Introduction: Two Times To Latin America

Welcome to my next trip report series, covering the recent review trip that I took to Latin America. Actually, it was two trips to Latin America, sort of, but I’ll write it all as a single review series.

So often I fly to distant places to review some of the world’s best airline products, though there’s also value in reviewing experiences closer to home. Living in Miami, there’s no shortage of opportunities to fly to Latin America (I mean, in all honesty, Miami basically is Latin America).

On this trip I flew a total of eight segments and covered just over 20,000 miles. In this series you can expect flight reviews of LATAM’s 787 business class, Delta’s A350 business class, Delta’s 737 business class, Aeromexico’s 737 MAX business class, Boliviana de Aviacion’s A330 business class, GOL’s 737 MAX premium economy, and Copa’s 737 MAX business class. There will also be reviews of several lounges, plus some hotel reviews.

In this post I’ll outline all the basics of the trip, and then I’ll publish the entire trip report series in the coming days and weeks.

Why I took this trip

This was a pure review trip, plain and simple. That’s to say that I took this trip exclusively to be able to review certain premium airline products, all while being away from home for as little time as possible. I booked pretty last minute, and due to how award availability opened up, I ended up taking this trip in two parts, with two days at home between the journeys (which was honestly great in terms of being able to catch up on sleep).

Sometimes when I plan review trips, I have one specific product that I’m looking to try, and then I plan everything around that. In this case, I just knew that there were a lot of premium airline products in Latin America I hadn’t reviewed, so I was open to any of those.

So I planned my trip only days before departure. The great thing about living in Miami is that no positioning is really required, given the vast number of southbound flights from there.

The airlines I flew on this trip

I booked this itinerary as six separate tickets, so let me share the details of the tickets in the chronological order that I traveled.

To kick off the trip, I flew LATAM’s Boeing 787-9 business class from Miami to Santiago. LATAM doesn’t belong to any of the global alliances, but there are a variety of programs that let you redeem for LATAM business class. I ended up booking the following for 123,500 British Airways Avios plus $45.30 in taxes and fees:

9/17 LA503 Miami to Santiago departing 9:15PM arriving 6:30AM (+1 day)

Let me acknowledge that this is a substantial number of Avios, though I had a good number in an account that I had acquired with a transfer bonus, so I preferred that to using another currency. However, there are other programs with lower absolute redemption costs.

Next up, I flew Delta’s Airbus A350-900 business class and Delta’s Boeing 737-800 business class from Santiago to Atlanta to Mexico City. Usually it can be hard to redeem Delta SkyMiles and get good value for premium cabin travel, but the trick is that if you don’t start or end in the United States, the value is much better.

So I booked the following for 65,800 Delta SkyMiles plus $87.32 in taxes & fees (if I had terminated in Atlanta, the award would have cost 5x as much):

9/19 DL146 Santiago to Atlanta departing 8:40PM arriving 5:15AM (+1 day)
9/20 DL602 Atlanta to Mexico City departing 12:21PM arriving 1:55PM

After that, it was time to head home briefly, so I flew Aeromexico’s Boeing 737 MAX 9 business class from Mexico City to Miami. I booked the following for 24,000 Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles plus $113.22 in taxes and fees:

9/21 AM412 Mexico City to Miami departing 7:10AM arriving 12:40PM

After a couple of days at home, it was time to head out again, starting with flying Boliviana de Aviacion’s Airbus A330-200 business class from Miami to Santa Cruz de la Sierra. I can’t even say how excited I was about this flight, given how much this airline has intrigued me.

The catch is that Boliviana de Aviacion doesn’t have useful airline partners, so the only real option is to pay cash. So I booked the following for $695.42 (quite a good fare for business class, eh?):

9/23 OB767 Miami to Santa Cruz de la Sierra departing 11:00PM arriving 5:50AM (+1 day)

After a long layover, I flew GOL’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 premium economy from Santa Cruz de la Sierra to Sao Paulo. I was able to redeem American AAdvantage miles for this, and booked the following for 17,500 American AAdvantage miles plus $94.20 in taxes and fees:

9/24 G37717 Santa Cruz de la Sierra to Sao Paulo departing 1:00PM arriving 4:40PM

Last but not least, it was time to fly Copa’s Boeing 737 MAX 9 business class all the way from Sao Paulo to Panama City to Miami. I managed to book the following for 50,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points plus $57.34 in taxes and fees:

9/25 CM702 Sao Paulo to Panama City departing 3:10AM arriving 8:00AM
9/25 CM334 Panama City to Miami departing 9:23AM arriving 1:31PM

In addition to flight reviews, you can expect reviews of the following lounges:

• The LATAM Lounge Miami (MIA)
• The LATAM Lounge Santiago (SCL)
• The SkyTeam Lounge Santiago (SCL)
• The Amex Centurion Lounge Atlanta (ATL)
• The Aeromexico Lounge Mexico City (MEX)
• The Lounge VIP Santa Cruz de la Sierra (VVI)
• VIP Lounge Santa Cruz de la Sierra (VVI)
• The Banco Safra Lounge Sao Paulo (GRU)
• The Amex Centurion Lounge Sao Paulo (GRU)

The hotels I stayed at on this trip

On these review trips, I spend most of my time in the air, and not in hotels. On this trip I had overnight(ish) stays in Santiago, Mexico City, and Sao Paulo.

In Santiago, I had a bit of time to enjoy town, as I was arriving early in the morning, and departing late the following evening. So I decided to stay in town, and booked the Ritz-Carlton Santiago. I booked a club room through the Marriott STARS program, as this is one of the more reasonably priced Ritz-Carlton properties out there (though as I found out, for good reason).

Next up, I had an overnight in Mexico City, but given my very early morning departure, I decided to stay at the Hilton Mexico City Airport, located within the terminal. It’s a convenient property that was recently renovated, though has some quirks.

Lastly, I had a very long afternoon and evening in Sao Paulo, as I landed around 5PM, and was departing around 3AM. So I decided to book a stay at the TRYP by Wyndham Sao Paulo Guarulhos Airport, which is the transit hotel located within the terminal. A proper nap can make such a huge difference on trips like this.

Bottom line

While perhaps not as luxurious as a review trip to the Middle East or Asia, I really enjoyed my journey to Latin America, as it’s always fun to try products I’m a bit less familiar with. Living in Miami, a trip like this was overdue. Stay tuned, as I’ll have lots of flight, lounge, and hotel reviews, with experiences ranging from very good to no bueno.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!