StarwoodGuy: Southern South America With Starwood Hotels Days 11

Up at 4:45 am I made coffee in the room and showered quickly before checking out and jumping in a car to the airport. The hotel has a car service desk located inside $65.00 US to the airport which can be charged to your room. A cab is around $40.00 but for a nice air-conditioned ride I took the car service. It was an easy 30 minute drive at that hour to the EZE airport. Since I focus my points on Alaska Airlines I had happily chosen one of their partners, not local TAM, but KLM. Both KLM (SkyTeam) and Air Canada (Star Alliance) offer flights from their main hubs, Amsterdam and Toronto respectively, down to Buenos Aires, with a short layover and then on to Santiago. It would have been fun to fly Air Canada across South America but in the points game I opted for KLM. I arrived at the airport, printed my ticket myself, and then made my way through the empty security and the empty Immigration. There is a separate line for Sky Team Elites/Business passengers or Sky Priority so I was through Immigration in a minute. From there I headed to the lounge area upstairs and across from gate 14 which conveniently was my Gate (though KLM had not landed from Amsterdam yet). When you get off of the elevator it is left or right. SkyTeam on the right, American Express Centurion on the left. I opted to explore the Amex Centurion first since I love our Seattle studio back home. I found a large space with several different sections of seating, a green living wall, an office area and a long table with high-seating, several computers for use, and a lounge style section with relaxing chairs in a beaded cut off area. The food consisted of a cold breakfast of sandwiches, meats, cheeses, breads, and cereals, as well as plenty of coffee, and tea juice options, as well as red and white wine and champagne. I worked for a little (while writing this) before heading across to check out the other lounge.

The SkyTeam Lounge was a little more basic, though quite large. It looked a little worn in comparison to the Amex Lounge but those Centurion Lounges have become hard to beat. I headed down to check on our flight but the crew was still not onboard, they told me to go back upstairs, relax, and they would call me in around half an hour. I was impressed. Around 30 minutes later the Amex attendant came to inform me that the flight was ready for me. I walked downstairs, into the SkyPriority line and board immediately and in seamless fashion.

I once took Qantas from Los Angeles to New York on a 747 and loved it. I was on a student around the world fare and for some reason they upgraded me from coach to premium economy. Somehow it was so much fun having a mini Australian experience while within North America. I had felt the same from Bali to Singapore last year on KLM, though the service had not been great. Now I was back on that same service but across South America. I had read that sometimes these shorts sections can lack the bells and whistles of the longer flights since the bulk of the service has been done on the long haul section. I was waiting to see if this would be true on this flight for KLM as it has been on their Bali-Singapore service. I was dead wrong. The flight attendants were not the same as those who came from Amsterdam, they were a fresh crew who were unbelievably attentive and friendly. Business was not even half full so I had the seat next to me open and coach was around the same. I looked around at Premium Economy, definitely not great compared to other premiums, and coach looked pretty standard. The 777-300 used on this route is scheduled for upgrades to the new pods by the end of May, but I actually found this quite good, better then the A330 service I had previously, the only exception being that the head phone plug was almost impossible to put into the socket. The flight attendant told me where it was and said it was definitely going to be changed on the next plane. The service was excellent, the flight crew non-stop when it came to providing for our needs. From Champagne at take off, to a lovely lunch, to great dessert wines plus a chocolate from their signature chocolate collection and the little houses with liquor they love to bring around, it was all excellent. For $500.00 it was less then half what the local carriers were asking for their Business Class product on a short haul plane. This was truly wonderful.

Arriving at the airport I made a quick trip through the APEC line at Immigration, but the Customs line was right after baggage claim and there were two lines we all got thrown into. IT only took around 10 minutes for all bags to be put through the scanner, detecting for radiation and for the dogs to sniff around, before I was outside. The driver from the Sheraton Santiago was waiting with my name on a board and within minutes we were on our way. It was a quick and easy trip to the hotel.

I was greeted warmly and upgraded to a newly renovated suite, so new that I would be the first person to be in the room. The hotel was undergoing massive renovations, with half of the hotel completely shut down and many of the other rooms being worked on. The fresh smell of paint was everywhere. The suite consisted of a sitting area next to the wall bar and fridge area, as well as a large television and lounge area all with sweeping views. In the next room was the bedroom with large television, equally impressive views of San Cristobal Mountain directly behind the hotel and the large pool area. The bathroom was separated with the sink and closet in one area, and the shower, toilet and bidet in the other.

I headed right out armed with a map to explore. As many TripAdvisor posts point out the hotel is not right in the old town, instead it is in this mountain and park area on the other side of the river. It is a forty minute walk or so to get to the main town area but there is a beautiful set of interconnecting parks right along the water. I took these, passing many of the embassies, and as in Montevideo, many private and small deluxe looking hospitals and clinics. Finally arriving in the center of town I found an amazing mix of old Palaces, churches and squares mixed in with newer pedestrian shopping streets. The consumer was definitely alive and doing well in Santiago. There was also plenty of construction around with cranes everywhere and new towers going up all over. I headed back to the river after grabbing an iced coffee at Starbucks with the outside shaded temperature at 80 degrees Fahrenheit and stopped at another older building with a multitude of restaurants inside. I then crossed back to the Sheraton side of the river and walked to the Bar and Club area. Here I found the university and with it wonderful streets lined with clubs, outside bars, and a great view up to the Zoo and the mountain. I continued on the next twenty minutes until I was back at the hotel.

I had a quick workout before heading up to the adjoining San Cristobal Tower, the Luxury Collection component of the Sheraton complex. The Sheraton Club Lounge on the 7th or top floor of the Sheraton building was closed for renovations so Platinum and Club guests were using the 21 Lounge atop the tower. It was quite busy with their regular guests plus our platinum but a decent spread was put out including Chilean sea bass, meats, cheeses, and various complimentary drinks. The views though were outstanding. After I went down to the lobby to work outside by the pool, the weather being wonderful and issues persisting with internet in the room. It was relatively early to bed after that since I was eager to see more the next day.