jmgriffin

I'll be posting the trip reports from our recent trip to South America here over the next few weeks, as we complete them. I'll try to edit this first post with an index as we add the posts, hope you guys enjoy reading!

1. Delta SkyMiles to Argentina: How to book Aerolineas Argentinas Award Space
2. Delta Flight 147 – Atlanta-ATL to Santiago-SCL – B767-300ER
3. W Santiago Hotel Review – Santiago, Chile
4. Walking Tour: Exploring Santiago De Chile
5. How to: Booking a Bus Ticket from Santiago to Mendoza
6. How to: Booking a Bus Ticket from Santiago to Mendoza
7. Bus Ride Through the Andes: Santiago to Mendoza
8. Park Hyatt Mendoza Review – Mendoza, Argentina

My sister was studying abroad in Argentina this past semester, so McCown and I planned a trip to go and visit her. We both had a decent stockpile of Delta SkyMiles and, with the impending changes to the 2015 SkyMiles program, I really wanted to burn all of the miles that we had in the event that Delta renders them all but worthless next year.


By using Delta Skymiles, we were able to take advantage of their routing rules to have 1 free stopover and 1 free open-jaw. It looked like this:

1. Depart Charleston-CHS, fly to Atlanta-ATL to connect to Delta 147 from ATL to Santiago, Chile-SCL. This was the beginning of our open-jaw.
2. After 2 nights in Santiago, we purchased bus tickets from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina, where we explored the South American wine country for 3 nights.
3. From Mendoza-MDZ, we took a direct fight to Buenos Aires-AEP. The flight out of Mendoza concluded our open-jaw segment.
4. With Buenos Aires counting as our stopover, we stayed for about 5 days then began the trek home flying from Buenos Aires-EZE –> Atlanta-ATL –> Charleston-CHS.

We booked this ticket a few months ago for appx 60,000 Delta SkyMiles + $86 in taxes. Here’s the overview of our trip and an outline of future posts:

- Delta SkyMiles to Argentina: How to book Aerolineas Argentinas Award Space

– Booking an Awesome Argentina Itinerary with Delta SkyMiles + Other SkyTeam Partners

– Award Booking with Delta SkyMiles

- Delta Flight 147 – Atlanta-ATL to Santiago-SCL – B767-300ER

– W Santiago Review
– Santiago, Chile Walking Tour


– Photo Gallery: Around Santiago
– Bus Ride Through the Andes: Santiago to Mendoza


- Park Hyatt Mendoza Review


- Photo Gallery: Around Mendoza


– Using Xoom to Change Money




– Cycling Wine Tour




– Ocho Cepas Steakhouse and Wine Cellar




– Mendoza, Argentina Walking Tour




– Aerolineas Argentinas Flight # 1413 – Mendoza-MDZ to Buenos Aires-AEP




– Park Hyatt Buenos Aires Review




– Buenos Aires, Argentina Walking Tour




– Casa Felix: Closed Door Restaurants in Buenos Aires




– Photo Gallery: Buenos Aires




– Buenos Aires-EZE Departure Lounges: AMEX Centurion and Aerolineas Argentinas




– Delta Flight # 110 – Buenos Aires-EZE to Atlanta-ATL

Dieuwer

I will be traveling to Santiago and Buenos Aires as well, next year April, using UA miles flying AC J.
Looking forward to your full trip report

Bretteee

1. How many hours by bus from Santiago to Mendoza?
2. Was the Buenos Aires walking tour with a guide.
3. Did you like the Park Hyatt?

Thanks.

jmgriffin

Thanks, sounds like a great trip. I definitely recommend the bus ride over the Andes if you have the time for it!

jmgriffin

1. How many hours by bus from Santiago to Mendoza? -- The trip is scheduled to take 8 hours but in reality took just 6 hrs 56 mins. Our actual "moving time" was 5 hrs 5 mins but this included a stop at the border for customs and immigration of about 1 hr 50 mins. I think the border crossing can take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours (maybe even longer?). They have a bunch of small cafes where you can buy some food and wine or beer, so the time passes quickly.

2. Was the Buenos Aires walking tour with a guide. -- Nope, we did the hop on hop off bus for a day and then pieced together a self-guided walking tour from online sources (TripAdvisor etc..)

3. Did you like the Park Hyatt? -- The Park Hyatts were great. The PH Mendoza didn't really feel like it was totally up to international Park Hyatt standards, but then again, we were visiting in the off season so there was lots of maintenance being performed and the property just seemed a bit off, all around. That being said, we would absolutely stay there again given the rates were 990 ARS (~$116/night at the official exchange rate, if you used a credit card but we paid with cash and ended up with a rate closer to ~$90 US, I'll take at all day for a stay at the Park Hyatt).

The Park Hyatt Buenos Aires Palacio Duhau was top notch. Service was great, we were able to get complimentary breakfast in the main restaurant for being a Hyatt Diamond member etc... For this trip, I booked our stay for 10,000 points + $125 USD per night and used a Diamond Suite Upgrade which confirmed us into a Park Suite. Like the Park Hyatt Mendoza, they actually converted this rate that we had book from $USD to ARS at the official rate so we were able to pay with cash and ended up getting a rate much closer to ~$90 per night + 10k points.

jmgriffin

Also, here's a map of the route:



The ride is pretty smooth, with the exception of a few switchbacks/hair pin turns like this one:



I'll most a lot more details on it later, once I've had a chance to type it all out....

Bretteee

I went to Buenos Aires in 1978. I was told that I absolutely must visit Mendoza.
I hope to return to visit Patagonia and Bariloche.

1. Is Mendoza worth a visit?
2. Should we fly or would it be nicer to go by bus for the experience?

Thanks for responding.

Gaucho100K

Great report !!! Thanks for sharing....

Mrtrash757

very nice tr keep it up!

jmgriffin

Here's the next post in the series, it might be a bit boring to some but I figured I would share what I learned in the booking process:

Delta SkyMiles to Argentina: How to book Aerolineas Argentinas Award Space


My sister, Elizabeth, is studying abroad in Argentina this semester and we just finished up booking a trip to visit her soon. I needed to book 2 tickets, one for me and one for McCown, and wanted to use either Delta SkyMiles or United MileagePlus miles. I really preferred to burn my Delta SkyMiles first, given their impending devaluation/restructuring in 2015:


I quickly ruled out United– they’re down to only 1 daily flight from the U.S. to Buenos Aires-EZE out of Houston-IAH and the award availability is pathetic, even in economy. The only other choice is to connect in Panama City-PTY using their Star Alliance partner, Copa Airlines, but that got pretty cumbersome and availability was also pretty bad getting from the U.S. to Panama City (although the connection onward to EZE had pretty good space)… It ended up with something like Charleston-CHS –> Washington-IAD –> Panama-PTY –> Buenos Aires-EZE with lengthy connections and bad flight times–no thanks.

Flights to Argentina on Delta proper (aka Delta metal)

Delta flies only 1 daily non-stop to Argentina: Delta flight 101 (DAL101) ATL-EZE and the return DL# 110 EZE-ATL.


If you go a few months out, award availability really isn’t all that bad:


Flights to Argentina on Aerolineas Argentinas

While the Delta award space isn’t half bad, throwing in the Aerolineas Argentinas award space will increase your options by 3x:

• New York-JFK to Buenos Aires-EZE on AR Flight 1301 (ARG1301) 11hr 15min flight from 3:25pm to 4:40am, return flight AR 1300 (ARG1300) EZE-JFK 11hr 05min flight from 11:00pm to 8:05am
• Miami-MIA to Buenos Aires-EZE on AR Flight 1303 (ARG1303) 9hr 00min flight from 8:30am to 7:30pm, return flight AR 1302 (ARG1302) EZE-MIA 9hr 10min flight from 11:15pm to 6:25am
• Miami-MIA to Buenos Aires-EZE on AR Flight 1305 (ARG1305) 9hr 00min flight from 5:40pm to 4:40am, return flight AR 1304 (ARG1304) EZE-MIA 9hr 10min flight from 8:30am to 3:40pm

Searching Award Space on Aerolineas Argentinas with ExpertFlyer

Unfortunately, yet no surprise to anyone, Delta.com will not allow you to search AR award space. One way to search Aerolineas Argentinas is by using ExpertFlyer (expertflyer.com), here’s how:

1. Create an ExpertFlyer account (or ask us to help you with it in the comments below!). Because you’re checking award availability, you’ll need ExpertFlyer Pro, which is a paid service. If you’re just booking the one trip, signup for a free 5-day trial and you’ll likely be able to get all you need. Otherwise you can subscribe for $4.99-$9.99/month.
2. Search “Awards and Upgrades”
   
   
3. Enter your flight info –> ONLY “Economy – Promotional Award (X)” and “Business – Award (O)” will be bookable using Delta SkyMiles, these book at the saver low price
   
   
4. Check to see all available award space. We see that for this flight (AR 1300 on Dec 6, 2014) there are 4 award seats available in Business class (“O” fare class) and 7 award seats available in Economy (“X” fare class).
   
   

NOTE: Any space that appears under the “X” fare class should be bookable with Delta SkyMiles at the “Saver Award” level. Please note that Delta will NOT allow you to mix and match Standard Award or Peak Award space with Aerolineas Argentinas “X” class award space, i.e. you cannot price out a Delta itinerary from ATL-EZE on Delta metal at the 77,500 SkyMiles rate and then return on Aerolineas Argentinas from EZE-JFK using the “X” class economy award space.

If ExpertFlyer proves to be too cumbersome or expensive, you can also try searching for available award space on Air France/KML’s Flying Blue website.

Searching Award Space on Aerolineas Argentinas with Flying Blue

Many might find this method easier:

• Create an Air France Flying Blue account if you do not already have one. Head to: https://www.airfrance.us –> “Award Ticket Reservation”
  
  
• With the Aerolineas Argentinas routes in mind, search for your desired flight. I suggest searching it segment by segment, i.e. just the JFK-EZE portion first. There’s a chance that, if you enter Chicago-ORD to Buenos Aires-EZE, that the search will return a route via one of the Flying Blue hubs in Europe, not the most efficient way to get from the U.S. to South America. Make sure to select “My dates are flexible on the search.”
  
  
• Flying Blue is actually a pretty good search tool; you’ll get a very nice-looking calendar with all of your potential flight dates in an easy-to-select format:
  
  
• Drill down on a date that looks good for you –> “next, select flight.” We get a long list of all available flights on this date and, as predicted, a few route you from New York –> Rome, Italy –> Buenos Aires, no thanks! This is the flight we’re looking for and they’re showing availability for at least 2 seats in economy and in business class. Both of these cabins will be bookable using Delta SkyMiles.
  
  

Booking Aerolineas Argentinas award space with Delta SkyMiles

Using either the ExpertFlyer, Flying Blue or native Delta award search methods above, you should have all the tools you need to search for available award space to Argentina. The next step is booking your award. As you might have guessed, because Delta doesn’t allow you to search for Aerolineas Argentinas online, they also don’t allow you to book award space online. So, you’ll want to completely piece together your itinerary by hand and then call them up: 800-323-2323. You should have ALL DETAILS of your desired award trip ready and available before calling, for example:

• Wed Dec 3 – CHS-JFK – 10:55am to 12:55pm – DL 6051
• Wed Dec 3 – JFK-EZE – 3:25pm to 4:40am – AR 1301
• Thur Dec 11 – EZE-MIA – 11:15pm to 6:25am – AR 1302
• Fri Dec 12 – MIA-ATL – 7:45am to 9:43am – DL 1460
• Fri Dec 12 – ATL-CHS – 10:45am to 12:01pm – DL 1463

Make sure you have all of these details ready! And, don’t forget that all Delta inventory will have to be at the “Saver Award” level if you want to mix in Aerolineas Argentinas flights.

Award Pricing

North America to Southern South America will cost you 60,000 SkyMiles roundtrip in Economy or 125,000 SkyMiles roundtrip in Business class:


DON’T FORGET: (Until Dec 31, 2014) Delta SkyMiles will allow you to have 1 stopover and 1 open-jaw, so don’t waste this opportunity! We’ll have more info on taking advantage of this in Argentina in a later post, but here’s the itinerary we were able to book:

• Day 1: Fly Charleston-CHS to Atlanta-ATL to Santiago-SCL on Delta
• Day 3: Take bus from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina
• Day 5: Fly Mendoza-MDZ to Buenos Aires-AEP on Aerolineas Argentinas
• Day 10: Fly Buenos Aires-EZE to Atlanta-ATL to Charleston-CHS on Delta

BOTTOM LINE: Booking award travel using Delta SkyMiles to Argentina is easier than I thought; I was surprised at the award availability and number of options once you factor Aerolineas Argentinas’ space into the equation.
------------------------------------
Full post with proper formatting can be found here: Weekend Blitz - Delta SkyMiles to Argentina: How to book Aerolineas Argentinas Award Space

farbster

Another excellent TR!

MatthewLAX

Great report again! ^

Austiopath

Hi everyone,

Sadly, I've had zero luck finding any availability on Aerolineas Argentinas using Delta Skymiles. I have over 150k Delta Skymiles and Platinum status, and I was hoping to book travel for 2 people roundtrip between NYC and EZE in the month of March.

Delta has availability on their flight from Atlanta. I am able to fly LGA-ATL-EZE on Delta for 77,500 round trip. Not bad, not great either.

Ideally, I would like to fly on Aerolineas Argentinas, since they operate a nonstop between JFK and EZE.

There was no non-stop availability online between JFK and EZE for reward tickets, and I even used the 5-week calendar.

I then called Delta and spoke to an Elite service rep... I know some award travel can only be booked by phone. Even when I gave her full flexibility to search the entire month of March, she couldn't find ANY award tickets on Aerolineas for that JFK-EZE flight. She found one business class leg on a single date, but couldn't even find a return for that one. But anyway, I want coach because I'm trying to get two tickets with my miles.

I then used the OP's advice and signed up for ExpertFlyer. The site couldn't find ANY "Promotional Award (X)" flights, although it could find plenty of "Economy Tourist Class Awards (T)"... but I guess those don't work with Skymiles?

So am I just out of luck? Should I just book the Delta LGA-ATL-EZE ticket for 77,500? I mean, I know this is only 2 months out, but I have trouble believing there's literally ZERO award availability on any flight on Aerolineas Argentinas even when I give them a full month window to look. Even the Delta rep sounded like she thought something was off.

Of course, my original plan was to also utilize stopovers or open jaws to hopefully use this award ticket to get to somewhere else within Argentina, like Salta, but one step at a time, I guess.

Thanks!
Ben

MatthewLAX

Unfortunately, there has been zero Aerolinas Argentinas award space for the last few months on these longhaul routes IME. Space was great...really great...then all of a sudden it all disappeared. Not sure how it happened.

jmgriffin

Thanks! glad you are enjoying it!