I will be honest with you guys… I am completely hurt and annoyed that no one, not one person replied to my first two legs. Granted, the first had no pictures so that’s my fault. But in the second one I trashed Iberia a little bit, which seems to be the declared sport of this site … I am completely hurt by your silence but shall continue in my quest of providing valuable information to you dear business traveler…

Welcome to what it was to be the craziest of the legs of my rtw trip. We were to go from Caracas to Sao Paulo. Now the only OneWorld choice was of course LAN. This was perfect for me, as I am, for one, of the group that thinks that LAN can do no wrong… with the beautiful planes… the really cool business class and their punctuality, which in Latin America is a big plus…

As mentioned in the first leg of my report, we decided to take a crazy route through SCL, as it was the only way to get business class throughout the trip. For whatever reason the flight leaving LIM to GRU in the middle of the night does not have business class (I think it’s an A320).

In order to avoid a lengthy report, I will lump the information together as all the flights were on LAN, business class and on 767s. I will point out the differences in each flight though.

CCS – LIM: Tuesday, August 18th, LAN 2565. B767-300
SDT: 19:20
ADT: 19:30
SAT: 23:20
AAT: 22:36
Seat 4L



LIM – SCL: Wednesday, August 19th, LAN 601. B767-300
SDT: 01:05
ADT: 01:05
SAT: 05:25
AAT: 05:35
Seat 1A


SCL – GRU: Wednesday, August 19th, LAN 750. B767-300
SDT: 07:10
ADT: 07:10
SAT: 12:00
AAT: 12:21
Seat 5A

Ok, so LAN can do a lot of wrong things, and a pattern I see is that they have very robotic ground staff. At least LAN has expanded their counters at Caracas; if memory serves me right, they are using the counters that United Airlines used to have about 10 light years ago.



At the end of checking in, we were told that there was an airport tax that we had to pay…. Of course, being a revolutionary state, you cannot pay this airport tax with a credit card; rather it has to be cash or a debit card… but only a Venezuelan debit card.



So my colleague and I didn’t want to take cash out, so we went to American Express services, and used our corporate cards to get some cash out from there in order to pay the taxes. The process at American Express was slow and very 1980s… very manual. The thing is, while you are doing that, there are about 5 guys yelling at you from the outside telling you that they have a better rate in case you want to sell your USD… one of them was especially aggressive and even pushed me a bit… I yelled at him to not touch me again… and he walked away for about a minute, and then came back with renewed energies, pointing out exchange rates and how stupid I was for changing my currency in that place… I think that this airport looks shady, feels shady and these people contribute to this shadiness…

After buying the airport taxes we moved through immigration quickly and we walked to the Admirals club… it wasn’t too nice… there were out of a lot of things… they only had: rum (which I don’t drink), regular coke, cointreau (of all things), and orange juice (warm). Oddly enough they had tons of cheese and crackers… go figure.






Our plane arrived on time; it was CC-CWN for those who care. After spending some time in the lounge, we walked to the plane and boarded very quickly, as there was a separate line for business passengers. I had a nice glass of champagne.





I think the headphones are much better in LAN than in Iberia… Crappy picture:


Take a look at the menu that they distributed prior to take off:


Legroom:


Really crappy amenity kit:


Cool looking entertainment system:




Remote control:


Seat Controls:


The take off video is a little boring, but not too bad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MPce1tFUyM


After we took off from Caracas, did the mandatory left turn and we headed north for a while; gaining altitude to clear the somewhat tall mountains north of Caracas.

Dinner was served immediately, and being a pig, I chose the Cannelloni:


And then I wonder why I gain weight during business trips!

Some fruit (tasteless):


I felt asleep immediately, and was woken up as we were about to land in Lima. The video is OK as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6M9Yev0jrQ



We headed immediately to the business lounge, and it was really nice. I did get yelled at, however, for taking pictures of the lounge. Of course, this is what I go through to get no comments on my trip reports… (I’ll drop it, I promise).

The lounge:




At around 12:30 we walked to the gate, and boarding started soon after:





Although I couldn’t get a picture of the registration of the plane… it had winglets!!!!



I had a nice Pisco Sour before take off:


The nice leg room of seat 1A:


Take off (a little boring):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhlV0bQM-HE


I was soo tired I decided to sleep, so sleep I did until I was awaken by the flight attendant, we were about to land!!! I couldn’t wake up fast enough to take the video of the landing, an it was a shame as visibility was near zero… look at the pictures. This is LAN’s 777 believe or not:



We walked to the lounge again, and I have to say I was disappointed. LAN’s lounge in Santiago should have been spectacular, and it was only average:














I can’t remember what time it was, but we walked to the gate and boarding started right away. I love LAN’s punctuality. The fog was still everywhere, and it shows below:

My ride:


Some cool pictures before take off:






Now, this is the coolest part of the report. Take off from Santiago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii4zkAG2fV8

Neat, right??? Pictures after take off (some are really cool) and of the Andes crossing:











Breakfast was served right after crossing the Andes:





And a nice picture of my seat:



After a few hours, we were approaching Sao Paulo. I found this approach just amazing. See how big this city is:





Finally, my landing in Sao Paulo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRJlB7OgVcE

All in all, I think LAN is up there with the best of one world. Service was courteous and fast. In general and in all three flights flight attendants were really nice and eager to please. The seat is much better than Iberia’s, and so is the headphones, the entertainment system and the food.

In conclusion, so far in this trip, LAN is the winner. See if that continuous in the next leg…