I had to cancel my Lan flights in Peru in mid-September and was told that I would be receiving a refund if I waived a $50 fee. I am still waiting for those refunds and everytime I call, am told it will be posting to my account in a week or so. Has anyone had to go through this? How long does it REALLY take? Initially, I was told I'd have my refund in 30 days. I've been holding off on my insurance claim because I no longer know if they will really give me a refund or not.

Are you certain it's a refund? Or is it a credit toward the price of a future ticket, minus the $50? Most discounted tickets are non-refundable, and that's the way they'd operate if you cancelled your reservation.

It does sound like they've told you it's a refund, though.

No, it's a refund. Like you, I was surprised they were willing to go down that road and actually, when I didn't receive my refund by last weekend, I called to see if they would just reissue the tickets because now we're back on and will be going in two weeks. They said they couldn't because the refund was in process. At this point, I just want them to be honest enough to tell me what they are or aren't going to do.

By the way, we absolutely loved Costa Rica and can't wait to go back someday!!

I got a refund from LAN and it took a couple of credit card billing cycles for it to get processed, but it did finally come thru.

Thank you! That gives me hope!!

Still no refund...I give up!! We're just back from Peru and I have to say this is a perfectly run airline--what the heck is with the non-refund, then?

Hello,
I actually had a horrible LAN experience as I landed in Iquitos and had my mp3 player (second generation several years ago), my sunglasses, and rain jacket stolen by the airline employees themselves. I use zip ties on all zippers and of course ran out of zip ties so only had the top of the daypack/small backpack zip tied, while the smaller section was not zip tied.

I also had my rain jacket strapped into the underside of the daypack, with caribeners holding it in place. All items are weighed as you check the baggage in, and off on the plane I went. When I arrived at my destination, I had a bad feeling, and sure enough I saw my daypack come through the carousel with no rain jacket attached. When I grabbed my backpack I immediately looked for the mp3 player, gone, so were the sunglasses (expensive). I never left the baggage claim in my fight to file a claim.

LAN was the worst at customer service, they straight out robbed my items and refused to hear me out, I am completely fluent in Spanish so the language wasn't a problem. I tried to file a police report, but apparently unbeknownst to me, you are to bribe officials to file a report. I thought this was outrageous and this whole experience left a bad taste, and marred my memory of this region of Peru. I was told I had to file a report, yet no one, not even police would let me file. I vowed to write letters to LAN once I got home, but as always getting back to work kept me busy and I let it go.

Watch out for LAN, I don't know what the alternative is to fly out there, but I will never fly LAN again.

LAN cannot handle a refund. I have a worse situation... I purchased a fully refundable ticket and canceled my flight on Dec 13, 2008. It is now end of April 2009, more than 4 months after my request to get my money back, I still don't have my money. I have called LAN on numerous times only to get the same "we're working on it" answer that is no longer acceptable. I have had pleasant experiences with this airline before but I am surprised that this process has been so painful. I would be very cautious in the future when purchasing a ticket from them if you think you might change your travel plans. I hope your situation has come to a resolution

Assuming you paid for the ticket with a credit card, ask you cc company if they can speed it along.

I already did! As an update, I called again this morning, got the same useless answer. I have disputed the charge with my credit card company and I also sent a formal complaint to the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau. I will keep asking for my money until I get it. Thanks for the advice

Update for the group at large: finally got my refund. The only way that worked was to submit a formal Better Business Bureau complaint. Once that was done, the folks in Miami (their main US office) took care of it within a week or two. This was an annoying process and it makes me think twice about buying a LAN refundable ticket, but at least I got my money back. Cheers to you all.

OP-Triptyme Did you ever receive a refund or credit?