Never Fly LAN Peru
So I mentioned the taxi bringing us to the airport so that we could take a plane back to Lima. We didn't have to rely on public transit (a big plus in Peru) and it was personal service...seems easy, right? Little did we know this was the beginning of the worst night ever.
When you are in a hurry, everything seems to be slower than it really is. Our guide was a little slow getting us off Taquile so we started later than we wanted. Napped a little, ate, chatted on the way back. We can see the docks at Puno when our boat turns towards the hotel. The hotel far away from our hostel. The captain notices we are out of gas. I think the fumes got us to the dock. Now we have to make a run for it. Caught a local taxi nice enough to drop us within 2 blocks of the hostel. The hostel calls to ask if it is OK to load our luggage since we are late. And they were nice enough to make sure the driver didn't just drive off with it all. We finally get there and rush off. It is still 45 min to the airport. Then there is something going on in the city because there are riot police all over and it slows things down. We finally get to the airport only an hour before our flight should take off. The airport suggests 1.5 hours. I think this is the smallest international airport I have EVER been to. The lobby looks like a bus station and there are 2 windows for check-in. We run up to the window with our confirmed tickets (via email) and tell them we are checking in 3 bags and are ready to go. I expected at least some customer service since we had already purchased tickets (and they were more expensive than Peruvian tickets purely because we were foreigners.) Passports and tickets on the counter and nothing. The woman just looked at us. I said it again and she slowly made her way over. After many minutes she told us the flight was full and we could take the next one that leaves in the morning. I politely explained, "no, we have our ticket confirmation right here. They are paid for and we have seats assigned. We have to be in Lima tonight because we have a tour that leaves at 4am." Her response floored me. "That doesn't matter. We overbooked it and people checked in online yesterday. You can take tomorrow's flight at 8am." Excuse me? Were they really going to deny us boarding for confirmed seats? Oh it was ON! For anyone who has heard this story, I will spare you the repeat and not rant like I did when it first happened.
Let's just say that we sat at the counter for that entire hour while they made us believe they were actually doing something to get us on the flight. The woman actually lied to us saying she talked to the manager and he is working on it. Then she ignored us until we asked again. I think we talked to everyone who was anyone. They were all extremely UNhelpful and after the plane left we even had to fight to get them to cover a hotel room, food and taxi for the night. They had expected us to walk out of the airport with nowhere to go in a dangerous city and find our way back in the morning by ourselves. We were LIVID. I have never been so angry before. Not only was the service with LAN peru bad the first flight into Cuzco (the counter woman put Angie and I in the same seat. Luckily we caught it in time) but now they were forcing us to spend the night in a very sketchy city even for Peruvians. They also cost us half of our next tour. I contacted the main guy running it and the best he could do was get us a 1pm bus straight to Nazca. We missed out on the city of Pisco and a boat tour of the "Peruvian galapagos".
The 'best' hotel in Juliaca wasn't any better than our HI hostel in Puno. In fact it only cost $5 more and the rooms were warmer. They had given us a food allowance for dinner and breakfast the next day. Totally expected when an airline screws you over. For starters the restaurant downstairs was only open during certain hours so although we were starving, we couldn't have dinner until 7pm. It was only 5pm so we ventured across the street to get a small pizza. That was as far as we went outside of the hotel. A black market cityis not one to mess with-- especially as foreigners. We killed time with TV and went downstairs as soon as we could. They sat us down at the tables and started pointing out things on the menu for us. At first I thought they were specials, but he kept saying 9 soles (price).
We quickly realized he was telling us we had 3 options for dinner. A cream soup, a small portion of beef or a small portion of chicken. 9 Soles is $3. You can imagine what $3 at a hotel restaurant can buy you--a snack. LAN had told them to only give us $3 worth of food after all they screwed us over for. Angie lost it. Someone had to. This was ridiculous. She got the manager on the phone and reamed him out. That company cost us $1200 total in losses (airfare, tours, etc) and they couldn't give us a normal $15 meal? Bullshit. The maitre'd talked to the manager and when he hung up he said we could have whatever we wanted. We ordered exactly what we each wanted and went to bed full.
The next day the taxi LAN had arranged didn't bother to come. I had to have the hotel call one because I was not missing another flight. Then the flight was late. Then it had to sit in Cuzco after dropping off some passengers. More phonecalls to the tour company telling them we would be late. And this is why I tell everybody NEVER FLY LAN--they are horrible. I can't believe that American Airlines is partnered with them. There are other companies that fly to the main tourist city of Cuzco and Taca flies to the amazon up north. I hope no one I know ever has to go through what we did.
Our flight was so late that we barely made it to the bus station in time for our bus at 1pm. Then the long ride to Nazca began.
When you are in a hurry, everything seems to be slower than it really is. Our guide was a little slow getting us off Taquile so we started later than we wanted. Napped a little, ate, chatted on the way back. We can see the docks at Puno when our boat turns towards the hotel. The hotel far away from our hostel. The captain notices we are out of gas. I think the fumes got us to the dock. Now we have to make a run for it. Caught a local taxi nice enough to drop us within 2 blocks of the hostel. The hostel calls to ask if it is OK to load our luggage since we are late. And they were nice enough to make sure the driver didn't just drive off with it all. We finally get there and rush off. It is still 45 min to the airport. Then there is something going on in the city because there are riot police all over and it slows things down. We finally get to the airport only an hour before our flight should take off. The airport suggests 1.5 hours. I think this is the smallest international airport I have EVER been to. The lobby looks like a bus station and there are 2 windows for check-in. We run up to the window with our confirmed tickets (via email) and tell them we are checking in 3 bags and are ready to go. I expected at least some customer service since we had already purchased tickets (and they were more expensive than Peruvian tickets purely because we were foreigners.) Passports and tickets on the counter and nothing. The woman just looked at us. I said it again and she slowly made her way over. After many minutes she told us the flight was full and we could take the next one that leaves in the morning. I politely explained, "no, we have our ticket confirmation right here. They are paid for and we have seats assigned. We have to be in Lima tonight because we have a tour that leaves at 4am." Her response floored me. "That doesn't matter. We overbooked it and people checked in online yesterday. You can take tomorrow's flight at 8am." Excuse me? Were they really going to deny us boarding for confirmed seats? Oh it was ON! For anyone who has heard this story, I will spare you the repeat and not rant like I did when it first happened.
Let's just say that we sat at the counter for that entire hour while they made us believe they were actually doing something to get us on the flight. The woman actually lied to us saying she talked to the manager and he is working on it. Then she ignored us until we asked again. I think we talked to everyone who was anyone. They were all extremely UNhelpful and after the plane left we even had to fight to get them to cover a hotel room, food and taxi for the night. They had expected us to walk out of the airport with nowhere to go in a dangerous city and find our way back in the morning by ourselves. We were LIVID. I have never been so angry before. Not only was the service with LAN peru bad the first flight into Cuzco (the counter woman put Angie and I in the same seat. Luckily we caught it in time) but now they were forcing us to spend the night in a very sketchy city even for Peruvians. They also cost us half of our next tour. I contacted the main guy running it and the best he could do was get us a 1pm bus straight to Nazca. We missed out on the city of Pisco and a boat tour of the "Peruvian galapagos".
The 'best' hotel in Juliaca wasn't any better than our HI hostel in Puno. In fact it only cost $5 more and the rooms were warmer. They had given us a food allowance for dinner and breakfast the next day. Totally expected when an airline screws you over. For starters the restaurant downstairs was only open during certain hours so although we were starving, we couldn't have dinner until 7pm. It was only 5pm so we ventured across the street to get a small pizza. That was as far as we went outside of the hotel. A black market cityis not one to mess with-- especially as foreigners. We killed time with TV and went downstairs as soon as we could. They sat us down at the tables and started pointing out things on the menu for us. At first I thought they were specials, but he kept saying 9 soles (price).
We quickly realized he was telling us we had 3 options for dinner. A cream soup, a small portion of beef or a small portion of chicken. 9 Soles is $3. You can imagine what $3 at a hotel restaurant can buy you--a snack. LAN had told them to only give us $3 worth of food after all they screwed us over for. Angie lost it. Someone had to. This was ridiculous. She got the manager on the phone and reamed him out. That company cost us $1200 total in losses (airfare, tours, etc) and they couldn't give us a normal $15 meal? Bullshit. The maitre'd talked to the manager and when he hung up he said we could have whatever we wanted. We ordered exactly what we each wanted and went to bed full.
The next day the taxi LAN had arranged didn't bother to come. I had to have the hotel call one because I was not missing another flight. Then the flight was late. Then it had to sit in Cuzco after dropping off some passengers. More phonecalls to the tour company telling them we would be late. And this is why I tell everybody NEVER FLY LAN--they are horrible. I can't believe that American Airlines is partnered with them. There are other companies that fly to the main tourist city of Cuzco and Taca flies to the amazon up north. I hope no one I know ever has to go through what we did.
Our flight was so late that we barely made it to the bus station in time for our bus at 1pm. Then the long ride to Nazca began.
posted by Andrea at
5:28 PM
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