We did the ride from Santiago to Mendoza last week, partially because the airport in Mendoza is closed for three months.

We took the 9am Cata bus which we booked in advance on their website and printed out boarding passes. We sat in the second row upstairs because we missed booking the front row which fills up first.

If you print out your boarding pass you only have to worry about finding the departure location which is all the way at the east end of the international terminal, across the street from the separate TurBus station. Allow a few extra minutes and don't be late. The bus backed out of the gate at EXACTLY 9am and we were having coffee (sweet) within a few minutes with a little biscuit.

The scenery was awesome and surprisingly different on each side of the mountains.

We did spend about 1 1/2 hours at the customs checkpoint which is indeed tedious but not the fault of the bus line, they handle it very efficiently. There are bathrooms and some food stalls at the border crossing and both outgoing Chilean customs/immigration and Argentina are in the same booth. They Xray all of the bags and call you over if they need to look inside. Both my wife and I had that privilege. Then they search all of your carryons which also takes a little while. Fortunately there were no issues and away we went.

With all of that we arrived in Mendoza about an hour and a half early (330) and taxis (with meters) were waiting just outside and we were at our hotel in 5 minutes.

Very strongly recommend this ride, especially while the airport is closed, doesn't take that much longer when all is said and done and the the views are spectacular.