told us to come back the next morning. Most of us knew that was a lie so we stayed at the airport overnight in hopes of getting on the 5am flight to be able to get to work on time on Monday. When they started the checkin process they told us we were confirmed for the 10am flight and refused to help us out in any other way but to put us on the waiting list. In the end we got on the flight and made it to Quito by 7am and to work ontime, but without having slept for the entire previous night.

My husband and I were faithful customers of LAN before and have travelled with them dozens of times before without issue. However it seems lately that their service has gone downhill.

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