Review: LATAM A320 Economy, LA 7504 – Buenos Aires to Iguazú

• Trip Report – Introduction: Honeymoon – I go to Rio
• Four Seasons – You did it again!
• Four Seasons Sydney – Presidential Suite (thank you very much!)
• Four Seasons Sydney – Club 32 and other amenities
• Review: Qantas Business Class 747-400 Sydney to Santiago
• Review: LATAM 787-9 Business Class, Santiago to Buenos Aires
• Review: Hotel Palo Santo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Food: Eating in Buenos Aires
• Review: LATAM A320 Economy, LA 7504 – Buenos Aires to Iguazú
• Review: Gran Melia Iguazú Falls Hotel
• Review: LATAM flight Iguazu to Rio
• Review: Sol Ipanema Hotel
• REVIEW: Admirals Club Rio Airport
• REVIEW: LATAM flight 2419 Rio to Lima
• REVIEW: Cost Del Sol Wyndham Airport Hotel, Jorge Chavez International Airport, Lima, Peru

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Introduction

We had 8 nights in Buenos Aires at the Palo Santo. We didn’t get done as much as we had hoped, as we both had minor post-wedding colds. It meant we would do one excursion during the day, rest in the afternoon, and another excursion in the evening, or just a quick dinner. No late-night drinking for us!

Oh yes, there was one exception – our night of Tango. I will write a summary of our museum visits – similar to my restaurant observations, and I may even give you a bonus of the night of Tango.

This is not going to be the usual formal review, but just impressions. It was a short flight on an A320 in Economy cabin – nothing to get too excited about.

Flight: LA 7504
Route: Buenos Aires (AEP) – Puerto Iguazú (IGR)
Date: Tuesday, February 27
Depart: 11:20 AM
Arrive: 1:07 PM
Duration: 1 hr 47 min
Aircraft: A320-200
Seat: 7B (Economy LATAM+)
Cost: AU$278

Jorge Newbery Airport

The most notable thing about Aeroparque Internacional Jorge Newbery, is its located 2km from the centre of Buenos Aires, within the same suburb we were staying – Palermo. It might have been the same suburb, but it still took us around 25 minutes to get there, given Buenos Aires traffic. We arrived a little before 10 am.

Aeroparque Internacional Jorge Newbery is basically a two-story rectangular building, with the usual facilities on the ground floor, and departure gates on the first floor.

On the ground floor, you get views of the sea, and on the first floor – on the other side you get great airport views.

The boarding gates are located off one side of the second level of the long rectangular building, so you get nice views of the Tarmac and the city.

Gates 1-16 are for domestic flights, and Gates 17-22 for international.

We were departing from Gate 13. There was a priority boarding lane, but it was the usual unsupervised scramble to get there with passengers ignored the priority sign.

I found it amazing that a significantly sized airport is located so close to the city.

The terminal afforded some great plane porn opportunities.

Boarding proceeded fairly swiftly at 11 am, and we left on time.

The Flight

LATAM has a kind of Economy Plus seating section, branded ‘LATAM+’, the privileges of which change according to what aircraft and route you are on. My (at that time) One World Saphire status seemed to entitled us to LATAM+, and we were seated in Row 7 – the last row of the section.

Our plane today is an A320-200. LATAM has several different configurations for this aircraft, but on this flight – it was all Economy.

Since I totally hate economy passengers who do that thing of storing their hand luggage at the front of the plane – doing business and premium passengers out of their rightful overhead locker space – I appreciated this perk. Seat pitch was good – better than on most Australian domestic flights, but I can’t tell you whether LATAM+ got us more than regular economy.

On these planes, the staff get no privacy in the galley, other than a curtain. That’s not so bad when there is essentially not food and beverage service on the flight.

Fortunately, there are air outlets at each seat.

I don’t remember very much about the flight. I don’t even remember if we had a meal, and I have no photographic evidence.

We arrived pretty much on time at 1:10 pm, and crossed the tarmac to the charming terminal. Iguazú Falls has an Argentinian and a Brazillian ‘side’. We were still on the Argentinian side, at the Argentinian airport, although we would eventually leave on the Brazillian side to head to Rio de Janeiro.

It was toastie warm on the tarmac. We knew that we had travelled away from the more temperate coast of Buenos Aires.

There was a little plane porn to see on the tarmac, including this ‘bondi’ plane that was very much off course if it was based at Bondi Beach, Sydney.

This is an International airport, although I am not sure it has much actual international traffic other than from South America.

Oh, there is one according to flightconnections.com – Air Europa has a twice-weekly flight between Iguazú and Madrid!

We didn’t have to wait long before our luggage arrived, and we were through the airport, and collected by our ground agent to head off to the Gran Meliá Iguazú Hotel, the only hotel in the Iguazú National Park, and the only hotel with a direct view of Iguazú Falls. We were off to the start of the next instalment of our Honeymoon trip.

2PAXfly Takeout

A perfectly ordinary flight, in the comfort of the extra legroom of LATAM+, and the reserved overhead baggage space. Other than that un-memorable, unlike Iguazú Falls, which we were about to experience.

Other Posts in the Series

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