Review of LATAM flight from Puerto Montt to Santiago in Premium Eco

introduction

Welcome to the fourth leg in this series of Flight-Reviews.

For years, Chile had been on the top of my travel bucket list and prominent Flight-Report member Pilpintu's beautiful Flight-Reports have always been an inspiration. However, the pandemic had other plans! As the Covid-era restricted us to travel between our two homes in Europe and the US for several years, this trip to Chile would mark our first trip outside of those two continents since 2020. 

In this review, as in the previous leg, we're having a look at LATAM's domestic Premium Economy service. This is a relatively new cabin class for LATAM, introduced on the narrowbody fleet on regional and domestic routes in January 2020, right before the pandemic. The concept is similar to intra-European Business class with forward rows having a blocked middle seat. In addition to extra space in a separate cabin, Premium Economy fares also include priority check-in and boarding, more flexibility, a higher checked baggage allowance, complimentary snacks (or meals on International flights), and lounge access on international flights. 

For these domestic flights between Santiago and Puerto Montt, we paid around 50% more than standard Economy fares that included checked baggage. Pricing at 235 USD per roundtrip for our dates, it seemed like a decent value for a premium cabin on a 1.5h flight. Since LATAM left the oneworld alliance a few years ago, we no longer have status on LA, so I felt it would make sense to purchase a premium cabin for priority handling in the event of any irregular operations or unforeseen issues–plus, I like trying out new cabins.

If you saw the previous review in this series, you may remember that the flight between Santiago and Puerto Montt left me with mixed feelings about the domestic Premium Economy product, mainly due to an unnecessarily chaotic check-in process and an old cabin with very tight seat spacing.

Let's see if this return flight leaves a better impression!

routing

check-in & lounge

After a fantastic week exploring the magnificent southern Chilean lake district from the Araucania region in the north to the Los Lagos region in the south, and a bit of the Los Rios region in between, our Chilean adventure was coming to an end. We had planned one and half days and one night to explore the capital city of Santiago, prior to heading back to the US. 

We arrived at Puerto Montt El Tepual Airport a little over 2h prior to departure to drop off the rental car. 

The beautiful Terminal building was abuzz with a bit more activity than on the way in. 

Though there were no other passengers in the dedicated LATAM Premium Economy check-in lane, we still had to go through the whole process of printing our own boarding passes and baggage tags, and then tagging our own bags before we could queue-up for the bag drop-off. 

It turns out that LATAM check-in kiosks are painfully slow everywhere, not just in Santiago! It took forever to get all boarding passes and baggage tags printed. And then fighting with the cheap and flimsy baggage tags to get them on without anything ripping. I'd worked in airports many years in the past, and I know how to tag a bag–these were especially flimsy and poorly designed. 

I'm just really not a fan of this self-check-in process–maybe if the machines were faster it would be less painful, but I firmly believe that Premium Economy passengers should just be able to check-in with an agent–there are only a maximum of 12 Premium Economy passengers per aircraft so it would just be much faster for everyone. A 2 minute process is unnecessarily turned into 10 minutes or more, especially when travelling as a family with multiple checked items. 
 

Luckily security was a breeze–with no need to remove anything from bags we walked through in seconds. As we had a bit over an hour before boarding, we headed to the only lounge at PMC, the Pacific Club.

Not a huge lounge, but sufficiently large with two main rooms offering plentiful seating. 

There's plenty of light as the lounge is surrounded by windows, though one side overlooks the check-in area and the other side looks out to the departures concourse, so no direct outside views. 

Food and beverage offering is fine and as one would expect for a domestic lounge. Some fresh options, including one of two hot dishes, and self-serve soft drinks, coffee, tea, beers, wine, and spirits. 

boarding

We headed to the boarding gate just a few minutes before boarding was due to begin. The lounge is located towards the middle of the concourse so it wasn't a long walk. 

As I walked up to the gate to see our aircraft, I was wowed by the view! On this perfectly clear and cloudless day, we could see not one, but two volcanoes behind our aircraft!

Boarding began on time with Group 1 through the separate Premium lane.

Yes! The new cabins this time!!

A much better first impression than the inbound flight! A much more modern cabin with a much more spacious Premium Economy cabin, which is properly separated from Economy with a curtain cabin divider. 

The legroom is night and day with the old cabins, offering a whopping 34" seat pitch in Premium Economy on these aircraft.  

While there are no central tables, like in the older cabin, there's tons of space for my huge backpack in the middle seat on this aircraft. 

Each seat in Premium Economy has access to one AC outlet and 2 USB ports!

The legroom really is fantastic! 34" seat pitch with slimline seats is very spacious and better than anything any Euro-biz cabin I'd flown (In comparison, BA, IB, AF are all mostly between 30" and 31" of pitch).

the flight

Boarding wrapped up quickly–as it was October 31st, both cockpit and cabin crew made announcements wishing everyone a Happy Halloween. 

We pushed back right on time. 

Fantastic volcano views from the right side, as we taxied to the runway. 

After a very short taxi time, we were off. 

I'd intentionally gotten a window seat on the right side for this northbound flight. In the early afternoon, the sun was to the aircraft's left making for perfect lighting of the Andes!

What an absolute treat to see such majestic natural beauty on such a perfect cloudless day. Four volcanoes were visible along the shores of Lago Llanquihue (and Lago Todo Los Santos), from left to right: Puntiagudo, Osorno and its perfect Fujisan-like cone, El Tronador, and Calbuco.

Such an elegant, perfect cone! Osorno, you are gorgeous!

Unlike the A320 with the old cabin on the way down, there was a proper cabin divider on this flight, and curtains were closed right after takeoff. 

This aircraft was equipped with streaming entertainment to personal devices, but I made no use of it with such breathtaking scenery outside. I briefly described the IFE in the previous review.

Lago Ranco, one of the bigger lakes in the Lakes District, with many islands, some of which are very sacred places in the Indigenous Chilean culture.

A little further north from Lago Ranco, Lagos Riñihue, Panguipulli, and Calafquén

And the very active and imposing Volcán Villarrica, which we'd climbed a few days earlier, nestled between two beautiful lakes.  

The in-flight service began about 25 minutes into the flight. Once again, very limited choices of drinks with only coffee, tea, water, juices, or soda–no Chilean wines or beers, sadly. Premium Economy passengers may select two items from the snack basket, whereas Economy passengers receive one small snack. The overall catering experience can be improved–no need for a meal on such a short flight, but would be good to have the option of a small sandwich on these meal-time flights. But the drinks selection would really make the experience more premium–flying the Chilean national airline, I expect to see at least a Chilean wine in the premium cabin. A missed opportunity, in my opinion, and lack of alcohol always feels less premium. 

Crystal clear skies the whole way up to Santiago ensured I was glued to the window. Majestic volcanoes and mountains and lakes everywhere as far as the eye could see–just stunning. 

As we approached Santiago, I noticed several wildfires. Compared to the chilly temperatures we'd experienced in the South (10-16C for highs, with lows close to freezing), temperatures around Santiago were close to 35C!

Some fires were larger than others. 

This one was getting close to Santiago, but the wind did not blow the smoke towards the city, so we did not have any pollution issues during our 2 days in the capital, though several days later the city was hit with thick smoke from wildfires. 

The landscapes become more and more urban as we approach Santiago during our descent. 

We fly around some tall hills during final descent where we then turn back south to land from the north. 

Arrival

We landed on time and arrived to the gate a few minutes ahead of schedule. 

Prior to opening the door, the crew asked that families with children deplane first as they had some Halloween treats to distribute–so thoughtful!

Getting candy from a pilot in a clown mask made it a special Halloween for my son! hah

Arrival experience was smooth on this domestic flight and baggage was out within 10 minutes of deplaning. It was then easy to book pre-paid taxi transport into the city. 

Thanks to Pilpintu's recommendation, we went with Transvip, and they seemed to be the most popular as they had the longest queue of the 4 or 5 official transportation companies. Despite, the high demand, they were quick, efficient, and friendly. 

Tourism Bonus

2nd Chile Tourism bonus photos and videos below