That was supposed to be a short 30 minutes flight trip which turned into seven hours of hell. First of all, to check in our bag at Medellin airport we had to queue for 1.5 hours, as there is a lot of Latam staff at the airport but they are normally too busy to chat with each other. Secondly, after security check completed, just before boarding time, we found out that our flight had been cancelled. All the passengers approached the lady who was registering passengers at another gate for another flight. She helped a few who had connections and asked others to return back to check in area to reschedule the flight. The majority of passengers who did not have the luggage could just reschedule their flights online without leaving the gate area and queuing up again. Yes, this is where another minus one star from the rating is coming. Three ladies who for some reason were standing together at one counter to regulate the queue found a brilliant solution asking all the passengers of the cancelled flight queue to the check in counters again. At some point, I connected to the airport WiFi and helped some passengers to reschedule their flights online without queuing up, so they could go to do their security check again and return to the gates area. The fourth lady (as three others were again busy chatting and laughing in the middle of this chaos) who was walking in the queue was very surprised it was possible to reschedule the flight online. Passengers with the luggage were expected to pick up their bags and re-check in them again. Our problem was they could not find our bag. After a few attempts the check-in representative suggested that it might went to Bogota (how? on cancelled flight?) as they cannot allocate it in Medellin, and he suggested that the bag will fly on the same plane with us, as I re-scheduled the flight online. Another minus one star for professionalism. Full of doubts we boarded the re-scheduled flight. Of course, our bag was not in Bogota upon arrival. Six people working at Latam Luggage Tracking kiosk could not allocate it and after exchanging a few calls with Medellin staff suggested to fill the form and promising our luggage will be delivered to London. This is when my trust in Latam ground staff fell below zero. Again, with mixed feelings of hopeless and doubts we filled the form, staff returned us a copy asking to check the status online. We decided to check the online service immediately and found out there was not a tracking or reference number on the form! The answer was appalling: "Oh, we have not register your form online yet!". Really? And how we were supposed to check the status online without tracking number? Another star off. Meanwhile next two Latam flights from Medellin arrived and whilst we were patiently asking the Latam staff to do their job, I turned around and found our bag among others from the next flight. Guess what? Another passenger's luggage tag were attached to our bag! Latam, is it safe? Is it professional? Of course, nobody from Luggage Tracking kiosk could answer how come the other passenger's name tag was on our bag. They just pretended they did not hear that question. The passenger's problem is up to the passenger to solve it. And lack of investment in staff is shocking.
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