Trip Reports - SEA-LAX-SCL-EZE-BRC & back AS F and LAN C

Ever since I was a young tike and had hiked up the hill behind our house in UT with my skis, I have wanted to ski during our Northern Hemisphere's summer months. For me, that meant a trip south, way south to a place called Valle Nevado and El Colorado in the Andes mountains just outside of Santiago. Since it was such a long way to go, it would have been a shame to just go to Chile. Why not check out Buenos Aires, the leather shops and the famous Argentine beef? And after sampling some Malbec, Bife de Lomo, why not head off to Bariloche in Patagonia for some more skiing? Sounded like a nice idea to me.

The skiing in Chile is very peculiar in that the ski areas of Valle Nevado and Portillo require 4 or 7 nt stays that begin and end on certain days of the week. July is holiday time for Brazil, and they travel in great numbers during the month of July, so I wanted to try and avoid the crowds. I planned to use AS miles for this trip. The AS mileage plan up until just recently had a great business class award on partner airline LAN. For just 75k miles I could get a C class seat all the way to South America. What a deal! I spent quite a bit of time with a very nice AS mileage plan agent who had initially found me the dates I had wanted. However, a call back 30 minutes later, I was advised that the LAN portion from LAX to SCL for 2 seats in C class were not possible. She did have 2 seats leaving a day later and coming back a day earlier. It would mean not being able to stay at Valle Nevado as the arrival date was a day later than would allow me to book into one of the 3 hotels mtn side. She checked multiple dates throughout August but nothing worked, so I took the 2 seats and decided to book the Apart hotel at El Colorado which was the ski area just across from Valle Nevado. The resorts are interconnected along with La Parva to the North West of El Colorado.

I booked the trip into SCL as a 4 night stop over continuing on to EZE, where we booked 3 nights using points at the Marriott Plaza Hotel on San Martin Plaza. I booked 2 separate tickets on LAN from EZE to BRC for our trip to Patagonia, which is 2 hours SW of Bs. As.

I was a tad bit nervous having looked at weather reports for BRC as it had been warm and wet. Not a good combo for skiing. But an internet friend who lives in BRC advised that things change fast in BRC, and not to worry.

My main worry about this trip would be the luggage. Two pair of skis, and 2 pair of boots, and all our warm weather ski gear. Hats, goggles, gloves, ski jackets, ski pants, etc. You get the picture. As a rule of thumb and as an avid skier, the first rule is always carry your boots on board. You can always rent skis but renting boots can be a major issue, as boot fit is ever so critical to a good ski vacation. I had purchased a very nice 200 cm length padded double ski bag with wheels for the trip. Plenty of room for skis, poles and a few pair of ski socks and under garments. However, at 200 CM, our ski bag was way over size, even for a ski bag. With all the new restrictions on weights and size and number of bags, I was quickly calculating into the hundreds of dollars just to get our luggage to and from South America. We decided to do curbside check at Seatac. I was duly informed by the baggage check that we had to pay a $25 fee for the extra bag as AS only allows one checked bag per pax. Okay, swipe the credit card, and here's a $20 for your trouble. No mention of weight or oversize, which would have been $75. Bags tagged and fingers crossed that we will see them again in SCL.

We had Our flt. from SEA to LAX which was on AS and the plane happened to be adorned in the Disney theme and was dubbed the "Spirit of Disney." So said the plaque as you entered the plane. Commissioned in 2002.

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Not a bad way to start a trip with Mickey Mouse and friends. The flt left on time and we had a very pleasant FA who served us a Quiche with fresh fruit and sausage. Upon arrival into terminal 3 at LAX, we made our way to Tom Bradley Intn'l, aka TBIT. We wove our way through the cheese maze to the biz class check in line. We showed the agent our baggage claim tickets but there was a problem. The numbers on the claim tickets had been partially removed when we had been given our claim tickets. Uh oh! Quick call to baggage and all was sorted out very quickly. I guess we were the only connecting AS pax on this flight? We were given our bording passes as well as 2 passes for the biz class lounge. We made our way through the priority line in a flash, and with a wink and a nod.. oh wait, that's another story. With a push of the elevator button, we were in the lounge and relaxing for our 1:10pm dept.

We went down to the plane about 30 minutes before scheduled dept. Our plane was a 767-300ER with the lie flat seats. We would be in 5 A & C.

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The seats are a bit narrow but remind me of the BA C class seats. In flight entertainment system is nice, and they have 24 movies to view along with various tv and music programming as well. Our FA was Jorge and he introduced himself and offered us a pre flt drink. We both chose water. His english was very good. He also gave us an amenity kit with tooth brush, paste, comb, eye shade, and ear plugs and a few hand creams, lip balm etc. We took off just a few minutes past our scheduled dept. time. For dinner, the main course was Chilean Sea bass or filet of beef. We both chose one of each. Both were quite good. Our flt would have a stop over in Lima. Flt time from LAX to Lima was 8 hours. We were offered breakfast before landing in SCL but both of us slept through the service. We would wake up hungry in SCL. Overall we thought the service was fine. Drink refills were offered on several occassions and although we only dozed off during the flt, we found the seats, pillow and blanket quite comfortable.

We had one little issue at customs. Some raisins and nuts that had been packed as a snack for the slopes and not declared on the customs form. Oops. An hour later and $72 in fines, we were on our way. Lesson learned. We had booked a private car but we ended up in a mini bus with a few other pax. The road up to Valle Nevado is a windy road. Narrow and full of hazards. Cows, horses, pot holes and other cars. Thankfully our driver had done this before. There are 40 curves or switchbacks in the road. Each curve marked by a numbered sign. Our driver stopped at a check point where they gave each of us a plastic barf bag. Hmmm, never been car sick but there's always a first time...

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We managed to survive the curves, missed the cows, and only hit a few pot holes. Success! We arrive at our little pension in El Colorado at a lofty 8,500' high in the Andes.

Our hotel, slopeside...

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We were treated to this sunset our first night, it very much reminded me of the late spring sunsets in Alaska...

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We did manage to ski for a few hours but the fact that we really didn't sleep much on the trip down and the 4 hours between landing and arrival at the ski resort took it's toll, so we retired early to our room. The Apart hotel serves a prix fixe dinner every evening in their restaurant. They also have breakfast included in the rate. The only thing we had to worry about was the drinks, which were not included, and we had to fend for ourselves for lunch.

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The journey continues but that will have to wait for another day...

SCL is one of my favorite cities... thanks for the pics...

BTW, if anyone wants to see the full-size pictures, just delete ".th" from the link so that the prefix just reads ".jpg"

Thanks for the pics! ^

Tomorrow morning we will retrace your steps only from PDX and continuing immediately on to EZE for CowDo. Since this is our second use of this reward (too bad it is gone-but we have no miles left to buy more anyway) your report is timely. I am surprised that you were charged $25 for the second bag since you were on an international "C" ticket. LAN allows 2 bags and the partner desk has verified this, but I guess $25 is a reasonable cost versus an over-sized bag fee.

The cabin looks the same as our last trip. I concur that the seats are too narrow, but they are wider than DL's since the armrests fold down. Glad to hear that the service was good as we have experienced mixed results depending upon the crew. We have had both ends of the spectrum on the LAX-SCL and SCL-LAX route.

On the return, did you by chance fly the A340 service from SCL to LAX? We are on it next month and can find little information in respect to seat comfort.

Tomorrow morning we will retrace your steps only from PDX and continuing immediately on to EZE for CowDo. Since this is our second use of this reward (too bad it is gone-but we have no miles left to buy more anyway) your report is timely. I am surprised that you were charged $25 for the second bag since you were on an international "C" ticket. LAN allows 2 bags and the partner desk has verified this, but I guess $25 is a reasonable cost versus an over-sized bag fee.

The cabin looks the same as our last trip. I concur that the seats are too narrow, but they are wider than DL's since the armrests fold down. Glad to hear that the service was good as we have experienced mixed results depending upon the crew. We have had both ends of the spectrum on the LAX-SCL and SCL-LAX route.

On the return, did you by chance fly the A340 service from SCL to LAX? We are on it next month and can find little information in respect to seat comfort.

I wasn't aware of the 2 bag rule on a C int'l ticket via AS. However, I will say this, LAN didn't care about extra bags for the most part, or over size bags. It was a relief to say the least to only have shelled out $25 for the entire trip in extra bag fees. It was quite comical at times trying to stuff my ski bag into some of those small remises/taxis in South America. I would say that the service from LAX to SCL was quite good and vis versa. I had read some old TR's on LAN and was a bit leary but we had good service coming and going.

The return trip SCL-LAX was also on a 767-300ER. However, our flt EZE-SCL was on an A340, which was very nice. I'll report on it when I complete my TR, hopefully later this evening. Just as FYI, the seats on our A340 did not lie flat but they are wider than the 767 seat. Very wide cabin too.

After spending part of an early morning and afternoon in agony from drinking some type of orange flavored drink the night before, I decided to tough it out and hit the slopes when the skies finally cleared. (Imodium was a life saver, or at least it sure worked as advertised. ^) We ended up enjoying some nice snow and saw what potential lay ahead for the following day at Valle Nevado.

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The following day was bluebird and fresh powder every where. I did my best to try and contain myself.

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Basically the whole day was spent skiing powder with a brief respite at the sun deck at the Hotel Valle Nevado for lunch and enjoying the views.

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Our flt from SCL to EZE was an evening flt that would get us into EZE around 19:30. It was on a A320. No premium class cabin. Apparently LAN has been doing away with the premium cabin on a lot of the internal SA flights of late. When we had booked our trip some 6 months earlier there was a FC cabin but not on our flight today. So we had someone seating between us, he was very kind and took the aisle seat. We had a momentary view of the Andes out the left side of the plane but for the most part they were hidden behind clouds. We arrived in Bs.As. on time, collected our luggage and then headed to Manuel Tienda Leon to book the Bs.As. Cost IIRC was 45 pesos per person. At the airport I went to the HSBC ATM near the transportation booths to get some pesos. I had heard that the ATM's were restricting the amount of pesos you could take out. I was no exception. A lousy 300 pesos is all I could squeeze from the machine. We transfered from the bus to a mini-van that took us to the Marriott Plaza Hotel.

We arrived just around 21:50. A very quizical look greeted our ski bag by the bell hop. The missus explained to them what was inside. Ah yes, of course, skis! They stored them in the luggage room for us. Our check-in was fast and pleasant. They gave us rm 204. However, upon entering the room, there was the unmistakeable oder of cigarette smoke. We called down the the front desk and a minute later was told that the bell hop would take us to a new room with our luggage. Sure enough, a knock at the door and the bell hop took us up exactly one floor and to room 304. Much better!. The room was nice, with a partial view looking out toward San Martin Plaza. The hotel is a grand old hotel. The bathroom was spacious with two sinks. The bed was very comfortable as well.

The facade of the Marriott...

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The hotel is right next to Calle Florida, which is a major shopping street in the Microcenter. Plenty of leather shops, a few cafes and lots of people. We had dinner at the Plaza Grill downstairs at the hotel. All we had was a small sandwhich on the flt from SCL. I ordered the Bife de Lomo, which is the equivalent of filet mignon, and my wife had a salad with duck. Both were quite good. The waiter gave us a few chocolate truffles on the house. The restaurant is quite pretty, with blue tiles featuring farm sceens, etc. The meal with tip was 199 pesos. We didn't have any wine.

We spent our first full day walking around the city center, and to several of the squares.

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We also walked through the Recoleta cemetery.

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We ended up having a nice meal at a Parilla, La Chacra. Kind of a touristy looking place but the Bife de lomo and cordero or lamb was quite excellent. The waiters are all elderly men walking around in whte jackets and black bow ties with quite the sense of humor and charm. I had a nice bottle of Malbec, we both had empanadas, a mixed salad, and a giant plate of fries. All for the grand total of 200 pesos with tip.

The next day we walked back to the Recoleta area and had breakfast at La Biela. A great cafe with a very substantial breakfast. You can sit and watch the Argetnines walking their dogs to and from the park nearby. We spent the day wandering around and took the C subte out to San Telmo and walked back to the hotel from there.

We arranged for a taxi to take us to AEP on Saturday morning for our flt to BRC. It only took about 10 minutes from the hotel to AEP. Cost was 50 pesos. We had a 8:35 flt from AEP to BRC on LAN.

Checking the weather info the night before had indicated temps in the low 40's and rain. Hopefully that meant snow up high. The flt was full, lots of people with skis. The LAN folks wouldn't let us take our carry ons onto the plane and we had to gate check them. The flt left a few minutes late but we arrived into BRC on time. On the decent into BRC, we had our first glimpse of Patagonia and the Andes.

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Looked like lots of fresh snow!

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BRC is not a very big airport. Just two gates.

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However, our luggage was the first and second to last off the cart. Oh well, at least everything arrived. I was excited that there was fresh snow and one step outside confirmed it was quite cold. We rented a car thru a small company, Norteasur. The representative met us outside baggage claim. We filled out the paperwork and he took us to our 4 door Chevy Corsa. He was even nice enought o take us to our condo, which we had rented via apartementsbariloche.com.

We had a room with a view...

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Our condo was right at the edge of town, just a mere 3 block walk to Mitre street and all the chocolate shops! But tomorrow we ski at Cerro Caterdal!