behuman

With all the hassle regarding paying for an ovepriced LAN ticket why not look elsewhere. TACA has a very user friendly website and I just booked LIM - CUZ in C for less than any LAN fare. And o wonder, the payment went through in 5 seconds and about two hours later I got an email with the eticket numbers.

The LAN website is really crap when it comes to payments with credit cards.

mad_atta

Thanks for the idea but I needed to buy Chilean domestic fares. I ended up using Sky Airline instead, since their US site gave basically the same prices and also had the advantage of letting me fly out of Puerto Natales rather than trekking back to Punta Arenas. I'll miss out on a couple of thousand QF miles but they're not worth much to me anyway.

Domestic Argentinian flights are even worse. Bariloche to Buenos Aires is US$520 one way for the two of us on LA - and AR is even more, while offering less. That hurt, I can tell you!

hyho61

I too booked on TACA for LIM-Cuz, but to get a low fare had to book through traficoperu (online travel agency). LAN fares were outrageous for non-Peru residents.

iahphx

Sorry to hear of your trouble booking LAN flights within Chile on the Chilean website. I just completed my trip ($100 roundtrip between SCL and Puerto Montt) without incident.

Sky is definitely a reasonable alternative, but it really is better to get the LAN website to work (if that's possible, of course). LAN is just a better airline, and they have so many more flights than Sky, so it's generally much more convenient. I would have had to pay more to fly Sky because their cheapo fare bucket was already sold out for the flight I wanted, and I would have had less convenient flights. You can also earn ff miles with the LAN flights.

Now Peru, Argentina and Ecuador are another story, with the LAN residency requirements (which frequently torment me, too!).

cityfishing

Be careful on which flights you select on TraficoPeru. I looked at the LAN LIM - CUZ flights and got a great price but when I looked at the restrictions, in the fine print, it said:

tickets are non-refundable
promotion --applies for peruvian residents--
residence in peru shall be accredited with
peruvian id or alien card otherwise an additional
charge of usd 178.5 will be applied or boarding
will be denied.

lazy_flyer

This "different price for different residents or point of sale" stuff was, I thought, restricted to domestic flights. Now I am seeing something similar internationally. I fly regularly from AKL-SCL-AKL and just today while searching on Lan's website I see VERY different prices when you put your country of residence as Chile, versus the other options that I tried. Even sites like Kayak seem to be finding the Chile prices, but are unable to book when transferred to Orbitz etc by Kayak.

Any insights into this? For reference I am trying dates around Feb 10 returning around Feb 22.

Thanks!

Viajero Perpetuo

I just experimented with a xUSA-SCL flight first using the Chile version site then the USA version site via a USA proxy and found the price before taxes was close to $250 USD more on the USA site.

When I tried to view flights on the Chile site via the USA proxy, I got a we are working on the problem type error page. Nothing new there, just typical LAN blocking of extranjeros trying to access the Chile site.

lazy_flyer

Thanks for your reply and for running a test. The problem is a bit more serious than $250 though. For AKL-SCL-AKL, I'm getting ~$1400 on the Chile version and ~$2200 on the "Other Countries" version. And it is something new for me as I haven't seen this on the NZ - South America routes before. I hope it is not a new effort to move into more price discrimination.

Viajero Perpetuo

Wow, nice gouge. February is vacation month in Chile so I don't know if that partially has anything to do with it.

How about the Despegar site? Many who cannot access the Chile version of the LAN website frequently use Despegar to successfully get the same price except for a small commission.

lazy_flyer

Thanks, I hadn't tried Despegar. I have now, but alas no success re bringing the price down. Yesterday, I was able to book the lower fare (but didn't go right through to payment as I wasn't sure). While it is possible that fares have increased that much in one day, for every day I try, including some a couple of months away, the problem persists. So I am hoping this is an error but when I called Lan to ask if this could be the case they, of course, failed to understand my point. I guess I'll keep trying or (gulp) book Aerolineas, which is a decent amount cheaper despite a dreadful schedule and on-time performance.

iahphx

I've asked this elsewhere, but if anyone knows how a gringo can buy a cheap intra-Argentine fare these days, please let me know. Residency requirements for airfares are evil.

nyc1978

For Chile, we had success with visitchile.com, which is the website of a Chilean travel agency. We booked tickets through them and paid the Chilean resident cost (about 1/3 the US price). Note there was one hiccup where LAN changed the flight time, and because we booked through a travel agency, it was very difficult to get LAN to reaccommodate us to a different time. However, the agency was responsive though there was little they could do.

Viajero Perpetuo

That site does not seem to have a whole lot of positive feedback on TripAdvisor.

I recommend users try TOR to access the LAN site Chile version.

otptravels

I google "Lanchile", and clicked on the first link, which is also mentioned previously in this thread (it's the Chilean version of LAN's site). I got all the way to completion of the reservation, put in my credit card info, attempted to book, and was given the following error:

"IMPORTANTE: Las tarifas aquí indicadas están disponibles sólo para ventas en Chile. En caso que usted no se encuentre en Chile, puede comprar sus tickets en alguno de los sitios internacionales de LAN.com.
IMPORTANT: The fares indicated here are only available for sale in Chile. If you are located elsewhere, you can purchase your tickets at one of LAN.com´s international sites. "

However, I did get assigned a record locator number. I called through skype the ticketing number listed at the bottom of the reservation for "Chile". I proceeded to the English menu (which it sounds like is only available during regular business hours). The operator first asked me which city I was calling from. I responded "Los Angeles", which is correct. It's not my fault if the agent assumed I meant Los Angeles, Chile, and not Los Angeles, CA, USA, which is where I actually was. I'm not sure what they would say if you give a non-Chilean city name, but I figured I wasn't going to find out. I was then able to give my locator number, then my US issued credit card information, and book the reservation without an issue. Good luck!

Viajero Perpetuo

This is just a "suggestion" not an enforceable rule, LAN Chile knows it and their IT department obviously isn't competent enough to make their blocking or redirection work 24/7.

If you purchase a ticket from the LAN Chile version site, technically you are purchasing the ticket "in" Chile.

Thanks for the latest experience regarding this "try to gouge those outside of Chile" issue.