In the morning.
06:30.

Having only arrived in Buenos Aires the day before, I was still working on London time: getting up at 06:30 was easy enough. For a day trip I took only a jumper (that's a sweater if you’re American), a book, sun cream, and insect repellant. MSPEconomist had kindly given me some printed maps and literature the night before, after being horrified to hear that I had done no research nor preparation for my day trip, and I brought those as well. A taxi appeared and 130 ARS and 20 minutes later I arrived at AEP.


Traffic was light that morning; Google maps had estimated between 16 and 40 minutes for the journey.

AEP-IGR
Flight LA 4022 operated by LATAM Airlines Argentina
Equipment: Airbus Industrie A320
Seat: 1A
Class: Y
Departure: 0905 (actual wheels up 0920)
Arrival: 1055 (actual wheels down 1050)

I was at the airport by 08:00, but of course I had forgotten to check in online, and a long snaking queue had already formed at the domestic check in desks. Fortunately my oneworld status got me a dedicated agent straight away. There were also print-your-own machines.


Soon I was in possession of an old fashioned cardboard boarding pass.

There was no priority security and a long queue had formed down the corridor, but as security consisted of an unwatched X-Ray, it moved along swiftly and I was airside by 08:15.


No lounge, but there were plenty of seats.




Boarding was a little delayed, but there was not a hint of gate lice.

When boarding did eventually get started, the back of the plane was boarded before the preferente group, which caused no end of consternation from an American couple with me in the preferente queue. As I had only a small bag, it did not unduly concern me.


The front row on this aircraft had adequate, but not generous leg room. Probably an inch or two less than what BA offers at the front of its shorthaul cabins.

I was hoping that I would have an empty seat beside me, as LATAM has in the past proactively blocked neighbouring seats for me as a oneworld Emerald, but it turned out to be a completely full flight. Still, when three glamorous French young women took their designated seats in row 1 beside me, I concluded that the seating arrangements were, all-in-all, satisfactory.


In flight reading material is provided, but only a select few articles were in English. Vamos was keen to talk about the new JJ route on GRU-JNB.


The in-flight snack consisted of an oversized custard cream, a packet of nuts and an alfajor. Alfajores aside, it was similar fare to what you'd have got on a BA domestic flight, except of course on BA they'd have insisted you needed something alcoholic to accompany the snack. As far as I could see, this was a dry service.

There were some beautiful views over the forest as we approached IGR, but my window had been damaged or not cleaned, and everything came out blurry on camera.

Landing was on time at 10:50.