enzian

I am researching flights to South America (SCL and EZE) for a possible trip to Patagonia, using Avios. One that appeared for EZE to JFK is LA0532. The flight is listed as a direct flight but it takes 14 hours 35 minutes, so I checked Flight Aware and it stops in SCL. According to the BA booking site, the "aircraft may vary". Looking again at Flight Aware, it is usually some type of 787, but sometimes is a 767.

Am I paranoid to find this a bit odd? How would we do seat selection if we don't have a specific type of plane? (We would be flying in business class). Is there anything about this flight I should be concerned about, or am I just being silly? I would prefer to know in advance what kind of plane and would specifically prefer a 787.

Our other option would be to fly to MIA instead of JFK---those flights involve a plane change at SCL but at least the type of aircraft is listed (787). And we would probably have less worry about weather, since this would be in February.

SCL767

The a/c type may vary even though its a direct flight due to operational reasons. I would not worry because the configuration in Business Class would not change. LAN rarely deploys the 763 on LA532 EZE-SCL and if they do it's the 767 configured with 30J seats. Today LA532 EZE-SCL will operate with the 787-9 (30J seats). LA532 SCL-JFK always operates with either the 787-8 or 787-9.

enzian

Thanks! So they use one flight number even though we actually change planes? I guess that is good, in that we would not be in any danger of missing the second flight if the departure from EZE is delayed.

SCL767

Yes. Once again today there is an equipment change on LA532 EZE-SCL and the flight will operate with the 787-9 instead of the 787-8.

jamienbaker

A through-numbered flight in no way protects you against misconnections.

sdsearch

Not at all, especially if the equipment can change. If the equipment changes (at the stopover airport), then it's obviously not the same plane, so it's obviously not coming from the same place, and obviously may not come at the same time. So it could leave on time even if the inbound flight of the same number is horrendously late.

I have no experience with LAN on this, but I've seen plenty of cases on other airlines where flight number X AAA-BBB-CCC is so late AAA-BBB that flight number X BBB-CCC takes off with another plane (because most of the passengers are not flying through AAA-CCC but either only BBB-CCC or connecting from elsewhere at BBB), and the AAA-BBB passengers who were going to go on to CCC have to be rebooked.

miikkak

LAN is often bit different although it's not relevant for OP because both segments are operated by LAN Chile. Unlike American Airlines, United etc, LAN is a holding company which owns airlines registered in different countries (like Air France-KLM, Lufthansa Group).

For instance direct LAN Chile flights from Santiago to Los Angeles with stop in Lima are operated by Chilean airline. If the flight from Santiago is delayed, operating the flight from Lima to Los Angeles with LAN Peru aircraft and crew is much more complicated because the route authority was given to Chilean airline.

Eastbay1K

It happens on LAN, too.

ttuna3

It's a crapshoot if you go through LIM during one of the waves. I've had about 50-50 with changing planes and staying onboard with a couple of off and right back on.

The only LAN that has dedicated planes is 4M because Argentina requires that all of 4M's plane have Argentine registry. All of the rest are mix and match between the others, mostly Chile but I've seen Peru and Ecuador registered planes as well. I think they try to keep the small Airbuses in the home country but they can move around if they're on the international routes for a while.