Review of Aerolineas Argentinas flight from Buenos Aires to El Calafate in Economy

vos sos de patagonia? me chiste?

Flying blue Miles earned with this flight: 426
(before the program changed to a revenue-based model)  Today you would earn 2XP mile status too

I checked in just before leaving London the day before and I received my email that I printed.

These were the good times when you could choose your seats for free!!

at buenos aires jorge newberry - aeroparque airport

Aeroparque is actually a very old airport, being used as early as 1925 for domestic routes and international destionations to France even with the Aeropostale. This airport is closely linked to french aviation, just like Aerolineas Argentinas and pilot Antoine de Saint Exupery.

The airport is really convenient as it is located in the town centre, at Palermo airport.

I arrived with Air France in B777-200ER from Ministero Pistarini - Ezeiza airport in the morning, after my first long haul flight ever.

The report of this flight is here. 

Once I reclaimed my suitcase I rushed outside to jump into the first taxi that took me to Aeroparque.  There was a lot of traffic jam but I managed to arrive on time. The lady at the counter was super friendly and it took a good 10 min for her to print again my boarding pass and confirm the route.

The view on two tails: Aerolineas Argentinas and Lan, in front of the very active and busy Palermo neighbourhood.

I remember this is where my love for empanadas started!

Boarding happened very quickly, in both Spanish and English; well with the Argentine spanish which is a different variant than castillano.

Unfortunately the aircraft wasn't parked at the gate but remotely and so we took a transfer bus. 

Aircraft: Boeing 737-81D
Registration: LV-CXT 
Engines: 2x CFM56
Age: now 9 Years but it was 1 year old when I was onboard
Layout: C8 Y162
Observation: leased 

onboard the b737-800

The AvGeek Bit 
Aerolineas Argentinas has drastically grown (57%) since its re-nationalisation -that’s for my friends who believe privatisation is the key to everything :P With the help of Delta and Air France, the airline joined Skyteam in 2012. The airline offers 56 destinations and has carried 18millions last year from both of its hubs- Buenos Aires Aeroparque Jorge Newberry and Ministero Pistarini airport. Aerolineas Argentinas has a fleet of 39 B737s for its domestic and regional flights, and has been receiving B737Max – 5 of them are currently operated with a further 8 on order.

The seats were clean and confortable, equiped with thick armrest and adjustable headrest with a pitch above average with 32in in between seats in economy.

The crew seemed nice as they were smiling at multiple occasions. After push back we had the regular announce by the captain the safety procedures explained manually by the crew.  

We were taxiing for a very very short time - litterally 2 min to reach runway 13.

Take off happened from there and offered a splendid view on palermo, retiro and the micro centro.

First service happened once the seat belts were off, yes first service as there will be 3 in total! It was a coffee or water, served in this plastic cup and a box with orange juice, alfajor biscuits and a small pack of nuts.
Sorry for the quality of the picture by the way. The rest of them are fine but I am not sure what happened with my zoom.

We flew over the pampa regions…

Reached Rio Negro.. One good thing that I appreciated is that the captain was making regular announces on what province we were flying over..

And over the Neuquen region, where the second service happened.

and finally we entered the Patagonia region with the third and last service, this time without food but just refreshments.

As you can tell it was getting cold up there!

The magazine review time! So Aerolineas offered a very thick book, with a really comprehensive section on their destination of the month: New York..

And we started our descent over this just amazing views…

Look at these chains of mountains

and the colour of this lake… incredible!

and the shapes of the clouds.. I am still very much absorbed by this landscape.

It looks like some caribean waters right?

at el calafate airport

Landing happened very smoothly. 

We desembarked using the jetway and went downstairs to wait for our luggages.

What a beautiful region

And some horse ridding of course!

And for the stamp collection!