Review of LAN Airlines flight Madrid Frankfurt in Economy

Airline LAN Airlines
Flight LA704
Class Economy
Seat 30L
Aircraft Boeing 787-8
Flight time 02:30
Take-off 17 Jan 15, 15:35
Arrival at 17 Jan 15, 18:05
LA 65 reviews
FRAflyer
By 3000
Published on 7th February 2015
Hello everyone:)
This is my first report on this website so please be kind :)

After a short weekend trip to Madrid we headed back to the airport for LA´s 704 service to FRA
While MAD is a beautiful and spotless airport, the walking distances are out of this world. LA is departing Terminal 4 on the satellite with pure walking of 25min between the T4 check-in area and the gates. First sight of the 787 here at gate U52, just having arrives from the ultra longhaul leg SCL-MAD:
photo IMG_3979
MAD airport has large glass windows allowing for some spotting of CC-BBC that will be flying us to FRA today.
photo IMG_3985
Just as Gategourmet started to handle catering on the 788, gate agents appeared at their desks and started to prepare Gate U52 for boarding.
photo IMG_3988
Boarding was called approx. 30min before scheduled departure. Special assistance, elites and C pax were invited first, followed by Y pax according to seat rows. Seated in 30L, we were amongst the first Y passengers to board. The entire boarding process was hassle free, mainly due to the airports spacious layout that allowed everyone to board pretty orderly. This is the last shot before entering the Dreamliner:
photo IMG_3992
At the door we were greeted by both a female and male flight attendant and to my surprise also by the captain how showed us the correct aisle. The entire mood onboard LA´s 788 is very relaxed and futuristic due to the mood lighting and the Latin-American boarding music that is played.
photo IMG_3994
Soon after boarding was completed with approx. 50% in C and 70% load in Y. The Dreamliner cabin is very spacious and LA seems to have done a good job in making use of the new technology such as the mood lighting.
photo IMG_4003
About 10minutes before schedule departure the captain came on the PA to announce a flight time of 2:00h. The cabin crew armed the doors and performed the cross-check, while the electronic window dims were set to 50% dark in order to play the safety demo.
photo IMG_4004
LA features its newest Y seat here. The IFE had a stunning resolution, maybe a bit on the small side tho. There was a large selection of music, TV shows and movies. Each seat has a USB and headphone jack (headphones were handed out but you could also use your own).
photo IMG_4019
Pushback was right on schedule and the RR engines roared up as we stood on the tarmac. Taxi to the runway was rather short and we were up in the air quickly.
photo IMG_4010
Passing an Iberia A346:
photo IMG_4011
Takeoff into a northernly direction was rather bumpy and the flexible 787-8 seemed to wobble around more compared to older aircraft. This settled quickly and we made a slight turn right heading towards Paris at 40,500ft.
photo IMG_4012
Europe seemed to be cloudy today so views of Spain and France were rather limited. Look at the beautifully shaped wing of this aircraft.
photo IMG_4037
The crew sprung into action just after the seat belt sign went off. On offer today was a nicely colored snack box featuring South-America. It contained a ham and cheese bun together with a mini (and I mean mini mini) Mars bar. The crew delivered everything with a smile and took their time to talk one or two sentences with every passenger. They seemed very cheerful, professional and experienced. I opted for an apple juice and tea; wines, beer and whiskey were also offered free of charge.
photo IMG_4028
The captain announced our descend into Frankfurt about 40minutes prior to landing. A very nice winter sunset attracted many passengers to the large windows as the Dreamliner started to slowly descend.
photo IMG_4051
There was no holding pattern tonight and we were treated to some nice views of downtown Frankfurt and the skyline just before touching down at rwy 25R. Sadly, crossing the highway to get to the Terminal took almost 40minutes and the aircraft arrived some 20minutes late at gate B43.
photo IMG_4052
The crew was nice enough to let me have a look at the futuristic flight deck of the 788 after arrival. Thank You !
photo IMG_4056
See more

Verdict

LAN Airlines

8.3/10
Cabin9.0
Cabin crew10.0
Entertainment/wifi8.0
Meal/catering6.0

Madrid - MAD

7.6/10
Efficiency10.0
Access4.0
Services6.5
Cleanliness10.0

Frankfurt - FRA

3.9/10
Efficiency3.5
Access4.0
Services4.0
Cleanliness4.0

Conclusion

For a €118 return trip FRA-MAD-FRA this was probably one of my best Europe flights. Especially memorable is the friendly crew and the atmosphere that LA has. They are very good at showing a piece of Latin-American lifestyle even on this short sector.

Information on the route Madrid (MAD) Frankfurt (FRA)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 43 avis concernant 7 compagnies sur la ligne Madrid (MAD) → Frankfurt (FRA).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est LAN Airlines avec 7.9/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 2 heures et 31 minutes.

  More information

7 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 128796 by
    lagentsecret 12186 Comments
    Thanks for sharing your first FR and welcome aboard

    The pictures are a bit small but they are nice

    How was the pitch ?

    A picture of the opened box and the bun would have been great

    Looking for your next report
  • Comment 128797 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6656 Comments
    Hi there and thanks for posting this great first report! On a LAN 787 doing a rarely reported 5th freedom flight...good start indeed for a first report! 118 Euros Rondtrip for this short flight and on a 787 is just an awesome deal. The LA 787 looks great, from the livery to the interior...it's a beautiful bird. I wonder how much J costs on this segment. Thanks again for sharing this first report with us, everything is great, just a tip for next time, open the box so we can see what's inside :-)
    Looking forward to more reports.

    Welcome to Flight-Report!

    KevinDC - Community Manager
  • Comment 128802 by
    momolemomo GOLD 9402 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this report ! I used to live in Frankfurt and I now live in Madrid so I know this flight quite well. Nice to see another report on it.
    70% load in Y That's pretty good, on every MAD-FRA or FRA-MAD I did with LA the Y cabin was full or almost full.
    118€ is the usual round-trip price on this flights. I can't wait next august when we'll have the 789 on this route.
    Thanks for this report and welcome :)
  • Comment 128832 by
    jetsetpanda 2283 Comments
    Welcome and thank you for sharing this report.

    LA offers a very decent service for this intra-European route. If you have Oneworld Emerald or Shappire, then you can take advantage of IB's Sala Velasquez which is another plus.

Login to post a comment.