Can anyone here somehow get award tickets on Lan Chile?

A curious question. I want to fly to the Falkland Islands for Christmas.

Lan Chile are the only airline that do it, from Santiago a few times a week. SCL-MPN-SCL.

I wanted to redeem some Qantas points to book 2 round trip tickets, preferably (but not essential) in Business Class.

Phoned Qantas. �Yes that is possible � we will phone Lan Chile to find out what zone Mt Pleasant (Falklands) is in, as we are not sure if it is a �within South America award� or something different as the Falklands are off the Argentine coast, but are a British Territory, therefore possibly not strictly South American�. Phew.

They phone me back. There is apparently ONE staffer works for Lan Chile in Australia. (This is only a remote outpost for them). That staffer apparently said she did not want to issue reward tickets to MPN as it was a non frequent route. So that was that! End of story.

I have no doubt that via AA or BA or Hilton etc all kinds of miles can be used via the USA to get these 2 tickets. And in the USA Lan Chile have more than one agent to ask! We want to fly over on December 23, and return December 30th. SCL-MPN-SCL.

I am sure if anyone has the miles, and the tickets can be issued for those dates, we can work out a �gifting� arrangement of some kind.

Any input would be appreciated. Yes, if there was a Lan Chile forum, I would have posted it there instead of here, but Randy for some reason does not have such a forum. A thread was started recently asking for one. We do have the heavily patronised Tarom Romanian Airlines forum though.


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~ Glen ~

Glen

You need to do your homework a bit better.
There is only 1 flight a week on Saturdays returning the same day using a 737 with only one class of service.

LanPass do offer awards to Mount Pleasant at 60000km.

Its pure conjecture on my part but I think you've got more chance of seeing penguins in the Sahara than getting an award ticket for the dates you are looking at for the following reasons:
1) Lan Chile has blackout periods for award availability -not sure which dates but almost certainly Xmas and New Year would be included.
2)High season to the Falklands is a very brief Dec-Feb for obvious reasons.
3)The flight also stops in Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas in Chile before heading to the Falklands/Malvinas so there are also the domestic Xmas travellers you'd be competing with.

You can definitely do it on a Oneworld explorer ticket though using South American segments - I'm holding a ticket to MPN for 1st week in December although I still haven't decided if the penguins would hold my interest for a week - if you do manage to get an award ticket though let me know and I'll look out for penguins next time I'm in Morocco.

She didn't want to issue it?? Wow, that's a new one for me. I'd be all over a QF supervisor telling them to get on the phone to this yahoo's supervisor in Santiago.

I'd suggest calling Lan Chile themselves again when you are in the US next week before resorting to more drastic gifting measures. There are certainly going to be more staffers here in the States, and maybe you'll find somebody more accomodating.

Quebec .. Yes maybe the Lan Chile person was referring to blackouts. Remember I got the answer 2nd hand via QF! Whether there is one or more flights a weeks, I don't know. I do know 23rd over works, as does 30th back, so that does fit in with Sat flights. I found a good travel agent on Falk, and they mapped out a very interesting week. They tell me there is a small colony of King Penguins (the big ones) nesting there, and chicks will be born and out in December. Many other penguins there too. Lots of Elephant seals too.

http://www.tourism.org.fk/pages/int-tours-travel.htm

What is the One World pass costing? New one on me. We will fly to EZE and GIG, so that may be a better option. Was planning to use a Mercosur pass that would NOT allow MPN I understand. A paid ticket SCL-MPN-SCL is a bit over $US600, so maybe One World is the smarter option? MPN-SCL is 1402 miles each way.

Elmhurst. You lucky Americians do get spoiled by airline CS! Try phoinig QF to book a PAID ticket and see how you go, much less try and redeem a flight via a Latin carrier! My usual wait even to get a QF person to answer the phone is usually 20 minutes! I agree it may be possible to call Lan Chile in states, but if Quebec is right about black-outs there may be no point. Does anyone know WHAT their blackouts are?

Sometimes getting the award via AA or BA or whatever is better re points than ising Lan Pass, as they sometimes have set levels that do not coincide with the host carrier.

Sorry Oz, that I don't have an answer to your enquiry but I agree with you in respect of rarely visited forums on this board. Tarom is not the only one. There are also Air China, Aero California, Air Jamaica and some others with less than 10 threads to them. It is a bit disappointing not to see other airlines added here. Lan Chile would certainly be a good addition as it is part of 1W now. I'd like to see Aerolineas Aregentinas who is partners with AA and QF amongst others added to the board just like I wouldn't mind seeing Garuda Indonesia added. Also, why not add Aeroflot? Even though it has not the best reputation it has quite a few routes between Asia and Europe and is the only airline servicing the whole huge Russia and it's service in the front cabin appears to be better than on a number of western airlines.

Oneworld Explorer RTW ticket.

You could use your mercosur pass to get to Punta Arenas from where the flights to Mount Pleasant are $US200 cheaper if I remember correctly - although the extra kilometers on the pass might wipe out that saving.

[This message has been edited by 3544quebec (edited 11-03-2000).]

Spider: you have identified some good Forums that are not listed. (And some more "dogs" that ARE!) I flew Aerolineas around Argentina at Xmas last year, and to this day have no mileage credit with QF, you have just reminded me!

Perhaps you could cut and paste your very valid comments about dropping and adding some forums into:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum73/HTML/000179.html

And Michael at webflyer often responds direct to such sensible suggestions.

Quebec .. OK you are on a One world rtw .. nice! I will look at that option of taking the Falklands flight from one of the stop-over points en-route, as the Mercosur passes are a lot cheaper than $US200 for that distance. Thanks!

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~ Glen ~

OZ,

What's Aerolineas like? Did you fly any international segments on them? What's their biz, 1st like? Also, do you only earn flight miles on them i.e. the ones that don't earn you tier/Q-points?

P.S. I posted my comments re: Lan Chile and some others to the thread that you recommended. Let's see if it will help to get anything moving.

Lots to do around Punta Arenas - could easily fill 3-4 days/weeks especially that time of year. Longest day is 22 Dec so you'll have close to 28 hours of sunshine a day! Let me know if you want any suggestions Glen.

Spider. Flew Aerolineas paid J class to and from Iguassu Falls from BUE, and also the long flights to and from Ushuaia, right down in Tierra Del Fuego, so I could sail off to Antarctica for NYE.

Dreadful off hand "Latin" service. Airline is losing zillions and parent (Iberia?) needs to bail it out, or sell it as I recall. We were the only ones in cabin on most flights, with one dedicated FA for each flight. Despite this they almost never asked what you wanted, or seldom offered drink top up etc. Woeful really for near empty J. No lounge at Ushuaia, nor as I recall at Iguassu, and VERY basic one at BUE, their hub.

Any idea WHO I can get miles on for those Aerolineas flights? I really am peeved they never showed up on QF. When I got there they told me there were not on-line with QF plan yet! So as yet I have no mile credit anywhere for them. Suggestions? They were expensive tickets!

Quebec .. yes might spend NYE this year in Punta Arenas. Would there be some partying going on there?

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~ Glen ~

I don't know that I'd consider Punta Arenas a prime party city. But then again after a week on the Falklands/Malvinas you might find the nightlife really vibrant!

That's really disappointing. I read in a travel column of a Sunday paper (can't recall if it was Sun-Herald or Telegraph) a number of months ago that when they introduced new 1st class from SYD then they didn't have any movies on the flights (in 1st!!!!) as the system wasn't "ready yet" and after dinner cabin lights were also dimmed due to "malfunction".

Not the highest quality flight in 1st even if the price to Europe was only AU$7500 (US$3750) for 2 people. Now, I'm having second thoughts about trying them early next year to US/Europe in biz for a mere US$1250...



I'd suggest AA (ok, I have a weakness for them ) as they'll eventually credit you anything you want as long as you are persistent enough. Alternatively, you can put them to your Iberia account.

Spider. I was flying within Argy, and there are only 2 class cabins on 737s as I recall. Their 747's would I am sure have far better seats. I only flew 4 flights, but on all 4 the staff "attitude" was woeful. Might have just been unlucky, but who knows?

Anyone know if I can have those points added to my QF account? On AA I'd never use them at all.

Oz,
I had a look on Qantas site and couldn't find anything about Aerolineas as far as partnerships go. Here's a lift from their site:

Other international partners:
Qantas New Zealand
Air Pacific
Air Niugini
Polynesian
US Airways
SAS
Swissair
El Al Israel Airlines
Norfolk Jet Express

This finding intrigued me as I thought seeing Aerolineas on QF site before. I then had a look at Aerolineas site with the following results:

Every time you fly on Aerolineas Argentinas, American Airlines, Iberia, Binter Mediterraneo, Binter Canarias, Austral Lineas Aereas, and Iberia Regional Air Nostrum, you earn points.

No mention of Qantas! Maybe the two airlines have discontinued their closer ties and are drifting apart?

I think when QF and AR announced there code-share agreement on SYD-AKL-EZE flights QANTAS said that QFF points could be earned on AR-operated flights if ticketed with the QF flight number but I don't believe AR flights were generally listed as points earning.