Traveling Geek

Way Down South: Aerolíneas Argentinas Club Economy AEP-USH

By Robert | Published October 26, 2014

Index:
Introduction
Delta Business Elite ECP-ATL-SCL
Four Points by Sheraton Santiago
W Santiago
Exploring Santiago
KLM World Business Class SCL-EZE
Hilton Buenos Aires
Exploring Buenos Aires
Aerolíneas Argentinas Club Economy AEP-USH
Alto Andino Hotel Ushuaia
Exploring Ushuaia
Aerolíneas Argentinas Economy USH-AEP
Sheraton Libertador Hotel Buenos Aires
Aerolíneas Argentinas Club Economy AEP-GRU + Delta Business Elite GRU-ATL-ECP
Conclusion

Introduction
Most flyers in the US probably have not heard of Aerolíneas Argentinas, and those who have probably know it’s reputation as being a poorly-run airline with flights that are never on time and matching customer service. That and the reviews of their long-haul business class kept me from booking one of my long haul sectors on them, but when flying around Argentina, they are pretty much the only choice. I had read enough horror stories of delays and other issues on domestic sectors that put a little bit of worry into the back of my head…but getting to Ushuaia this was the (almost) only way and the most affordable since Aerolíneas Argentinas is a member of SkyTeam and hence I used my SkyMiles for the flight (in case one is interested there is also LADE-Líneas Aéreas del Estado, which is owned by the government and uses Argentine Air Force transports). But, I figured that by taking the first flight of the day to Ushuaia, pending and major malfunction in the Argentine air system, I would at least stand a better chance.

Departure
I left the Hilton Buenos Aires in the hotel’s car around 4AM to sprint me over to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, which is Aerolíneas’ main domestic hub (compared to Buenos Aires’ other airport – Ministro Pistarini International Airport which is the primarily International hub). Given that it was early in the morning, there was no traffic on the roads and not many people checking in at the terminal. I headed inside and quickly found the Sky Priority counter for check in, which had not a single person in line for. Even the regular counters only had a few other passengers checking in.

Aerolíneas Argentinas Check In

I handed over my ID and Platinum Medallion card since my reservation, which was booked through Delta for whatever reason did not have my SkyMiles number associated with it. That didn’t seem to be too much of a problem, but for whatever reason I still didn’t wind up with a boarding pass that said Sky Priority on it. But at least my bag had been tagged as a priority tag, although I would find that like so many other places, that doesn’t exactly mean anything.

Boarding Pass – No Mention Of Sky Priority

From there I made my way to the security checkpoint, which almost seemed like a joke. It was so rudimentary with a simple X-Ray machine and walk through metal detector and you didn’t have to do anything: shoes on, nothing came out of your bags, or anything. Honestly it felt more like a “show” than them actually trying to keep things from getting through. On the plus side, it did mean that it was rather quick to get through…

Once past security, I found myself in a rather modern terminal, but given the time of day, only a few cafes were open and there weren’t really any shops to peruse. I found myself a seat in an empty gate near the one for my own, and yet again I found myself confused. On the other side of the glass opposite of my gate, was an Austral E190 versus the Aerolíneas 737-800. I started to wonder if the flight had been substituted, but I soon enough found out that my gate was actually a bus gate. On a side note, despite this being an important domestic hub for Aerolíneas, they do not operate a lounge here.

On Time For Departure

The Terminal, While Quiet, Was At Least Modern

Boarding seemed only slightly disorganized, but with Sky Priority called, I was at least one of the first people to crowd on to the bus. Although there was some confusion once several of us had gone down the jetway and had no idea where we were going – there wasn’t an open door or anything, but eventually with there being 10 or so of us, we just went for it.

Like almost any bus gate situation, the bus ride seemed to take you all over the place before arriving at the aircraft operating the flight. Upon disembarking the bus, I tried taking a few pictures before walking up the stairs, of course trying not to linger as to not anger any of the authorities.

Getting Ready To Board The 737

Aerolíneas Argentinas #1878
Buenos Aires-Aeroparque, Argentina (AEP) to Ushuaia, Argentina (USH)
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Depart: 5:25AM Arrive: 9:00AM
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800 Seat: 1A (Club Economy)

Upon walking on board I was greeted by the front attendant in the front galley and immediately stashed my bag and got into my seat, 1A. I was seated in what Aerolíneas Argentinas calls Club Economy. It’s their front cabin, and I can’t help but wonder if it named what it is for some sort of political reason. In terms of seats, it is just the same as a domestic First or Business Class seat (depending on airline) in the US, so the Economy moniker is not quite accurate. As far as SkyTeam Awards are concerned, it is considered Business Class for the purpose of award tickets and comes with all the other usual Business Class perks, such as Sky Priority services.

The Aerolíneas Argentinas 737-800s don’t feature any sort of in-flight entertainment. Strangely the only aircraft that Aerolíneas Argentinas operates that has IFE, is actually the E190s that their regional subsidiary, Austral, operates. However for a flight this early in the morning, having IFE wasn’t exactly a big concern; given that I was flying to the bottom tip of the country, this is a 3.5 hour flight and I wanted to try to get a little more sleep before a long day of exploring Ushuaia. Luckily they did the meal service fairly quickly after take off, which remarkably was on time (my fears had not been realized on this leg – success!). And by meal service, I should probably say “snack service” the entire aircraft is given a snack box, although the Club Economy one is larger with a more substantially sized snack inside which included a sandwich, yogurt, a cookie (or something like that). Considering that I was going to spend the majority o my flight sleeping, I didn’t need a big meal and this was good enough to get me to Ushuaia.

Club Economy Breakfast

I Found It Interesting That The Route Map Showed Argentina’s Claim In Antarctica…

Once I was done with that, I started to make my attempt to catch a few Z’s. I managed to probably get about an hour and a half in before I woke up and then stayed awake for the last hour of the flight. Luckily I had a window seat so I could take in all the colors of slowly rising sun, and get a view of the practically still dark out Ushuaia and Beagle Channel upon landing (Yes, even at eight-something in the morning, it was nearly dark). What was probably amazing about this whole flight was that we actually got in a few minutes early. Perhaps flying Aerolíneas isn’t as bad as people make it out to be.

Just After Landing In Ushuaia

Arrival
Ushuaia’s airport is by no means huge with only a couple of jet bridges and no other aircraft on the ramp. Being seated at the front of plane meant a quick disembarkation, but downstairs at the tiny baggage claim it became a crowded mess quickly. Of course, my Sky Priority tagged bag had to be one of the last ones to come out, which was only slightly annoying. Strangely they had a Customs check of sort upon leaving the bag claim area, as apparently certain items are prohibited from being brought to this part of the country. I didn’t have anything of the sort and had no issues as I made my way out into the terminal and then outside to a waiting taxi.

Conclusion
This was my first experience with Aerolíneas Argentinas, and I have to say they did exceed my expectations overall. Of course my expectation was that this was going to be a disaster with delays, lost luggage and other things, but the fact is my flight went out on time, arrived slightly early, in-flight service while I was awake was decent (although by no means stellar – basically doing the least acceptable amount of service), the aircraft clean and the seats in Club Economy comfortable. Don’t get me wrong, we all like to fly on the airlines with attentive flight attendants, extra plush seats, IFE with 1000 movie choices and so on, but if you can at least hit a baseline the things that they were able to hit on this flight, then you don’t have that much that you can complain about.

Posted in Aerolineas Argentinas, South America, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Way Down South: Exploring Buenos Aires

By Robert | Published October 19, 2014

Introduction
I don’t think I can get away with starting the introduction of my exploration of a city with “Buenos Aires is one of those cities that I have always wanted to visit.” Let’s face it, is there a city that I don’t want to visit or at least a “global city” that I don’t want to visit? Buenos Aires definitely has a ton of great “old world” influenced architecture, a reputation for good eats (especially if you are carnivorous – hello steak!), beautiful city parks and spaces and more. Going into this trip, admittedly, I did not nearly as much research into the destination than I did for my other stops. Buenos Aires would not be explored to the same level as I did in Santiago, mostly as a function of my trip to Ushuaia being right in the middle of my Buenos Aires “half” of the trip. However, even with my time limited I managed to at least visit several important landmarks, eat a good dinner, and drink with the locals. Of course it would also be on my second night that I would learn of something unfortunate.

Phase 1 – Check Out The Sites
After settling in at my hotel, the Hilton Buenos Aires, it was time to do a little bit of exploring in the adjacent area (Puerto Madero) and into the historic center. I didn’t have that much time since it was already late in the afternoon and I would be going to bed very early that night to ensure that I would not miss my flight to Ushuaia the next morning. I probably should have made a hit list for things to do and see in Buenos Aires, which is something that I had not quite got around to doing prior to my trip. As such I quickly looked at a map and then headed out.

Starting off in the Puerto Madero area, I quickly checked out the area immediately surrounding the Hilton. The big draw here was the former Argentine Naval Ship ARA Uruguay which had been commissioned in 1874. I did not go aboard the vessel, but found myself taking plenty of pictures from shore.

Puerto Madero – Outside Hilton Buenos Aires

ARA Uruguay

With the sun setting, I wanted to get out of this area and over the historic center of town, which was not a far walk by any means. A good starting point from the Hilton is just to walk in the direction of the huge Argentine flag flying on the hill almost directly due West. This gets you to Plaza de Mayo, which is also where the Casa Rosada is located, or the Argentine Presidential residence.

Argentine Flag – Plaza de Mayo

Casa Rosada

North Side Of Plaza de Mayo

From there I took a stroll down Av Pres. Roque Sáenz Pena which took me towards the Obelisk, with a few side distractions as I ventured down some side streets. One of these side streets was the very touristy Florida, where you can’t step 2 ft without someone shouting “CAMBIO” into your ear; basically random people who will exchange cash at what I am sure are non-favorable rates or with other issues attached. Basically, preying on easy tourists.

Av Pres. Roque Sáenz Pena

Obelisk

After the Obelisk, I continued to walk around, but without any real goal in mind. I actually found the hotel I would be staying at the night after next (Sheraton Libertador Hotel), so that was convenient. I headed back to the Hilton to drop my stuff and change into different clothes before heading back out for dinner.

By the time dinner came, it was already night and in usual fashion for me I was super indecisive. I walked up and down Puerto Madero noticing how it seemed that almost every establishment was empty. I tried to look at reviews online, but that seemed to be very hit or miss. The busiest place that I stumbled on was a TGI Friday’s, but I wasn’t going to go near that for any reason.

Ultimately, I opted for Cabaña Las Lilas, which is apparently a famous steakhouse just around the corner from the Hilton. I knew I needed to have a steak here in Argentina, so I jumped at teh opportunity. The only thing is that this place is a slightly nice place and there I was sitting on the outside patio in my North Face T-Shirt. Yep, I classed that place up! The steak was very good along with much of what went with it. I even drank a glass of wine, because why not? The only thing I found ridiculous was that the baked potato that I ordered to go along with my steak was an absurd ~$10US! Was there a potato shortage in Argentina? Probably not, but it definitely is that good ol’ tourist establishment markup…to an extreme.

The Steak Dinner

At Least Sitting Outside Was Nice

I finished up dinner, which was actually a bit on the late side, so I retreated to the Hilton to get everything ready for the morning and then jump into bed.

Phase 2 – Drink With The Locals
On getting back from Ushuaia, I took up residence for one night at the Sheraton Libertador. While, I’ll touch on the hotel extensively in a few posts down the road, it really does work well for being in the middle of downtown Buenos Aires. Everything was within walking distance which was very nice.

Since I again wasted a good chunk of the day flying and being in airports, I didn’t waste any time getting back out on the streets. The first order of business? Lunch. I found what looked like a hole in the wall deli of sorts just a few blocks from the hotel. Called El Buen Libro, I saw tons of really good looking sandwiches being made and a line out the door. I knew that this was a good sign and went in knowing that there would be a high probability of language barrier issues. However, I prevailed and was awarded with my steak sandwich after a long wait (It seemed the hot sandwiches take a lot longer than the deli meat sandwiches).

Sandwich At El Buen Libro

From there, I ventured a north of the city center to Plaza Italia, which from there I ventured to a few other parks including Plaza Intendente Seeber and whatever the name of the large park across from it is called (Google Maps has a dozen names for that area, so I don’t know what to call it). It was nice late in the day to take a stroll and even stumbling on finding the US Embassy (which I guess is always good to know). It was out here that my camera ran out of juice and thus it became an evening of taking photos with my phone. A few didn’t turn out that bad.

Plaza Italia

One Of The Parks

This Seemed Out Of Place…

That night though, since it was my last night in South America, I decided to hit the town. Of course after I hit the Club Lounge at the Sheraton to get a few snacks and a free glass of wine. The first stop was a few blocks from the hotel, and surprise it was an Irish Pub, The Kilkenny. The place was pretty busy, to the level of standing room only, but I found myself a spot along the counter and ordered my two-for-one beers and enjoyed the ambiance. Unlike in Santiago, no random conversations were had with strangers; but I did get to listen to the band play for a while.

The Kilkenny

My next stop was a place that I had found online in my pre-trip planning, Krakow. Krakow, which is a “Polish bar” (I didn’t know such a thing existed in the first place) in Buenos Aires, and honestly that was most of what drove me to checking it out. Last year in Hong Kong I had found myself drinking Mexican beer in a “Canadian bar”, and so I figured I should continue that trend. It was easy enough to find and I walked between the the Kilkenny and Krakow despite there was a bit of a good distance between the two. Side Note: I didn’t feel unsafe walking the streets of central Buenos Aires at night; it wasn’t any different than many other city centers around the world. I went through a number of beers at Krakow, which they had a decent selection, and also went for some Cuban rum. Especially since you can’t get it in the US, I figured since I had seen various Cuban rums at bars across this continent, I figured that I should at least give it a try!

Krakow Bar

From there I was going to head to another establishment back near the hotel, but as I was walking back to the hotel, I had terrible news delivered to me by my brother over Facebook: our grandmother had just passed away in Iowa. That moment definitely put a damper on the evening. It would also change the dynamics for the next day as well. The funeral was going to be that Monday after I was back in the states, so I needed to start looking at my travel options.

In fact that next morning which was planned as a half day to be used to do some more exploring of Buenos Aires was more spent on hangover recovery, making phone calls to Delta, booking hotel rooms, a rental car and coordinating everything with people back home in the US. By the time I had everything together for the trip North upon my return to the states, I ran out for a quick lunch, which sadly turned into a Burger King. There wasn’t any time at this point to really go anywhere else; and thus that Burger King in the mall was the last thing I did in Argentina before jumping into the cab to head to the airport.

Yep.

Conclusion
My time in Buenos Aires was was way too short to properly explore the city and get a feel for it. While I did see a few sights and ate a few good meals, I didn’t really scratch my itch. I almost wonder if my time would have been better spent going to Ushuaia two nights and just had scheduled Buenos Aires for one night. Obviously that side trip was part of the reason I didn’t get that experience, but as you’ll see in a future post, my time in Ushuaia was very much worth the sacrifice of not much time in Buenos Aires. Of course the other wrench in my plans was getting word of my grandmother’s passing, but even then I just don’t think I had the time required. Another factor was the departure time for my flight home; instead of taking the late night EZE-ATL non-stop on Delta, I flew back home via Brazil which meant I had flight that was 6-7 hours earlier out of Buenos Aires other airport. In conclusion, on the surface Buenos Aires seemed like an interesting city, even if there was a little bit of a cold shoulder from the locals in comparison to Santiago, but I think I will need to head back here in the future to try again. Similarly, I can’t quite add the city to my list of favorite places, but I don’t want to write it off either. Just another reason to come back to this part of South America, right?

Posted in South America, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Way Down South: Hilton Buenos Aires

By Robert | Published September 28, 2014

Introduction
My time in Buenos Aires would be interrupted by a side trip (or some might say, my real destination in Argentina) to Ushuaia. That meant that I would need to find a place to stay for one night on both ends of that part of my journey in Buenos Aires. Basically, it came down to the Hilton Buenos Aires and the Sheraton Libertador Buenos Aires and I just had to pick which one for which night.

I opted to stay at the Hilton for the first night, opting to use 50,000 points to get me a room. This wold get me at least a Queen Bed Deluxe Room, and quite honestly any hotel room would do the trick for a one night stay. The primary reason I chose this hotel for my first night was the location – Puerto Madero. Puerto Madero is a former docklands area right next to the central business district that has been transformed, like many former docklands areas around the world into a modern shopping, business, and living space. With good open space, and plenty of restaurants, I figured it would be good for sticking close to the hotel that night so that I didn’t stay out too late.

Hilton Buenos Aires

Arrival
The car I had grabbed from the airport deposited me outside the large glass facade of the hotel that opens into the atrium. Walking inside, I made my way to the HHonors desk where I was quickly handled by an agent. I was put on a high floor, however, I was not upgraded to a suite. In fact, I don’t even think I was upgraded to the Executive Floor; I was placed in a room on the top floor that faces the atrium however there are still a couple of floors above that as well. Honestly, for the purposes of my stay, that wouldn’t matter to me that much. They did tell me that I had been upgraded to a King bed, however there only rooms that say that have King beds on their website are suites…

The Atrium of the hotel is definitely a nice, open area, but does like any atrium, have the potential to get a little loud. There was also the hotel restaurant and bar located off the atrium, however given the short stay I had tried neither. It almost had a certain Embassy Suites feel in the public spaces…

Hotel Atrium

The Room
My room faced North and was thus looking out towards the front of the hotel. This gave me a half decent view of Puerto Madero at an angle and surprisingly I did not get much noise in the room from the atrium.

Walking in to the room, you go past the decently sized bathroom featuring a separate shower and tub and plenty of counter space to spread out, if that matters to you. It felt a little dated, but then to me most Hilton’s do.

In the main area of the room, was the bed (which was decently comfy), and separate desk and sitting areas – all pretty standard hotel features. The TV was quite possibly the smallest main TV I have seen in hotel room in quite some time, especially for a hotel like a Hilton. But then again, for what I was using this room for, that didn’t matter as I was not going to be sitting here watching TV when I only had so much time to explore Buenos Aires.

Hilton Buenos Aires Guest Room

See How Small That TV Is?

Amenities
Admittedly, I had not used a single amenity at the hotel during my stay. I never made it to the Executive Lounge, didn’t eat at the restaurant or enjoy a drink at the bar, or even get a massage at the spa (which I totally should have). That’s a little unusual for me, but given that I got to the hotel around 3:30pm or so and I was leaving the hotel at 4:00am the next morning, there just was not time in the day.

I did however, reserve the hotel’s car through the concierge to take me to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (the downtown airport) to catch my early morning flight to Ushuaia. At $40 USD, it was easily the least hassle method, although there did appear to be a few waiting taxis outside the hotel even at those hours. Certainly a regular taxi would have been less, however given my lack of Spanish-speaking abilities, this seemed like my best option for four in the morning. I’ll add in that driver was professional and the car was certainly clean, getting me to the airport much faster than I had anticipated.

Conclusion
The Hilton Buenos Aires did exactly what I needed it for: a crash pad. Other than the building itself with the atrium and glass front there wasn’t anything that differentiated this hotel or made it stand out. There wasn’t any exceptionally awesome service for this Diamond member, but then did I really need it for this stay? No, not really, but it would have been nice. I came into this stay expecting nothing and therefore my expectation level was not in jeopardy of falling short. Would I stay here again? Sure – this isn’t a terrible hotel by any means and could be a great place for the “average” American traveler to stay as the Puerto Madero area feels more like home than other areas of Buenos Aires (I mean there is a TGI Fridays nearby, afterall).

Posted in Hilton HHonors, Hotels, South America, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Way Down South: KLM World Business Class SCL-EZE

By Robert | Published September 27, 2014

Introduction
When I was first starting to research my itinerary options, I figured that I would have pretty much one choice when it came to flying between Santiago and Buenos Aires: Aerolineas Argentinas (AR). However, as I played around on Delta.com one night, I saw a KLM flight being listed between the two cities. I did some further digging and found out that KLM operated an SCL-EZE-AMS flight three days per week! Seeing as it was listed for low Business Class availability, I knew I had to make it on to this flight.

I’ve only flown KLM twice before and each of those times was in World Business Class going to/from the Middle East in 2012 and since then, I’ve been hungry for another opportunity to fly on the Royal Dutch airline. With this trip, I would get to check out one of their Boeing 777-300’s and get to collect another Delft Blue House – yes, getting that house filled with gin, was a motivator for booking the flight.

Departure – Santiago
Not knowing how traffic would be on a weekday or how the Santiago airport was laid out, I opted to leave a little on the early side from the W. I hailed a taxi downstairs off Isidora Goyenechea and found myself at the airport surprisingly earlier than I had anticipated due to encountering very little traffic en route. All that would mean is more time in the lounge prior to my flight!

I found the Air France / KLM check in counter pretty quickly and as this flight wasn’t going to be anywhere near full, especially in Business Class, I only had to wait behind the one other person in front of me in the Sky Priority lane. Once it was my turn, I approached the agent, handed over my suitcase (figured that I would might as well check my carry-on) to be tagged and was quickly handed back a boarding pass and a lounge invitation. I had asked if there were any window seats available with no one sitting in the aisle and I was reassigned from seat 3A one row back to seat 4A.

Security and Immigration was easy enough to get through although given that the checkpoint was under renovations, had there been more passengers that morning, I’m sure it could have been a real mess. Once through on the air side, I went for a quick walk to check out the terminal prior to the lounge. When I got to what would be my gate, I was confused when I noticed an Air France jet sitting at the gate – had some weird thing happened and my KLM been swapped with Air France equipment? I didn’t see a flight listed on the monitors, but that was because I ultimately found out it was an arrival from Paris and it would depart later that day back home, non-stop.

Delta Sky Club – Santiago
KLM utilizes the Delta Sky Club in Santiago, which makes perfect sense given their relationship. Strangely, the Sky Club appears to be open invitation only for this flight as it was not listed on Delta.com as being open for this flight. This had me at first wondering if they would use the Sky Club or if they had contracted with another lounge to provide the benefit. I thought about trying to get in with my Sky Club membership card or my Platinum Medallion card versus the invitation, but went for the easiest route approach and handed over the invitation to the agent. After she wrote down my information, I was let into the small and quiet lounge.

Lounge Invitation

To the Sky Club!

With it being on a lower level of the concourse, I figured that it was probably going to be a dark and windowless closet with some snacks. Luckily there was a row of windows that let the golden morning light in which definitely made it feel more open. It’s styling was definitely reminiscent of the older Sky Club / Crown Room Club style, but didn’t appear too worn out looking. There was a continental breakfast spread, which didn’t really have anything too impressive, but it filled the role of a good pre-flight snack to get me until the meal was served onboard.

Delta Sky Club – Santiago

A Simple Lounge Breakfast

That many passengers never really showed up. I was the third person in the lounge when I showed up and by the time I left there was no more than ten others. The only thing that I did notice is that the one agent seemed to spend the entire time talking to one of the passengers, that I am assuming must have been a regular. I wonder if some people had walked up to the entrance during that time, saw no agent, then turned around and left. Eventually, I figured that it would be time to head to the gate, so I made my way back down the concourse to the gate where the bright blue KLM 777 was waiting for me.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines #702
Santiago, Chile (SCL) to Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Argentina (EZE)
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Depart: 11:05AM Arrive: 2:00PM
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300 Seat: 4A (World Business Class)

Boarding happened to be right after I got to the gate and unlike my AMS-BAH flight two years prior on KLM, there was not a mad rush the minute they called Business Class to board. As I walked down the jetway, I got a few good looks at today’s aircraft. As with all of KLM’s aircraft, it was named and quite honestly, this one couldn’t have been more fittingly named for the journey I was on: Nationaal Park Vuurland, which in Dutch translate to English as Tierra del Fuego National Park. Where was I going to be in two days? Tierra del Fuego!

KLM Boeing 777-300 – “Tierra del Fuego National Park / Nationaal Park Vuurland”

I made my way to my seat and got all settled in – as I’ve mentioned, it wasn’t going to be a full flight for the hop over to Buenos Aires, so there was room for everyone to spread out. It wasn’t long before one of the flight attendants came by to offer me a pre-departure drink (obviously, I went with Champagne) and then a little later to hand out amenity kits.

KLM World Business Class Seat

Definitely Getting Settled In

I took the time to get familiar with the seats in the World Business Class cabin as they were (thankfully) different from the ones that are on the A330s (at least what was on the A330s two years prior). Those seats honestly didnt impress me one bit, but the ones on the 777 were definitely better. They felt a little wider than Delta’s lie-flat Business Elite seat on the 767s, and provided ample enough legroom. Comfort-wise, it wasn’t uncomfortable, but I wonder how they would be on a long-haul flight where you would want to get some sleep. Given that this was a two hour flight across South America, I wouldn’t find out. However, I did get to play with the entertainment system pretty extensively and found a pretty good selection of movie and TV shows on a decent-sized screen. I remember feeling the same about the IFE selections on my previous KLM flights, so there’s that.

Decent Amount of Leg Room

Looking Forward

It seemed that our departure was slightly delayed, but that didn’t really bother me as that just meant more time to enjoy my time in World Business Class. Taxiing also seemed to take an eternity as we went around the entire airport; that took us past several parked jets from American and Delta as well as local airlines LAN and Sky Airline (which I had been planning to fly on for that side trip to Valdivia). Once on the runway, given the light load, the two GE90 engines were able to put us into the sky in no time.

On The Ground In Santiago

The climb out of Santiago was fairly scenic with good views of the surrounding mountains, but there was no distinguishing of the city below. You could see sprawling city, but I was never able to make out any of the features I had visited in the past few days. As we climbed even higher, either smog or low clouds started to obscure the view of the ground, so I started focusing on the mountains.

Leaving Santiago Behind

Actually, that was probably the best part about this flight, and why I wanted a window seat for this flight. We went over the snow capped Andes Mountains, saw (based on an announcement from the flight deck) the World’s highest lake and then the transitions from the mountains across Argentina to Buenos Aires. Although I had something always playing on the IFE screen, I probably spent half of the flight looking out the window.

This Was Probably The Best View To Have As I Ate Lunch

Looking Back West Towards Chile

Meal Service – Lunch
KLM does cater this flight with a meal, but it’s not a multiple course meal due to the fact that the flight time is less than two hours. In fact it was pretty similar to the meal option they served in the middle of the night on my late night BAH-AMS flight in 2012 – you won’t be stuffed, but you aren’t going to leave hungry either.

Welcome Aboard

There were two options on today’s flight with a choice between a beef casserole and a vegetable mille-fueille; both of which were served with a smoked salmon tartare appetizer and a lemon tartlet. Not know what a mille-fueille was…I opted for the beef casserole. I won’t lie, this probably was not one of my favorite in-flight meals. The beef was a little bit on the dry side, but the appetizer and desert were both good, so there’s that. As for the beverage, I went with one of the white wines available, but I don’t remember what exactly it was.

Menu Of The Day

KLM World Business Class Lunch

Seemed Fitting To Drink A Dutch Beer

Before we landed, I had noticed that they had not come through the cabin to distribute the little Delft houses, so I asked one of the flight attendants. I guess they had assumed that most people would be continuing on to Amsterdam and as such had opted to not go through the cabin, but I was lucky in that one was brought to me shortly so I could add another to my collection at home!

Another KLM Delft House!

Arrival
It felt like we probably pulled into the farthest gate from immigration, but the airport wasn’t exactly busy. Most of the passengers I’m sure were continuing on, and those that were were picked off before reaching Immigration so that they could go to the terminal. Luckily that meant that immigration wasn’t ridiculously busy. However, it did take a good bit to make it through even with the number of agents that they had working – I just took this as my first experience with Argentine bureaucracy. It seemed like many passengers were getting questioned with most of those were people who seemed to be entering on ID cards versus passports from what I could tell. Getting through for me was pretty hassle free and then it was on to Customs.

On The Ground In Buenos Aires

Goodbye KLM!

Luckily KLM had properly priority-tagged my bag, so I didn’t have to wait too long there. However, there was a very impressive line to get through customs and so I got in line and proceeded to wait. I wish I could say that although it was long, it moved quickly, but it didn’t (if I recall correctly, it took nearly 45 minutes to get through). But once through I found myself fully in Argentina and it was time to make my way to the hotel.

After you clear customs in Buenos Aires, there will be a number of stalls for taxi companies to get you into the city. I pretty much just picked one randomly, as I had done in Santiago, and got set up to go to my hotel – the Hilton Buenos Aires. It was straight forward and I think only cost me about $40, plus I could tell the person at the counter where I wanted to go to in English. Which is a good thing, because there was a very impressive language barrier with the driver they gave me to. Made for an amusing taxi ride though!

Conclusion
Overall, I was impressed yet again with KLM’s service. The food could have been better, I will admit that, but everyone seemed to receive prompt attention from the flight attendants throughout the flight, including myself. One thing that I thought was cool that I saw, was that there was a kid in Business Class traveling with what I can assume was family. After the meal service had completed, I noticed that one of the flight attendants led him up to the front of the cabin and then into the flight deck! Honestly, I was a little bit jealous, but figured if I were to ask I probably wouldn’t have lucked out.

I’ll continue to look for opportunities to fly on KLM again on my future travels. At some point though I am going to have to try them in Economy, just so I can see what that is like…ha!

Posted in KLM, South America, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Way Down South: Exploring Santiago

By Robert | Published September 14, 2014

Introduction
I’ll admit, up until I started planning for this trip the only thing that would ever come to mind about Chile was Santiago, that there is wine, and that it is long and narrow. I wasn’t as familiar in advance of what the country had in terms of features or the people or quite honestly that much of the history. My original plan was to try to see two distinct areas of the country: the bustling city life in Santiago and the calm mountain lakes in the Los Rios / Los Lagos Regions of Chile. As I’ve mentioned in previous several posts, Delta kinda put the kibosh on that plan. So I found myself getting to know Chile just through the city of Santiago and it’s inhabitants. Based on my time in Santiago, I found an amazing city filled with friendly people, wonderful sights, and delicious eats.

Getting Oriented
Arriving a flight first thing in the morning meant that I would be hitting the ground running; luckily I had managed to get a little bit of sleep to get me started. After checking in at the Four Points by Sheraton on that first morning, I armed myself with a map and started to make my way into the city.

I thought the first order of business would be for me to find a local SIM card so that I could avoid using my Verizon service. Unfortunately, due to a language barrier between myself and the front desk agent at the hotel I gave up on that plan pretty quickly and decided to just enable global data on my phone at a rate of $25/100MB. Not the best, but I decided that I just did not want to waste time trying to find an open shop or figure out what hoops I would have to jump through.

I briefly explored the neighborhood the hotel is located in, which wasn’t too bad of an area, as I made my way to the nearest metro station (Los Leones) a short few blocks away. I picked up Santiago’s contactless (bip!) fare card which would be my key to getting around the city the next several days then started my ride into the heart of the city. Santiago’s metro is apparently pretty much the same as Montreal’s or Paris’ in the sense that they all use roughly the same equipment of tire-based metro cars…fun fact! It was also pretty clean and seemed punctual/efficient.

Anyways, I figured the best way to get my bearings in this city would be to take the metro all the way into the heart of the history center of Santiago. From there I would be able to see several of the historic buildings such as La Moneda Palace, the main Cathedral, Mercado Central, and more. Plus it gets a lot of the touristy sightseeing out of the way first and foremost.

Santiago Metro

Historic Center
The center of Santiago is home to many older buildings and many landmarks of interest, museums and public spaces that give a good introduction to the city. Starting off with La Moneda Palace, which is the seat of the President of Chile. Unlike the White House here in the United States, there aren’t fences and standoffs from the building. While you can only approach so close on the Southern Side, it’s a nice open area that is home to reflecting pools, which are used as the “barrier” of sorts. Underneath that plaza is also a museum, which I unfortunately did not visit. On the North side of the Palace is Plaza de la Constitución which pretty much goes right up to the walls of the Palace. Here you find people posing with the guards outside, especially children, and they seem fairly receptive to requests to do so. Perhaps I should have…

La Moneda Palace (South Face)

Large Chilean Flag Across From La Moneda Palace

La Moneda Palace (North Face)

The Guards Seemed Friendly Enough

Plaza de Armms
I had imagined that Plaza de Armas would be a fairly nice place to take in the historic center of the city, but on this trip it was not going to be exactly the case. The entire plaza was blocked off by construction fencing for some sort of project. The Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago that sits on the square was also covered in scaffolding. It was nothing more than a giant construction site! A slight let down, but I still checked out things on the perimeter.

Northern Side of Plaza de Armas

Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago + Plaza de Armas

While the Cathedral’s exterior was covered up, the interior was open and accessible. Inside I found a fairly ornate church with a few interesting works, but nothing that really stood out to me. I’m starting to think that all these “old” churches that I’ve been to around the world are starting to blend together.

Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago

The central post office for Santiago is also off the Plaza and I ventured into this fine example of South American bureaucracy one afternoon to send myself the obligatory post card home from a new country. It appears the post office in Chile is used for functions other than just mail in Chile as most people were holding packets to take to a clerk, but no one actually looked like they were necessarily mailing anything (and each packet looked nearly the same). All I wanted to do was send that post card and I wound up having to wait about an hour to get to an agent at the counter to buy a stamp.

Central Post Office

Luckily inside the post office, is the Chilean Postal Museum which, although not very large was a good way to kill part of the time during my wait. There were examples of old postal equipment (think mailboxes, desks, telegraph equipment, etc) as well as a collection of stamps from around the world. Pretty much every country was represented (past and present) and I’ll admit it was slightly interesting looking through those.

Someday People Will Be Confused By The Fact That We Mailed Paper Letters…

There are several other museums off Plaza de Armas as well, but I never did quite make it to them. The first day in Santiago I wasn’t feeling like it necessarily and the second day it turned that all museums are closed on Mondays and come my third day, I just never made it to any.

There’s plenty of food options around the Plaza, ranging from all sorts of American fast food joints to counter restaurants and more. One of the more interesting options was in the passageway of the building located on the southern edge of the Plaza. Here food stall after food stall was lined up and nearly always serving up the same thing: hot dogs. Apparently Chile rather likes hot dogs, but they do them a little bit differently than say a plain hot dog with ketchup or even a Chicago-style dog back in the States. Instead you have things like the Italiano and Completo, both of which include mayo and avocado (in the form of what is essentially guacamole). Chopped tomatoes make an appearance on the Italiano and there are a few other variations as well. But essentially, you have this long passageway lined with these little stalls that all serve up these quick, cheap meals while offering nothing more than a square of corner space for you to quickly chow down on the hot dog and get moving.

While There Are Many Stands, There Really Only Seemed To Be Two Companies Or Brands…

An Italiano

Mercado Central
Mercardo Central is a large fish market that’s quite the tourist stop/trap. I made my way around the outer ring of vendors and stalls hawking fish, which really wasn’t too much different from many markets I’ve been to around the world. The smell of bleach (on the floors) and various fish is always an interesting mix and you are guaranteed to see at least one person holding their nose. It’s not that bad though, if you were to ask me…

Mercado Central

I guess the real reason for a visitor to come here is to get some sort of seafood dish and there were definitely quite a few tourists enjoying seafood at what I am sure were higher than typical prices. I myself decided to check off my list of having a meal here at the market, and sat down at Donde Augusto which seemed to the be “big” one within the center of the market. The menu was he menu was fairly comprehensive of various seafood options (as it should be!) along with an ok selection of beer; I opted to go for a plate with shrimp, scallops, and potatoes in a cream sauce with a beer from Chilean Patagonia to go along with. While I don’t remember how expensive it was, like I said, it was probably more than what it was actually worth.

Enjoying A Beer

Donde Augusto – Lunch

Parks
Santiago seems to have a pretty good number of parks and public spaces within the city. I didn’t get to the Parque Metropolitano (which includes Cerro San Cristóbal and supposedly very excellent views of the city), but I did find myself in several others. There was Parque Forestal which wasn’t much more than a wedge between two busy city streets – but still offered a nice shaded area in the center of the city. When I walked through on a Sunday afternoon I encountered hundreds of people spread out on blankets/sheets/towels selling everything that you could think of: books, clothes, small household appliances; it was like an impromptu flea market if anything. I’m not sure the exact specifics of it, all I know is that I saw a guy hanging upside fown from a bike that was hanging from a tree.

Parque Forestal

Yep.

The one hill that I did walk up to get a better vantage point of the city was Cerro Santa Lucía. Located in the center of the city, it’s bounded by roads on all sides, and isn’t a very difficult hike up as it’s only 69m in elevation change. One thing that I didn’t know was that this is actually the remnant of a volcano from several millions of years ago. More recently it served as a fortification, and one can walk to the top of one of the towers to get that good vantage point of the city. The only difficulty I found in this short excursion was going back down on the side that faced the Monument of Pedro de Valdivia; with short steps and some of them at a slight angle, I slipped twice, but managed to not fall once. As always, it’s good just to take time and care when navigating the way down.

Tower On Top Of Cerro Santa Lucía

Yes, A Guy Carried His Bike Up To The Top

Not A Terrible View…

Looking Down On The Monument of Pedro de Valdivia

I visited Parque Quinta Normal, in conjunction with visiting the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memory and Human Rights) which is located across the. As for the park, it was a nice large and quiet park space, but also curiously empty of people. It’s well maintained, but there just weren’t many people utilizing it. That actually made it a pretty good spot to just find a bench under the shade and bust out a book. There’s also several museums within the park, but I didn’t venture into any. The Museum of Science and Technology looked pretty small and I honestly judged it by the graffiti on the exterior, so I didn’t bother checking it out.

Parque Quinta Normal

Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos
The Museum of Memory and Human Rights catalogs the period of Chile’s history when it was under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Other than knowing that there was that period in Chile’s history, I admittedly knew almost nothing of how it came to be, what happened during the years of military rule and how it eventually ended. This is a very high quality museum and was very, very informative, even considering that descriptions or information in English were sometimes a bit lacking. For some of the exhibits, you didn’t need words when there is a metal bed frame that is more or less wired up to a car battery.

Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos – They Were Pretty Adamant About No Photography Inside

Around Town
One of the great things about traveling is stumbling up on something that is unexpected or impromptu – not an ordinary fixture. The first one of these types of encounters happened on the my first night as I was heading to dinner and drinking. Right as I was approaching the bridge over the river I saw a crowd at the base of a monument in a small wedge that was not much more than a traffic island. This was Plaza Italia and at the base of the monument what did I find in the early hours of the night? A dance off! I will say, I actually stayed to watch the locals compete against in each other with their street moves and challenge others – the energy from both the dancers and the crowd was exciting! It’s stumbling on these kinds of things that is part of the reason why I love travel so much…

Bring It!

The second wasn’t quite as impromptu probably, but in front of the University of Chile, there was one morning a band playing Cuban music. I may not have been in the Caribbean, but I have to say that music was just exceptional and great for a sunny morning on the streets. In retrospect I should have bought one of the CDs that they were going around the crowd with.

Cuban Music!

Food
I’ve already touched on eating at the Mercado Central and a Completo earlier on and my dinner at the W Santiago, but there is much more to the dining in Santiago than either. Santiago really does have a very wide range of food options, no matter what you are hungry for. Even if what you are looking for is a fine dinner at Applebee’s…

There Was A Ruby Tuesday’s Across The Street…

Since I had one dinner at the W Santiago, that only left two other nights for enjoying a dinner on the town. The first night that I was out led me to Galindo. Located North of the river in the Bellavista area, Galindo was a place that seemed to be highly reviewed with filling meals at the “right” price, and most importantly is a “Chilean” restaurant. First impression walking in was that the place was busy. Luckily I managed to get a table for one, which was also probably the worst table in the house being literally right up on the door, but I didn’t care too much. There was a decent beer selection, so I was able to try another Chilean craft beer with my dinner, going with the Guayacán Pale Ale from Cerveza Guayacán in Diaguitas, Chile. As for the meal itself, I decided to go what I think is somewhat traditional, by ordering the “Lomo a lo Pobre”. A very healthy dish consisting of french fries topped with steak, two fried eggs and onions. Was it tasty? Oh, it most definitely was! A simple meal, and definitely not elegant, but considering that this was right before kicking off a night of drinking it seemed like a good plan. Might as well eat something to soak up all the alcohol!

Beer!

Lomo a lo Pobre

The other dinner I enjoyed was just down the street from the W Santiago on Isidora Goyenechea: IT – Sandwich & Bar. There’s a few options along this block and they all seemed decent, but I figured I would come here and at least get a Churrasco sandwich, and so that is what I ordered. The sandwich was very good and what surprised me was actually the bread. They had multiple selections, and had opted for one made with olives – a food that I typically do not like. There would be some risk there, but actually it was very, very good and soft. I didn’t even get a strong olive flavor, which was good because that meant I could taste the meat. The best thing was that there was outdoor seating, so I got to enjoy my meal in the comfortable weather that evening.

More Beer!

This Is Actually A Pretty Terrible Picture, But That Was The Sandwich

Bar Scene
I have to say that in comparison to some of my other recent trips, Santiago has probably been one of the better places that I’ve visited for nights out on the town. I won’t hide behind the fact that bars are great places when you are traveling, especially solo, to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger; and on this trip I have to say I met and hung out with some pretty interesting folks. The most important thing was that whether local or foreigner, everyone I encountered was friendly and open in Santiago; as I’ll get to later, that was not necessarily the case in Argentina.

That first night I was there, I opted to go to an Irish pub located down the street from Galindo – Dublin. I dont think they even had Guinness on tap, so I don’t think you could call it a “true” Irish pub, but it definitely had a low-key relaxed atmosphere. In fact it wasn’t even that busy and I started drinking a pint of one of the Chilean beers, for the most part keeping to myself. Eventually two blokes came in speaking English and approached the counter next to me while debating which beer to get. I figured I might as well throw in my two cents and from there the conversation got rolling. Eventually the three of us grabbed a table and found out one was from Denmark and the other from New York and both were just traveling around South America. They apparently had only met a few nights prior from staying at the same hostel and apparently quickly seemed to have become drinking buddies.

I wasn’t planning on staying out very late myself, as the next night I was going to go out to celebrate my Birthday and I wanted to be able to take public transportation back to my hotel versus having to cab it. On the way back to their hostel we stopped by a convienence store to pick up beers, at which I was very surprised how cheap the cheapest beer was. I think 2000 pesos had scored us two very large bottles to take with. The hostel was only a few blocks away and actually wasn’t that bad of a place – pretty decent common areas and a nice courtyard out in the back. The three of us talked and as always, it is very interesting to get differing perspectives on the world. One thing that was great about it was that it never got ugly, which is sometimes the risk when American politics come up. I only stayed for an hour or so before I bid them farewell and made my trek back to the metro station.

My second and third nights were spent at a different Irish pub that was located a few blocks from the W – Flannery’s Irish Geo Pub. This turned out to be a really great place – filled with locals and expats and definitely more busy. In fact on that Monday night, it was standing room only when I showed up…perhaps a function of happy hour going until something ridiculous like 10PM? This bar definitely had more of an “Irish pub” feel to it and aside from having Guinness available (I think it may have been bottle only), they had several “house” beers as well. I actually went that route and the red ale wasn’t too shabby.

Flannery’s Irish Geo Pub

The reason I got to like this place was just how friendly everyone was. I was there solo and eventually got talking to the bartender which eventually became the bartender and two of his friends, including a girl from Iowa. I wound up drinking in that group and wound up with a birthday shot of tequila somewhere along the way before the group deciding to go off to another bar. I was having fun, so I figured why not tag along and jumped in the taxi with them to head off to the neighborhood I stayed in the first night to visit California Cantina. Turns out it’s pretty well known in the expat bar crawl scene, and whilst here a few more of their friends showed up, including the bartender from Flannery’s. The good times continued to roll until they pretty much kicked us out around 2AM. I said goodbye to the friendly strangers and eventually made my way back to the W in a cab.

My second night at Flannery’s wasn’t as much of a social success, but wound up chatting up a few strangers before eventually retiring back to the hotel. Of note is that I did try a Pisco Sour done in the Chilean style (there’s apparently disagreement between Chileans and Peruvians over who’s is best), that turned out to be not too bad. The same bartender wasn’t working that night, and unfortunately the one working that night did not have as good of English language skills, so conversation was lacking.

Conclusion
Despite all the words I’ve put into this, it really doesn’t give the best impression of how I found Santiago. Part of it is admittedly my writing skills, but I’ve found it hard to capture what I found. Perhaps to call it a vibrant and inviting city? Never once did I ever feel less than welcomed in the city whether from the looks of people passing on the street or talking to completely random strangers. The city is most definitely alive and is filled with all sorts of historical corners to explore. Admittedly I only scratched the surface on the city and the nation of Chile.

While I slightly regret not spending one of those days in Santiago taking a side trip to Valparaiso, I’m also glad that I didn’t. If I had not stayed in Santiago exclusively, I wouldn’t have met some of the people that I did, experienced some of the things that I had, or even visited some of the sites that I had. It’s definitely a doubled-edge sword because I can say the same thing about not having been to Valparaiso and there’s one thing I definitely didn’t get to experience – riding a bus across a South American country.

Would I go back to Santiago? Definitely! I would want to see more of Chile as well, especially since I didn’t get to make it down to Valdivia thanks to Delta’s delay in getting me there a day late. So, let’s hope that it’s sooner rather than later, and maybe by then I’ll learn a little Spanish just for good measure!

Posted in South America, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Hotel Review: W New York – Downtown

By Robert | Published September 7, 2014

In the past few years I’ve been to New York City quite a few times; by my count I believe I am up to 8 or 9 times (all for leisure) and which doesn’t factor in layovers at JFK on other trips. It also means that I have explored a pretty good bit of Manhattan (although there really does remain so many areas I have not ventured to), which is also where I have stayed 90% of the time (One stay in Jersey City is one time too many). Of those I have always stayed in a hotel in Midtown Manhattan, with the original W New York on Lexington Ave. being my most frequented hotel, but I’ve stayed at many other Starwood properties in the area as well. One thing that I have never done however, is stay in the Financial District.

It’s not exactly a hot spot on the weekends with all the suits gone over the weekends, but I figured that I would try it out. If anything it would at least be something different. I had pretty much two options in my head for where to stay: the Conrad New York or the W New York – Downtown. The Conrad would have been nice to try since I have Hilton HHonors Diamond Status and I probably could have scored a decent suite, but that’s not what I went for. I opted to go with the W New York – Downtown instead, and I have to admit I was pretty much motivated by the fact that there was a “buy two nights, get the third free” promotional rate which brought the average nightly rate down to a pretty cheap $176/night; the Conrad would have cost me nearly $800 for the weekend, so that made it pretty much a no brainer.

Once I got my confirmation in hand, I noticed that there was an offer for a paid upgrade to the Spectacular ($10/night), Cool Corner ($25/night), or Ultra Cool Corner Rooms ($40/night). I’ve used these in the past at hotels that get mixed reviews in terms of upgrading SPG Gold members (and have had several process the upgrade for free in advance through this route), and I thought hard about it on this trip since I had an extremely late arrival. But ultimately, since I wasn’t going to be spending that much time in the room I decided to wait it out and see what type of an upgrade I would get as an SPG Gold member.

W New York – Downtown

Arrival
I landed at LaGuardia fairly late that night having opted to take a pretty late departure from Panama City. That meant that by the time I landed in NYC and hopped in a cab for the ride downtown, it was already past midnight when I walked in.

The lobby for this hotel is not on the first floor; there is the ground floor of the in-hotel restaurant BLT Bar & Grill as well as elevators to take you to the lobby on the fifth floor. The agent on duty had got me checked in pretty quickly and had informed me that due to them being sold out of my room type, I had been upgraded to a Ultra Cool Corner Room. That’s about as good of an upgrade as you can expect from this property from what I’ve read online. Now, I doubt that they were truly sold out of Wonderful Kings or one of the other room types with king beds, but I wasn’t exactly going to ask any questions either.

The Living Room Bar had a few people in it drinking it up, but it wasn’t that busy. I made my way to the elevators anyways, for it was time for bed for me. I needed to be up early the next day to head to the New York UCF Alumni watch party for the UCF vs Penn State game.

The Room
I was given room 1510, which is one of the corner rooms on the property. I’m not sure what the difference between a Cool Corner Room and an Ultra Cool Corner Room is, so I won’t be able to touch on that. The room itself was sufficiently large, especially by NYC standards. All the standard amenities were present; the W Bed, desk area, TV, etc, etc. My only complaint here is that the TV seemed ridiculously high up on the wall, which made it a little awkward when lying in bed. Perfect height if you want to stand and watch though…

Ultra Cool Corner Room

The Always Super Comfy W Bed

Desk + TV

The one thing that was nice with this corner room though was that along the windows was bench seating. I found myself one afternoon taking a break from running around the city all day while it rained sitting here reading a book.

The Corner

As for the bathroom, it was pretty standard for a W Hotel. One thing that I’ve found typically annoying with hotel bathrooms in small rooms in NYC, is that they never give you any counter space around the sink. Sometimes you get a little tiny shelf to put your toiletries on, but usually there isn’t much room. While this hotel didn’t have a full counter around the sink, there was enough room around the sink to actually spread out a little bit…if that is important to you.

Bathroom

A Decently Large Enough Shower

~~Food and~~ Drink
There are two outlets on property: there is the BLT Bar & Grill located on the first and second floors and there is the Living Room Bar and Terrace on the 5th floor off the hotel lobby. I went to both, but only ever ordered drinks. I had planned on trying out BLT during my stay, but for whatever reason I never did wind up going that route.

BLT Bar & Grill
I visited here during happy hour on a Sunday, which resulted in $5 draft beers. Guess that they have to try to lure in the customers on the slower weekend days in this area that is so very predominantly business-oriented. The space was nice, and it wasn’t loud, but that’s probably because they were not that super busy either. The selection of drinks was not impressively large, but there was a small decent selection of beers available. I had picked one that they bartender had described to me as a mix between an IPA and a wheat beer; I’ll be if I can’t even remember what brewery it was from, but clearly that man was not a beer drinker. I think he may have said that just because it wasn’t filtered…

Living Room Bar and Terrace
Every W has a “Living Room” bar; it’s the standard hotel lobby bar done the W way. I usually find myself at these at least one night during my stay, usually as a kick off to the night or the return “home” from a night out in whatever city I am in. On this trip, it was a little different. I wasn’t drinking during the night, but found myself out on the patio during the day.

Living Room Lounge (Terrible Picture…)

After spending many hours walking around the city, I had retreated to the hotel early afternoon. I needed to recharge my phone and then eventually clean up for later that night (which also had me buying tickets to a Mets game), so I figured that reading a book on the terrace would be a good idea.

Since it wasn’t exactly a busy time of the day for them there was one server and one bartender. I made my order for a mojito, and returned to the chair I had grabbed outside. I figured that it would take a little bit for my drink to make it’s way to me despite it being a slow period, but by the time my drink had made it to me, I had not thought it had been ridiculously long. Perhaps it was because I was in relax mode, but the server thought that my wait had been too long and informed me that my drink was on the house due to the delay. Turns out they had a hard time locating the mint leaves…

Since I figured I might as well pay for at least one drink, I opted for a beer to follow as I continued to sit there and make good headway into the book. The one thing that was a little comical to me was that there was a European couple who sat across from me and they were taking all sorts of pictures with them posing with a bottle of Budweiser.

As for the Terrace, it sits on the side of the hotel facing the World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial. It’s high enough up that you see the trees at the memorial (but not really into the memorial) and a great view of the Port Authority Police temporary building. There’s a variety of chairs and seating areas outside so if you are in a group you have options and if you are flying solo like me, you can still enjoy the space. The interior is filled with lounge seating in addition the stools at the bar. Most mornings you see people hanging out in that space for the free wifi more than anything. Also in the mornings, this is where they have a coffee station set up, which really was not that bad of coffee. Certainly better than a nasty in-room brewer.

Conclusion
Overall, this hotel definitely delivered a great room, at a great price with great service. I wish I could through great location in there as well, but unless you need to be in the Financial District, this hotel is definitely out of the way from where most people are going to want to be in Midtown. I’m told it can be tough to get a cab from the hotel at night, but I never tried it; honestly the subway works well enough and there is the Rector Street Station (1) just around the corner. It’s approximately 15 minutes or so to Greenwich Village and about 30 minutes to the the middle of tourist action in Midtown.

As for SPG elite status recognition, I was recognized as being a Gold member, given my choice of welcome benefit (points or internet, and no option of a complimentary drink), and obviously upgraded a few categories up. I can’t complain too much there.

So how does this hotel stack up against my usual choice in New York, the W New York on Lexington Avenue? Well, honestly aside from location, I like this property more. I’m sure part of it is the fact that it is newer (2010 vs 1998) or that the common areas have a more striking design. I mean the W New York’s lobby isn’t very unique (it feels like it is any other hotel lobby), but the W New York – Downtown’s lobby has unique touches and finishes that make it stand out from other hotel lobbies. I should have taken a picture, but you can look on the W New York – Downtown’s website and see what I am talking about.

I think the usual big question at this point is: would I stay here again? The answer is complex; but in short, I would definitely stay here again. I doubt that given my line of work that I will ever find myself needing to be in the financial district, so that will never be the driving factor for me. And I do definitely prefer being in midtown so I can walk to more places instead of spending all weekend feeding my MetroCard. Basically, if some of my other preferred hotels in Midtown were not available or priced much higher, I would have no problem staying here. And that probably really goes for any hotel in the Financial District: the the price is right, then why not?

That being said, next time I really need to try to make it to the W New York – Union Square; that property has been eluding me for a while and I would rather like to check it out.

Next Time…

If you’d like to see some photos that I took as I spent some time walking around the city with my camera, I’ve put up a small selection on flickr.

Posted in Hotels, NYC, SPG, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Way Down South: W Santiago

By Robert | Published August 10, 2014

Introduction
As I searched for my hotel options as I planned my trip out originally, there was one hotel that I decided I must book and especially for the night of my birthday. That hotel was the only W Hotel property in South America, the W Santiago. Located in the upscale and nice neighborhood of Los Condes, it definitely fit the bill for a luxury hotel for this part of my trip, and generally as you might know I am a fan of many W hotels. I had read several reviews in advance, but there wasn’t a consistent picture of how guests were treated, specifically SPG elites. Not finding evidence of that solid track record, I still took the gamble and booked a room for two nights. Using my 25% off a point booking award that I got for requalifying for SPG Gold status the previous year, I booked an award stay for two nights at 18,000 Starpoints (9,000 Starpoints/night; standard rate is 12,000 Starpoints/night).

W Marks The Spot

Arrival
I shuttled between the Four Points by Sheraton Santiago and the W using Santiago’s metro system as I just had my messenger bag and a carry-on suitcase and neither is far from a metro station. For the W, the nearest metro station is Los Condes, and it is a short 5 minute walk to the hotel; not a terrible route if you are looking to save money, and it is definitely accessible for getting around Santiago.

The hotel is located in an office tower and as such the lobby is not on the ground floor. Going inside you’ll find a bank of elevators that will take you to the lobby. Coming off the elevators, you’ll go past several of the hotel’s restaurants and bars before reaching the reception desk. As it was still on the early side when I reached the first available agent, a room was not ready yet. I opted to store my bag and then also inquired about if it would be possible to get a room with a single King bed. I was told that it did not look good for tonight, but if I wanted to move for the second night, it looked like they would be able to accommodate that. Still, I figured that when I came back from my wandering around town, that I might have better odds then.

When I did return that afternoon around 4:00PM, it appeared that I was not going to be lucky on this night. I collected my key and headed up to the room and they told me that my bag would be brought up shortly.

Fifth Floor Hallway

The Room
Entering room 523, I found a pretty “standard” Wonderful room, decorated in the typical W style. It wasn’t overly large, but wasn’t cramped either. There were the two queen beds, which as with all W Hotels were very comfortable; large desk area (which more or less becomes a nice large counter area) across from the beds with the TV mounted above it; and a bathroom with a nice large shower. The shower most importantly did have good water pressure and was able to get very hot, just in case you were wondering…

Wonderful Room – Two Queen Beds

Wonderful Room – Desk + TV Area

Wonderful Room – Bathroom

Wonderful Room – Shower

Unfortunately the view was very unimpressive, with it being of an adjacent office building. I had been hoping that my SPG Gold status would get me a room with a slightly better view, but that didn’t happen. Even playing the birthday card didn’t work, but I guess I can’t complain that a hotel did not give me any special treatment on an award stay. I could understand that they would prioritize a customer paying an actual rate to be given an upgrade like that.

So while the room was adequate, it didn’t wow me in any category unlike stays at other W properties like the W Montreal, W Hong Kong or even the W Seattle. Still beat spending two more nights at the Four Points though…

Food
Usually this section is my “bar and restaurant” section, as I almost always find myself spending some amount of time in the hotel bar, especially ones in W’s. This go around though, I surprisingly did not partake in the hotel bar scene. I had been really wanting to try Red2One, the W’s rooftop bar, however that was closed for the season. There wasn’t a shortage of other options though, with your standard W Lounge/Living Room bar as well as a “branch” of Whiskey Blue that were open during my stay. There were also three restaurant options ranging from the Asian-fusion Osaka, French-Mediterranean Noso, and the casual Terraza (located on an open air terrace).

Terraza

I had opted to grab dinner from Terraza for my birthday dinner, mostly for the outdoor terrace environment. It wasn’t very busy after dark and the wait staff was rather attentive. Even had some good recommendations on beers which I gladly tried several of. As for the meal itself, my main course wasn’t anything remarkable, but my dessert was pretty darn tasty. Unfortunately, it’s also the only picture from my dinner that isn’t a blurry! But with it being my birthday, cake was definitely in order.

Chilean Beer – From The Brewery I Was Going To Visit in Valdivia

“Birthday” Cake

Unfortunately I did not try out any of the other options that were present on the property. The rest of my drinking and eating were outside the hotel and as you will see in my next post, I had a great time that did not disappoint one bit!

Conclusion
I’ll admit that this isn’t one of my better reviews because I did not aim to check out as much of the hotel as possible. Most of it was that I didn’t spend that much time in the hotel as I found myself wanting to spend as much time out in the city as I could, so I didn’t spend time in the hotel bars, or use the gym or the pool or even make use of the concierge. Is it a decent hotel? Yes, the staff was generally friendly even if they couldn’t grant me my wish of an upgrade. The only “real” service failure that I did experience was the wait for my bag to be delivered to my room after I checked in. It took nearly an hour for my bag to be delivered, and that even included me calling down to the front desk to inquire about where my bag was about 30 minutes in to waiting. What I think happened is that my bag must have been delivered to another room that did not have a guest in it yet (or that they were away). Also on that first night, when I got back to my room late after spending the night drinking and celebrating my birthday, I found a piece of cake waiting for me in my room. I wasn’t sure if they had did it because of it being my birthday or as an attempt at a service recovery on the suitcase or what. It didn’t really matter why, but it was appreciated. Especially after drinking as much as I did that night.

Overall, the W Santiago is a solid hotel, but it wasn’t good enough that I could call it one of my favorite hotels. Would I stay here again? Sure; although if they were charging $400/night for a paid stay and I didn’t have any points to use, I might think twice. Location is fantastic, and it is a nice property, but I don’t think I would pay that much per night for a very standard Wonderful room. Although there are better redemption options out there for Starpoints, I think that would be my currency of choice at this hotel. Or who knows maybe next time I will try the Sheraton or the San Cristobal Tower.

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Way Down South: Four Points by Sheraton Santiago

By Robert | Published August 3, 2014

Introduction
As I have mentioned in the previous two posts, Delta managed to throw the start of my trip into complete disarray with a 24 hour misconnect thanks to a mechanical delay. That meant instead of my planned night in Valdivia (I did have a reservation at the Hostel Bosque Nativo, if anyone is interested), I had to on the fly look for other options, including adding a night to my stay in Santiago at the last minute.

My first instinct was to try to just add on a night at the W Santiago, but upon plugging in the date, I got a rate that I really did not want to pay. So off I was looking for my options. Hilton apparently only had a hotel out by the airport (terrible idea), but Starwood had at least some other options. Not looking to spend a fortune after being out of an airline ticket, hotel reservation, and a hotel the night before in Atlanta, I found my best option: The Four Points by Sheraton Santiago. At only $134 for the night, it wouldn’t make too much of a dent in my wallet and put me in an accessible and decent area of Santiago (although not upscale like the area around the W).

Arrival
I had the car service that I hired from the airport bring me directly into the city to the hotel. The time was early, probably about 8AM and on a weekend, so there was very little traffic on the highway. If I had to guess, it took no more than 30 minutes to make the drive. I can only assume that during rush hour this would become bumper to bumper take much longer (gee…you think?!)

On The Way To The Hotel

Pulling up to the hotel, it definitely wasn’t busy. There was another car that was unloading passengers who had also been in Business Class on my flight, so I figured that meant I had picked the “right” hotel. Once inside I approached the front desk and started running through the formalities with the agent on duty.

Now, I was checking in pretty early with it being probably about 9AM at this point, and that means that sometimes you cannot check in. Usually the case of someone already occupying the room and/or still needs to be clean, but often when a room is available even being that early I have found hotels more than willing to let me check in at a much earlier time than usual. This hotel however took a different approach. They had a room ready for me and I could check in early…if I paid an $80 fee to do so.

Normally in this case I think I would have opted to stow my bag for free and come back later in the day. However, after having worn the same clothes for now going on the third day, I just couldn’t. Perhaps they saw that (or smelled…ha!) and knew that I would be willing to pay to be able to take a shower and finally get a clean set of clothes on. I authorized the additional $80 charge to my credit card and received my key to my room.

I had booked the cheapest room available online, which was a standard “Deluxe” room; by virtue of paying the early check in fee, the agent informed me that I had been upgraded to a Corner Suite. Now I wasn’t expecting anything fancy, but I always like hearing the word “suite” when checking into a hotel…

The Room
Let me start out by saying that a Corner Suite is hardly what I would call a suite. Hotels like to play games with room names and this was a great example of that. This ‘suite’ was nothing more than a large corner room without separate sleeping and living areas. Fine as an upgrade (or being upcharged to check in early), but if I had booked this particular room online and was expecting a suite, I would have been unhappy. Heck it didn’t even have a couch.

In the room I did find a large King Bed, ample closet space, a couple of chairs and a desk along with a decent sized TV in front of one of the windows. All pretty standard stuff. Being a corner room, it did have windows next to the bed which looked out to the adjacent buildings. However, out the window behind the TV (and what you look out when lying in bed), gives you a view looking across the river to the hills of the Santiago Metropolitan Park. It was actually a pretty decent view; certainly much nicer compared to my view from the W Santiago.

View From The Room

Corner Suite – King Bed

Corner Suite – TV

As for the bathroom, it was a little outdated and cramped. I could see some people having issues with the tub/shower, but otherwise it had nice hot water with decent water pressure. After my flight that was something that I appreciated very much. There was also a window that you could crack open a bit as well, which I admittedly did do a couple of times while showering just to let the fresh cool air in. Unfortunately it is also a frosted glass window so you can’t get a great view of the hills across the river as you stand there and ponder as the hot water hits you.

Corner Suite – Bathroom

Corner Suite – Shower

Hotel Features/Services
Admittedly, I did not use many of the hotel’s features. There is a rooftop pool (which looks nice enough from the pictures online) as well as a restaurant and bar located in the lobby. As for the bar, I did enjoy one beverage there, as I was given a voucher for a free beer. Apparently on most nights that translated into whatever local cheap beer, but since they were out they did offer me free reign of the beer selection. I went with a selection from Cerveza Kunstmann, which is where I had planned to be that day in Valdivia had Delta not caused me a delay. The bar staff (there was two of them) seemed decent enough and friendly so there’s that. I didn’t see anyone eating though in the restaurant portion.

When I came down from shower and changing clothes, I figured I would get a map from the front desk. The front desk agent who checked me in handed me a map and started to mark out several of the points of interest, but she seemed more apt to point out things like shopping malls. Not exactly why I came to Santiago and once it was clear there was a bit of a language barrier when I started asking about other places, I excused myself and went about on my way. Really that was my only issue with the staff at this hotel (and yes, I realize I was in a Spanish-speaking country, but she did have a UK flag on her name tag), so I can’t complain there.

Area Near The Hotel

Conclusion
By the time I completed my one night stay here at the hotel, I can’t say that I walked away feeling wowed. The upcharge to check in early was a bit of a surprise which didn’t put the stay off on the right foot. It’s not like they are going to sell that room since I’m checking in one way or the other, so I felt that was in poor taste for an elite guest. However, I do recognize that early check in is never guaranteed and that the hotel is free to do this as they see fit…I just wish it had not been the case given my circumstance. While the hotel’s décor was dated and in a definite need of a refresh, but at the same time it wasn’t a dirty hotel by any means. Is it a decent place to use as a base camp to explore a city? Yes. It serves as a great “base camp” if your goal is to spend as little time in the hotel as possible; is very accessible to the city’s subway system (just a few blocks away) and adjacent to many different bars and restaurants. Sometimes that can make up for other shortcomings of a property and that was how I felt about this property.

The Four Points by Sheraton Santiago isn’t a luxury hotel, but it would be more than sufficient to use a base of operations in exploring the city at a reasonable price. Really the big selling point of this hotel is an accessible location.

Let’s face it, you don’t need a fancy hotel when all you are doing is sleeping there.

Posted in Hotels, South America, SPG, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Way Down South: Delta Business Elite ECP-ATL-SCL

By Robert | Published July 30, 2014

Departure
I had purposefully booked a Friday evening flight having decided that I wanted to minimize my time off from work, while attempting to maximize time on my vacation. That meant booking the 6:00PM flight from Panama City, which gave me an over 2.5 hour layover in Atlanta. That is usually more than enough to make a connection and I figured I could go and grab a shower while winding down from the day before I got on my flight to Santiago. As I left work and made my way towards the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, it looked like everything was going to be on-time; even traffic was not being too much of a challenge. Little did I know that soon things were not going to be so well.

Delta Air Lines #2566
Panama City, FL (ECP) to Atlanta, GA (ATL)
Friday, May 2, 2014
Depart: ~~6:00PM~~ 8:52PM Arrive: ~~8:09PM~~ 10:31PM
Aircraft: Boeing 717 Seat: 2B (First)

Yep. Flight delays. Sometimes they are just unavoidable; I do live in the Southeastern US and during the summer it isn’t unexpected for there to be inclement weather in the afternoons. Today, however, there was no inclement weather. When I arrived at the airport to check in and drop my bag off, I noticed immediately that it looked like there would be a delay on my flight. Knowing that I had a pretty decent layover though, I didn’t sweat it too much. The agents said that there was a mechanical issue being reported and my track record even with mechanical delays on average was pretty good. Perhaps an hour or two behind, but nothing to sweat too much. So, in order to pass the time, I wound up grabbing a small snack from the restaurant past security and then actually wound up meeting a former co-worker who happened to be flying on Southwest that night up to Nashville.

Unfortunately, the delay kept growing and growing and I watched as my more than ample 2.5 hour layover eroded. By the time it reached 8PM, I was very worried and called Delta, where the agent on the Platinum Medallion line while sympathetic, said there was nothing that could be done. There is one flight a day to Santiago from Atlanta and that my best chance for tonight was to hope that somehow a miniscule amount of time would be made up and that I run, run, run to my connecting flight once in Atlanta.

There Wasn’t Much Hope…

As for the flight, it was your standard short-haul First Class service.

Eventually we would get under way almost three hours late at 8:52PM. There was a slim chance that I would make my connection as the flight to Santiago departed at 10:41 and my arrival was slated to be about 10 minutes earlier at 10:31PM. As soon as we parked at the gate in Atlanta I knew that I would have to run like I’ve never run before. I ran down Concourse C as fast as I possibly could all while gripping my messenger bag furiously. I made it to Concourse E ridiculously quick and as I reached the gate, I learned my fate: my connecting flight was gone.

I’m not going to lie, expletives flew from my mouth at first. I’ve never had a misconnect this bad and this was going to be a major set back to my trip. Immediately, I went to the service counter at the center of Concourse E to speak to an agent after I had calmed down. Unfortunately, the agent at the counter who called me over was not exactly the most helpful or understanding. She rebooked me on the flight the next day, but more or less refused to even look for any other potential routings on any other airlines. Honestly, it was poor customer service and she barely apologized, but gave me a boarding pass for tomorrow and a hotel voucher for a Courtyard Hotel near the airport. Seeing as it was a futile effort with that agent I made my way to the Concourse F Sky Club. There I found a fantastically helpful agent.

She worked tirelessly to try to find me an alternate routing that would get me there sooner the same day. Unfortunately, the one option that would, which would go MIA-CUN-SCL on LAN Chile, but she couldn’t get me to Miami in time to make that flight. She kept looking and found space into Lima, Peru and connecting on LAN Chile, leaving ATL the next day at ~5:30PM and getting to Santiago at ~4:00AM. That would still result in me having to spend most of the day in Atlanta and only get me to Santiago a few hours earlier than my originally rebooked flight. With those prospects, I resigned to the fact that I would be staying in Atlanta for the day.

Unfortunately this delay meant more than just missing my flight to Santiago. As I briefly discussed in my previous post, I had plans to visit Valdivia, Chile having booked a flight on Sky Airline for departure on Saturday morning and a hotel booked for the single night in Valdivia. I had not yet booked a car rental, thankfully, as I had to start working on cancelling those arrangements and start working on my Plan B. Unfortunately, I lost the value of my Santiago-Valdivia ticket and the hotel I had booked. Since I was now going to have one fewer night, I looked for alternate scenarios and although I could have tried to just go somewhere closer into Santiago, I opted instead for booking a hotel in Santiago for that first night and deciding to just spend some extra time in the Chilean capital.

A Day In Atlanta
With defeat guaranteed, I decided that I would have to make the most of my time in Atlanta. Instead of spending the entire day at an Airport Courtyard hotel, I turned down Delta’s hotel offer and headed into Midtown Atlanta. Instead I would stay at the W Atlanta – Midtown. Unfortunately that was at a rate of $175 for that night, but in an effort to reclaim my vacation I was willing to pay that. I won’t go into reviewing the hotel, as my stay wasn’t any different then when I last visited over the 4th of July weekend in 2013. Basically I chose this hotel due to familiarity and I’ve know the Midtown area of Atlanta the best. Not a bad Experience.

The next morning after I woke up (admittedly late, since I didn’t get to the hotel until after midnight), I went for a stroll through the neighborhood in search of Breakfast. Although I am told that I should have gone somewhere else, I sat down at the Flying Biscuit Café, and had what I thought was a decent meal. After that it was time for a stroll through Piedmont Park, including the weekend farmers market. Not that I was going to buy anything, but it was a beautiful day out. I continued my stroll around town and eventually settled down for a late lunch and a pint at Cypress Street Pint & Plate.

Piedmont Park Farmers Market

The only downside to this whole day in Atlanta? Because I had checked my bag to Santiago, I did not have a clean change of clothes. Luckily I had at least a change of socks and underwear in my bag, otherwise that would have been miserable.

As I had a 4PM late check out due to my SPG Gold status, I figured that would make for a good time to start making my way back to the airport. With MARTA taking about an hour and a half to get me there, it meant I would find myself having to kill about 4.5 hours at the Sky Club. Since I had that amount of time, I figured I would take the shuttle from the airport station over to the International Terminal (Concourse F), so I could finally check out the landside portion.

Despite the fact that my flight was from Concourse E tonight, I definitely prefer the Concourse F Sky Club over all the others in Atlanta (although Concourse E’s is probably my second favorite as it never seems to be busy whenever I use it – I recognize that some might balk at this), which I think is what most would say from an amenities standpoint. I couldn’t think of anything better than relaxing on the Sky Deck with an adult beverage in my hand as I watched the sun set. And when I had enough of that I started to focus my time on my last minute re-planning of my time in Santiago. As it got closer to my flight I made my way over to Concourse E, but made sure to leave to get to the gate just in time for boarding and skip the Concourse E Sky Club. Luckily tonight, I would make the flight!

Spending My Afternoon Outside On The “Sky Deck”

The Best Part? It’s Watching The Planes Of Course! Oh, And The Sunset Too…

Figured That I Would Walk Between Concourses And Stretch My Legs

Delta Air Lines #147
Atlanta, GA (ATL) to Santiago, Chile (SCL)
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Depart: 10:41PM Arrive: 8:15AM
Aircraft: Boeing 767 Seat: 5A (Business Elite)

It had been a while since I had last flown on an actual Business Elite segment, having opted to fly paid coach to Hong Kong in November; that meant my last time internationally was my trip to Europe at the end of 2012. At that time not all of Delta’s international fleet had lie-flay beds in Business, but by now, they had all been upgraded. That meant my flight on the 767 tonight would be in one of my favorite seats: an odd-numbered ‘A’ seat. Given the configuration of the seats on Delta’s 767s it really gives an element of privacy thanks to the staggered setup. The only downside to the 767 is that the passenger loading door is 1L, therefore every passenger in Economy winds up walking past.

I quickly reached seat 5A, my home for the next 9 hours and started to settle in. It wasn’t long before one of the Flight Attendants came around and offered me a pre-departure beverage. With this being in Business Class, that meant a standard offering of champagne (technically Sparkling Wine) from the tray or of course anything else if you so fancy. However, if there is one time I drink champagne it’s when I am flying in Business Class, and I wasn’t going to stop now.

Don’t Mind If I Do…

As all the Economy passengers started to make their way past, I went ahead and started to get settled in for the long haul. Usually that means going ahead and getting my various devices and chargers out and enjoying my last few moments of connectivity before they close the boarding door. Luckily, thanks to the recent change in rules for personal electronic devices at least I could listen to music from the moment we pushed back to the moment at which they enabled the inflight entertainment. With an on time departure, we were up in the air in no time.

The Flight Attendants wasted no time and getting the service started once we were at our cruise altitude. Which on these overnight flights is always appreciated, so that one can eat and get to sleep as quick as possible. Service was overall was pretty good and met the expectations one has for service in Business Elite. Not long after getting the place mat placed on to my tray table and my drink order filled, it was time for the first course. On tonight’s flight, I admit it was one I wasn’t overly fond of: A cold cauliflower and meat plate with a cream sauce…well perhaps just the cauliflower part of it. I know it’s childish, but I’ll be damned if I can’t do that or whole Broccoli. They’re like miniature trees!

First Course

I got as far as I could with the cauliflower, and signaled my defeat to the Flight Attendant. Luckily, they brought me the second course pretty quickly afterwards. I have to say, of my small handful of Business Elite flights and many domestic First Class flights, most meals seem to have had very little thought in presentation. But, I have to say for the salad on tonight’s flight it seemed like presentation was paramount. I mean, it wasn’t just a collection of shreds of lettuce; you can see what I mean in the photo below. Topped with a little ranch dressing and along with the soup and my pretzel roll, it made for a good start.

Pretty Basic, But Definitely Got Points For Presentation!

For the main course, I had opted to go with the beef. I’ve had decent luck ordering the beef/steak options before in Business Elite and tonight’s seemed to continue the trend with the beef not being overcooked and the sauce not overpowering. On the side it was served with potatoes and spinach with cream, both of which were decent.

Main Course

It took a while after being cleared of my main course for the dessert cart to make the rounds, and ultimately I went with the choice of an ice cream sundae. There was also the other standard offering of the fruit and cheese plate, but I can’t bring myself to not have a ice cream on a plane. Especially when they make the sundae to order right at your seat! Unfortunately for whatever reason they didn’t have any whipped cream, but I did manage to top it with nuts and caramel with a pirouline cookie on the side. The only downside with going the ice cream route is that often the Flight Attendants don’t let the ice cream thaw out a bit before serving. That meant I pretty much had a rock for a bit as I slowly scooped off a bit here and there. Either way, I still enjoy this novelty of sorts…it just does not get old.

A Proper Meal Always Includes Dessert

As soon as I was done with desert, it was time to try to get some shut eye. Although Delta had rolled out the “improved” Westin Heavenly Inflight Bedding in Business Elite almost a year prior (or maybe a little more), since I had not flown in Business since 2012 internationally I had not yet the opportunity to try it out. I was psyched because as an SPG Gold member I know that Westin has some pretty comfortable bedding and really was interested in how that would translate into the sky. Included in the bedding kit was a comforter/duvet and a large pillow – pretty much what was offered in Business Elite in the past. In fact, unless they made some slight material adjustments, it was pretty much what I remember the previous bedding materials being like. In short, it didn’t stand out. However, I did get my seat into the fully reclined mode after changing into a t-shirt and shorts and cozied up under the blanket hoping to get a few hours of sleep.

I got at least a solid three hours of sleep with a few hours here and there where I couldn’t quite stay asleep. I definitely do better in my attempts to sleep in Business Class, but since I don’t generally fall asleep quickly in the first place, it can sometimes be even more difficult to do it on a plane.

When I woke up I cracked open my window shade and saw the sun starting to rise. Breakfast was about to be served, of which, I apparently took no photos of nor can I remember what it was. Just that there was the usual choice between a hot and cold option. I went with the hot option, which if I were to guess was probably an omelet.

Arrival
Our arrival into Santiago was on time, if not slightly early. The sun had appeared to only risen a short time before, covering the land in that warm morning light. With no delays getting to our gate and opening the aircraft door, I made my way into the terminal and stepped foot on my fifth continent to date and 18th country. Clearing Immigration was relatively painless although there was a slight language barrier between me and the officer however. At the very least, since I was in Business Class I was at the front of the line.

Another Page Filled!

Even better was that at baggage claim, was my suitcase I had checked back in Panama City two days earlier! Considering that both Delta’s app and the agent at the Sky Club in Atlanta could not tell me with certainty that my bag had been rerouted and loaded onboard the aircraft, I was slightly skeptical after it having spent the past 24 hours in Atlanta. Curiously though, when it had been re-tagged for this flight, they had actually tagged it all the way to Buenos Aires on my connecting KLM flight three four days later. I guess I should be partially lucky it didn’t wind up in some sort of luggage purgatory.

I Was Extremely Happy To Get My Bag And Clean Clothes

With bag in hand and having made it through the quarantine checkpoint with no issues, it was out into the arrivals hall which was just crowded with people! Pretty much all were there it seemed to try to sell you a ride, but in the interest of not being “taken for a ride”, I approached one of the car service counters and secured a car into Santiago for my first hotel of the trip, the Four Points by Sheraton Santiago.

Conclusion
So what did I think about my flights on my way down to Chile? Well, I would be lying if I said I was little disappointed with the 24 hour delay. With it being a mechanical failure, that placed the delay squarely in Delta’s court. And then there was the agent in Atlanta in Concourse E who was less than helpful; but the agent in the Sky Club made up for that by proving to be helpful, even if the desired result of getting me to Santiago with a lesser delay turned out not to be possible. In terms of the delay and unexpected day in Atlanta? Well, I made the best of that and did what I could to reclaim the lost part of my vacation. It wasn’t ideal, but you know I could have been in a terrible mood the entire time, but that’s not how I approached it. As for the flight to Santiago, the service was what I have come to expect when flying in Business Elite. While the Flight Attendants didn’t go above and beyond, they delivered a consistent service that didn’t disappoint. I’m not trying to say that this is a terrible thing, as it’s great getting consistent service, especially in the premium cabin, instead of service that widely fluctuates from flight to flight. Luckily Delta is pretty good at that!

Posted in Delta, South America, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Way Down South: An Adventure to South America

By Robert | Published July 27, 2014

Introduction
Almost immediately after returning from my trip in November/December to Hong Kong and Macau, I started plotting my next adventure. With how I knew the next year was going to be at work, I realized that the last chance for me to realistically take a full week or so off for a vacation would be around the May timeframe. If I didn’t take a week off by that point, it would be feasible that I wouldn’t be able to take a week off until the some point in the spring of 2015. Now I just couldn’t let that stand; there was 1.5 years between my trips to Japan and Christmas time in Europe and that was just too long for me to go without going overseas for a week. I knew I had to do something…plus my birthday is in May.

Also, Delta was raising the costs of many Business Class awards on 6/1/2014, so I knew I should get somewhere in Business Class before that happened.

So once again, it was back to the planning board to see what I could come up with. Naturally, the first runner up idea from last year became one of the options again: South America. The airfares in coach were decent, but trying to find Business Class award seats was being very difficult and that’s on top of the already high number of miles required to fly there. Unfortunately, that would kick Africa out of the running this time, and that’s despite having a full trip planned out from my previous research/planning.

So where did that leave me? Well Europe and South America were the two that were seeing low Business Class awards going up from 100,000 SkyMiles to 120,000 SkyMiles. Since I’ve been to Europe a handful of times and have never been to South America, the choice was clear.

Planning
I think there is one thing that all Delta frequent flyers or even just casual SkyMiles members can attest to: redeeming miles at the low levels or on partners can be a difficult and arduous task. The amount of work that goes into doing all of the research along with the tools that you need to effectively search (KVS Tool and ExpertFlyer) for those award buckets is definitely an investment. I won’t lie that I probably put in at least an equivalent of a full work week (40 hours) in order to find flights and then ultimately get them booked. That’s SkyMiles for you.

I had to be super-flexible in looking for destinations in South America where I could get to/from on Delta metal in BusinessElite. I figured that as long as I could get tickets to/from any of those, I could rely on Delta’s two South American partners, GOL and Aerolineas Argentinas, to get me the rest of the way. Of course there is the other option too, Aeromexico through Mexico City, that I also tried to use. In fact according to Alaska Airlines award search functionality I had found space on EZE-MEX-ATL available, but for whatever reason Delta told me there were no seats available. Perhaps Delta was blocking certain Aeromexico award space or perhaps Aeromexico likes to release more award space to non-SkyTeam airlines like Alaska versus SkyTeam partners like Delta. That’s a question, I don’t know the answer to, and it somewhat bums me out, as I wanted to try to get as many new airlines and Business Class experiences as possible on this journey.

While that was a fail, I still lucked out. There was low level award space in First and Business Elite ECP-ATL-SCL and GRU-ATL-ECP on dates that I wanted on Delta metal. Since Santiago and Buenos Aires were my two primary places to visit, I just had to work out flights between the two and up to Sao Paulo, Brazil. But the hard part was finding the Delta seats, and the other flights were much easier to get my hands on. Luckily, KLM flies from SCL-EZE (which then continues on to AMS) and had plenty of available award space in World Business Class (there were also Aerolineas Argentinas Flights, but I needed a reason to get another Delft House). Additionally, Brazilian carrier and Delta partner GOL had plenty of space in coach from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo, so that took care of that. Although I wasn’t excited for a coach leg, being Platinum meant that I could keep looking for alternate routes such as EZE-ATL or hope that Business (“Club Economy”) on Aerolineas Argentinas would open up. Luckily that happened and I was able to switch from my GOL flight.

In the end I would be flying the following:
Delta First and Business Elite ECP-ATL-SCL
KLM World Business Class SCL-EZE
Aerolienas Argentinas AEP-GRU
Delta Business Elite and First GRU-ATL-ECP

The Final Itinerary (Not Counting Ushuaia Flights)

Even with that booked, I had wanted to get some other flights within South America as well, although because that award space quickly came and went and never opened back up, making a change to my ticket was going to be out of the question. Plus for Chile, Delta does not have any domestic partners.

I knew I didn’t want to spend the entire time in Santiago and wanted to see a different part of the country. I settled on the area around Valdivia and figured I would rent a car (funny thing – I was planning to rent a manual transmission vehicle and had never driven one before) and spend a day driving around, visiting a brewery, get some hiking in, check out the coast and maybe a natural hot spring. With a $150 ticket one-way on Sky Airline I planned on flying down a few hours after landing and then making my way back a few nights later by overnight bus to get the full South America experience (and save a few bucks on a night in a hotel!). Well, sometimes good plans don’t work out…not for any spoilers, but you’ll see in my next post following this one.

Additionally, I knew I wanted to visit Ushuaia, mostly because I wanted to see Penguins oh so very badly. Turns out that I would be missing “Penguin Season” by like a month, but I still figured I should visit the “Southernmost City In the World” (realizing that there is still a “town” slightly further south of Ushuaia on the Chilean side of the Beagle Channel). With having been to the Northernmost City in the US (Barrow, Alaska) back in 2012, it seemed fitting to have stood at more or less the top and the bottom of the Americas. Plus you never know what the future will hold, and I might not get an opportunity to come back to Ushuaia – especially if I were to have to pay cash for a ticket versus using miles. Just like Barrow, it can be very expensive to fly to, but with SkyMiles it’s super affordable.

Going to Ushuaia meant flying on Aerolineas Argentinas, of which I planned to fly in Economy for only 20,000 SkyMiles. However during my planning out of that part of my trip, Delta bumped up intra-South America flights to 25,000 SkyMiles in Economy and 40,000 SkyMiles for First/Business, meaning that it now mirrored the Domestic-US award chart. I kick myself for not booking earlier, and then on top of that I decided that I would go for a split Business/Economy award for 32,500 SkyMiles. Might as well try out both classes of service on a “mainline” AR flight (my AEP-GRU flight would be on their regional partner, Austral).

Buenos Aires – Ushuaia Flights

Final Map Of Flights Taken – Notice How Valdivia Is Missing?

With all the flights booked and locked in, it was time to start looking at hotels. Between my Hilton HHonors Diamond status and SPG Gold status it would give me a good range of properties to try out, including the W Santiago. All were booked pretty easily with a mixture of paid night and award nights, helping to drive the cost of the trip down. The fun part though? Having to book one of those hotels at the very last minute thanks to Delta. You’ll see how that worked out in the next few posts.

As for what to see/do/eat/drink for my trip, I decided to take the same approach I did with my trip from Hong Kong and Macau and started developing lists in Foursquare. This proved to be super handy on that trip and once again it proved handy for this trip as well, even if I had not put nearly as much into the lists in advance. Now that there is a new Foursquare app upon us after the split into local search and check-in only Swarm, we shall see if it continues to be useful for this purpose. If it interests you, you can check out my two lists on Foursquare here: Places to Check Out in Chile and Places to Check Out in Argentina.

With all my planning done, the start of my trip was soon upon me. In my next post I’ll cover the start of my trip and my long journey down to Santiago in Delta’s Business Elite. Until then, enjoy a few snapshots of the story to come!

Posted in South America, Travel, Trip Report | Leave a comment

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