I would be interested to hear other people's experience of Latam. Seven years ago, LanChile, an excellent airline, joined up with TAM, an airline with a poor reputation. I was appalled at my first experience of Latam when I was downgraded to economy on GRU-MVD. "That's right" was the answer to my email pointing out that I had been bumped. "There is no business cabin on this flight so we have put you in economy at no extra charge". As you can imagine, I was not happy. When I found out how to contact them, I told them that if that had happened in Europe, you would have to pay me 600 euros. Their reply was that I should ask the check in agent at LHR but of course it was just a fob off and the agent at LHR had no idea. To make matters worse, when I boarded the final leg, there was what passes as a premium cabin in the form of the middle seat being blocked not much but business would have given me fast track security, lounge and priority boarding at MAD. I lodged a complaint against Latam who responded with an offer of a $150 voucher for future Latam flights. When asked how on earth they thought I would use Latam again, they offered $50 cash, final offer.
One of the problems of living in El Cono Sur is the limited choice of airlines and I found it necessary to use this shower again. Then there was a shock at check in. Latam was one of the first 'full service' airlines to unbundle fares and I had bought a ticket with no checked baggage allowance. But that doesn't make them inexpensive. Last year I had to fly to GRU for which they charged £507 ($644) for a bare bones economy return ticket. No checked luggage, no carry on, no seat choice, Nada.
I still hadn't learnt my lesson when I booked MVD-SIN via GRU and DOH on a Qatar codeshare. Latam were asking $98 per leg each to be seated together, which, in reality means pay $588 or we will do our best to split you up. I didn't pay and on the MVD-GRU we were each given a row to ourselves. But it gets worse. When booking, there was a drop down asking if I had a frequent flyer membership. I enrolled with Qatar specially for this trip which should have earned at least 24,000 miles but being Latam they just cannot get it right. My partner got miles for GRU-DOH and back but not the other 4 legs but she did better than me. I only got the GRU-MVD. So I had to provide evidence to Qatar and Latam that we actually flew these legs. Qatar said they have sent the details to Latam for verification while Latam suggested I contact Iberia (sic). There is no hope.
