Flight Report: Mvd–Mexico City on Latam

This is the report on flights LA0409 (Mexico City–Santiago, Chile) and LA0622 (Santiago, Chile–Mexico City), which I took on November 17. I’m writing this in “The Grand Lounge Elite” at Mexico City Airport, which I’ll be posting about soon :)

Flight LA0409 departs from Montevideo at 6:57 p.m., so I was already at Carrasco Airport by 4:00 p.m., and it was super quiet at that time. Since I’d already checked in via the Latam app and didn’t have any luggage to check, I headed to the boarding area after grabbing a coffee. Security was very quick, and immigration was too, since I used the self-service kiosks.

There were already quite a few people at the boarding gate, the vast majority of whom were taking the opportunity to watch the Nacional-Peñarol derby that was being played at that moment:

While I was waiting, the A320 from Santiago arrived. According to airfleets.es, the A320 with registration number CC-BAF is 9 years old:

Boarding was pretty quick, and as is usual with LATAM, it was done in groups. I was in Group 4, Seat 27L—because I’m always #TeamWindow. The doors closed on schedule, and then we began pushback and taxied toward the runway. And from there, I had a beautiful view of the entire airport:

We took off from Runway 24:

The takeoff was very smooth, with some beautiful views of Montevideo:

As we were flying over the province of Buenos Aires, there was quite a bit of turbulence, which forced the crew to suspend service. After a few minutes, service resumed—the usual fare on this LATAM flight: a ham-and-cheese sandwich and drinks:

The middle seat in my row was empty, so I traveled quite comfortably. I read for a while, and as the evening light set in, I enjoyed beautiful views above the clouds:

We crossed the mountain range after dark, and the flight was very smooth, with no turbulence at all. We immediately began our descent into Santiago, and unlike on other occasions, we were assigned a gate. There stood the A320:

We arrived at the new part of the Santiago airport, which is very nice and very reminiscent of Barajas in Madrid:

After a pleasant 24-minute walk, I reached the gate where I would board the flight to Mexico City. The flight would be on CC-BBH, a 5-year-old Dreamliner:

Once again, boarding was done in groups, and I was in Group 4. I was in seat 35L; here you can see the available space:

The Dreamliner’s beautiful lighting effects:

But the absolute best part of the Dreamliner is its windows! They’re the largest—even on bigger planes like the A380, the windows are smaller. This larger size is due to the fact that the Dreamliner’s fuselage is made mostly of carbon fiber, which provides greater strength than a fuselage made of metals like aluminum. In other aircraft models, with fuselages made of different materials, the windows must be smaller because they obstruct the flow of stress forces through the fuselage.

In addition to their size, they don’t have “curtains,” since they’re tinted using that small “dimmer” at the bottom. In the photo above, the tint is at its lowest setting, and in the next photo, it’s at its maximum:

If you’d like to learn more about the Dreamliner’s windows, I recommend the following video from Real Engineering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-I20Ru9BwM

The in-flight entertainment system is very comprehensive and offers a good variety of movies and TV shows:

After boarding, the doors closed 10 minutes later than scheduled, we pushed back, and taxied toward the runway. As we did so, the cabin lights dimmed:

We took off, and after climbing to cruising altitude, the meal service began. The options were baked beef with vegetables or ricotta cannelloni. I opted for the cannelloni, which was delicious, and for dessert, a mini alfajor:

After lunch, I finished watching a Brazilian movie, *Todas as Canções de Amor*, and fell asleep… I woke up a few times because there was quite a bit of turbulence, but I was able to sleep well. It’s always a good idea to sleep with your seatbelt fastened and clearly visible above the blanket or scarf, so the flight crew doesn’t have to wake you up. The guy sitting next to me didn’t have his seatbelt visible, and they had to wake him up twice to check. When I woke up, they were already playing with the lights, matching the colors of the sunrise:

Breakfast consisted of a hot ham-and-cheese sandwich, which was pretty good, a Greek yogurt, and a muffin that was super dry:

After breakfast, I took the opportunity to go to the restroom, and this is what the cabin looked like:

In the back rows, you can see some curtains that mark the crew’s rest area. I was in the row in front of them, and I saw several people try to sit there before takeoff, which prompted an explanation from the crew.

We landed ahead of schedule, but we had to wait 40 minutes before we were assigned a position to deplane. Once we got off the plane, and after a short walk, I reached the immigration line:

The wait at immigration was 55 minutes, followed by another 30-minute wait for customs. Mexico City’s airport really took the cake from Lima’s when it comes to slowness! We landed at 4:40 a.m., and I didn’t get out until 7:00 a.m.! Everything was super slow and unfriendly—maybe Terminal 2 is better...

After clearing customs, once I was in the terminal’s public area, I took the opportunity to withdraw some cash to get Mexican pesos. Although I’d brought dollars with me, when I saw the exchange rate they were offering, I looked for an ATM to see how much it would cost to withdraw directly there. The withdrawal fee is 30 Mexican pesos (about a dollar and a half), so it was much more convenient to withdraw from the ATM.

It’s becoming less and less necessary to have local currency, but I always like to have some on hand for tips, taxis, or emergencies. I withdrew only the equivalent of 30 dollars… and I didn’t have to use any of it the entire week. I spent it on dinner the day before I left and on the taxi to the airport. For everything else, I used my credit card (always earning miles!) or my debit card.

To get to the hotel, I checked CityMapper for the available options:

Since I wanted to get to the hotel quickly (to rest a bit and go out for a walk), I decided to take a taxi from the airport, which cost me about $10 to the hotel in the Polanco area.

And that wraps up this report! Soon I’ll be posting a report on my experience riding the Turibus in Mexico City, and of course, a post about my return trip with access to a Priority Pass lounge.

See you next time!