LATAM goes daily from Sydney, Melbourne restart revealed
The Chilean carrier is making up for lost time, with non-stop flights from Melbourne launching in the new year.
By Chris Ashton, December 7 2022
LATAM Airlines is boosting its Sydney to Santiago via Auckland for the second time this year, with its now daily service opening up even more opportunities for Australians to discover the history and culture of South America.
Initially returning three times a week in March following a two year break, and later ramping up to five times weekly in July, the new daily Boeing 787 connection unlocks over 120 destinations including Buenos Aires, Lima and Rio De Janeiro.
Though LATAM enjoyed a brief monopoly on the Sydney-Santiago corridor, Qantas’ October restart – following a 30-month hiatus – reintroduced some competition on the trans-Pacific hop.
In addition, it’s been revealed non-stop flights between Melbourne and Santiago will make a long awaited return thrice weekly from July 17.
LATAM's Boeing 787 business class.
Premium passengers on LATAM’s Dreamliner enjoy a stylish lie-flat business class with mod cons including direct aisle access, a wide console for keeping laptops and other items at hand, and a shelf where that kit can be tucked out of the way until needed.
Sydney-Santiago schedule:
- LA800 sees wheels up at 11:35am each day, stopping in Auckland at 4:40pm before continuing across the Pacific and arriving into the Chilean capital at 1:40pm
- LA801 takes off at 12:40am, briefly touching down in the City of Sails at 5:15am, and then landing in Sydney just in time for a late breakfast at 9:35am
Melbourne-Santiago schedule:
- LA804 will jet off from Melbourne at 12:25pm every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, arriving into Santiago at 11:20am the same day
- LA805 leaves Santiago at 12:55am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday before descending into Melbourne at 5:30am a day later
In Santiago, travellers will find a city brimming with artistic and cultural delights, from the historic Plaza de Armas main square – home to impressive monuments such as the Metropolitan Cathedral – to the bohemian Bellavista neighbourhood.
LATAM's new-look Santiago lounge is almost double the size of its predecessor.
Chris Ellis, Country Manager Oceania for LATAM, says the airline is excited to “finally be operating daily services to Santiago, the gateway to LATAM’s network of more than 120 destinations in Latin America and 144 destinations around the world.”
“We know that there is huge interest in travelling to South America and we are happy to open the opportunity for more and more travellers to experience the wonders this part of the world has to offer. From adventure to luxury travel, cruising to trains, Latin America with all of its culture, food, wine and beautiful scenery has something for everyone,” Ellis adds.
Earlier this year, LATAM opened the largest airport lounge in South America, with the 4,000sqm space – which is actually three lounges in one – almost doubling the the size of the VIP sanctuary.
22 Jun 2022
Total posts 5
Flew SYD-AKL in July this year in J, never again. Shortly after a delayed takeoff, I asked for a sparkling water and was told to wait for meal service. 1.5 hours after take-off I finally got the sparkling water that I asked for. The meal was mediocre at best, with no drinks replenishment. Crew disappeared into the gally after meal service and was not seen again until minutes prior to landing.
No thank you! I’d rather fly via US or the Middle East to get to South America than flying this mob.
BAEC
10 Jul 2019
Total posts 17
Flew AKL - SCL a couple of weeks ago in J with LATAM having connected from QF in J (A330) from SYD, no problems with LATAM, did what they said on the tin. Timely and efficient service. No real complaints. Got us to SCL well fed and rested.
30 Jan 2015
Total posts 25
Have they committed to deploying 787s with the updated 1-2-1 business cabins by a certain date? Last I heard they were still using the old ones, and the seat map on their page for a speculative booking is showing 2-2-2.
24 Mar 2015
Total posts 19
My best ever vegan breakfast onboard a flight was served on LATAM AKL - SYD in business class, service was great, would do it all again in a heartbeat.
09 Nov 2018
Total posts 7
Flew LATAM economy to Santiago in November. The staff were friendly, but the food was subpar in terms of quality and size. Entertainment options were distinctly average as well.
Came back on the Qantas direct service which had much better catering and entertainment. Would use Qantas where possible in the future.
Be careful when flying LATAM on a Qantas ticket. On the return flight we couldn't check in online for the domestic LATAM flight to Santiago connecting to the international flight because the booking reference is not the same as the Qantas one. On airport check-in two hours before the flight we were put on standby because the flight was full and LATAM said we hadn't checked in online.
27 Mar 2019
Total posts 36
Too late for you now obviously, but for future reference you can call up and get the other PNR - the QF PNR is the Amadeus booking reference and the LA one would be the SABRE booking reference.
Emirates Airlines - Skywards
11 Mar 2015
Total posts 194
I will do this flight in Feb next year but the price was too much for a buiness class ticket from Sydney one way- so used the QF FF points to fly ADL-SYD_AKL-legs domestic business for 45K and paid for the AKL-SCQ-still over 5K but 2 K lower than the SYD-SCQ- --still got the old version as far as seating goes -2-2-2 wonder if LATAM changed the seat configuration for all flights on this route-anyone knows?
19 Sep 2017
Total posts 10
Wish LATAM will use its only two refitted JCLS Dreamliners on AU routes. Otherwise, it’s the most misleading product description.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
16 Jan 2018
Total posts 42
mmhhh, I guess things have not changed much for LATAM from the first time I flew them almost 15 years ago.
I remember back in 2007 when I flew SYD-AKL-SCL, in an old plane WITHOUT personal entertainment screen on each seat (yes, even 15 years ago it was shocking!) so there was only 1 big screen circa 1990s in each section of the plane (didn't remember how the business class looked like). The food was a very dubious-looking greasy empanada (?), not much of alcohol, if any from my memory. And like what the OP said, after the meal service all the crew disappeared into the galley for the rest of the flight. If you wanted something more you had to go to the galley and helped yourself while the cabin crew happily chatting away among themselves.
I wonder if this is just cultural or something else. The fact that the cabin crew still 'disappear' into the galley in 2022 makes me wonder if there was some kind of systematic discrepancies in the way LATAM staff are trained.
To be fair, I flew LATAM a couple more times after that, the planes and cabin services were 'standard', not spectacular but also nothing to brag about. So it really a hit and miss. More 'hits' then 'misses', thankfully! But oh, yes, they screwed up my ticketing once, leaving me and my partner stranded at midnight in Quito, well that's another long story, lol! the joy of travelling ;-)
12 Dec 2022
Total posts 1
Just came back with Latam 4 days ago from Rio via SCL and AKL. I had the same itinerary in Jul/Aug this year, and many in the past years.
Seat: Mostly 2-2-2 old style with little to non storage on Syd-AKL-SCL. Plenty of small lost items from pervious passengers behind/beneath the seat when I had to ask FA to help retriend my droped item during SCL-ALK after reboarding AKL-SYD. I had 1-2-1 config seat only once only during my last 10 trips (which was good). The FA told me they have only 2 planes with 1-2-1 seats, so for 90% of chance I will be flying 2-2-2 again. My seat maps shown are all 2-2-2 on my already-booked return trips in Apr/May 2023 and Jul/Aug 2023.
Once in the air I think Latam is a good airline with professional crew, OK food (no preflight drink), and almost always ontime.
My main trouble is on the groud dealing with Latam. The check in (as previous post mentioned, while on Qantas ticket) I have always had trouble. It usually takes 20-30 min at checkin counter, just for checking in my 2 aegments (GIG-SCL, SCL-SYD). In general it is not efficient in South American airport. The SCL transfer desk staff don't speak English and would get offended that I could not speak Spanish.
In trasit, there was no hotel accomodation offered at SCL in the event the incoming flight is delayed (23h wait for next connecting flight).
On my SDU-CGH return flights both Latam checkin desks at each airports cannot regnise/record my LATAM pass number.
The website is not functioning properly most of the time when changing a changable ticket. I had to call. They can only take credit card payment by emailing you a link, however the link has never worked. The Latram pass website requires verification to change personal information by sending you an email with a link. However always error message shown after clicking on the emailed link.
The call centre staff (English speaking, based in Medillin Colombia but claimed to be from Miami Centre) are not able to/not interested in solving any problems, nor can they esclate to their supervisor. They will create a "case" for ou which may takes months to get an answer, mostly not a helpful answer.
I still love Latam for their crew and their routes. I can see they are trying and growing. I just wish their ground service/call centre to match the international standard for being a Intl airline, now facing growing competition from QF on this route.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
07 Jul 2014
Total posts 5
Auckland to Santiago 19/2/23 Business Class - service was fantastic, food, wine, seat all good. Will certainly fly again - very impressive!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
07 Jul 2014
Total posts 5
I just got back from return flights Auckland to Santiargo business class (1/3rd cheaper then flying via Sydney) & the service was fantastic, couldn't fault it. Seat/meals/wines/customer service better then SIA business class. I will def fly them again on next trip to South America
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