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Taken October 2003 from Sydney to Auckland

If you're looking for an inexpensive business class fare, it helps to look at carriers other than the two respective national ones. Lan Chile flies this route three times weekly, continuing to Santiago, but other airlines include Thai, Aerolineas Argentinas and Emirates, all of whom have fares much lower than Qantas/Air NZ.

What of the flight itself? Lan Chile uses Qantas facilities at Sydney, including their Business Class, which was very disappointing and a bit bare-looking. Boarding was swift and attendants came round with the usual drinks and newspapers before take-off, but no Australian or NZ ones - just boring US ones like Herald Tribune.

The seat didn't stretch out to 180 degrees, but was good enough, and the pitch was quite generous.

I was pleasantly surprised by the video-on-demand system, which showed among others 'Down With Love', which had only just been released at cinemas.

Brunch was served an hour into the flight: it tasted as bland as it looked, but I wasn't hungry anyway. No complaints about the crew who were enthusiastic throughout. This route is operated by an Airbus 340, one of my favourite types of aircraft.

I didn't really know what to expect as I'd never flown a South American airline before - nontheless for a 3 hour flight, I think it was reasonable value. Apart from the fare, the other big draw was being able to collect Oneworld mileage on my Cathay Pacific card, plus it was interesting to try an airline on a route normally served by two main carriers.