featheast

Not sure if this is the right forum to post this question as it involves AA flight as well....

So based in Melbourne, Australia, I am planning for my next year's holiday to Peru in April, we will be travelling in US first (NYC) then head down to South America.

So upon looking at the schedule and pricing of JFK to LIM, there are 2 options with almost the same pricing of Business class, a red eye direct flight by LATAM on a 787, or a day flight on AA with a 1h50m transit in Miami on 767 (both legs) which will arrive in LIM at about 8pm.

Pros of LATAM:
direct flight, no transit hassle, overnight, saving one night hotel cost, extra day in NYC for touring
Cons of LATAM:
overnight - not sure if I can sleep well on a 7h flight, might be tired the next day as well

Pros of AA:
Experience of the new '767' lie flat seat, explore a new airport (yes I'm from down south AUS), better food/service??, avoid red-eye, good sleep for the next day. Also transit in MIA will give me more status credit with Qantas.
Cons of AA:
Lose a day in NYC, possibly delay/miss connection in MIA?, extra hotel night in Lima

I guess I've already listed most of my thinking above, but I do appreciate any feedback/opinion, in particular whether I can sleep well on 787 overnight flight?

Thanks in advance!

worldtraveller73

Hi,

I can't comment on the AA 767, but I did recently fly the LATAM 787 from MEX-SCL, also a 7.5 hour flight. Maybe I can give half the equation...

The highlight for the LATAM 787 flight (premium business) was the wine list and the 787. I found the business seat a bit compact (as some one that is 188 cm tall). The Salvatore Ferragamo amenity kits are nice but you'll probably forget about them after you get home.

I did find the 7 hour flight way to short to actually enjoy the plane. If you're planning on eating on the flight, you might as well forget about getting any proper rest. It takes about 2 hours for the meal service and shave off another 45 minutes to an hour depending if you participate in the breakfast meal service (or the clanking of dishes for others that are). That least about 4.5 hours of rest if you are planning on sleeping. Most of the other business travelers on my flights went straight to sleep.

I haven't been though Miami airport since 2008, but I wasn't impressed when I went through there. If you had long layover and could take a drive to Miami Beach, then it may be a different situation.

I'd probably just go for the LATAM flight and take the extra day of touring in NYC.

FairDinkumMate

As an Aussie based in Sao Paulo, my advice is to take the direct flight!

Latam's 787 Business Class is a good product, although the lie flat bed is only about 6' long, so if you're tall like me(I'm 6'3"), you'll need to bend your legs. I don't know your status, but if you're OneWorld Emerald on Qantas you can get access to the quite good New York JFK Flagship Lounge (instead of the crappy Admiral's Club) and have a decent feed there before you board your flight & as such you can sleep straight after takeoff instead of waiting for the meal service. If not, pay for a good meal before you fly. I don't say that because the food on Latam isn't good, it is quite often exceptional for aircraft food, but it will take a chunk out of your sleep if you wait for it.

An extra day in NYC is certainly a better use of your time than Miami Airport (huge & VERY plain).

By the way - I think you'll love Lima. Some of the best restaurants in the world at about half of what you'd pay for a meal on Lygon St!

featheast

Thanks @worldtraveller73, those info are very helpful!
I'm only 177cm tall so size of the seat won't be an issue for me. I guess I will skip the meal service as well for some better sleep, even I'm sure I will regret it.

featheast

Thanks mate @FairDinkumMate ! I also prefer direct flight, just need someone to convince me, and here you are!
I'm QF SG only, so won't be able to access JFK Flagship lounge. But for the midnight departure, a nice meal in NYC before getting to the airport will solve all the problem.

MfromL

the only con i would add to JFK is that if you have a cancelation, that is it. you will stay one day in NYC because there is only one flight from JFK to LIM and not that many LA planes on the ground –last time i checked, it served 4 routes to SA: GRU, GYE, SCL and LIM–.

MIA, although it is a piece of crap of an airport, has 4 daily AA and LA flights to LIM. If you have a cancelation there are higher chances of getting re-routed the same day in another flight with AA or LA, and since you are flying with AA and that is one of their hubs, its easier to get a replacement plane if necessary.

sidenote: why JFK? do you want to stop there to visit? there is also the LAX option, if price is not an issue and you don't mind the good mexican food of the historical center.

featheast

That indeed is a risk. I will go and check if this flight get cancelled often.
Why JFK? Simply because that's where my wife want to go first, haha, swmbo. I do like LAX, but have been to west coast too many times, not east coast, hence the choice.

carlosdca

I don't quite agree with this.

A cancellation of LAN does not mean re-book for next day, as LAN can probably rebook you on the myriad of options that exist between NYC and LIM with AA or other airlines (albeit with a stop), so the re-booking options are the same or even more from NYC than from MIA.

If the domestic flight NYC-MIA is delayed, OP may end up re-booked on AA's 757...and wasn't one of the OPs criteria experience AA's 767?
A connection always adds risk to things going wrong.

As for AA's "pro" of experiencing the 767, you can check the AA forum and people are not really that fond of the 767. BTW, the 767 does not have a personal IFE in seat but they give you a tablet instead. Personally, I dislike having the tablet as it is just more clutter to deal with and it is not with you all the time as they take it away from you before landing.

AA service on board is hit or miss and when it is miss it can be really bad and completely ruin an otherwise ok experience. This can be particularly true in the MIA-LIM flights. Some crews can be really bad and it is more noticeable in business class.
LATAM service is generally ok.

MIA airport is the worst of AA's hubs, IMO. Crowded and big, most of the time long and boring walks are required.

OP does not mention whether you are returning to NYC from LIM but if you do, note that you will have to clear immigrations, collect bags and clear TSA security screening on the way back (International - Domestic connection in MIA). You avoid most of that aggravation with the non-stop.

featheast

Thanks, this has been very helpful particularly from AA's point of view,
much appreciated. I thought there will be IFE for the 767, I don't like iPad or any tablets either.
And yes I will fly back to JFK at the end of the trip, and for that one I will fly direct from LIM to JFK on the 787, again, overnight.
I think all the advise I received here is to go direct, so I will follow the advise to take the LATAM 787 direct flight.

Eastbay1K

Transit AA/LA @ MIA also requires you to go through another security checkpoint. As you likely don't have Precheck, this is not pleasant. That enough should be reason for the nonstop.

A LA 787 is a nice ride. Excellent? No. Nice? Si. Food is so-so to good, wine selection is superior. Service is ok to very good (crew-dependent). My experience has been that the Lan Chile crews (3 digit flight numbers, including all 787s) is better than the Lan Peru crews (4 digit 2xxx flight numbers) although some people claim the opposite experience.

Take the nonstop.

ORDSCL

I'd take the direct flight (albeit by a thin margin). Meal service at Latam takes forever so you won't get much sleep. An AA/AA connection in MIA is actually quite nice IMHO (AA/LA on the other hand is probably the worst out there).

MfromL

Carlos, is JFK-LIM still being operated as a redeye at 10.25 pm? Last time I had to fly it (in June) I lost it due to a delay getting into JFK from CLT –AA's fault this time, CLT operations were disrrupted due to storms in DFW that delayed the arrival of the plane they were going to use. Instead of having 50 minutes to connect I ended with the prospect of trying to make the connection in 10 minutes.

Still in the ground in CLT, AA staff were proactive and gave me 2 choices: both included a layover (paid by them, thankfully). One was staying in CLT (which I did, and was rerouted via MIA the next morning), and the other one was boarding the flight to JFK, arriving around the same time that the LA flight departed, and since there were not many AA flights operating at that time, go to a hotel, and board an early morning flight (with 1 or 2 connections) to LIM because next day's JFK-LIM was fully booked and they could not find me a spot on the plane.

[I decided to miss the flight in the CLT-JFK itinerary and accepted to be rerouted CLT-MIA-JFK because my itinerary was MAD-CLT-JFK-LIM (sleeping around 0 hours), and the prospect of flying 2 or 2.5 more hours, knowing that I would arrive only to have to take a bus to a hotel, didn't make as much sense as just staying in CLT and being able to sleep much faster.]

My comment was just pointing to the fact that JFK is not that well connected to LIM because it has only one direct flight, and that flight happens to be at a time when the activity in the airport makes it harder for passengers to be re-routed in case of IRROPS, mechanical cancelations, etc. Forcing to either wait 24 hours to take the same flight (if there is space) or to be rerouted with an layover somewhere. IDK if OP minds this possibility, but some people do. [On a related question: isn't LA a night operation at JFK (counters, staff)?]

---BTW, right on with all the other people in the forum, AA/LA transits in MIA are a PITA, and the airport itself is crappy, which might also be factors to consider. However, some people like the city, the weather and its overall hispanic atmosphere (not me). NYC on the other hand, has much more to offer...

Eastbay1K

LA will provide an express meal if you ask (all courses on one tray). If they don't offer it, ask.

jbalmuth

If you choose the direct LAN flight to LIM, carefully consider what day you'll be travelling and where you'll be heading early in the morning. Weekday rush-hour morning traffic from the airport can be really awful (at 7am it will take ~twice what it would take later in the morning). I would seriously consider planning to arrive on Sunday morning.

For the return, LIM - JFK, LA has a nonstop day flight leaving LIM around noon twice a week. That overcomes the problem of having too short a flight for a proper overnight rest. Evening arrivals into JFK also have the advantage of smoother transfers from the airport (i.e. not getting caught in early morning "inbound" rush hour traffic).

FairDinkumMate

Seriously, who's going to give up a holiday "day" to spend on a plane rather than trade it for a night in a hotel? Your advice would:
1) Cost a holiday day
2) Cost an additional night in a hotel
3) Put someone on a long haul flight in which they shouldn't sleep & was difficult to do so if they wanted to!

IF you can sleep on a plane (one would think Latam's 789 J product goes a long way to helping this!), then a redeye business class flight is a much better option for a holiday traveller than a day flight!