This procedure considers the processing of LATAM tickets when situations such as: 

• Flight cancellations
• Non-compliance with itinerary according to  departure of a flight operations. Only applicable for:
  • Flights departing 16 minutes earlier or more
  • Flights delayed by 31 minutes or more
• Non-compliance with final destination or stopovers
• Involuntarily missed connections
• Involuntary changes caused by other airlines
• Cabin downgrades due to equipment change

The criterion used by LATAM for the protections involves looking for the flight alternatives closest to the original exit and comparable to the original flight.

The contingency protection has different implications for the agency if it is done more or less than 48 hours before the date and time of flight:

Consider that if passengers call the LATAM Contact Center directly, or if they go to latamairlines.com (regardless of the time range in which the contingency occurs), they can make the change for protection, according to the following:

• latamairlines.com: is enabled to perform protection subject to cabin availability of LATAM. 

Tickets will be revalidated, meaning the travel agency does not lose control over the tickets.

It will not be possible to to protect through the site:

- Passengers with checked baggage or in transit

- Reservations containing manually confirmed special services

- Tickets with land packages associated to the reservation

- Reservations with flights operated by other airlines

- Group or multi-destination reservations

- Route changes

• Contact Center:

- When it comes to change of date/flight in 100% LATAM itineraries , in the same original class. The tickets will be revalidated. The Agency does NOT lose control of the reservation

- For those cases in which it is necessary to add a specific endorsement for the contingency (publications of commercial exceptions) or when there are flights from other companies, the tickets will be reissued (provided that it has access to all segments of the PNR). In these cases, the Agency loses control of the reservation.

When the passenger does not agree with the proposed protection alternative; passengers are eligible to one of the following options:

• Flight/date changes or rerouting
• Change of destination
• Refunds 

Consider that the passenger maintains his protection alternatives even when the ticket has been automatically reissued by the company, while he has not accepted the option delivered by LATAM. 

If the protection offered is not suitable for the passenger, it is not necessary to choose the new dates when the passenger is notified; however, it is mandatory to advise the passenger about the applicable date ranges when he/she contacts back. It is mandatory to enter a Remark in the reservation indicating that the passenger was informed of this. 

Summary of options:

*.Changes are allowed without penalty or fare differences (subject to cabin availability) honoring the validity of the original ticket.

Ticket validity

The client may request any flight respecting the validity of the ticket:

• Without trip started: the client has 12 months from the 1st flight to choose new flights based on system availability.
• With trip started: the client has 12 months from the 1st flight to complete the trip.

Exceptionally, the validity of the ticket may be exceeded when there is no alternative flight to transport the passenger to its original destination, provided that the new flight generates the least possible delay from the  original travel date.

To access this extension, the agency must request a waiver by contacting Global Sales Support. With the waiver added, the ticket may be involuntarily reissued.

Example: if the passenger has not started the trip and has a flight scheduled for October 21, 2023, the validity of the ticket ends on October 21, 2024. If there is no travel alternative (with LATAM or with any operator with an agreement) until October 21, 2024, you may offer the next flight option available after October 21, 2024 that generates the least possible delay with respect to the original travel date.

Considerations for LATAM tickets with interline flights:

The protection on the flight of the other company must meet the following conditions:

• The other airline has not provided a protection alternative in the reservation or the alternative provided in the PNR does not suit the passenger’s needs.
• The protection subject to cabin availability must consider the same time frame as LATAM flights.
• Privileging routings operated by LATAM.
  

Protection on other airlines for flights affected in commercial window (flights with more than 48 hours of the current date).

Protection in another airline, without penalty and charging a fare difference in the same cabin, will only be allowed when the fare issued is applicable with the protection airline (according to the Flight Application). For protection, contact your agency's local support.

If the requested airline does not apply to the purchased fare, another applicable airline must be used or the change must be made without penalty, but subject to the fare differences charged by that airline. Please note that off-line issuing is not permitted (see the chapter on ticketing) on LATAM plates, i.e. LATAM must participate in the itinerary. 

The protection policy in the operational window (flights within 48 hours of the current day) remains unchanged, maintaining current rules. 

Definitive Route Closure (does not apply for temporary airport closures) it will be allowed to make the change subject to cabin availability to depart on any date between the date that they are informed of the route closure and up to the date that the route is closed.

² When the protection is not suitable to the passenger and the ticket is about to expire (ticket validity or maximum stay), the refund of expired tickets will be permitted as an exception, provided that the request is done no later than 15 days from the date of the affected flight. The passenger must be informed about this provision when is notified.

(*) change to a nearby airport and change of airport within the same city: passengers holding LATAM tickets with 100% Domestic route Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and international routes to/from Rosario, Argentina have the option to change to a nearby airport. Additionally, in cities served by more than one airport, passengers may change the date/flight by choosing a different departure/arrival airport in the same city, provided that in the city of origin or destination there is more than one airport. These alternatives can only be processed directly at LATAM. To request them, contact your Sales Support Agent.All costs for transportation between airports or basic services must be assumed by the passenger. To access the list of airports can be found in the Airport Change section in this chapter.

The wordings in the Endorsements field of the new ticket are mandatory; otherwise, reissues will be audited as a volunteer reissue with the consequent application of charges for amounts not reported.

Protection for second affected ticket:

This protection is implemented when the passenger has two LATAM tickets and one of them is reprogrammed due to a contingency LATAM is responsible for, with a resulting effect on the second ticket.Applicable for two (2) separate LATAM tickets as long as connecting time is less than 24 hours and the original flights have complied with the minimum connection time when they were issued. Domestic or regional trips are included where the round trip is issued in separate tickets and as a result of a rescheduled one of the trips the stay of the entire trip is reduced or increased.

Date/Flight changes or Rerouting (in accordance with deadlines established in policy), change of destination or reimbursement for both tickets in accordance with the following:

Additional Considerations:

• No additional costs for reissue (airport and other taxes) must be displayed in the new tickets.
• Changes are applicable to outbound and inbound flights if requested at the same time.
• When there are no alternatives to immediate connection and the LATAM flight protection involves an overnight stay, Agents should contact their LATAM Sales Support Agent to seek a travel solution.
• Waiver must be requested to the Sales Support Agent in the following cases: 
  • When the flights affected do not appear in the PNR.
  • In case of cancellations and/or contingencies generated by other companies.
• For the rest of the cases or when the contingency is supported by a publication, only the corresponding note in an OSI element and in Endorsements/Restrictions of the ticket must be entered, therefore, it will not be necessary to enter a Waiver.
• When making the flight or date changes, all associated SSR requests (ancillaries or special services) must be transferred to the protecting flight. The Sales Support Agent should be contacted to regularize the ancillaries, as established for their market.

The protection has different implications in the ancillaries associated with the ticket in case it is made more or less than 72 hours before the date and time of flight.

This procedure considers the treatment of ticketed and non-ticketed LATAM groups and applies when the situations indicated in the General item of this chapter arise.

Options allowed:

• Change subject to cabin availability, maintaining the original origin and destination, without penalty or fare difference.

If rescheduling less than 90 days before the departure of the flight for LH groups and 60 days for DOM/REG groups, agencies must request changing the flights affected by the Schedule Change according to the following:

If the reservation suffers a new schedule change, these deadlines will start over. Cancellations outside the time limit will retain the penalty charge (ADM penalty/prepayment charge)

LATAM's protection criteria seek to offer those flight alternatives that are closest to the original departure schedule, although this may depend on availability (+/- one or two days) and routing (if a direct flight has been canceled, a flight with stopover will be offered). 

Process to request Protection of Groups/Series:

If the reservation does not contain CLAIM: (groups in GN status, direct groups or NO BSP agency groups), the schedule will show WL status in the reservation and the Global Sales Support team will request the change internally after informing the customer of the situation. If the customer declines the protection offered, they will be entitled to re-accommodation according to the time limits established in this document.

In the case of reservations containing CLAIM, LATAM will offer a protection alternative that agencies can see in their distribution systems. If agencies are not satisfied with the protection offered, they can file a new request in their system. This request is submitted to LATAM for consideration and, if applicable, the new protection is entered. If tickets have already been issued, the agency will reissue them as involuntary.

If the agency is not satisfied with the options offered, it may cancel the entire group. If tickets have already been issued, they will be fully refunded.

Groups and Series with Offline segments (Feeders): The rule also applies to negotiations of Groups with Offline segments (Feeders). 

This type of protection consists of changing the departure or arrival to an airport that is no more than 500 km (300 miles) away within the same country, as an alternative in cases of rescheduling or cancellation. 

• It applies to domestic and international flights, where LATAM operates.
  
• The change of airport must be kept within the same country.
• The change of airport applies exclusively to marketing and operating LATAM flights. 
• If the client does not agree with his protection and requests to modify his trip from another airport, the travel agent will be able to verify in his distribution system if the airport complies with the maximum distance of 500 km. (300 miles).
• Ground transportation expenses between airports or basic services are the responsibility of the passenger.
• The reissue must keep the original fare construction, considering not updating the taxes, no collection of fees or fare differences will be made. 
• Must be included in the Endorsement field: SKDCHG or INVOL with the details of the affected flight. 
• Subsequent voluntary changes will be made according to the fare conditions.

Protection to an airport outside the defined range must be supported by a commercial procedure.

The functionality of commercial exceptions to affected passengers and the functionality of airport change are not available on our NDC portal at this time.

If you need to request a commercial waiver or an airport change, we ask you to contact our specialists* through our preferential attention channel: the chat available here on LATAM Trade (in addition to our usual attention channels). This way, our team will take care of processing your request on your purchase order.

*Agencies using e-LATAM will be able to reissue a ticket issued in NDC within the e-LATAM system.