Flight Review: Madrid (MAD) – Frankfurt (FRA) in mid 2016

Carrier: Latam, Boeing 787 (Dreamliner) Business Class
Flight Duration: 2h 30m

In september 2016 a friend and I decided to go on a weekend-trip to Madrid. We chose to fly Latam (former Lan) , which is by the way the only airline serving this route with one of their fairly new Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Latam offers incredibly competitive Business Class fares for especially this exact routing -we paid roughly 200 Euros each for a roundtrip- and is also the only airline to do so by using a longhaul aircraft, a fairly new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Those offers seem to be available because Latam continues flying out from Madrid to Santiago de Chile just an hour after coming in from Frankfurt. So the airline maximizes capacity on their daily FRA-MAD and MAD-FRA flights by offering very cheap Economy Class and Business Class roundtrips, which we took advantage of.

The flight from Madrid to Frankfurt usually departs at around 2pm, so we went to the airport 2 hours before departure to grab some lunch in the lounge. Latam Business Class passengers and Oneworld Sapphire members are given access to the Iberia Lounge in the Sattelite Terminal (T4S) of Barajas Airport, which is the non-Schengen Area of T4. Although we haven’t had any trouble checking in, we noticed that we should have come a little earlier to fully enjoy and relax at the lounge. The Sattelite Terminal can only be reached by a skytrain and there is quite a distance to walk to reach your departure gate if you’re unlucky. So in the end we had a not very relaxing 20-minutes stay at the Iberia Lounge to grab some food and beverages before we left for our flight back to Frankfurt.

Passengers flying from Frankfurt to Madrid are given acces to the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge.

Iberia Lounge T4S seating area Madrid Barajas Airport

Although the lounge was filled with many transiting passengers, there was still plenty of sitting space left for us. The buffet offered a variety of cold and hot dishes, right next to the buffet was an open fridge with many non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages (mostly beers). Unfortunately we weren’t able to fully enjoy our lounge visit and left after having a small lunch. Well, at least we took an ice cream dessert to-go each, right before leaving for our gate, which was something!

Complimentary Ice Cream at Iberia Lounge T4S

After rushing to our departure gate – while eating our Ice Cream, we must have looked way too funny –  we found ourselves being the last passengers to board the aircraft.

Business Class on Latam’s 787 Dreamliner features a  2-2-2 lieflat seat configuration, which are great when flying with a friend or partner. Due to the fact that all windowseats do not have direct aisle acces and therefore limited privacy, they may not be the favorable option for passengers traveling by themselves. We chose to sit in 2A and 2C, which are a window- and an aisleseat right next to each other.

Latam Business Class seats on 787 Dreamliner

Latam Business Class lieflat seat on 787 Dreamliner

The seats are spacious and convert into a fully lieflat bed with the option of getting bedding and a nice blanket from your flightattendant, which we obviously didn’t need to use on our roughly 2,5h flight to Frankfurt. But I can imagine it being a very comfortable spot to sleep on a 10 hour redeye-flight from Madrid to Santiago de Chile.

We definitely enjoyed the view through the much larger 787 windows during our flight though, which by the way don’t have classical windowshades anymore but some built-in hightech glasses which darken by pressing a button under the windows.

Windows on 787 Dreamliner

Sunset view while aircraft is tilted to the right (FRA-MAD flight)

An inflight meal, declared as “snack”, was served about an hour after take off. As you can see, the meal included european bread with butter, beef carpaccio served cold on a plate with salad, olive oil, some sort of salsa sauce and a chocolate cake for dessert. It was a delicious gourmet snack we both really enjoyed.

Latam Business Class inflight meal MAD-FRA

 

Bottom Line:
Overall, flying Business Class on Latam’s 787 Dreamliner was a unique experience that doesn’t break the bank. I definitely recommend it, especially on this route which is usually flown on shorthaul aircrafts like the 737 or A320 by other airlines. In Addition to this fact comes that those Latam Economy and Business Class fares are incredibly competitive.

So why fly intra-european Business Class on an A320, which we all know are basically Economy Class seats in the front of the plane combined with Business Class service, when you can have the “real” Business Class experience for the same price or sometimes even less money?