oneworld - Flying to South America

Hi,

I'm trying to book flights to chile. The goal was to fly LON -> PUQ on the 26th Dec and then SCL -> LON on the 13th January. Ideally would fly business on the intercontinental legs.

BA+Iberia fly to SCL from LON and LAN flies SCL->PUQ so you would think this would be easy but:

LAN's website doesn't offer any availability when you search for this (though it does if you do return to PUQ). I guess maybe it doesn't like open jaws.
BA / Iberia won't offer flights to anywhere in Chile other than SCL.
Expedia offers the open jaw, but *only* if I fly in Economy the whole way (i.e. if I search for business I get no results.) And anyway I hear they're pretty terrible at re-arranging flights on multiple different carriers.

I guess I'll have to book LON->SCL and SCL->PUQ separately- but given the time between the flights I would have really preferred to get the baggage checked all the way through and not to have to check-in again in SCL. Does anyone have any smart ideas for how I could do this?

The more general problem that I'm trying to solve is that I would like to book outwards flights to somewhere in Patagonia (since if you leave evening London you arrive South america following a.m. it seems sensible to keep going) on the 26th and then book flights back from Buenos Aires/ Santiago on the 12th or 13th - but it seems like flying via Buenos Aires is a bit of a pain due to the two airports issue and flying via Santiago I can't actually book the tickets as part of a whole.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated!

Thanks,

Paul

EDIT: Obviously reason I'm asking here is I sort of figured the whole point of alliances like oneworld is to sort this kind of thing out!

aa.com with a simple multicity search by price on Oneworld carriers comes up with:


Average Price per Person - 4565.70 USD
Carrier Flight
# Departing Arriving Aircraft
Type Cabin
Flight
Miles Meals Travel
Time
City Date & Time City Date & Time

LAN AIRLINES S.A. OPERATED BY TAM LINHAS AEREAS S.A. 6035 LHR
London Dec 26, 2012
08:45 PM GRU
Sao Paulo Dec 27, 2012
06:35 AM 773 Business
N/A 24 hr
30 min

LAN AIRLINES S.A. OPERATED BY TAM LINHAS AEREAS S.A. 5950 GRU
Sao Paulo Dec 27, 2012
09:05 AM SCL
Santiago Dec 27, 2012
12:05 PM 773 Business
N/A

LAN AIRLINES S.A. OPERATED BY LAN EXPRESS 287 SCL
Santiago Dec 27, 2012
01:55 PM PMC
Puerto Montt Dec 27, 2012
03:35 PM 320 Economy
N/A

LAN AIRLINES S.A. OPERATED BY LAN EXPRESS 287 PMC
Puerto Montt Dec 27, 2012
04:05 PM PUQ
Punta Arenas Dec 27, 2012
06:15 PM 320 Economy
N/A
Alert: Overnight flight or connection.

LAN AIRLINES S.A. OPERATED BY LAN EXPRESS 750 SCL
Santiago Jan 12, 2013
08:05 AM GRU
Sao Paulo Jan 12, 2013
12:55 PM 763 Business
N/A 26 hr
15 min

LAN AIRLINES S.A. OPERATED BY TAM LINHAS AEREAS S.A. 6034 GRU
Sao Paulo Jan 12, 2013
11:50 PM LHR
London Jan 13, 2013
01:20 PM 773 Business
N/A
Alert: Please note connection time. Overnight flight or connection. Terminal change.


Many other options/different pricing would be available if searched by schedule.

Note that the TAM operated flights might be problematic for earning points/getting benefits from other than LAN Oneworld airlines but altering the search parameters on aa.com should allow you to pick Oneworld operated flights

Hi,

normally in South America, you have to clear the customs with your luggage before rechecking the backs to the first domestic flight, just like in US with domestic connections. If you end up buying separate tickets for domestic connections, remember that separate domestic flights are always much cheaper when bought at local version of LAN.com (another option is LAN's visit South America Pass which sometimes is quite expensive). By the way, also Sky Airline has flights to PUQ.

LAN has flights to Santiago and São Paulo also from the domestic Aeroparque airport. Taxi between AEP and EZE should cost around 10 pounds and take ~1-1,5 hours. Instead of backtracking to Santiago, I would fly back from Buenos Aires. If you end up travelling in Economy, you might want to try to avoid Iberia-operated flights (no IFE on longhaul flights etc).

Wow, thanks for the info. I had actually already searched the aa site but clearly hadn't entered the parameters right- I think it defaulted to only searching AA flights which clearly wasn't hugely helpful.

Given that the baggage has to be rechecked it sort of sounds like there is little point in actually trying to book to be on the same ticket since if I get an appropriately flexible third ticket...

P.S. Does anyone know why BA's website doesn't offer this? Some sort of anti-competitive rule thing or just BA being rubbish?

P.S. Does anyone know why BA's website doesn't offer this? Some sort of anti-competitive rule thing or just BA being rubbish?

I think it's AA's website being special for offering this (maybe because AA founded Sabre?).

... If you end up buying separate tickets for domestic connections, remember that separate domestic flights are always much cheaper when bought at local version of LAN.com (another option is LAN's visit South America Pass which sometimes is quite expensive). By the way, also Sky Airline has flights to PUQ.


From a 2008 table, but my recent experience is that they haven't been increased much, the OW Visit SA pass pricing is (segment miles, USD):
Zone 1: 0 to 560..............$119
Zone 2: 561 to 750...........$143
Zone 3: 751 to 1280.........$179
Zone 4: 1281 to 1810........$203
Zone 5: 1811 to 2300........$263
Zone 6: 2301 to 3500........$359

LAN's comparable product has roughly comparable prices. Book OW with the AA rtw desk, LAN on their website.

With a couple of exceptions, OW books into B or K class with excellent availability and 100% eqm on AA at least. Three segments minimum, 16 max (extensible after flying some for USD25/50 change fee).

For 'expensive' note that UIO-EZE fares with good availability are >$1000 vs $359 for a Zone 6 segment, and those cheap 'local' fares are restricted to residents and likelihood of being busted is probably high - LAN spends a lot of effort 'enforcing'.

From a 2008 table, but my recent experience is that they haven't been increased much, the OW Visit SA pass pricing is (segment miles, USD):
Zone 1: 0 to 560..............$119
Zone 2: 561 to 750...........$143
Zone 3: 751 to 1280.........$179
Zone 4: 1281 to 1810........$203
Zone 5: 1811 to 2300........$263
Zone 6: 2301 to 3500........$359


There has been an increase effective 01APR12.


N*/ONE VISIT SA PASS P2«
** UNIVERSAL STAR **
U STAR ID - ONE VISIT SA PASS P2
0S ONEWORLD VISIT SOUTH AMERICA PASS
1N .
2N FARES
3N ------
4N .
5N . 1. FARES ARE CALCULATED PER FLIGHT SECTOR AS
6N . SPECIFIED BELOW AND ARE EXCLUSIVE OF ANY TAXES
7N . AND PASSENGER CHARGES WHICH MUST BE COLLECTED
8N . SEPARATELY.
9N . 2. JOURNEYS MAY BE WITHIN A SINGLE ZONE OR A
10N . COMBINATION OF 2 OR MORE.
11N . 3. A MINIMUM PURCHASE OF 3 SECTORS IS REQUIRED
12N . WITH NO MAXIMUM LIMIT.
13N . 4. IN COUNTRIES OTHER THAN THOSE WHERE THE FARES
14N . ARE SPECIFIED IN USD, LOCAL CURRENCY FARES ARE
15N . OBTAINED BY USING THE BSR AT THE TIME OF TICKET
16N . ISSUE.
17N .
18N .
19N ------------------------------------------------------
20N I SEGMENT I MILES I AMOUNT I AMOUNT IN USD I¥
MD«
21N I LENGTH I I IN USD I ON/AFTER 01APR12 I ¥
22N I BASED I I BEFORE I I
23N I ON TPM I I 01APR12 I I
24N ------------------------------------------------------
25N I ZONE 1 I 0-560 I $119.00 I $153.00 I
26N ------------------------------------------------------
27N I ZONE 2 I 561-75 I $143.00 I $168.00 I
28N I I 0 I I I
29N ------------------------------------------------------
30N I ZONE 3 I 751-12 I $179.00 I $251.00 I
31N I I 80 I I I
32N ------------------------------------------------------
33N I ZONE 4 I 1281-1 I $203.00 I $285.00 I
34N I I 810 I I I
35N ------------------------------------------------------
36N I ZONE 5 I 1811-2 I $263.00 I $390.00 I
37N I I 300 I I I
38N ------------------------------------------------------
39N I ZONE 6 I 2301-3 I $359.00 I $480.00 I
40N I I 500 I I I
41N ------------------------------------------------------


For FTer's reference, the booking classes are:

48N BOOKING CODE
49N -------------
50N .
51N BOOK IN K UNLESS NOTED BELOW:
52N .
53N . 1. BOOK DOMESTIC SECTORS WITHIN AR IN B
54N . 2. BOOK
55N . SECTORS BETWEEN SCL-IPC IN V

The LAN website section for their South American Airpass uses Flash software. That precludes iPads and iPhones for getting information. :mad:

Does anyone know if its possible to buy the OW SA pass when travelling on a xONEx Round the World ticket? I am looking go add about 3 more stops than I have on my RTW ticket.

The rules say must be travelling to SA on return OW ticket - I guess I am but the long way round!

Does anyone know if its possible to buy the OW SA pass when travelling on a xONEx Round the World ticket? I am looking go add about 3 more stops than I have on my RTW ticket.

The rules say must be travelling to SA on return OW ticket - I guess I am but the long way round!
I did exactly this in 2009. RTW ONE ticket booked online and ticketed via AA. Called AA RTW desk and booked the OW Sth Am pass. Very easy.

There has been an increase effective 01APR12.

Still not bad, considering the previous fares were ca. 2008, booking classes are high-availability and 1x eqm, (were/are?) changeable for $25/domestic $50/international (per transaction, not segment), no apex requirement.

Did the LAN pass increase similarly? Their rates were generally similar to the 2008 fares.

The 'no maximum segments' rule is very likely still limited to the 16 segments (incl surface) that fit an e-ticket. (add more after flying some)

I also wonder if the once-per-segment rule still exists. When it caught me the AA RTW desk believably insisted it had recently been added and was real. Work-around is usually to make a trip into two segments e.g. SCL-MDZ-AEP but that does add cost.

Does anyone know if its possible to buy the OW SA pass when travelling on a xONEx Round the World ticket? I am looking go add about 3 more stops than I have on my RTW ticket.

The rules say must be travelling to SA on return OW ticket - I guess I am but the long way round!

Easy enough to get the AA RTW desk to tell you. The common wisdom used to be that you merely had to arrive in-continent on an OW ticket; they certainly wanted to know that, but since it was in fact an RT ticket they also would have seen that, if it were necessary.

We actually flew FCO-EZE-FCO with about 9 months "in" SA (during which time we flew UIO-LAX-UIO), fwiw.

Completely OT, Ecuador seems to legislate in favor of Old People; there were/are lines in the fare rules that offer 50% discounts to those 65 or older, certainly not put there because of e.g. AA's generosity. (Reminds self to check if same applies to xONEx).