Easter Island
 

Anyone been there and have tips on how close I can get on DL/DL-partners and/or where you actually have to fly through? It's hard to find credible information online about who flies there and from what cities since there's a ton of 'travel sites' dedicated to getting there that are just referral generators with misinformation.

Delta miles can get you to Santiago (SCL) but it's a long swim from there. IIRC there's a lengthy thread on the AA forum re: travel on LAN.

Thanks, I'll dig that thread up and see what it takes.

LAN has daily flights to Easter (IPC) from Santiago (SCL) and a few times a week from Lima (LIM). You can get to both LIM and SCL on Delta. They also have a weekly (?) flight from Papeete and I think you can get there on Air Tahiti Nui'i which is a Delta partner (maybe? not all sure about this last).

I've started toying with going to Easter Island and it seems (only an impression without rigor) that it may be much less expensive to do some local tour operator's tour rather than trying to put air and hotel together separately. I would look at that as an alternative for peace of mind.

Gotta jump ship (pun not intended) to the much stronger Alliance(s) for Easter Island; LAN is your choice as others have pointed out.

No, there is no codeshare partnership with LAN. Only where you fly on AA/LAN through SCL. LANChile isn't part of Skyteam but, LANChile is belonged to Oneworld Alliance.

There is a thread in the S. America forum about Easter Island - lots of good info there if you want to check it out.

Besides charters, LAN is the only airline that files there. Great place to go. I spent 4 nights there last month. Lots of hiking, moai (stone statues), caves and scenery. I could have spent another couple of nights on the island (another hike and a boat tour) but didn't have the time. Thanks to the BA 100K mile offer I flew there in business class :)

LAN also flies there from PPT.

You can also get to PPT on HA (redeem or earn DL miles on), then from PPT to IPC on LA (OW). If just going to IPC and not to SCL or LIM, going via PPT (HA or Air Tahiti Nui) with a stopover in PPT is the way to go IMO.

Doing the same thing next year (thanks to the same BA offer).
LA business class to IPC from LIM (and SCL) is fully lie flat, right? (I am going via LIM as it's a bit longer fligher and at night so can really sleep then and connection in LIM works out better with no wasted time.)

Minor addition: From LAX you can fly either Air Tahiti Nui (TN) or Air France (AF) to PPT, not just TN. Usually, there are at least 2 flights daily. HA is flying to PPT from Honolulu but with a very limited service (once a week or in 5 days I think).

Yes, HA is only once weekly to PPT. The return flight to HNL departs about an hour before the IPC-PPT flight arrives, which means that the layover in PPT is 6 days and 23 hours if connecting to HA to HNL from LA IPC-PPT (which is also limited and just once weekly I think). But, I could think of worse places to have a 6d23h layover..

That was covered in the next sentence. ;)

They could have to increased the frequency from 1x weekly to 2x weekly. Because PPT flight is always full. There is no seat available. The entire aircraft doesn't do sit on tarmac for 6 days. They have turnaround back to HNL.

Of course, it goes there and then comes right back. Once per week HNL - PPT and return back to HNL.

Really bad times. Arrives 11pm at PPT I think, and departs back to HNL about 1am-2am (some 2 hours later).

Yes, fully lie flat seats. Very comfortable. I returned from IPC to JFK via LIM. I had a nice redeye JFK-LIM where I slept and back LIM-JFK. LIM-SCL, SCL-IPC and ICP-LIM were day filghts (or evening flights but not red eyes).