Trip Report: LATAM Colombia Airlines, Bogota to Medellin (August 2019)

Trip Report: LATAM Airlines, Bogota to Medellin
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I was traveling from Bogota to Medellin and there are a couple of options for intra-Colombia flights: LATAM Colombia, Avianca Colombia, and Viva Air.  LATAM and Avianca are more legacy carriers while Viva is a low-cost carrier.  I was looking to fly in the evening and was flying without any luggage so when comparing everything, LATAM and Viva tended to be the better options in terms of price.  I choose to fly with LATAM because I wanted to try the airline and also LATAM is a member of Oneworld Alliance so I would receive points for this flight. 

It was very easy to book the flight through LATAM's webiste and through the app I was able to manage my booking.  LATAM has a couple of options in terms booking ranging from basic economy with no checked luggage to full business class.  As I said, I was traveling with no checked baggage so I could book the basic economy seat - this meant a complimentary carry-on but no complimentary checked baggage and no complimentary seat selection; both of these could have been done for a fee but given the flight is 1hr I decided not to purchase any of these extras.

48hours prior to my departure I received a notification and an email stating that check-in was now open for my flight.  Usually airlines only allow 24-hours prior check-in, especially for domestic flights, so receiving the notice 48hours in advance made me check and recheck my flight time and dates to ensure I had everything correct.  I was correct and 48hours prior to my flight I had checked-in and received my mobile boarding pass.  I was assigned a seat at check-in but if I wanted to change it then the same seat charges during the booking process applied during the check-in process.  Even though I had no luggage to check and I already had my boarding pass, due to traffic in Bogota I arrived at the airport about 2 hours prior to my scheduled departure time.  At the airport, there were two sections of the check-in desks; one for international departures and one for domestic departures.  I bypassed everything since I already had my mobile boarding pass and proceeded thru security to the departure gate.  

According to the boarding pass, my flight was scheduled to board at Bogota at 6:46pm, doors closing at 7:21pm, departure at 7:36pm, and arrive into Medellin at 8:32pm.  When I first got the airport around 5:30pm, I checked the departure screens and everything said 'on time'.  Around 6pm, the screen changed and my new departure time would now be at 8:35pm with an estimated arrival time of 9:31pm.  Around 7:20pm, LATAM sent an email stating that since they had delayed my flight I now had the following options available at no cost - I could change the time/date of my flight, change the destination of my flight, or request a total refund.  While these options are nice, they would have been better more than 10 minutes before the scheduled departure and an hour before the revised departure time.  Finally around 8:15pm they started the boarding process - the airlines boards by groups and I was in the last group.  Despite the late departure, the passengers were boarded and seated by 8:35pm and we pushed backed generally around that time.  

The operating aircraft was an Airbus A320 with a 3-3 seat configuration.  I was initially assigned 27C but when I went to the gate agent, she allowed me to change my seat for no charge and assigned me 8J.  From the outside, the airplane still had the old LAN livery and the old age of the plane continued inside; the plane looked old but still in decent shape.  The seats were cushioned well but they were older seats and usually these are comfortable but these seats were very uncomfortable, there was no leg room, and the seat width was also very tight; overall, it was an uncomfortable place to sit.  The seat itself was also basic - there was a magazine storage at the top, followed by a tray table, and then a small pocket for your personal belongings below; no PTV screens and no USB ports.  After manual safety demonstrations, we pushed back and took off to Medellin.

The flight was very basic and uneventful - I am not sure if LATAM is a full service airline, a low-cost carrier, or a hybrid of the two.  The service I experience onboard LATAM was more akin to that of a LCC because nothing is complimentary and everything is now a 'buy on-board' (this was a domestic flight so I am not sure if this applies to their international flights).  In fact, the FA's did not even come down with a service cart but rather one FA came quickly down the aisle with the buy on-board menu and if a passenger wanted anything, they needed to stop the FA and request something; again, it was very basic and LCC.  LATAM supposedly does offer wifi and LATAM Play which is their on-demand entertainment options but I could not get the wifi to work and thus the LATAM Play would not work either - the FA's did not seem to be in the mood to help or provide any more service than that which was required of them.  After about 45 minutes, we landed in Medellin and deplaned.

Overall, I was disappointed with my experience with LATAM.  I had heard good things about the airline and was excited to try their product.  I have previously flown with LAN from Buenos Aires to Santiago and enjoyed their service so I was expecting a great full-service airline.  What I got was a low-cost airline service and poor service from the FAs.  LATAM has two main competition in Colombia: Avianca, a full-service airline (see review here), and VivaAir, a traditional low-cost carrier.  Reputation wise, they are normally in competition with Avianca but price wise on this sector they were in competition with VivaAir.  Being in competition with both a full-service and a LCC at the same seems to have made LATAM lose their own identity.