The lie flat beds UA are promising for IAH-EZE are scheduled to start on November 4.

I'm in the planning stages of a trip to Argentina for fall of 2013. I have enough miles on AA for business or first. I also can get enough into UA from my Chase UR accounts for business. It will be my husband and I traveling. I'd prefer to fly J and use less miles up.

Which airline has the better lie flat seats for the long overnight flights? One note about AA is that they almost never have 2 J seats for award travel on the same flight but usually there are 2 award seats in first. I've done a few dummy booking just to see availability 11 months out.

Can't comment on UA J seats to EZE but if you fly AA, I'd recommend that you use the necessary miles to get into first class. AA's business seats are nominally lie flat but they achieve this by stuffing your feet under the seat in front of you, in order to cram as many seats into the cabin as possible. As a result, the J cabin is very cramped.

For me, a good business class offers space, not just a flat slab to sleep on. AA's first class cabins on the three-service 777s that they fly to EZE are nice and roomy. Pay up and enjoy!

Yes if booking AA F at least you're guaranteed getting a decent product. UA new J seat is very good although if you don't get that you could end up sitting in an old seat which belongs in a museum.

I'd book AA F and be done with it.

Another voice for AA F instead of J... I find J on AA to be barely sleepable (just endured another night last night on the now re-numbered 953 from JFK to EZE). J on LA is considerably more comfortable, but requires a routing either via LIM/SCL or the MIA-EZE flight.

If using AAdvantage miles for redemption, the difference roundtrip between J and F is only 25,000 miles (100,000 for J, 125,000 for F). I've used 25,000 to upgrade from J to F oneway before (and considered it worth it because I find AA J so uncomfortable) so I would not even think for a second about using 25,000 more for F in both directions. The fact that availability in F is much better than J just makes the decision easier.

What is the latest on the flat bed options to EZE from the USA East Coast or from as far west at IAH or DFW? Any new choices that everyone loves or are we still as it was last August when this thread was active?

Don't think anything has changed from the US. AA are still sending their old 777 slopey J product to EZE as far as I know and will probably continue to send it for quite a while.

"Soon" DL will have updated and reconfigured all of their international 767-300s into the staggered flat beds in BE. However, the A330 is used on the ATL-EZE route for part of the year, and while modifications seem to be progressing quickly, only a few of these aircraft have been done so far.

DL tends to fly more flat beds--and generally better aircraft--into Brazil, so connecting into EZE using SkyTeam partner AR might work to get flat beds most of the way, especially if one doesn't need to obtain a visa from Brazil to do so. Another option might be to connect through Chile, depending on one's situation with respect to their reciprocity fee.

No one's "situation" pays a reciprocity fee if one has an int'l-int'l connection and stays in transit.

Some people want to leave the airport and go to a hotel when then have an overnight connection. I assume that even if one missed a connecting flight due to IROPs and was forced to be rebooked the next day, the fee would need to be paid in order to exit the transit zone at the airport.

I am unclear what that has to do with a reply specifically related to someone who stays in transit during the connection.

Your reply discusses non-"true" transit, i.e., an overnight hotel, a trip outside the airport, etc.

If by "true" transit, you mean a several hour connection, sure. However

-IROPs happen and a "true" transit passenger might be forced to spend an unplanned overnight at a "true transit" connecting airport. Do you want to be stuck in that airport's transit zone for about 24 hours?

-some airlines offer overnight connections, including on award tickets. It can save a lot of money/miles to take the connecting flight the next day when inventory is more available. But does this mean that you must spend the night in the airport? Here reciprocity fee/visa charges are something to consider in the decision to accept such itineraries.

AA still has fully flat beds in F on the 772 services out of DFW, MIA and JFK for reasonable prices. This will change when they go in for refurbishing in 2014, but then J will have a fully flat bed.

Just my two cents...

I now frequently connect through EZE on my way from SCL to the US, with a 7-8 hour layover. The first few times I did that the girls in the LAN lounge told me that pax could not stay in transit for more than six hours, and I would have to leave.

I have an old school sticker for reciprocity in my passport but there was no way I was going to spend hours at EZE landside so I just lied and said that I hadn't paid the fee, and they reluctantly let me in. My last two flights they haven't said a word, so either they know me or the rule has changed.

I suppose you could avoid this by staying out of the lounge for the first few hours, too, since transit security doesn't even check BPs, they just ask where you're going. But it's something to keep in mind if you'll have a longer layover.

For things like IRROPS and other involuntary overnight or extremely long delays requiring a hotel stay there is a system in place where pax who haven't paid the fee are allowed in the country on a "limited" waiver and receive a special stamp.

Your "two cents" are only worth two centavos here, because the issue at most recent hand is the SCL fee if transiting there so that one can have a lie-flat seat to EZE I hope to never spend as much time in transit as you have @ EZE, even if it is spent in the relatively-opulent splendor of the new LAN lounge.