Review of KLM flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago in Business

Hello again,

Now the most interesting part of the report can start with the long haul flights!  

transit EZE

I am welcomed by this nice looking A332:

Connecting passengers on the same flight are given a transit coupon. The walk to the transit sector is the same as the walk to the arrival, upstairs and with a very long walkway:

See you in a bit!

The transit procedure is really easy and simple: just a security check and there is no need to put laptop and liquids out of the bag. Even water bottles brought from the plane can be kept. I really liked how easy it was.

I could have gone to the lounge, the stopover is officially two hours but the boarding starts at H-45. The time to walk to the security and clear it, my layover was already down to 01H30 and I also wanted to see with the gate agent about a seat change. I was aware that the flight was far from being full and I hoped to trade my aisle seat for a window seat on the right hand side. The Andes view is not to be missed on that leg, so I tried my luck.

A really nice lady took care about my request and I was surprised to see that her french was far better than my spanish. We had the whole discussion in french. She checked the seatmap and confirmed 1K for me. She then says that I would still have time to go to the lounge as the boarding would not start before 30' but I wanted to make a bit of spotting and frankly speaking, I had been seating for the past 14H so a little stretching was needed :)

Sadly there wasn't too much to see apart from the A332 Avianca: 

My 773 being catered:

I then walked a bit through the terminal:

That was my door:

Transit documents:

the flight

Boarding was right on time:

A not so nice fuselage shoot:

Funny wise, PH-BVP took me to Bali two years ago.

As almost usual with KLM a very warm welcome at the door. The crew was mostly super senior. The steward that was in charge of my row was most probably the oldest crew I ever had. Nevertheless this guy was absolutely great.
The cabin is still the same, no wonders at it is the same plane :) 

No covers / duvets for this short flight:

My seat mate in the place:

Norwegian just landed bound from London:

The feet box is slightly larger here:

A welcome drink was offered, it wasn't too early for a glass of champagne!

The IFE already worked:

Menus are handed out, and I was really pleased to see that despite the flight leaving at 08:55 it would be a lunch on the flight. It makes sense as we just had breakfast before!

Lunch menu:

A coffee is offered a short while after, this is the first time I see both cold and then hot drinks as welcome. Much appreciated.

As we push back LH arrived ex FRA and UX ex BCN:

Aerolineas again:

AZ ex MXP 773:

Aerolineas again :

737-800 :

Line up:

Adios Buenos Aires!

The climb rate was pretty steep as we were almost half full.

The screen definition is pretty good:

Exiting the clouds:

Tray table:

As almost usual with KL, the service starts with a hot towel:

The view begins to clear:

This time the handset works!

I took the gnocchis:

Together with the cutlery:

The small Parma ham starter was perfectly adequate and the gnocchi hit the spot. Really nice and flavorful. The bread was excellent.

The dessert came with a generous Bailey's glass:

Sadly the dessert wasn't as good as the rest of the meal. Too sweet and quite industrial.

Lunch ends with more Bailey's and a chocolate. 

I had a digestive walk around the plane. The small J cabin behind the galley was empty: 

It gives me the opportunity of a nice engine shoot:

As said … empty!

The Eco Comfort section is pretty empty also:

Let's have a look at the seat:

The pitch is awesome:

Door 13:

Not that many passengers also in the back:

Regular Y seats:

View from the last row:

The pitch isn't as good as in premium but really acceptable:

Another wing view:

Rear door:

Going back to my seat:

I was really looking forward to the Andes crossing:

But before, the Delft House are out :)

This is the seat in the full flat mode: 

Andes are coming closer:

the andes

I usually never put a subtitle for aerial views, but here, it was so breathtaking that I though it would be worth it :) 

Simply amazing:

As the flight progressed I was more and more captivated by the view:

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Love those valleys:

I was speechless:

If you don't like, just scroll down ^^

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Summit flirting:

I loved the small cloud on top of this mountain:

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What a beauty:

That was one of my best flight!

We're almost over the Andes

And soon back to the ground:

Landed!

scl - santiago de chil

Lots of constructions here. The terminal was supposed to be finished in 2018, we are February 2019 and it wasn't any close to be finished.

AZ 772:

Our gate:

787 LATAM:

Chile, here I am!

The walk to immigration was really, really long.

At least there were some travellators :)

But not always:

And again:

And no more :)

At least … it took forever to get here :)

Immigration was pretty quick, took less than 10 minutes. A tip if you go to Chile: the officer just put that paper in my passport without saying anything about it. Keep it. It needs to be given back when you leave the country. 

A very nice new stamp in my passport:

As fast as immigration was, as slow luggage delivery was. The area was overcrowed with AZ, UA, DL and some LA flights passengers all waiting for their bags. It was ways too hot in the waiting room and really not comfortable.

Once you collected your belongings, they all need to go through a scan and the queue was horribly long.

I waited 40 minutes for the belt to start. To make thing worse, all priority bags were delivered last. I took an hour to get my bag.

The good thing was that in the meantime the queue to the scanner was 80% smaller. All in all it took a solid hour to exit the airport.

I easily found my driver and already enjoyed the 32°C outside !

Next part is coming up soon, as usual, a big thank you for reading!