PresRDC

All,

I am taking the Lan flight to BOG (and back) this week, flying in J. A few questions:

1. What time does check-in open for this flight (leaves at 3:10 PM)? I understand that Lan has a large operation out of MIA, but I think the majority of the flights depart in the late evening.

2. On the return, is there a place to recheck bags on to AA near where you exit from Customs, or must one take their checked bags over to AA's terminal? The bag will be tagged through to my final destination, so I am only asking if there is a bag drop location.

3. The aircraft is a 767 with 18 J seats. Have any aircraft in this configuration received the new seats?

4. Same meal service as the EZE or SCL flights (one meal only, of course), or is it reduced owing to the shorter flight time?

Thanks!

jlarroulet

Usually, check-in desks will be manned at least 3 hours prior to departure. If there is an earlier flight, you may find LAN counters manned even before that. If that was the case, you can check-in earlier at your convenience.

On your return flight, if your bags are tagged up to final destination, you may not need to actually collect them in MIA. Check with LAN's counter agents in BOG if they will be automatically delivered to AA.
If they are not, you will have to take them to AA counters in the appropriate concourse (landside) and then go through security inspection back to the airside.

Regarding seats, I believe they haven't gone through retrofit yet on the J18 767s

And finally, J inflight service depends on flight duration. If under 6 (or 6.5, can't remember) hours, you will get an "express" service. No 3-course meal as you would on a longer flight

SCLflyer

After exiting customs you can drop your bags, they will be transferred to AA, so no problem with that.

Regarding dinner, there are more parameters than length of flight. For instance on LA600 SCL-LIM-LAX you will receive a full 3 course dinner on the SCL-LIM leg.

I don't know what is currently the exact criteria but routes used to be premium or non-premium and based on that (and some other criterias as flight length) is what you could expect..

jlarroulet

The flight (not the leg) duration is what determines the J service type, on LAN at least.
The whole flight is around 10:30 hours when nonstop and 13:00 hours with the stop in LIM. That is the duration that determines the service type, regardless of what leg is used to provide the service.
Meal service is served in the SCL-LIM leg not because of it being "premium" (most will agree that service to LAX is much more premium than service to LIM given the amount of high value customers on board). Full service is on the SCL-LIM leg because of the schedule: after takeoff from LIM it's already too late for many passengers to dine (LIM-LAX leg leaves past 1am local, service begins a solid hour after that).

That means that most passengers that board at LIM are already fed, and most passengers that boarded at SCL, which is 2 hours "in the future", would have to wait until it's 4am in their bodies for meal service. Not gonna happen

Clay Clayton

[QUOTE=SCLflyer;26146819]After exiting customs you can drop your bags, they will be transferred to AA, so no problem with that.
QUOTE]

Sorry to glob on to this thread but I will be returning from UIO and will have a 7 hour layover in MIA before my onward flight to IAH. Will I be allowed to go to the LA lounge in J after exiting customs?

jlarroulet

You won't. The lounge is airside on concourse J and you *will* have to go landside after your UIO-MIA leg. Once you go airside in concourse D, you can use AA's Admirals Club lounges in concourse D

Clay Clayton

Thanks for the response but it appears I won't be able to visit any lounge. Even though purchased (via AA website) as First/Business, it appears Latam calls it Premium Economy so I suspect I won't get access to anybody's lounge.

zpaul

Premium Economy usually gets lounge access since it's 1) offered only when Premium Business isn't, and 2) frequently more expensive then Premium Business (?!). My experience is in SCL, LIM, GRU, GIG, EZE, and MVD where I've been able to access both the LAN Salas VIP and the ACs in the airports which have both when I've flown in that cabin. It may be different in the US, but it's worth giving a try. AAngels at the ACs in D seem to be well-versed for LAN, probably due to the number of connections to/from.

If you have an itinerary from AA that shows that you purchased it as J, a print to show might help.