PresRDC
Jun 24, 02, 9:43 pm
March 16, 2002
When I left off, I had arrived at the Hotel Carrera in downtown Santiago de Chile. I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Santiago. Unlike the modern luxury chain hotels, which are located north of the city center in the business district, the Hotel Carrera is located right in the heart of the city on the Plaza de la Constitution (which is where Pinochet and his henchmen ran the Chilean government). The hotel itself is great and is a member of the Leading Hotels of the Worlds, so you know it is of high quality. Although I paid a very discounted rate, I got a room with a king size bed, a separate seating area, a separate shower and bath, a separate room for the toilet, and a complimentary fruit basket. Quite nice indeed!
As I arrived in the early morning, I spent the day exploring Santiago. This was my first time in South America and I was quite impressed. Santiago is a bustling city, but also seemed fairy well ordered. It has some very nice open piazzas and some grand buildings.
In the late afternoon I met a Chilean friend, Mario and his wife, Paulina who studied with me in London last year. They took me to a local crafts market, where I bought a lapus lazuli Moai. They then took me to a local supermarket and recommended three nice bottles of Chilean wine to take back to our mutual friends in South Bend. We went to their house for drinks, met-up with some of their friends, and enjoyed a nice dinner. Chileans eat very late; dinner was at 9:00 PM and the restaurant was virtually empty and didn’t fill-up to we left at about 11:45 PM!
The next day Mario and Paulina took me to San Cristobal for some scenic views of Santiago. I would highly recommend visiting here as the views were really stunning (and it wasn’t even that clear of a day). Later, they drove me to the airport. As Paulina actually works for Lan Chile (she is in charge of in-flight magazines), she offered to take my wine bottles, rap them and leave them for me in the Lan Chile lounge for me to pick-up on my return from Easter Island the next evening. This was truly great service!
March 17, 2002
Lan Chile flight LA 833 (SCL-IPC); Boeing 767-300ER; Business Class; Seat 1A
I got to the airport at 1:30 PM for a 4:00 PM departure, as I was eager to explore what appeared to be a very beautiful and modern airport. Although Mario and Paulina dropped me off right in front of the Lan Chile First and Business Class check-in area (which is located in a separate room from the main check-in), I was unable to find it so I walked around a bit until I gave-up and asked directions. Once there, check-in was quick as there was no line. I did have to pay some extra taxes that apparently were not collected on my ticket, although I think this was more a function of my ticket lacking a complete tariff breakdown than a mistake by AA’s tariff department. In any event, it was only a few dollars and, unlike the day before, they took credit cards.
I walked the terminal a bit and really liked what I saw. There was an Air France flight getting ready to depart and a few other planes at the gates, but basically it was empty. I went to the Salon VIP, Lan Chile’s lounge in SCL. The lounges are all located one level down from the departure gates and have elevators. Lan Chile’s lounge is located right next to the Admiral’s Club.
The lounge itself was nice, with a modern décor and some nice computer workstations. While it had plenty of alcohol, there was nothing to eat save for some pre-packaged nuts and some cookies. I checked my e-mail and learned that one of my law school friends had a baby that was born two months premature and was in critical condition. Needless to say, this put a damper on the trip, but, thank God, the baby is fine and was with his father when he got his law school diploma in May.
An hour later, they put out some finger sandwiches and I helped myself as I was hungry and they were quite good. Soon, our 767 arrived at the gate and boarding began soon after (I assume it arrived from somewhere else at the airport as no passengers disembarked -- those of you who have been to SCL know this is quite visible from the lounges).
Although Lan Chile no longer offers First Class on this service (which, incidentally continues from Easter Island to Papette in Tahiti), the AA Around the World Desk was able to snag me a First Class seat on this sector. The seat was nice and I had the one next to me free, which is always a plus. Lan Chile’s planes have one row of First Class in a 2-1-2 layout and seats, which resemble AA’s First Class seats on the 767-300 and the Pacific-configured 777s, reclined fully flat. There was also a liquid crystal display on the front bulkhead, which was showing soothing images of Chile’s natural beauty.
After the usual pre-departure drinks (and a plate of nuts), we were airborne with no wait to reach the runway. Our route was basically a straight shot to Easter Island. We left the Chilean coast about 10 minutes after takeoff and didn’t reach land until seconds before touchdown. Flying time was just about 5 hours.
There was no menu on the flight, but we did get a wine list, which was presented in a corkboard cover. Drinks were served soon after, followed by dinner. I don’t exactly remember the choices and, as there was no menu, I cannot reproduce it here. I do recall having beef, and I think the other choice was tuna. There was also a choice of appetizer, but alas, I do not recall the choices. The appetizer and a cheese course were served on the tray and water and more drinks were served. The hot dishes came soon after and I recall being satisfied with my choice. The tray was cleared and a separate dessert tray was served. I recall there being a choice between fruit and a caramel flaun, which was my choice (and a good one at that).
After the meal, I sampled Lan Chile’s in-flight entertainment. This was by far and bar none the best system I have seen. There was a personal video screen and about five movies from which to choose. The movies were on-demand and could be paused and rewound. I watched The Last Castle, with Robert Redford and James Gandlefini. Then I sampled the audio entertainment and it to was on demand. I can tell they must have had individual CDs loaded, because it would skip when we hit turbulence. There was also on-demand video games and I entertained myself listening to Tracy Chapman, Didio and playing Tetras (yah weird combo, I know).
Now, I rarely comment on this as I think it is somewhat sexist, but I challenge anyone to find a more uniformly gorgeous cabin crew than was working this flight.
As the sun began to set, I noticed the water was getting closer. The seatbelt sign came-on and it was a only a few minutes until we landed. The runway at Easter Island is quite long as it is an alternate landing site for the Space Shuttle (or so I’ve heard). Anyway, just as the first glimpse of Easter Island came into view, we were crossing the runway threshold. The pilot managed to get us stopped just before the turn-off to the ramp area, as otherwise we would have had to do a 180 on the runway (not that there was any other air traffic). The “terminal” at IPC is a trip and is exactly what you want an island airport’s terminal to be (there are a few pictures on Airliners.net, if you are curious). As there are only a few flights each week, the arrival of out plane drew quite a large crowd, many of whom seemed to be in the secure side of the airport. Anywhere else I might have cared, but here, I was like what the hell. I was the second off the plane and, as you might expect, there was no jetway.
I had no checked baggage, so it was out the door and into the arms of 50 people trying to get me to stay at their hotel. As I had a reservation at the Vai Moana, I just looked for my name and sure enough, it was there. We had to wait around for a while until everyone else got his or her bags as the hotel only had one shuttle.
See the rest of the report at the end of this thread. Due to the 10,000 word limit, I have to split it. Stupid. :mad:
When I left off, I had arrived at the Hotel Carrera in downtown Santiago de Chile. I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Santiago. Unlike the modern luxury chain hotels, which are located north of the city center in the business district, the Hotel Carrera is located right in the heart of the city on the Plaza de la Constitution (which is where Pinochet and his henchmen ran the Chilean government). The hotel itself is great and is a member of the Leading Hotels of the Worlds, so you know it is of high quality. Although I paid a very discounted rate, I got a room with a king size bed, a separate seating area, a separate shower and bath, a separate room for the toilet, and a complimentary fruit basket. Quite nice indeed!
As I arrived in the early morning, I spent the day exploring Santiago. This was my first time in South America and I was quite impressed. Santiago is a bustling city, but also seemed fairy well ordered. It has some very nice open piazzas and some grand buildings.
In the late afternoon I met a Chilean friend, Mario and his wife, Paulina who studied with me in London last year. They took me to a local crafts market, where I bought a lapus lazuli Moai. They then took me to a local supermarket and recommended three nice bottles of Chilean wine to take back to our mutual friends in South Bend. We went to their house for drinks, met-up with some of their friends, and enjoyed a nice dinner. Chileans eat very late; dinner was at 9:00 PM and the restaurant was virtually empty and didn’t fill-up to we left at about 11:45 PM!
The next day Mario and Paulina took me to San Cristobal for some scenic views of Santiago. I would highly recommend visiting here as the views were really stunning (and it wasn’t even that clear of a day). Later, they drove me to the airport. As Paulina actually works for Lan Chile (she is in charge of in-flight magazines), she offered to take my wine bottles, rap them and leave them for me in the Lan Chile lounge for me to pick-up on my return from Easter Island the next evening. This was truly great service!
March 17, 2002
Lan Chile flight LA 833 (SCL-IPC); Boeing 767-300ER; Business Class; Seat 1A
I got to the airport at 1:30 PM for a 4:00 PM departure, as I was eager to explore what appeared to be a very beautiful and modern airport. Although Mario and Paulina dropped me off right in front of the Lan Chile First and Business Class check-in area (which is located in a separate room from the main check-in), I was unable to find it so I walked around a bit until I gave-up and asked directions. Once there, check-in was quick as there was no line. I did have to pay some extra taxes that apparently were not collected on my ticket, although I think this was more a function of my ticket lacking a complete tariff breakdown than a mistake by AA’s tariff department. In any event, it was only a few dollars and, unlike the day before, they took credit cards.
I walked the terminal a bit and really liked what I saw. There was an Air France flight getting ready to depart and a few other planes at the gates, but basically it was empty. I went to the Salon VIP, Lan Chile’s lounge in SCL. The lounges are all located one level down from the departure gates and have elevators. Lan Chile’s lounge is located right next to the Admiral’s Club.
The lounge itself was nice, with a modern décor and some nice computer workstations. While it had plenty of alcohol, there was nothing to eat save for some pre-packaged nuts and some cookies. I checked my e-mail and learned that one of my law school friends had a baby that was born two months premature and was in critical condition. Needless to say, this put a damper on the trip, but, thank God, the baby is fine and was with his father when he got his law school diploma in May.
An hour later, they put out some finger sandwiches and I helped myself as I was hungry and they were quite good. Soon, our 767 arrived at the gate and boarding began soon after (I assume it arrived from somewhere else at the airport as no passengers disembarked -- those of you who have been to SCL know this is quite visible from the lounges).
Although Lan Chile no longer offers First Class on this service (which, incidentally continues from Easter Island to Papette in Tahiti), the AA Around the World Desk was able to snag me a First Class seat on this sector. The seat was nice and I had the one next to me free, which is always a plus. Lan Chile’s planes have one row of First Class in a 2-1-2 layout and seats, which resemble AA’s First Class seats on the 767-300 and the Pacific-configured 777s, reclined fully flat. There was also a liquid crystal display on the front bulkhead, which was showing soothing images of Chile’s natural beauty.
After the usual pre-departure drinks (and a plate of nuts), we were airborne with no wait to reach the runway. Our route was basically a straight shot to Easter Island. We left the Chilean coast about 10 minutes after takeoff and didn’t reach land until seconds before touchdown. Flying time was just about 5 hours.
There was no menu on the flight, but we did get a wine list, which was presented in a corkboard cover. Drinks were served soon after, followed by dinner. I don’t exactly remember the choices and, as there was no menu, I cannot reproduce it here. I do recall having beef, and I think the other choice was tuna. There was also a choice of appetizer, but alas, I do not recall the choices. The appetizer and a cheese course were served on the tray and water and more drinks were served. The hot dishes came soon after and I recall being satisfied with my choice. The tray was cleared and a separate dessert tray was served. I recall there being a choice between fruit and a caramel flaun, which was my choice (and a good one at that).
After the meal, I sampled Lan Chile’s in-flight entertainment. This was by far and bar none the best system I have seen. There was a personal video screen and about five movies from which to choose. The movies were on-demand and could be paused and rewound. I watched The Last Castle, with Robert Redford and James Gandlefini. Then I sampled the audio entertainment and it to was on demand. I can tell they must have had individual CDs loaded, because it would skip when we hit turbulence. There was also on-demand video games and I entertained myself listening to Tracy Chapman, Didio and playing Tetras (yah weird combo, I know).
Now, I rarely comment on this as I think it is somewhat sexist, but I challenge anyone to find a more uniformly gorgeous cabin crew than was working this flight.
As the sun began to set, I noticed the water was getting closer. The seatbelt sign came-on and it was a only a few minutes until we landed. The runway at Easter Island is quite long as it is an alternate landing site for the Space Shuttle (or so I’ve heard). Anyway, just as the first glimpse of Easter Island came into view, we were crossing the runway threshold. The pilot managed to get us stopped just before the turn-off to the ramp area, as otherwise we would have had to do a 180 on the runway (not that there was any other air traffic). The “terminal” at IPC is a trip and is exactly what you want an island airport’s terminal to be (there are a few pictures on Airliners.net, if you are curious). As there are only a few flights each week, the arrival of out plane drew quite a large crowd, many of whom seemed to be in the secure side of the airport. Anywhere else I might have cared, but here, I was like what the hell. I was the second off the plane and, as you might expect, there was no jetway.
I had no checked baggage, so it was out the door and into the arms of 50 people trying to get me to stay at their hotel. As I had a reservation at the Vai Moana, I just looked for my name and sure enough, it was there. We had to wait around for a while until everyone else got his or her bags as the hotel only had one shuttle.
See the rest of the report at the end of this thread. Due to the 10,000 word limit, I have to split it. Stupid. :mad: