Background and Booking
After flying LATAM from New York to Lima, we booked a short flight to Cuzco on a LATAM A320 so we could then make our way by car & train to Aguas Calientes for our Machu Picchu visit. The flight was scheduled for 1 hour and 25 minutes.
LATAM, SKY and JetSMART all serve the Lima to Cuzco route. LATAM has the most frequencies and is the most reliable of the bunch, so not wanting to risk our planned schedule, we decided to book with LATAM despite the cost being higher than the other two carriers. Our tickets cost approximately $170 per passenger, which included a carry-on bag. We tried SKY on our return and had a pretty decent experience as well.
We baked in a little less than 5 hours since we were on a self-connection and not ticketed as one. So, we booked two hours at the Sleepover, which was nice to take a nap.
Check-In & At the Airport
48 hours before the flight, I saw on our reservation that my party of 3 was assigned seats together in row 20 out of 30, which was totally fine with me.
After booking and until check-in, seat selection started at approximately $15 if you didn’t want to risk being randomly allocated. I also received an email that you could bid for an upgrade to Premium Economy, starting at $10 per ticket for the lowest bid. We opted not to, as we already got seats assigned next to one another.
Lima’s Airport is new, and the common areas feel modern. Unfortunately, since we were flying domestically, we were not able to access the Club at Lima. There are currently no lounges on the domestic side of the airport, but that is supposed to change later this year. On the plus side, there are numerous shops and restaurants on the domestic side.
Boarding
I was tracking this flight on FlightAware, and it looked like our inbound plane was going to be about 15 minutes late, and they only had 40 minutes in between arrival & departure, so now that was dropped to 25 minutes.
We hung out around the gate, and they didn’t really delay or give any announcements; it just kept saying wait at the gate. They said that due to a fuller flight, all guests in groups 4 and 5 would need to gate check their carry-on bags free of charge, unfortunately, but it was alright, and they actually came up to you and printed the bag tag on the spot, rather than us having to queue at the desk, which made it more seamless.
Boarding ended up starting 10 minutes before our scheduled departure time.
The Plane
Our Airbus A320 was 12 years old and had a 3-3 configuration, with the first 3 rows in Premium Economy, where the middle seat is blocked off.
Legroom was decent, and USB-A plugs were available. AeroLOPA states that a majority of the cabin, rows 13 to 30, offer 28″ of pitch. Yet, rows 6 to 10 offer 30″ of pitch.
Despite my widebody Boeing 767 not having Wi-Fi, the Airbus A320 I flew on for this domestic flight was equipped with Wi-Fi. LATAM Play is available, where you can stream movies, TV shows, and music to your device. There is free Messaging for all LATAM Pass Members and free browsing for elite members. You could buy a messaging pass for $2 USD, 1 hour of browsing for $5, or 1 hour of streaming for $9.
After reaching cruising altitude, they had a water service that came with a chocolate bar, which was appreciated.
The flight went by quite quickly, and we ended up arriving at our gate just 5 minutes behind schedule.
The Verdict
Overall, the LATAM A320 economy experience was perfectly fine for a short one-hour hop.
Have you flown on the LATAM A320 in economy? What were your thoughts? Comment below!
Cheers,
Ty
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