We're most of the way through planning a 2-week trip to South America in November, starting with the Brazilian Grand Prix (Sao Paulo), then a visit to Iguazu Falls, and then ~1 week in Chile, and back to the U.S. The long-haul flights are United award tickets in J-class, OMA-EWR-GRU and SCL-IAH-OMA and I booked them first, figuring that was the hardest part.

Race tickets, hotels in Sao Paulo, Iguazu Falls, and Santiago, no problem. But the internal flights within South America (GRU/CGH-IGU/IGR, IGU/IGR-SCL) are just preposterously expensive for relatively short flights in economy. Sao Paulo to Iguazu was not too bad, $140 O/W on Gol. But: trying to get from Iguazu (either the Brazil side [IGU] or the Argentinian side [IGR] to Santiago is extremely painful. The lowest fare, one way, is $852! ...? ($610 if you don't mind two plane changes or a 4.5 hour layover.)

Even constructing my own connections via Buenos Aires shows that a one-way flight from AEP-SCL or EZE-SCL is $747. That's for a two hour flight between two national capitals, presumably there's a reasonable amount of traffic between that city pair since there are nearly a dozen flights a day, all of them similarly exorbitantly priced.

Any idea what this all about? Taxes? Collusion? Protectionism? This is my first trip to South America, but I have flown all over North America, Europe, and Asia, all of which are well stocked with LCCs. Are there no LCCs in South America (outside of Gol in Brazil)? (Or are there LCCs whose inventory is not in the GDSs?)

Any suggestions? Kayak and Google flights show a KLM flight that appears to have traffic rights EZE-SCL and offers a $235 fare. That might be the best deal, and hey, nice KLM 777.