This airline review features the LATAM Business Class in the Boeing 787-8. In fact, these airplanes are not really old, but LATAM has a refreshed Business Class on Boeing 787-900 planes, which I’ll present later. However, this review features the product, which you’ll encounter on most flights.
On our tour through South America, we had the ‘pleasure’ to fly the LATAM Business Class several times. Among our flights, there were three flights in a Boeing 787.
One of those flights was operated by an aircraft with the new seats, which I’ll review later. The two other flights were operated by one of the earlier aircrafts delivered to LAN (now LATAM). The difference between the two products isn’t too big on paper, but the old product is already quite worn out as you’ll see in this review.
The LATAM Business Class in the Boeing 787-8 comes with five rows in a 2-2-2 configuration. Three rows are before door 2 of the aircraft, while two rows are behind of the door.
Nevertheless, there is no proper separation, but rather an open cabin. This type of cabin design is new to me, but actually makes the cabin feel a little more spacious. The Business Class seats in the Boeing 787-800 of LATAM are standard forward facing seats, which recline to a fully flat bed.
As you’d expect of the configuration, not all seats can easily access the aisle. However, the seats are fairly broad and come with a good padding. Thus, seating in all positions is quite comfortable. At the same time, there is just a small partition between the seats, which means that there is not too much privacy.
The seats also come with an ottoman, which you can store some things below. Storage is one of the weakest features of the seat as there is barely any storage room besides the ottoman. You only have a small pocket with a net to hold smaller things in the middle console right next to your seat.
That’s also where the individual power outlet and entertainment control are located. Speaking of the design, the orange-red seats didn’t look especially appealing to me, but the cabin felt quite bright and the white paneling doesn’t look bad either.
Yet, the cabin on both my LATAM Business Class flights was in a horrible condition. Taking into account the age of the planes, I was truly shocked. There is not only wear and tear everywhere, but on my second flight my table was broken all together (the ‘INOP’ sign was a couple of months old).
As you’d expect, nobody cared about it at all. That was actually what upset me the most. After several E-Mails, I at least received a 200 US-Dollar compensation voucher (only to be used on LATAM) later.
While our second flight was a daytime flight from Montevideo to Santiago de Chile, our first flight was a redeye service from Los Angeles to Lima. Thus, I immediately tried to get some shut-eye and was surprisingly successful.
The bedding consists of a rather average pillow and a thick blanket, which made sleeping a little too hot for my taste. The mood lighting makes the cabin quite comfortable for sleeping and the seats as such recline to a fully flat position. What a like about the forward facing seats is that sleeping is actually quite comfortable as you can move in all directions.
The lack of a proper partition still makes it a little awkward to sleep in the rather open cabin. Overall, I’d say that the LATAM Business Class is totally comfortable for sleeping.
The LATAM Business Class comes with an extensive catering offering. I was totally surprised that on the flight from Los Angeles to Lima (reminder: a redeye flight!) a full dinner and breakfast service were on offer. As I deeply needed some sleep, I skipped the dinner and only had the breakfast, which was very nice.
You can choose between a couple of options and while I passed on the hot food, the bread basket, fruits and cold cuts and cheeses were amazing. The chocolate muffin wasn’t bad either.
On my second flight in the LATAM Business Class in the Boeing 787-800, only a snack was offered. Yet, the cold platter with ham and salad wasn’t bad either. The same is true for the dessert.
Speaking of the drink options, there was a wide range of local wines, which I appreciated. In addition, you may have any softdrink, spirit or champagne. Personally, I think that the LATAM Business Class excels in terms of food and beverages.
Sadly, the service was quite bad on both flights. We were only offered drinks as a welcome drink and during the meal and were never asked for a refill. Plus, there was rarely any smile.
There was no Wi-Fi offered on either of my LATAM Business Class flights in the Boeing 787-8. If you are not into working, there’s a decent entertainment selection anyways. Prior to departure, I was offered magazines and newspapers on both flights. In addition, a bord magazine is waiting for you at your seat (the content is mainly in Spanish and Portuguese, but there is some English stuff as well). Sure enough, there is also an entertainment system in the LATAM Business Class.
The screen in the Boeing 787-800 is of an average size and the resolution isn’t especially great either. The entertainment options on the other hand were surprisingly plentiful.
There is a good choice of movies (most available in English) and series alongside several music options. Sadly, the entertainment system isn’t all that intuitive.
On the longer flight, I was offered a decent amenity kit with a good choice of amenities including a toothbrush, lip balm alongside a sleep mask, socks and a couple of more items I can’t remember (for some reason, I can’t find any photo anymore, but the amenity kit was definitely quite nice). Other than that, we were handed out headphones, which were not bad, but sadly not noise-cancelling either.
The LATAM Business Class in the Boeing 787-8was a little disappointing. The hard product isn’t bad and while it’s not the most amazing Business Class out there, it’s fairly nice for sleeping. The catering is definitely very nice for Business Class (especially the wine selection) and the entertainment is okay for Business Class as well. Yet, the enormous wear and tear and the bad overall condition of the cabin was a very negative surprise. In addition, the service was among the worst I’ve ever gotten on any Business Class flights. While this might have been partly due to the language barrier, I would still have expected a little more to be honest.