...What is the story on COPA availability. OPSC says G class for Y and E class for F. ITN displays neither class.

Would like to go to SCL or B.A. or SOMEWHERE South America for Christmas, but I guess this is a mere fantasy.

Any suggestions?

I've gotten both Y and FC seats on Copa through NW awards before with little to no problems. On NW, you may have to wait 24 hours to get the confirmation. I'd recommend Lima or Buenos Aires. I'm in BA now, and it's nice. It'll be summer during December here.

Thanks very much for the reply (very envious of you being in B.A. now!

But I am using CO miles. Wish I could use CO miles going further south than BA!
Would like to do Tierra de Fuego....(as far south as I have gotten was years ago on the steam train to Esquel, but would like to go further south).

I believe if you are usingOP miles that CO does not give hardly an availability to central and south america during christmas time. I know some flts are still showing no seats at all not even easypass. Well as long as there are revenue seats open, you can call an agent and they will book you an easypass seat even on copa. If you dont want to use easypass then its pretty much a pipe dream. To bad you cant waitlist Copa. Godd luck. I hope you get down to B.A.

Before they raised the coach redemption level to 50,000, I regularly withdrew OnePass miles for Copa travel. Two years ago, I flew to SCL at X-mas, and last year to EZE at Thanksgiving. While I am elite, I had absolutely no difficulty getting EXACTLY the flights I wanted (as long as I stuck to Copa metal -- getting CO seats at holiday times is ridiculous), with a couple months advance notice.

It is of course possible that OnePass has now closed this "Copa loophole" (the loophole being reasonable availability of reward seats!). Have you tried asking for JUST the Copa flights and then try to build an itinerary around it (possibly using DL, NW and Alaska if you need it)?

Well, I got a very patient, helpful and knowledgable lady on the line at OPSC and she got us seats to MIA-SCL on 20 Dec. and return from EZE on 1 Jan. Needless to say, can't get any space from ATL to MIA so may have to drive or take AirTran to SoFla!

We are going to go ahead and burn the 90K miles for FC. I want to fine-tune the iten, mebbe a stopover in PTY....

Now I have to figure how and what to do between 20 Dec and Jan 1 but I have plenty of time to figure that out!

LanChile flies from SCL to Punta Arenas. May I suggest the Explora hotel at Tierra del Fuego. Truely, a superb splash.

Did just that over Thanksgiving. Of course no CO partners fly there, so did na open jaws IAH-SCL EZE-IAH with a forced layover in PTY on the way back. So just took an extra day, and visited Panama Canal as well.

Went with Aerolineas Argentinas, and it was OK, though the flight from Ushuaia to Peninsula Valdez served up alltime worst sandwitch, and not just on an airline. The MD 81 coach seats were no worse than CO. Cost was around $400 or $500 for four segments IIRC.

Got an op up from EZE-PTY just before I entered the jetway, and based on that, would not spend the extra miles for FC - it's basically the same as CO domestic product, though the FAs are nicer (sorry CO FAs, while only had ONE bad experience with a VERY RUDE FA in coach, this was a half step up from 80% of CO FAs).

And there's a choo-choo Tren al Fin del Mundo Parc Nacional that was a lot of fun.

EmailKid

Thanx, EmailKid,

I have got a lot of research to do....Trains in Chile, or Argentina, I would love to do (again), also the aforementioned Tierra del Fuego run, even if it costs some $$$. Did Aerolineas A. years ago (when I worked for DL) not great, not bad......

Tren al Fin del Mundo Parc Nacional sounds like a hoot too...

Before you ticket, check out the options for getting south from SCL or EZE. Generally, because of the currency situation, EZE is cheaper. Last year, I flew from Buenos Aires (Newberry) to El Calafate (which is a terrific glacier town a little north of Puenta Arenas) for little more than $100 roundtrip!

Unfortunately, that was on Southern Winds, which has subsequently run into some major trouble after several of its key executives were busted on drug smuggling charges. The Argentine gov't gave some of its assets (it gets strange -- but remember, we're talking about Argentina here) to a new Argentine startup to be run by Lan. There's a great Buenos Aires "destinations" flyertalk board that should be able to give you the latest intra-Argentina flying info. The intra-Chilean situation changes frequently too (last time I fly discount Sky Airline there -- not even sure if they're still in business!). The bottomline is that it's still probably cheaper to fly south from Buenos Aires, but it may be in your interest to do your homework quickly.

Oh, as far as DL availability between ATL and MIA, have them check all sorts of crazy connecting routings on all partners, including flights into FLL (well, it's quite improbable that CO will have anything anywhere around the holidays). I did manage to put together a DL flight through CVG once when I needed to get to Miami for Copa over the holidays. It's like pulling teeth, however.

Also look at Copa's Orlando schedule. It's less frequent, so I don't know if it works on the connections. But it's a shorter drive for you! Finally, consider the counterintuitive approach of grabbing a flight NORTH to JFK on DL and taking the new Copa JFK-Panama flight. My guess is that ATL-JFK flights are easier to get a x-mas time than ATL-MIA, so it might be worth the detour.

Good luck!

El Calafate was great, went on a glacier minitrek, and they gave us Scotch on the rocks at the end. The rocks were pieces of ice from the glacier.

Here's El Tren del Fin del Mundo link

EmailKid

Thanks iahphx...for both posts.
Yes, I was thinking about checking ITN for a roundabout routing to MIA, I would rather do that than drive for sure. COPA Orlando is a good possibility too (didn't even knew they flew into MCO!). Also, the idea of going South from EZE sounds more logical, as I'm sure fares and probably service availability would be better out of EZE. I really don't care to hang around B.A., been there done that, let my wife see the town and have some great Steak and Chorizo, and then go south sounds better......:-:

Yeah, but have you done it with the cheap Peso? I find BA to be a blast when it's cheap -- great restaurants, entertainment, etc., and it's all absurdly inexpensive.

I found it to be a nice complement to the "wilds" of Patagonia. Of course, if you stop in El Calafate, you'll be amazed at how civilized that outpost is in the middle of nowhere. The Argentines seem to like their food and drink. Almost as much as the French.