LATAM has a new fleet of Boeing 787 aircraft. I had the chance to fly one of them on their fifth freedom route from Madrid to Frankfurt earlier in the year, and enjoyed my flight with them. As it stands, LATAM has only one flight to Australia, which operates with a stop. Specifically, they fly…
Continue reading: LATAM Will Fly Between Santiago And Melbourne In 2017
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Award seats for these routes are abysmal. It's impossible to get a seat on SCL-AKL/SYD.
They release most of the award seats for the Latam Pass / Fidelidade group.
The pic you put is the business class seat on the 787-800. The 787-900 a little bit different.
I was able to find space on one of their flights from SYD-AKL in business. It looked like they actually had decent availability, and the business cabin was only a little more than half full. I'm not sure if more folks got on in AKL, though.
@lucky - Any word on whether LATAM will be transitioning its 767 service on the LIM-IAD route to 788/789? I found it strange that they inaugurated a high-profile U.S. route with such an old aircraft.
Availability Santiago to Sydney has been pretty good if you book 10+ months out. We were able to book to business seats last December (pre-AA devaluation) for flights in October/November. We enjoyed our flights, comfortable seat, and very good soft product.
Unfortunately Latam charges an unreasonable amount of km for transpacific and transatlantic flights, 280,000 km plus. North America to South America flights have much better redemption rates.
Well I guess LATAM must have recently gotten 330 minute ETOPS certification. Not sure I like the idea personally of a twin engine on that route with no diversion airports within 4+ hours
Last paragraph- clearly not LATAMs first nonstop destination from Santiago. Is their first nonstop Australian destination from Santiago.
I regularly fly between Melbourne and Sao Paulo (via Santiago) and my initial reaction to this new route was very positive. In fact, I've been hoping this route would be introduced. However the flight times are terrible. The 8pm arrival into Santiago is awful for connecting onto other South American cities (eg the connection to Sao Paulo arrives at 1am - which is less than desirable). Similarly the flight to Melbourne leaves Santiago around lunchtime which means a very early start if connecting from another South American city. One option could be to spend the night in Santiago but Australians are charged a $117US reciprocity fee to enter. Given people often travel through Santiago to connect to other South American cities, I can't understand why the arrival and departure times are so poor for connecting flights. I would probably still prefer Qantas' Melbourne-Sydney-Santiago option and connect onto a LATAM flight to Sao Paulo which arrives early evening. And on the return flight fly LATAM Sao Paulo-Santiago-Auckland and then switch to Qantas for Auckland-Melbourne (this option leaves Sao Paulo in the afternoon and arrives in Melbourne around 9.30am - I also find this option the best for minimising jetlag).
Hi Ben
You mention "they’re not ideal for such a long flight."
Why is this?
Brad