FlyerTalk Forums - My weekend in Buenos Aires (MIA-EZE in J on AA)

With the low winter fares to South America, I've been doing mileage run / weekend trips down from MIA. I did SCL three weekends ago and did EZE last weekend - this is my report for the EZE trip.

I took AA957 down on a Thursday night. The upgrade to C had gone through when I booked the ticket and I had seat 10A (my fav in J on a 777). Check-in was uneventful and I made my way to the Terminal E AC, where I got showered and had a few drinks. The flight ended up being delayed from 11:30pm to 1:05am, but they kept the AC open past the usual 11:30pm closing time, which was nice (All too often I've been kicked out of clubs at closing time when I'm waiting for a late night delayed flight).

Finally around 12:30am, we began boarding. J-class is only half full and I was stuck sitting next to a retired cowboy type from Texas who was going down to EZE to hunt with his buddies. This guy was the personification of the typical American tourist abroad - loud, obnoxious and obviously American. After my pre-departure drink, I politely excused myself from this guy and switched to seat 11D (11E was vacant so it gave me more room to stretch out). We taxied out and were immediately cleared for takeoff (not too much traffic at 1am).

After takeoff, I ordered the "Dine Upon Request" quick menu with the Grilled Chicken wrapped with Bacon accompanied by a glass of the Finca Flichman "Caballero de la Cepa" Cabernet Sauvignon. The chicken was quite good - one of the better airline meals I've had in a while and the wine was a pretty good Argentinian cab. On late-night flights, I almost always order the Dine Upon Request - its basically got a small appetizer, the main course and a small desert all on one tray. You miss out on the salad and the full dessert (sundaes or cheese plate), but the FAs bring out your meal first and usually you'll be done and they'll be clearing your tray while everyone else is still on the salad course, giving you more time to sleep. I don't understand why more people don't take advantage of this on late night flights. Although, I guess I shouldn't complain because if everyone ordered the quickie meals, they probably wouldn't be as quick. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I changed into my pajamas, which once again drew strange glances from my fellow passengers, but I'm used to it. If I'm going to take a late night flight, I'm at least going to be comfortable while I sleep! Besides, they hand out pj's in F on some carriers, so its not entirely strange. I popped a single Nyquil with my final glass of wine, got settled into my typically broken AA J-class seat (headrest won't stay put and footrest won't come up far enough) and dozed off. Woke up about an hour outside of EZE, just as the FAs were beginning the breakfast service. Since I was awake, I ordered the hot breakfast which turned out to be a fairly tasty cheese omelette with chorizo sausage, fruit tray and croissant. After several cups of coffee, my Nyquil "hangover" started to wear off. On approach, we passed the airport, and got a nice view of downtown Buenos Aires as we circled back around to the airport. We got into EZE around 10am and I quickly cleared customs and immigration.

The taxi ride to the hotel was about 30 minutes. I stayed at the Park Tower, one of the Starwood Luxury Collection properties. Just like in SCL, where the San Cristobal Tower is attached to the Sheraton, in EZE the Park Tower is attached to the Sheraton, but has a separate entrance, lobby and elevators. I got checked in and was pleasantly surprised to find myself upgraded to a suite.

Unlike the San Cristobal, where its a good 30 minute walk to downtown Santiago, the Park Tower is very close in to downtown Buenos Aires. After checking out my cool suite (complete with jaccuzi tub and CD player), I headed out to explore BA.

I think Buenos Aires is my new favourite city. It has a large, fairly modern downtown area, lots of excellent restaurants and bars, a bustling nightlife that keeps going well past 5am, a fashionable cosmopoliton population, and a very european feel. Its sort of like a small New York crossed with Paris with a South American flavor.

There were very few signs of the recent political unrest - just a few iron fences around the Presidential palace and the Congress building. I also witnessed a peaceful protest in which the protesters were blocking a major street, much to the dismay of the long line of traffic that had formed. The police were just sort of sitting around, not really doing anything, even though the protesters were blocking the street.

However, there were many signs of the currency devaluation, namely that EVERYTHING was very INEXPENSIVE. The Aregentinian peso is currently trading around 3.5 to the US Dollar, but the prices for just about everything seemed like they were the same as when the peso was pegged to the dollar. For example, I went out for a very nice dinner (Argentinian steak, which is excellent!) Friday night and had salad, wine, dessert, and everything for 60 pesos with tip, which works out to about $17. Internet kiosks were everywhere (literally EVERYWHERE) and were 1.50 pesos/hr. CDs at Tower Records were around 20-25 pesos. You dollars go a long ways in BA.

I did the usual touristy stuff in BA - walked around Calle Florida, saw the obelisque and went to a tango show, which was actually quite good. Both nights I was there, I ended up in Recoleta, which has lots of good bars and clubs that seem to stay open all night (or at least until 5am, when I headed back to the hotel). I ended up having some interesting Spanglish conversations with a few folks, but I mostly just people watched.

On Sunday, I was sorry to have to leave. I got checked out of the hotel and walked over to a cafe to have lunch - BA has many many sidewalk cafes, a la Paris. After several glasses of wine, I headed back to the hotel and got a taxi back to the airport. Along the way, the driver (who spoke no English) and I had a great conversation about the World Cup. He was disgusted by Argentina's performance in the Copa del Mundo, but was very complimentary of the US team. I managed to communicate to him in my broken Spanish that it was a shame that more Americans don't follow football (soccer).

Anyway, I got to the airport quite early because my upgrade hadn't cleared yet and there were only 4 J-class seats left (I had checked earlier in the day from an Internet kiosk). The very nice TA checked on upgrade availability and to my surprise, she said it was available (I had figured that they were going to release the remaining seats at the gate). I didn't have a certificate on me, so she called back to AAdvantage to get the 25K miles deducted and charged me the $75 expedite fee. Interestingly, although she called the AAdvantage center back in the US, the whole conversation was in Spanish - she said that the call center is in El Paso and everyone there speaks Spanish anyways. The entire process took around 15 minutes and I walked away happily clutching my J-class boarding card.

I made my way through security, where a bunch of people were waiting in a very long line for some sort of kiosk before the metal detectors/xray machines. I wasn't really sure what it was for, so I got in line. After about 10 minutes of the line not moving, the security guy came over and told us we didn't have to wait in that line - that we could go directly to the metal detectors. I still have no idea what the line was, because Immigration was beyond the metal detectors, but I guess it wasn't too important.

Waiting in the departures immigration line, I met a couple of nice fellows from Houston who were on there way to Sao Paulo - it sounded like they were doing a full tour of South America on business - Santiago, BA, Sao Paulo, Rio, etc etc. The Argentinian family in front of us was having some issues with immigration. I didn't catch the gist of it, but its the first time I've ever seen a citizen of a country be hassled when leaving his/her country - thank god we don't have exit immigration in the US.

Finally made it through and to the club. I had planned to take a shower, but alas, there are no showers in the AC in EZE. I even walked over to the RCC, but they don't have showers either. Oh well... had a few cocktails, and passed the time in the AC.

The flight back to MIA (AA908) was mostly uneventful, except it was a full cabin in J. I had seat 10D and as usual, the guy who got stuck in the center seat (10E) was not happy about it at all. When he got seated, he made quite a display of his unhappiness. My last three flights in Int'l J had all been half empty, so it was a little disappointing to have someone seated next to me, and the service was a little more rushed because they had more passengers to accomodate, but overall it still beats a long flight in coach! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I again had the Dine Upon Request meal, this time with Corn Chowder. AA always has a "soup" option on their menus, which is nice if you don't want a heavy dinner. I actually order it quite a bit on overnight flights. A few glasses of the Heidsieck Monopole Brut champagne and another Nyquil and I dozed off (in my PJ's again).

I actually remember having a dream that I was on a airplane (in a 747 upper deck) and coming in for final approach to somewhere, but we were flying too low and it looked like we were going to hit some trees in front of the runway. At the last minute, we pulled up, but we pulled up too hard and we did a loop-de-loop (in a 747!). I awoke in a cold sweat and looked around to make sure our 777 was still in good shape. We were, but it was quite disturbing to have an airplane dream while you're on an airplane.

Fortunately, we arrived into Terminal E at MIA, so we didn't have to do the "walk from hell" to get to customs. Cleared customs and immigrations without any questions, just a "have a good one, sir". I was a little concerned that I would draw some attention with two short trips to SCL and EZE in three weeks, but they didn't even bat an eye. I took a shower in the Terminal E AC (showers in ACs are a real blessing!), made my way out into the hot, steamy Miami morning and went to work, arriving at my office at 7:15am.

[This message has been edited by JSD (edited 07-18-2002).]