Occupationalhazard

Let's say I was, hypothetically, going to bone up on my high school Spanish by taking a trip to Santiago de Chile.

A. What experience has anyone had on DL 147 or DL 146, to and fro'?

B. Anyone wanna ballpark my chances of using a few of my 10 billion or so 800 mile upgrades? (I'd still be SM at the time of booking, methinks.....)

Regards and Safe Journeys,

O/H

rcs85551

I can only answer B: your SMUs are not valid for going to SCL - you can only use them within the U.S., the Caribbean, etc.

Occupationalhazard

Y'know....I really hate having to read the fine print.....

So, sub in Skymiles for 800 mile uprades above.

Regards, and safe journeys,

O/H

BizJet

That flight is operated by a BusinessElite 767-300ER, so your flight should be rougly the same as any other intercontinental BusinessElite flight. I'm not sure if there is anything different on the flights to Latin America like there are on the Japan flights (i.e., special Japanese meals).

You can upgrade to BusinessElite using your SkyMiles. One-way upgrade from full-fare is 10,000 miles (D421). Upgradeable fares (M and higher) are 25,000 miles one-way, (D521).

jwhite4

Relatedly, does anyone know for sure what the entrance fee (basically a visa payable upon entry) costs? I've gotten 3 different answers:

a. from US Embassy in Chile website: $45
b. from Delta phone agent: $61
c. from United phone agent: $0 (included in ticket price)

I'm inclined to think it's a cross between a-b, although (c) would be nice. I was thinking about doing a mileage run there (about $467 from LGA), but if I'm looking at possible another $60+, that does affect my decision.

Thanks.

Jeff

10kster

I flew it right before Christmas...and I was very impressed with BE, and espcecially Chile! Looking through the flight loads right now is an incredible time to enjoy an oppurtunity at using mileage or upg.(loads are light)....being the opposite of seasons really shows at this time. The busiest is our winter.

Occupationalhazard

Best Info I have on that is $45 for US citizens, $55 for Canadian, and $40 for Aus. All figures in US$, as I remember them from Lonely Planet guide--I am really unsure of figure for Aussies, but did note that Canuck fee higher than US.

Fee is payable one time for the life of your current passport.

10kster, what do the flight loads look like now? I was gonna try to upgrade using miles, prob. July 4ishto July 10-ish (work, alas, prevents a longer stay....)

regards, and safe journeys,

O/H




[This message has been edited by Occupationalhazard (edited 06-03-2001).]

dogcanyon

I was there in April and the fee had been raised to $61.00. The good news is that once they staple the piece of paper into your passport, it's good until the passport expires (So far, I've gotten 3 visits off mine, which was $45 three years ago).

Old Gold

We flew down to SCL last Sept. on Continental BusinessFirst reward tickets. We were booked on Delta in BusinessElite for thwe return after CO discontinued service at the end of that month. Continental tried to make us do the return on a COPA 737 by way of Panama, no way!

We paid the $45 entry fee for US citizens, an $18 departure tax was included with the taxes paid on the tickets.

I thought that the BE seats were a little narrow, but the service on the flight was as good as it gets. Funny, but there was no wine from Chile on the plane. We were given vouchers good for unlimited food and drink at a restaurant in the SCL terminal since they didn't have a lounge for BE passengers.

The plane only had 57 passengers, I hope that they do better then Continental, which dropped the route due to unsatisfactory revenue.

I'm glad that I got to burn the CO miles for the trip when I did!

10kster

Occupational......flight loads are very light. Especially BE.....

NonRevenue Dream.

I paid 45.00 in December.

I'll try to take a peak from home around those dates. That's one thing I love is that Delta granted us secure links from home for all the flight info, mainly for checking our standby flights. I can even view standby lists and who cleared from home. Pretty useful actually.

[This message has been edited by 10kster (edited 06-04-2001).]

Occupationalhazard

10kster:

I would appreciate any info you could pass along about Santiago, logistics, etc., as I am about 90% sure that I will be making the trip. My email is [email protected]

Regards, and safe journeys,

O/H

leroy11

Read somewhere that they're packing the cargo in on that flight which apparently helps make it profitable.

GrapeDane

Cargo is very big thing for the Latin American flights. But the 763 is not that good of a plane for cargo, the MD-11 is much better. But if the pax load is light then they can put in more cargo.

10kster

Occupational......BE has about 43 seats still avail for sale, and coach over 130 avail.....the load factors pretty much the same from July 4-10....oh ya, it's the same both ways. Just call Res and ask which flights still have "Z" avail.

quinella66

I took this flight on CO from EWR-SCL in 1999. About the $45 fee to enter Chile, it is a reciprocal fee to match the fee that Chileans are charged to enter the US. The different fees for Canada and Australia match Chilean visa fees to those countries. It is correct that this is valid for the life of the passport. I did not know that the fee was raised to $61, but I have not checked on it since my trip.

Chile is a beautiful country with some of the most spectacular natural scenery in the world. Santiago is not far from the highest part of the Andes - if you sit on the left side of the plane on the trip down you can see them when arriving.

About CO discontinuning the flight, if anyone is curoius, they replaced it with a CO flight to Panama connecting on COPA to Santiago. I liked the direct one from EWR, especially because I got one as an award during a 25k promotion.