Air travel is a dish best served with simplicity, comfort and speed. LATAM was an early customer of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a plane offering one of the best passenger experiences in any cabin and offers the planes on routes from North America, Europe Asia and Pacific to it’s home base in Santiago, Chile.
Naturally, we were excited to put the LATAM version to the test in their premier business class offering.
This was a relatively short four hour journey between Sydney and Auckland before the plane carried onward for a long haul journey to Santiago. On flights of this nature, crews notoriously “check out”, saving energy and patience for passengers on the long haul, but this was not the case.
Our crew was charming, engaged and very bright throughout greeting, service and deplaning. Regular rounds were made up the aisles to ensure every passenger need was cared for. Very impressive, indeed.
While many gripes are made about 2x2x2 seating in business class, this is certainly one of the better offerings. Ideal for couples, with central aisle seats best for solo travelers – the seats are extremely well padded and very inviting. They don’t look advanced, but they’re a delight to sit in.
Dreamliner lighting, larger windows and air flow give the cabin a crisp touch while large, updated entertainment systems proved easy and intuitive to use. Somewhat surprisingly, LATAM offers a particularly good selection of television box sets, films and other entertainment, well above many airlines we’ve recently experienced.
Our cabin crew offered a pre departure beverage choice and we opted for the rare flying treat of a Pisco sour. The drink was punchy and hit the mark, but was certainly on the sweeter side of things. The airline offers a solid selection of Chilean and South American wines, as well as Brut sparkling wine. The food and beverage likely won’t wow you – but it was more than edible and most importantly – service was fast and efficient.
The seat is very comfortable in slouch mode, and when meal service has been cleared away, the tray table and recline position offer a very comfortable way to conduct business, in business class. Without any foot cubbies, sleep is easy at any height.
Tall passengers often struggle to sleep in business class with cramped footwells on many of the most preferred “new” generation business class seats, but this seat allowed plenty of space to toss and turn. If we were being picky, we’d love an extra mattress pad for a long night flight and a better duvet and pillow – but it’s not hard in the slightest to get a great rest of on board.
It must be noted that the Dreamliner is a fantastic way to travel. Given the choice between a slightly superior business class seat on an old plane, and this seat on a 787 Dreamliner, we’d opt for this any day, especially on longer flights where fatigue and jet lag come to play.
We love the lighting, the blackout windows, the air pressure, spacious bathrooms and the natural humidity of the cabin. LATAM business is an excellent choice indeed, and one we’ll certainly opt for again. We’d dare to say it’s highly underrated from a sleep standpoint.
Great pictures, good review.
I flew this LAX -LIM and I loved it! Crew was great and I got a good 5 hours of sleep. I booked it using Avios. Thanks for reviewing it!
Could you please provide details on how you booked the flight? Points/cash? Would love to book Melbourne to Santiago on points. Thanks!
Most random thing LATAM have loaded on to their 787 IFE (not sure if it’s on their other aircrafts) is online courses. Basically online video lectures in partnership/licensed from Shaw academy. IN any case you can work your way to some e-diploma whilst in the air! (or if you are the type that tends to fall asleep in class back at school/university then it’s your perfect sleeping aid)
Which row would you recommend for getting a good view of the front of the engine?
I just did a round trip Miami-Santiago in Business. Flew out with American (777) and back with Latam (787).
Latam was in every aspects superior, especially for the service which is always “meh” to horrible on Americain Airlines. HOWEVER, as a 6″3 guy (1.90 m) the seat on Latam is way too short, there is no way to stretch my legs. I would say that this seat needs at least 8 more inches (20cm) to fit a guy like me. Needless to say that this short seat/bed made the sleep very inconvenient. The seat from in the American 777 is much “longer” but also narrower.
Bottom line is that you will be uncomfortable in Latam seat if you are taller than 1.70 cm. Below that, I would pick the Latam option any day (wider seat and better service). Unfortunately, as a tall guys, I will never fly again on Latam business.
I wish you could mention that in your reviews. Thanks for the good job anyway.