LATAM 787-8 Seat Selection Guide (2026)

Two aeroplanes, one booking code

LATAM is midway through re-cabining its Dreamliner fleet, and on the 787-8 the two ends of that programme are further apart than most airlines’ different aircraft types.

The 2025 cabin is a straightforward improvement up front — a third fewer Business seats, every one of them a private suite with direct aisle access — and a straightforward densification in the back. Ten aircraft are recorded in it. No count is published for the 2012 cabin, so this guide does not offer you odds on which one turns up; it gives you a check you can run on the booking screen instead.

Count the seats across a Business row. Six means the 2012 cabin. Four means the 2025 one. If the seat map is not showing you the front of the aircraft, the last economy row does the same job: 36 for the old cabin, 41 for the new one.

Both cabins hide a windowless Business pod

This is the finding that survives the refit. On the 2012 cabin, 3A and 3L have no window beside them — a blank stretch of fuselage wall. On the 2025 cabin the same fault reappears at a different row number: 5A and 5L.

In both cases these are the seats a solo traveller books precisely for the view, priced identically to the pods that have windows, with nothing on a booking screen to tell them apart. The row number moves when the cabin is refitted, so a rule of thumb learned on one aircraft actively misleads on the other.

On the 2025 cabin 5A and 5L lose out twice, because row 5 is also one of the inboard rows — see below.

2025 cabin: the odd and even rows are different seats

The twenty suites alternate. It is the single most useful thing to know about this cabin and it is invisible in a seat number.

If you are travelling alone and want the window, 2A, 2L, 4A and 4L are the four seats to aim for: they sit against the wall with the console between you and the aisle, which is the more private half of the alternation. Rows 1, 3 and 5 put the console on the window side instead, so you sit a foot further from the glass.

If you are travelling as a couple, invert it. The centre pairs in rows 1, 3 and 5 sit together with a retractable divider; the pairs in rows 2 and 4 are pushed apart by a table each, which is exactly what you want if you are not travelling together and exactly what you do not if you are.

And 5A and 5L are the pair to skip: inboard row, no window.

2012 cabin: take a D or an H

The older cabin is a flat 2-2-2 with no doors and no angle — every seat sits the same distance from the window in every row. Aisle access runs to 67 per cent: C, D, H and J reach an aisle directly, and A and L do not. A window seat here means climbing past a neighbour.

All ten of the cabin’s best-rated seats are in the D and H columns, which have an aisle on each side. If you are travelling alone, that is the answer, and it is the same answer in every one of the five rows.

3A and 3L are the ones to avoid, for the reason above. Windows are also set out of line at 16A, 16L, 23A, 23L, 26L, 30A, 30L, 34A and 34L back in economy.

Economy on the 2025 cabin: row 17 is half a LATAM+ row

LATAM sells 48 seats as LATAM+ in the front of economy: row 12 (the bulkhead, with an unusually generous 73 to 75cm to the wall), rows 13 to 16 at about 36 inches, and then 17D, 17F and 17H.

That last bit is the trap. The centre block on this aircraft is drawn one row forward of the window blocks, so row 17’s three centre seats sit level with row 16’s outer seats and get the same 36 inches. 17A, 17B, 17C, 17J, 17K and 17L are in the same numbered row and are not LATAM+. They are ordinary economy at ordinary pitch.

The same offset hands out a free benefit one row further back: 18D, 18F and 18H are drawn at about 34 inches — two over the cabin standard — and are outside LATAM+ entirely. If you want more room without paying for it, those are the three seats to take.

Row 12 is the bulkhead. It has the most generous legroom in economy and the usual costs: no underseat storage on any of the nine seats, and the tray and screen in the armrest. Four of them — 12A, 12H, 12L and 30D — are bassinet positions, so a family with an infant has priority and you may be asked to move.

2025 cabin: row 30 is the row to check

Row 30 is the mid-cabin exit row on the 271-seat aircraft. It looks, on a seat map, like the best free legroom on the aeroplane. It is the worst row in economy.

30A and 30L have no usable window — the glass sits well behind the seat — and the L3 and R3 exit doors extend across roughly 85 and 80 per cent of the seat width respectively, starting 20cm ahead. That is not a door that clips your foot; that is a door across almost the whole seat.

30D, 30F and 30H sit immediately against a lavatory ahead. That leaves 30B, 30C, 30J and 30K — four seats out of nine — that take the exit-row legroom cleanly. Those four are worth having. The other five are not.

Elsewhere in the back: rows 27 and 28 sit against the mid-cabin lavatories and all nine seats in row 28 lose their recline. Rows 39 to 41 are the rear lavatory block, and row 41 is 41D, 41F and 41H alone with no recline. 40L is an oddity worth knowing about — it has no seat beside it, so you get extra side space and the spare underseat storage.

Economy on the 2012 cabin

The 217-seat cabin runs rows 12 to 36 in the same 3-3-3. There is no LATAM+ tier; the legroom rows are row 12 (the forward bulkhead) and row 26.

Rows 23 and 24 are the block to avoid — fifteen seats immediately against the mid-cabin lavatories, and all nine seats in row 24 also lose recline to the wall behind them.

Row 25 is three seats only — 25D, 25F and 25H — with extra legroom and a lavatory immediately ahead. All three rate worst. Row 26 is the exit row that keeps the legroom, but the L3 and R3 doors curve into the footwell at 26A and 26L, and 26A has no usable window on top of that. 26B, 26C, 26J and 26K are the clean seats in the row.

Row 36 is the last row, does not recline, and loses its B and K seats.

Quick picks by traveller

Frequently asked questions

Does LATAM’s 787-8 have business class suites with doors?

On the 2025 cabin, yes — twenty seats in a 1-2-1 angled suite with a sliding door and 100 per cent direct aisle access. The 2012 cabin has thirty lie-flat seats in a 2-2-2 with no doors, where the A and L window seats have to climb over a neighbour to reach the aisle. Both are fully flat; only one is private.

How do I tell which 787-8 I am on?

Count the Business seats across one row on the seat map: four means the 2025 cabin, six means the 2012 one. If Business is not shown, look at the last economy row — 41 on the new cabin, 36 on the old one. The new cabin also skips row 29 entirely.

Is LATAM+ premium economy?

No. LATAM+ is extra-legroom economy — the same seat with more space in front of it — not a separate cabin with a different seat. On the 787-8’s 2025 cabin it covers 48 seats: row 12, rows 13 to 16, and 17D, 17F and 17H.

Which seats on the LATAM 787-8 have no window?

3A and 3L in Business on the 2012 cabin, and 5A and 5L in Business on the 2025 cabin — all four have a blank stretch of wall rather than a window. In economy, 26A on the 2012 cabin and 30A and 30L on the 2025 cabin have a window that sits well behind the seat, which amounts to the same thing in practice.

Is row 30 worth booking on the 271-seat 787-8?

Four seats of it are: 30B, 30C, 30J and 30K. Not 30A or 30L, where the exit door extends across 80 to 85 per cent of the seat width and there is no usable window, and not 30D, 30F or 30H, which sit immediately against a lavatory.

How many 787-8s does LATAM operate?

Ten aircraft are recorded in the 271-seat 2025 cabin. No count is published for the 2012 cabin, so this guide does not quote a fleet total or convert the split into odds.