#79 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
52 reviews
Welcome to this Flight Report. Today, I will be showing you my experience flying Aerolineas Argentinas on business class from Miami Intl. to Buenos Aires - Ezeiza. This Flight put an end to a beautiful vacation, although the experience on itself was very disappointing. Anyways, and despite being eight months late with the report, I will try to narrate my experience on the flight and explain why I have concluded that AR’s service was substandard.
Just before the day of the flight, we honored our years-long family tradition of going for a walk along Miami Beach’s bay and watching the last sunset of the trip on a very small yet nice park there’s at the end of a footpath.
After the stroll, we were back at the hotel and I started filling in all the paperwork required for boarding our flight. Once I tried to complete Argentina’s online sworn declaration, it started giving out error codes and didn’t let me send the forms. At this point I had to call Argentina’s immigration authority to get some help, but after 40 minutes waiting my call wasn’t answered. I tried contacting AR, only to be told by them that by no means they would allow anyone to board the flight if it wasn’t with the sworn declaration complete. My final hope was to contact the very head of the immigration authority, Florencia Carignano, on twitter, to see if I would finally get some answers. 15 minutes after contacting her, the official immigration authority’s twitter account reached out to me and asked me about what problem I was experiencing. After 30 more minutes the issue was solved and I was able to fill in the declaration. What a relief (and a taste of Argentina’s third world-ism)
Getting to Miami’s airport at 5 AM was easy enough by catching an Uber.
After entering terminal H, we were met by a not so crowded check-in hall. We got on the reasonably short sky priority line and had our boarding passes printed and our baggage dropped off in no time. After that, we cleared security which took about 15 minutes, and were on our way to Delta’s SkyClub lounge, which took a while to find!
As far as my knowledge on lounges goes, this one was far superior to Aerolineas Argentinas’ Salón Cóndor lounge. A selection of hot and cold option for breakfast was available along with a wide choice of beverages. I appreciated that Starbucks coffee was being offered as well as the caramel syrup that they usually use on their Frappuccinos.
The lounge offered lots of space for sitting and waiting while you eat. The toilets were clean but as far as I was able to see, they didn’t feature any showers.
Here you can see a part of the food selection available
I’m glad I’ve enjoyed the lounge, because after leaving it and boarding I was in for a surprise.
Around 30 minutes before boarding time we left the lounge and took the reasonably long walk to our gate. Upon arriving there, a crowd had already gathered around the gate and everyone was eager to board as soon as possible.
The very moment boarding was announced we made our way through the crowd and were among the first passengers to board.
Walking through the jetway always brings so many memories back…
I knew beforehand that today’s ride was LV-FNK, one of the oldest planes on AR’s fleet, and wasn’t expecting anything exceptional in terms of comfort, but my reduced expectations were soon reduced to bitter disappointment as I walked through the small J cabin and reached my seat, 5H.
The seat was similar to the one I got on the EZE - MIA flight, but much more worn down.
Anyway, I settled down and relaxed knowing that I was going home where the most important people are awaiting. Shortly after I finished with my thoughts, the crew served drinks and more nuts - this time with raisins included.
As you may see, the center armrest has seen better days and looks very worn.
After the snack the crew called for a certain passenger over the PA, and we started to wait. Soon, our scheduled departure time passed, and I assumed that we were going to be delayed. Shortly afterwards, the crew confirmed that we were delayed by approximately 30 minutes.
As time went by and I got bored, I decided to do some plane spotting:
Air Canada Rouge A321 to our right
Boliviana de Aviación 767 to our left.
At 09:50 we're ready to depart and start pushback. Taxi is very shory as we are heading for runway 27.
At exactly 10:00 we start our takeoff run. After takeoff we bank to the left and track south as we thunder upwards. We cross the clouds covering southern Florida and that's our last sight of U.S. soil. After we reach our cruising altitude I decide to charge my phone since it is already at 40% battery, and find out that although my seat is fitted with a power socket, it doesn't work. I call the crew and ask if they could help me try to make it work, and they promise to restart the system in a try to make my socket work. This wasn't succesful, so I had to find a USB charger and use it on my phone. As I later found out, this wasn't good either, since the current output was so low it wasn't even able to keep my phone at 40% while I used it: it was indeed charging, but at a slower rate than it was using its charge. I had to stop using it in order for it to charge - at a comically low speed, of course. -
Soon after fighting with the power socket -and failing-, the beautiful smell of food filled the whole cabin, and shortly afterwards the FAs started giving out hot towels and tablecloths. This is when my seat neighbor found out that his tray table had not been cleaned after the previous flight, as it had food all over it. He had to clean that for himself.
As in my previous flight, no paper menus were handed out, and the crew gave everyone a tray with some fresh fruit salad and a small jar of jelly. Shortly afterwards, we were offered coffee, tea, mate cocido or orange juice to drink. I asked for coffee with milk and orange juice. Note that AR serves powdered milk for the coffee. Another FA passed offering a wide choice of pastries and bread, and I chose the pain au chocolat.
I thought that the breakfast was fully served, only for another flight attendant to come and offer me a toasted ham and cheese sandwich, which I obviously accepted very gladly.
Do you see all that dirt on the PTV? I also did, and got a close shot of it. How disgusting!
It is truly outraging that such an abudance of filth is present on a business class seat. AR burns through USD 2.000.000 every day from Argentina's taxpayer money since it has a monumental budget deficil caused by severe overstaffing. Couldn't they just have some of the many employees they have (and pay huge salaries when compared to almost everyone in Argentina) come and clean the plane before passengers board? These stains look like they've been present there for a long while, completely unnoticed (or ignored) by the cleaning crews…
Anyways, breakfast was excelent. It tasted quite nice, and I could feel it was high quality. It was so much better than the one on the EZE - MIA flight. As I enjoyed this scrumptious breakfast, I was treated to a beautiful view of sunny Jamaica…
And the Caribbean sea… Nothing short of spectacular.
After finishing breakfast the crew came by collecting everything, and eventually all lights were dimmed, and all passengers nicely asked to close their window shades. I decided to take a short trip to the toilet to see in which condition it was being kept…
Not too bad, yet still dirty. AR has the same toilets for everyone, nothing aditional for business class passengers. After leaving this cramped toilet I got back to my seat, where the crew had left a small bottle of water for me to enjoy. How nice of them!
As blurry as it gets…
It was definitely time to try the 170° lie-flat seat and see if it was any good. Let's say that it did the job and leave it there. Not great, but we get spoiled these days, don't we? People back in economy have to make do with cramped and barely reclining seats.
This flight departed KMIA in the morning and was scheduled to arrive at SAEZ on the afternoon, with a barely noticeable 2-hour difference between the two cities, so I don't get why almost everyone spent the whole flight sleeping. I was very bored and decided to explore AR's limited selection of movied, and later watched Father Figures, which wasn't bad, although movie critics seem to disagree with me.
The movie lasted almost two hours, but there were still some 6 hours to go, so I decided to play 2048 on my phone, getting to my highest score yet on that game.
As we were flying over the amazon rainforest, the beautiful smell of food happened to fill the cabin once again. It was time for lunch. No paper menus this time, of course. A 100% barrani experience on board Argentina's flag carrier.
The starter was the same for everyone, Capresse salad along with another cherry tomato salad and a bread roll. They were soon joined by my drink of choice, orange juice.
Im something of a picky eater myself, so I really enjoy these simple meals. Couldn't complain about it since the quality was great!
Main course: these pasta rolls filled with ricotta cheese. I couldn't call them cannelloni because that would dishonor my italian grandfather's memory, but they were good.
Dessert: Chocolate ice cream and cheese with grapes and two chocolate bombons. Not bad, although the combination was strange for me. After dessert I washed everything down with another coffee with milk. Crew collected everything and service was over for the rest of the flight as the crew seemed to have disappeared after collecting the trays. We were flying over the Amazon rainforest, everyone was sleeping, but I couldn't help myself and I opened my window for a quick shot. The vast rainforest beneath us looks almost like the ocean from high above…
The rest of the flight went by, and we were soon flying over Argentinian soil. Once we overflew the city of Rosario we started our descent and were finally able to open our windowns. We were treated to an amazing sunset over Argentina's vast countryside.
This was the only sight I could get of Buenos Aires at night since I was sitting to the right of the airplane. We crossed the VFR school sector of Moron Airport (MOR/SADM) at an altitude of 3000ft, and I could see every landmark I used during my VFR private pilot training flights. Soon after, we aligned with Ezeiza's runway 11 and started our final descent. I didn't record the landing as I was way to tired. It is sad to put an end to a vacation, but it is what it is. Life goes on.
I was the first passenger to deplane. Ezeiza was quite empty at 20:45 in the evening. Passport control was a breeze, and we were soon waiting for our lugagge. Suddenly, we were approached by a lady with a clipboard that introduced herself as an agent from the State Statistics Agency (INDEC) and told us she was conducting a mandatory "traveler's census" that we had to answer truthfully. Questions included in the questionary where something like:
-> Why did you travel in business class?
-> How many U.S. Dollars have you spent while abroad?
-> How many stars did the hotel you stayed at have?
-> Are you bringing any gifts? If so, how much are they worth?
-> How did you get the money for the trip?
-> Where do you live?
This was very sketchy. Nothing you would expect on a democratic country, but still not surprising given the authoritarian turn Argentina's government has taken, particularly to those who want to travel abroad and spend their money as they please. If someone here is also from Argentina, did this also happen to you?
Anyways, this is it from my part. Hope you enjoyed the FR!
Yrgwyn.
Aerolineas Argentinas has provided a filthy, shameful and mediocre service throughout the flight. I was genuinely outraged that my taxes were being spent in such a lackluster service - given that the country lacks critical infrastructure and is severely impoverished -. The only positive was the food, which was good. I'm tempted to say that I will never choose AR after this mediocre flight, but I can't really be sure given their prices and their monopoly on most air routes in Argentina.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 3 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne Miami (MIA) → Buenos Aires (EZE).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est American Airlines avec 7.2/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 8 heures et 56 minutes.
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10 Comments
woaw, never heard of it , but i guess i wont have same treatment when i come to EZE
thats a lot of money especially when you know situation in the country
yeap , i thought you were a gaucho !
heroyam slava
Слава ЗСУ! ???
Thank you for sharing your story and I can only imagine it's very difficult to watch the horrors in Ukraine from so far away with such personal ties. I truly hope the situation gets better soon.
Thanks again for sharing!
Anyways, thanks for reading and sorry for the rant!
Those questions might not be as offensive as you think. I have been asked many of the same entering Canada and Australia...
Regarding the questions, they are something that I’ve never heard of here in Argentina. In the last years the government has been turning increasingly authoritarian and those kind of questions really freaked me out!
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