Flight crew delay on LAN

[Supersonic Swinger]

Recently I flew back from South America on LAN, the flight from Santiago made it into Auckland well ahead of schedule, and just before getting off the plane the flight crew announced that reboarding for the leg to Sydney would commence in 45 minutes.

Walking out, the monitors in the terminal announced a boarding time over 2 hours later, and fifteen minutes later an announcement came over the PA for passengers to collect their food vouchers to use during the delay.

No explanation, not even when finally reboarding commenced. During the flight, one of the flight crew admitted that the flight the previous day had arrived late and hence they had not had their regulation 24 hours on the ground between flights. As a result, the flight was delayed until the time was met, and it arrived into Sydney almost 2 hours late.

Should LAN have done more to apologise or compensate or let passengers know the reason, or is this just something you have to accept with any airline?

 

[N860CR]

I think getting food vouchers is a fairly acceptable attempt at compensation. Really, two hours isn't a huge delay (a pain yes, but could be much worse). Many airlines don't perform too well when it comes to communication with pax re: delays. I've had a flight delayed 5 hours and received no communication and no food vouchers (worst part was I could have driven it in 2 1/2 - 3 hours!).

They didn't do too badly with a difficult situation so I wouldn't be too hard on them.

 

[Mal]

Nah, I think you were treated quite well compared to a lot of other airlines and flights.

I've been delayed ~2 hours before with very little information about the delay. It all depends on the airline and what their policies are.

For a 2 hour delay, I wouldn't have expected a food voucher. Most airlines wouldn't issue one for that amount of time.

I realise Lan arrives into AKL around 4am(?), so it would have been inconvenient. However, these type of delays do happen.