Jorge Newbery Airport (AEP)

Flight #42 – LAN 440
Buenos Aires (AEP) – Santiago (SCL)
Sunday, Mar 24, 2013
Depart: 12:45PM / Arrive: 3:10PM
Duration: 2hr 25min
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Seat: 13A and 13C (Economy)
Earned: 709 miles
Cost: $397 / person roundtrip
Lifetime Miles: 89,617 miles

After 5 days exploring Buenos Aires, we were off on the next leg of our South American adventure - Santiago, Chile.

While we were able to score really cheap $400 tickets from NYC to Buenos Aires, we were out of luck when we looked for flights from BA-Santiago-Mendoza-BA because it was around Easter Weekend. Originally, my father was looking at flights from Ezeiza International Airport (EZE), but any reasonable flight was on Aerolineas Argentinas (a horrible airline who only partners with Delta & SkyTeam Alliance that we don't use) and, more importantly, they were all super expensive - like $650/person!

But after checking on Expedia, he realized/remembered that BA had another airport - Jorge Newbery Airport (AEP) - which was located right by downtown Buenos Aires. And fortunately, those flights were cheaper ($397/person) and were on LAN Airlines so he could get American Airline credit (OneWorld Alliance).

The flight departed Sunday at 12:45PM. Based on TripAdvisor discussions, the airport was very close (20 minutes from downtown), but had a very congested check in area with long lines on Sundays. So we had a taxi pick us up at Own Palermo Hollywood at 10AM so that we'd arrive 2 hours before take off.

They always say to get to the airport at least 2 hours before departure, but they really mean it in South America because (A) the check in lines are extra long with so many passengers checking several massive suitcases and (B) boarding starts at least 1 hour before departure.

My father thought there was a Airport Lounge that his American Express card could get us access to, but they turned us down and said it was for Members Only, even after I gave them my most adorable baby sad face. So we just went to the Tax Free office to get the VAT refund on my mother's shopping.

First, we had to get the VAT Refund stamp on our receipt from the Tax Free office on the ground floor. Then after showing my mothers non-Argentine passport and tax free receipt, we were stamped and sent off upstairs to find the Inet Point store - which was actually an internet cafe that also gave out VAT refunds.

Despite being told the VAT refund was close to 17%, ours ended up being closer to 13%. Not sure if that was specific to our purchase, but something you should be aware of if you're justifying your vacation shopping based on the 17% refund.

So now we had the option of waiting around the Food Court area upstairs but before security (left photo) or heading through security/immigration to wait airside near the Duty Free store (right photo).

The security line was non-existent since the International Departure Gates 13-14 were on the opposite side of the terminal from Gates 1-12. Immigration was also a quick photo, fingerprint and stamp and then we walked through the large Duty Free store. We managed to get through with only 1 purchase (a bottle of perfume for my grandmother that we later found out cost the same as it did in Sephora back in the US) and then head past the first waiting area by the cafe and went straight to the gate since we were boarding soon (12:00PM).

The gate area was very clean, wide open, well-lit and had plenty of seats available. Even though we didn't have WiFi (or cheap sandwiches/drinks), we were very comfortable waiting by the gate instead of the lounge. Plus, as you may have read earlier, my father always stresses out whenever the lounge is before security because you can never tell how long it will take to get through the checkpoints.

Our flight started boarding and passengers started lining up. My father used me to get bumped up to the front of the line because he said he'd need extra time to get a baby settled in. Sneaky SOB.

But unlike most American airports where you go through the gate and right onto the plane, we head down to the apron and got on a shuttle bus that would take us to the plane out on the tarmac. Well, at least I got a seat on the bus (for 45 seconds).

But luck was on our side today, because when we did finally board the plane and found our seats (13A and 13C), the flight wasn't 100% full and we had seat 13B open.

Part of that might have been luck, but it was also part my father who was sneaky enough to reserve seats A and C for my mother and himself, in the selfish hopes that no one would want to take the middle seat B.

If a guy did happen to have B, then my father (sitting in aisle seat C) would ask to switch with him (what a gentleman). And as pretty as my mother is, no one has yet to stick with his assigned middle seat next to a lapchild baby when he could have seat C and stretch his legs out into the aisle.

Well, this time around his scheme worked and I had some extra space to move around. And we needed the extra leg room because LAN economy seats were configured for people with abnormally short legs (ie, my father).

But that was a problem for my mother and father, not for me. I could care less, because when the flight attendant came by, she saw how cute I was with my pigtails and offered me an official LAN Airlines kid's watch. There was also a 2 month old baby in the row across from us, but that kid didn't get a watch. I know that shouldn't make us happy, but I'll be honest - it did.

That kept me busy for all of 30 seconds. Now 2 hours, 24 minutes and 30 seconds more to go!