Aussie Traveller

Hi there,

I'm new to this forum and was recommended to post my question here by a member on Tripadvisor.

We are trying to book flights from Santiago to Easter Island on 16th May - returning to Santiago on 19th May and there are absolutely ZERO flights!

We can't change our return dates as we will be enroute home from Peru with a connecting flight already booked from Santiago, but even changing the date to an earlier day, the closest one I can find is 14th May but then we'll be back in Santiago on 17th May with having to wait around for 3 days for our connecting flight home. This will also cause us to miss out on part of our itinerary in Peru. I've tried every online booking site and even the travel agent cannot find one. It is like for 2 these two dates, all flights have disappeared...

Does anyone know of any reason this would be (anything going on on Easter Island during that time, so they're simply booked out - or maybe some technical/scheduling isues at LAN)? It's just bizarre...

Hope someone can shed light on this as if it's a tehcnical issue, I know I can try later and can continue to book our accommodation & tours, but for now, I'm too cautious to proceed with anything.

Thanks heaps!

og

Given I can see availability on EF for SCL-IPC on 18/5/16, I assume it's not a LA each issue. Could be that a change of some sort is being processed and hasn't yet been finalised (times ?). All I can suggest is to keep checking and hope something appears. Or plan on visiting IPC on a future trip.

IanWorthington

Hi Aussie Traveler, and welcome to the site.

I can confirm that I see the same as you: there's nothing available for those few days in any class or in redemptions. Seat Guru isn't showing any seat maps either.

Have you tried calling LAN and asking them? (Of course, ymmv)

Aussie Traveller

Thanks guys! So it's not just me... :-)

braceya

Hey OP,

Is it impossible to bump the flight back?
You could do the 15th-20th and bump those flights back a day.

What date and time are your flights back to Australia? You could also look at the direct flight from Easter Island to Lima... its once weekly I think. Unfortunately this can't be done if the Santiago - Lima leg is on the same airline as the Lima - Australia leg.

PS Your post gave me a dose of nostalgia. I was on Easter Island from May 12th to May 16th last year. Where has the time gone...??

jlarroulet

Sadly, the LIM-IPC flight no longer exists. It didn't perform as expected

braceya

That is sad news

Frankly I'm surprised there hasn't been more demand to do more flights there. The tourism on the island is supposedly increasing >10% YOY, yet the same number of flights remain...

jlarroulet

There's a lot of politics involved. The islanders are always trying to limit the total number of tourists, based on their belief that such measure is needed to sustain the islands ecosystem and resources

Plus, flying to IPC is a complex operation. Since it has no viable alternate, flights to/from IPC are very constrained by Chile's DGAC in terms of rate control. Basically speaking, no flight is allowed to takeoff to/from IPC in any of these cases:

1.- there's another flight inbound IPC, already past its point of no return but not yet landed
2.- there's another flight inbound IPC, not yet past its point of no return and not yet turned back
3.- there's another flight outbound IPC, not yet past its point of no return and not yet turned back

This is the consequence of various factors which limit IPC's capacity to receive multiple flights per day and airlines' capacity to schedule multiple flights with reasonable departure and arrival times. LIM-IPC became in part victim of all these constraints

SCL767

LAN currently offers up to 8 weekly flights between SCL and IPC and has significantly increased capacity to the island with the introduction of the 787-8 and 787-9 on the route.

braceya

I was aware of the flight restrictions. In fact, my flight was delayed due to a medical evacuation flight that we were waiting to land before we could take off.

On a side note, I missed my connection to BsAs and LAN stuck me in a hotel under construction with no running water... (but comped me $300 for it, which I think was a very nice gesture for a company with a horrible CS reputation).

---

With regards to the flights though, the regulatory aspect probably does play a hand in it. I'd be shocked if its the islanders pushing for it though. I could be wrong, but wouldn't they welcome the tourists? Their economy kind of relies on that one source of income. Even with those restrictions, LAN could do a morning and nightly flight (twice daily) instead of once.

jlarroulet

Yes, they do welcome the tourists. You are correct when stating they rely on that source of income. They are, however, also very aware that such a small island has serious limitations in terms of natural resources (which are very scarce) and in aspects such as waste disposal so they are actually inclined to maintaining a steady flow of tourists rather than let it grow freely to meet demand.

Regarding flights, night flights are a bit hard to schedule because of the flow control issue. LAN's SCL-AKL flight departs around midnight SCL time, and for a good part of the flight, IPC is THE enroute ETOPS alternative for the 787, so the airspace is off-limits for SCL-IPC/IPC-SCL flights to accomodate for that. The return AKL-SCL is actually a constraint for the SCL-IPC departure time: it won't depart until LA800 is within ETOPS range of SCL

EDIT: For the sake of completeness, to this date LAN is flying the SCL-AKL-SYD route under ETOPS 240 rules

IanWorthington

I was there a little while back and found almost everyone (locals and mainlanders alike) very friendly (apart from the .......s who welcomed me into their restaurant saying they had working wifi and then didn't. They really should have changed the default admin password on their router if they intended to play that game.)

Their beef is really more with the mainland government as well as serious divisions within the Rapa Nui themselves over how they want to see development progressing.

But it's a great place.

SCL767

I just checked LAN.com and there are two flights available on May 16th:
LA841 SCL 08:50 IPC 12:45 787-8
LA833 SCL 18:10 IPC 22:05 787-8 (continues onto PPT)

One flight available on May 19th:
LA842 IPC 15:05 SCL 21:35 787-8

TPJ

Courtesy of my Corpo Booking Tool:

16MAY MON SCL/AST IPC/CST-2
1LA 841 J7 CL D7 I7 ZC Y7 SCLIPC 0850 1245 787 B 0 1 DCA /E
B7 HC KC MC LC VC XC SC NC QC OC GC AC EC
2LA 833 J7 CL D3 I1 ZC Y7 SCLIPC 1810 2205 787 D 0 1 DCA /E
B7 H7 K7 MC LC VC XC SC NC QC OC GC AC EC

19MAY THU IPC/CST SCL/AST‡2
1LA 842 J7 CL D7 I7 ZC Y7 IPCSCL 1505 2135 787 D 0 X2 DCA /E
B7 H7 K7 M7 L7 V7 XC S7 NC QC OC GC AC EC

As you can see flights are fairly full, the lowest fare (when requested to price in AUD) is:

16MAY DEPARTURE DATE-----LAST DAY TO PURCHASE 07MAR/2359
BASE FARE EQUIV AMT TAXES/FEES/CHARGES TOTAL
1- USD634.00 AUD890.00 29.00CL AUD919.00ADT
634.00 890.00 29.00 919.00TTL
ADT-01 KLEFX248 SLESP247
SCL LA IPC Q45.00 359.50LA SCL Q45.00 184.50USD634.00END
REF FEE APPLIES
NONREF/CHG FEE APPLIES
VALIDATING CARRIER - LA
CAT 15 SALES RESTRICTIONS FREE TEXT FOUND - VERIFY RULES
BAGGAGE INFO AVAILABLE - SEE WP*BAG

jlarroulet

Availability varies depending on point of sale. Try forcing SCL as sales city and you can have a better estimate of the real availability