DC to Dubai and Tokyo via… Santiago?: Review: TAM Economy Class – New York JFK to Rio de Janeiro
Introduction
Planning
TAM Economy Class New York JFK – Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Santiago
LAN Economy Class Santiago – Sao Paulo
TAM Economy Class Sao Paulo – New York JFK
United BusinessFirst Denver to Tokyo Seattle (Emergency Landing)
United BusinessFirst on the 787 Seattle to Tokyo
Cathay Pacific Regional Business Class Tokyo Narita – Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific “The Wing” Business Class Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific Business Class Hong Kong – Dubai
Dubai, Day 1 (Traiteur Brunch, Park Hyatt Dubai, Burj Khalifa, Atlantis Palm Islands)
Dubai, Day 2 (Shark Dive at Dubai Aquarium, Burj Al Arab, 360)
Cathay Pacific Business Class Dubai – Hong Kong – Tokyo Haneda
TAM Airlines (JJ) 8079
New York (JFK) – Rio de Janeiro (GIG)
Aircraft: Airbus A330-200
Seat: 29C (Economy Class)
Thursday, June 13
7:10PM – 6:05AM (+1 day)
Duration: 9:55
I arrived at JFK about three hours before my flight. Checkin was a breeze at Terminal 8, and I headed to security. Since the only priority line was for OneWorld elites, I had to trudge to the back of the security line — it took about 15 minutes, so it wasn’t the end of the world.
I proceeded to the American Airlines AAdmirals Club to kill some time before my flights. This was a bit strange considering I was given a lounge invitation by TAM because of my Star Alliance Gold status. American is in OneWorld, so it’s just strange how that all worked. Last time I flew TAM, it was out of JFK Terminal 4, and I used the Swiss Lounge — that made way more sense. Anyway, I entered the AAdmirals Club with no issues, sat down to get some work done and have some drinks. The lounge was very crowded, and it took entirely too long to get a drink.
As I was finishing up some work and a drink, I watched my A330-200 get towed to the gate — that was my queue to start gathering my things and head to the gate.
Before my flight, and again at check-in, I had requested a “Space +” seat, which was essentially an exit row. They said there were none available, and that I couldn’t sit in an exit row since I don’t speak Portuguese. Interestingly enough, they gladly booked me in an exit row on my return, and I sat in exit rows on TAM the last time I flew them to South America — so I’m not really sure what their policy actually is. What this did mean though was that I would be cramped in standard economy for close to ten hours.
How cramped?
Yeah. Pretty miserable.
We taxied and waited for our takeoff slot for about 45 minutes, and soon enough we were airborne. Food and beverage service did not begin until about two hours into the flights since we were encountering moderate turbulence as we flew through the nasty front that had just passed by the east coast. I passed time before the meal by watching “Side Effects.”
I selected the pasta for dinner, as I usually do in economy — it’s pretty hard to compeltely screw up pasta. It was surprisingly decent.
After dinner, I watched another movie, “Snitch” before going to sleep. It was not a comfortable rest, but I somehow managed to get about 4.5 hours of decent sleep. I awoke about the time the sun was rising and movement started again around the cabin. The flight attendants came by for breakfast service about 90 minutes prior to landing, while we were approaching Brasilia, Brazil. The breakfast was a sandwich and fruit. The fruit was fine, but the sandwich was barely passable as food.
After breakfast, we finally began our decent into Rio de Janeiro. Everything was pretty uneventful from there. We were about 20 minutes early, so that was fine by me.
Overall, this flight was decent. It certainly was not comfortable, but then again, no economy flight is comfortable for somebody who is 6’4″. The service was fine, and the food was edible. The flight attendants were friendly enough, and spoke enough English to provide satisfactory service. The inflight entertainment was on-demand, and decent, though the physical IFE unit was pretty dated. Considering the low price of this flight, it was completely acceptable, and I was perfectly happy with it.
