South America - Using Points for Hotels In South America

Hi,

I'm brand new to flyertalk and fairly new to traveling with points! My husband and I are planning a trip to South America this coming July. We will be staying in Cuzco, Santiago, and Easter Island. We finally have all the flight details figured out, but now it's time to figure out hotels.

Does anyone have recommendations/experiences with using reward points to book hotels in Cuzco, Aguas Calientes, Santiago or Easter Island? We have membership reward, ultimate reward points, and aa points.

Thank you!

Hi,
Does anyone have recommendations/experiences with using reward points to book hotels in Cuzco, Aguas Calientes, Santiago or Easter Island? We have membership reward, ultimate reward points, and aa points.
Thank you!
Of these, Santiago is the one most likely to have major chain hotels you can redeem points at. The Grand Hyatt Santiago is only 8,000 points per night, and you can exchange Ultimate Rewards points for Hyatt points. There is a reasonable Holiday Inn (Priority Club) right at the airport if you need to be there, and they have good value on cash and points. They and SPG are Membership Rewards transfer properties. The W Santiago gets good reviews.
Anyone have more suggestions?

There are no chain hotels in agua or easter island and as far as I know only 2 in cuzco (best western and novotel). Most of the chains have hotels in Santiago. For flight connection reasons to Cuzco, you will probably find that you need at least one overnight in Lima which also has many chain hotels. Unless you see compelling rates it may be worth waiting to see if there is an IC (Holiday Inn etc) Pointbreaks offer nearer the time - the Intercontinental Santiago is currently on offer to Jan 31 for 5,000 points for example. See: http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/pc/1/en/c/1/content/dec/pc/0/en/points/us/hre/pointbreaks/csamerica.html?rateCode=IVANI

When route planning note that LAN resumes its Lima - Easter Island service in February. Also bear in mind that there remains occasional disruption to flights in Argentina and Chile from volcanic ash so I would build in a bit of contingency time.