Innocent Abroad

This will be a live report of my trip in LAN's new premium business cabin on the 787-900 from MAD to FRA (part of LAN's 5th freedom SCL-MAD-FRA route) and back, in three days.

This is my mini TP run as part of a business trip and although I am taking a lengthy route (more details on that will follow) it is a very nice way to collect 80 BA Executive Club TPs in a long-haul J product on a short european flight and for only 220 USD

I am writing from the DAN lounge at concourse B in TLV awaiting my "positioning flight" to MAD. More details concerning my journey will follow and in the meanwhile here is the view from the lounge.



I hope you will enjoy this TR, my second ever...

benberg2013

looking forward

Innocent Abroad

After an uneventful flight to MAD I am sitting currently in the Velázquez lounge at T4S and waiting for the flight from SCL to arrive.

Interestingly LAN has two flights from SCL to MAD that leave 25 minutes apart; the earlier one (LA704) that continues to FRA on the 789 and the other (LA708) on the 788. A strange scheduling but I guess they know what they're doing



Since my journey includes three legs on three different airlines (and separate PNRs) I have ample time to enjoy this lounge, which is really good except for the WiFi

So, I'm waiting for the aircraft to arrive and I'll try to get some photos of it as it lands.

Innocent Abroad

Unfortunately the aircraft landed on 33L so could not see it from the lounge but after chasing it for few minutes in the terminal building I was able to see it taxing:



... And then making a 180 degrees turn, go back a little and to the gate:



And as I was typing back in the lounge its counterpart just passed me by:



Next thing.... boarding in about an hour....

Innocent Abroad

The flight was great but I'm a bit busy at the moment so I will post some photos up until departure from MAD and will continue later with more elaborative text

The very long line for non-priority boarding:



And the priority line



From the jetway:



Economy cabin:



The premium business cabin



A look across:



The seat:



The screen:



The handset:



The seat control:



The headphones rack:



The table:



The ceiling:



The stool / newspapers stand:



Pre-flight drink and nuts:



The neighbouring BoA B767:



Qatar's 787:



Avianca 787:



TAM's A350, and LANs 788 and 767:



To the runway:

offerendum

A flight that I wonna do for a while. Only the arrival time FRA - MAD at night is a problem for me.

Innocent Abroad

I know exactly what you mean; going to spend the night at the Velasquez lounge because of that

offerendum

OK. To be honest not my dream

Innocent Abroad

Overall the product and service had made an excellent impression; If I need to travel to south America in the future I will seriously consider traveling with LAN.

The seat: generally speaking I like the seat, which is spacious and comfortable but it has two disadvantages: (1) LAN uses a 2-2-2 configuration, which isn’t great if you are a solo traveller. The person sitting next to me was very nice but there is very little privacy, if at all. (2) I find the IFE screen to function perfectly and to be very responsive however it is too distant from the seat and watching it feels strange. The IFE selection, at any rate, is decent.

By the time I boarded the flight I was very tired (remember that my day started with a 6:00 am departure from TLV) so I did try to get some sleep on this rather short hop, just more than two hours. The seat offers a great flat bed experience and I did enjoy my 60 minutes nap although the pillow was quite disappointing, like one you would find in economy class; the blanket, on the other hand, was very comfortable. I wonder whether they have different pillows for long-haul flights although I doubt it.

The service: One of the best experiences I had in a long time; the cabin crew was very attentive, pleasant and professional. On such a short flight the food provided was a cold salad of artichokes, lettuce, mozzarella and salmon, which were all very fresh and tasty (well, I don’t know about the salmon as I’m vegetarian ). The bread was very good (although somewhat cold) as were the fruits.



What I like the most was the wine and the wine-service. LAN’s flight attendants take it very seriously and like in a restaurant they recommend a wine and then let you taste it (or the others, if you didn’t like what you tried). They had three whites and three reds, and the Tempranillo I had was very tasty.





As I’ve already mentioned after the light meal I took a short nap and woke up as we approached FRA. We took a route just over the airfield, which looked stunning from the air:



The 789 is very quite and I could hardly hear the landing gear extending and I love those big shiny windows and their dimming function.

Landing was swift and we taxied to T1 B gates that LAN uses:



I still had an onward flight to BEG, my final destination, with LH and thanks to UA’s recent Status Match Challenge, I spent the next couple of hours in the Senator Lounge, which I enjoyed very much (my first time here ).

So you can see I have made quite a detour:



I covered 3,747 miles whereas if I took JU direct TLV-BEG it would have been a third (1,182 miles) but hey - this is FT, right

On Wednesday I’m doing the same route in reverse so looking forward to taking more pictures of the seat in its bed position and perhaps also some pictures at the back; LAN offers on the 789 what they call Space + at the front of the economy cabin although it seems to be the same seats with a little bit more legroom (like AA MCE I assume). And if I’m lucky there will be an aircraft swap and I’ll fly the 788 and then would be able to compare it to the 789

tynmar

Innocent Abroad Great TR and photos too. thanks for posting.

I've the same flight booked for next month and have picked 5A... ^ or seat?

Believe the Hilton at the airport is meant to be a good one as seen some great reviews.

offerendum

Yeah, but even if the flight is cheap and seems to be good it´s not interesting enough for me to do it as a stand alone with one night. In the end it´s "only" a Business Class on a 787.

Innocent Abroad

I'll look later today and report

At the end I decided not to stay in the lounge so going to check out the Air Rooms in T4. There are several nice hotels around MAD but the shuttle services to them is not alway that great including the Hilton's.

Innocent Abroad

So this is how my next 24 hours are going to look like




Sitting at the moment at the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge in FRA (cool lounge )




And here's the aircraft arriving from MAD (in the background):

Innocent Abroad

After some "excitement" on the taxiway (details tomorrow) we landed safely in MAD an hour after the scheduled landing time. Nice flight after all.

tynmar

Awesome, look forward to the details of the return. Nice collection of boarding cards on passbook in post #13