LA800 - SYd - AKL

[themanfromoz]

Disaster today.
Booked on LA800 arrived 6.30am. 7.45am staff finally advised aircraft had gone tech in AKL. If booked on QF ticket you would be transferred to QF flight circa 11am. If booked on LA ticket there was a 'chartered aircraft' at 1445. Just 2 hours too late to actually do the work I needed to do. Was offered refund but had to do it online. After 5 attempts and no success I called the dreaded 1800 number.
The staff member gladly told me (at 8.45am) that the flight was leaving at 9.24am. Only after 20 minutes did they figure out that I was actually correct.
They then offered me the chance to cancel my flight at a cost of AUD$150. Seriously?
After another 20 minutes I was finally told I would get a 'full refund' in "15 business days".
LAN is a joke. STAY AWAY.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Why wouldn't you buy a new flight at a compatible time on qf and claim it on travel insurance? You'd earn more points and get exactly what you wanted... Heck you could have rebooked on air nZ or Emirates for fun and double dipped on the points.

Additionally I've been booked on LA800/801, flight cancelled and they rebooked me on QF. Do you have any status?

This could happen with any airline at any time. It's certainly not LAN specific.

 

[msupp]

Had a similar experience a few weeks ago. Nobody from LAN at SYD knew what was going on - just got shunted from one desk to the next until I ended up on a NZ charter 2 hours later. Will never go LAN again. Even AA staff in LAX were more efficient.

 

[mannej]

Even AA staff in LAX were more efficient.

Wouldn't you expect that to be the case?

 

[themanfromoz]

Why wouldn't you buy a new flight at a compatible time on qf and claim it on travel insurance? You'd earn more points and get exactly what you wanted... Heck you could have rebooked on air nZ or Emirates for fun and double dipped on the points.

Additionally I've been booked on LA800/801, flight cancelled and they rebooked me on QF. Do you have any status?

This could happen with any airline at any time. It's certainly not LAN specific.

As per my original post. Only if you booked on QF flight were you offered the option of being transferred to a QF flight. The charter Air New Zealand flight was simply too late for me to take.
There was no guarantee that the QBE insurance would have covered the flight. According to LAN the 'flight was not cancelled' as it was simply transferred to the chartered Air New Zealand 'metal'.

Only a silver QFF member and Qantas Club member. Qantas don't give a frek about us.

 

[themanfromoz]

Had a similar experience a few weeks ago. Nobody from LAN at SYD knew what was going on - just got shunted from one desk to the next until I ended up on a NZ charter 2 hours later. Will never go LAN again. Even AA staff in LAX were more efficient.

The LAN representative was absolutely useless. Their Qantas 'help' similarly so. So much for being a premium business customer.
I later heard premium business customers were downgraded to economy because Air New Zealand customers were also bumped to this flight.

 

[Sprucegoose]

You get what you pay for guys. I was bumped but ended up on ANZ and QF, so a good deal in my case

 

[Altair]

When I used to take the LA flight for cheap SC my rule was LA is great once in the air but terrible on the ground.
I used to get calls from LA when they knew the AKL-SYD sector would be delayed but they stopped that, due to all but one call in Spanish, they then sent emails instead.
I all my delay, over 10 of them over 4 years, not once was I put on a QF flight, most of the time NZ but a few on EK from SYD.

 

[dodgeyhack]

It must be bad - I got a call from Qantas before LA800 a couple of weeks ago just to let me know the flight WASN'T delayed.

Apparently they'd sent me a text previously but I never got it...