I just arrived, inebriated and well, at the Ritz-Carlton in Santiago, having done the following flights with LAN:

• FRA-MAD-SCL in F
• SCL-IPC-SCL in J

I'll write up a full trip report for the relevant forum, but I'd like to offer some words of praise for LAN, with whom I had not flown in the last four years, and even then that was but a single MIA-SCL flight in J. I'll offer my comparison if LA F to my experiences on BA and CX. My first ever long-haul AA F flight is coming up soon, going from GRU to JFK (in coffins).

I am truly impressed with the service and quality of catering (especially the wines) on LA. The F meal on the Frankfurt to Madrid flight was much better than many a long-haul meal in J (I'm spelling out the cities here so that the blasted search function can find them). To compare it to more common flights, I'd say it was better than CX F on HKG-TPE but less than CX F on HKG-NRT. For a two hour flight that is pretty darn good, and I'd take it anytime over a J meal on AA LHR-ORD (which I had to take recently due to irreconcilable scheduling issues). The steak on FRA-MAD was one of the better ones I've had in the air, only exceeded by extraordinary steak flying CX from HKG to NRT in F. It was tender, juicy and succulent, and the LA steak was only slightly less good. Strangely enough it was billed on the menu as veal, but it was most certainly beef. The worst steak I've recently had on any flight was BA F on LHR-MCT: a horrible hard desiccated lump of grey mass that may have been protein, perhaps half a galactic revolution previously. It really was teetering on the edge of fitness for human consumption. On the wrong side of the edge.

The steak on the MAD-SCL segment was less good. It was overcooked and had started to lose its flavor. For the rest, I loved the appetizers, the bresaola, the chorizo, the assorted Mediterranean cold cuts… perhaps I just like the style, but it was an excellent meal. What they're lacking is the kind of on-demand food that BA or CX offers. I rather like the pasta in BA First, for instance.

And then there's the wines. They're phenomenal. Coupled with the Pisco Sour (a horrible, horrible habit I picked up in Chile) they have left me well and truly ecstatic that I don't have to drive anywhere after a LAN flight. Some of the wines are shared between J and F: for instance, the Don is amazing. I had it first flying from FRA, then again to SCL, and both ways to and from IPC. The other wines are stellar too, especially in F. For medium-haul J (where I think SCL-IPC should reside) they're unbeatable. CX F as usual is in the same league, if not one better.

The biggest problem with LAN is the hard product in F. It's simply way behind the privacy offered by BA or CX, and also behind the AVOD that CX offers. The new business class is actually pretty good (flew that on SCL-IPC), while the old one is pretty painful (IPC-SCL). The flight map was also peculiar, as it never showed either distance to destination or time to arrival, which are the most useful features. On the flight back from IPC with the old business class it in fact only showed outside temperature.

I have read the horror stories about LAN's appalling ground handling when things go wrong. Fortunately I have not had to deal with that, but on my experience of their product in the air, I'd be happy to fly them again. And I will add my voice to the oft-heard lament about the discontinuation of the F product on the North American routes. I have never flown them on that route, but now I wish I had. It's still not CX level service in F, but it can hold its own.

And did I mention I like Chile? So many wines, so many steaks, so little time…