Review of LATAM flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago in Economy

Hello everyone! This is the first leg of a series of report from my trip to Chile on last weeks.
The itinerary was:
EZE-SCL with LATAM Chile
SCL-PUQ with SKY Airline
PUQ-SCL with SKY Airline
SCL-AEP with LATAM Argentina
The legs I flew on LATAM were bought with LATAM km, and I think that’s the reason I suffered two involuntary changes on this flights. The weeks before the flight I received like 3 e-mails saying that the flights I chose were cancelled o that I was due to change flights because no reason. On those e-mails they said I could chose from the time table the flights I want. But when I called their contact center they said that they had already chose an option for me and If I wanted to chose my own flight option I had to pay a fee…so that’s why I think that I you choose to fly on LATAM km, you fly whenever they want to, it’s not completely up to you :-/
So let’s move to the report!
LA450
Date: 07/02/17
Origin: Buenos Aires – Ezeiza EZE
Destiny: Santiago SCL
Departure: 11.35 (12.05 real)
Arrival: 14.00 (13.55 real)
On the day of the flight I arrived Ministro Pistarini International Airport in Ezeiza, Buenos Aires Province (EZE) like 4 hours before my flight. As usual I hired a transfer from my city to the airport. As LATAM counters are always open I proceeded to dispatch my luggage. I had previously checked in on their Smartphone app and chose seats when I booked the flights. The attention was fast and OK.
EZE Terminal A Entrance

LATAM Counters

EZE Departures Hall

As there’s not much to do at EZE’s landside I went through security and migrations. They both were very fast. On the airside I had plenty of time to kill so I walked along the Terminals A B and C (which are all connected on the airside), there were like 3 hours more to go!
EZE Departures

Copa Boeing 737-800 and the queen Lufthansa Boeing 747-8

Boarding lounge Terminal B and Iberia’s Airbus 340-600

Aerolineas Argentinas Airbus 330 departing on the daytime flight to MIA
LATAM Brazil Boeing 767 departing to BOG

Delta Boeing 767 just arrived from ATL

Then I went to Starbucks for cappuccino and cheese bread for breakfast. After that I went to search for my boarding gate, which at the time of check in wasn’t assigned yet.

My boarding pass

Aircraft movement in Buenos Aires Airspace

Finally I found my gate. It was number 5 on Terminal A

LATAM Airbus 321 which flew me to SCL, CC-BEJ

PAX waiting

At 10.50 punctually the boarding process started. As Argentineans (especially porteños – people from Buenos Aires-) are very anxious people, 2 big lines had already formed towards the gate. First they were calling passengers with babies and mayor adults, then airline status passengers, after that passengers on the lasts rows of seats and finally passengers with seats on the front side of the aircraft (me). My seat was 4L.
Walking on the Air Bridge

My digital boarding pass

Another view of A321

From my window, Air Europa Boeing 787 bound for MAD

The route today. This aircraft was equipped with a wifi entertainment system.

At 11.30 the captain introduced himself and gave the flight details. Immediately we made push back and the FAs gave the security instructions on a manual way (? This aircraft does not have any public or private screens.

Some visitors at EZE, Aeromexico, Iberia, British Airways, LATAM Brazil

Finally at 12.05 we took off with a delay of half an hour. Later we recovered some time during the flight. On takeoff we headed west then south and finally east.

EZE from the Air

On the app you could follow the exact flight path and flight info

Then I looked what movies and TV programmers were offered on the in flight entertainment system. I found one of my favourites TV series of the last years, Mr. Robot. But this flight is very short to be watching many episodes.

Reading material

On the magazine called VAMOS there was an article about the best treks and one of them was Torres Del Paine, which I would be doing in some days!

Some minutes later they served the meal: A croissant with cheese and turkey, a bonobón (a traditional candy from Argentina) and drinks (Coffee, tea, soft drinks). They offered two glasses if you wanted. The whole crew was Chilean I believe. They had a great attitude and were very kind and smiley.

The guitar (http://estancialaguitarra.blogspot.com.ar/)

City of Mendoza (on the upper right side you can spot the airport MDZ)

While we were flying over Mendoza, the Captain announced we will soon be crossing Andes Mountains, for that reason he asked us to fasten the seatbelts and to not use the toilets. Also on a pre recorded announcement they said there can be some turbulence.

During the crossing we were flying parallel to Argentinean route number 7 and I spotted El Puente del Inca (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_del_Inca)

Too bad we were on summer, there’s not much snow left on the mountains but the views are still amazing.

This A321 has plugs between the seats.

Once we finished crossing the Andes the captain announced we were about to land in SCL

Minutes before 14.00 we landed

On the way I could spot Qantas Boeing 747 which was about to depart to SYD

Disembarking

On the way to migrations, they were separating lines in Chileans/foreign. The foreign like was soooo long, that when the Chileans finished passing they started sending us on that like. On that moment I discovered there’s free wifi at the airport. It worked very well. I used it every time I spent time there. It seems that many flights from neighboring countries arrive at that time in SCL. That’s why it was so crowded. After migrations there is a control from the Authority of agriculture which is very strict on every crossing into the country.
Once outside I took a Delfos transfer to the city center that I hired minutes ago on their desk..