Viajero Perpetuo

What is the USA called in South America?

E _ _ _ _ _ _ U _ _ _ _ _

AlexS

Has anyone been able to purchase tickets on the LATAM Chile website from the US recently? I've been trying for a few days without success. I called my credit card company, and no charges are getting through to them so I expect the purchase is being blocked by LATAM.

Alternatively, does anyone have a reliable travel agent in Chile that I could use to purchase tickets.

Thanks,
Alex

Viajero Perpetuo

Interesting no one else has commented as there must be quite a bit of FT members that book Chile domestic flights from the States using the Chile LATAM site.

Don't have the time to check for myself using a US proxy service but if it has changed, how far are you getting? Do you get a valid PNR?

In the past when they were blocking or redirecting, the advice was to use TOR to get around it.

AlexS

I've tried TOR, but got the same error after filling in my payment information. I get the following error every time:

La transacción no pudo ser completada, por lo que no se ha realizado ningún cargo en el medio de pago seleccionado. Porfavor, intente más tarde.

Any ideas what is going on? Or a travel agent that might be able to handle?

Alex

Windward Side of Life

I'll pm you some info tomorrow.

iahphx

I'd also appreciate any info anyone can provide on buying LAN "domestic" tickets from the USA these days. I just bought a sub-$400 roundtrip from IAD to SCL, and will probably add a domestic flight to that.

That said, a couple months ago, I easily bought a dirt-cheap SCL-Mendoza ticket from Sky Airlines. Is Sky OK these days? I haven't flown them in years. But their advance purchase fares are crazy cheap -- like US$30 a segment. No real need to fly LAN at those prices.

Bowgie

I have a LAX-SCL-COR biz-class award booked for mid-January, but I have to eventually get back to SCL for my return to the United States.

1. COR-MDZ on Aerolineas is reasonably cheap, and MDZ-SCL on Sky even more so.
So same question as iaphx.

2. I have the evening SCL-COR flight because the morning one was not available for award travel. This leaves me an all-day layover in SCL. While I'm perfectly OK with taking bus + metro to central Santiago (I've done it recently.), I'd prefer the morning flight to Cordoba instead of the evening.
What are the odds of LANTAM just putting me on the morning flight if I ask them? I can't re-ticket in advance because that's a change fee on AA.

mmoorrggaann

Try booking on http://www.despegar.cl/

iahphx

I just looked at a June airfare to Calama on despegar and Sky was 1/10th the price of LATAM! So I guess it didn't work! Any other ideas? Honestly, I'd just book what I want on Sky, but LATAM's schedule would be better for my needs.

mmoorrggaann

You could try
http://www.cocha.com/
or
https://www.atrapalo.cl/

Viajero Perpetuo

On a certain expats in Chile forum, one forumite confirmed the Tor bypass no longer works but for some reason using Chrome's Incognito Window feature worked.

Give it a try and report.

iahphx

It works! Thanks. But some of the other tricks seem to work, too, like despagar. My mistake was doing one way pricing. For some reason, Sky prices that way to Calama, but LATAM requires a roundtrip purchase for their low (aka, competitive) fares.

BTW, LATAM is about $20 more roundtrip for my routing. If the schedule is comparable, is LATAM worth anything extra? I don't currently have high enough oneworld status to get into their lounges (I'll use my priority pass card for other lounge access). I haven't flown Sky in well over a decade, back when they flew old 737s. Any quality difference these days? I'm not crazy about LAN's tight legroom -- or their pre-flight customer "support" if you need anything -- but the flights tend to run close to schedule and are otherwise more than satisfactory for their short flight time. I do have one Sky flight already booked for next year, since I needed a one way from SCL to Mendoza and Sky was 1/6th the price (and there were no Avios seats available).

Viajero Perpetuo

LATAM has more planes and more employees so in an IROPS situation, they can be better. On TripAdvisor, seems that Sky has quite a bit of complaints in regards to being able to contact them. Despegar, be very careful as that site has quite a bit of complaints from people who have lost money. Personally, I would never use them for any travel.

iahphx

Seems like I can book direct with LATAM, so I don't see a need for a third-party travel agency.

I'll have to read more reviews on Sky.

EDIT: FWIW, I looked at the Skytrax rating for Sky and LAN/LATAM, and they all get 3 stars.

Viajero Perpetuo

I might need to take back the claim about the number of employees to "help". LATAM (in Chile at a minimum, don't know about the other countries) has begun a mass layoff of ground workers as of yesterday. I may no longer have LATAM flight benefits as family of an employee in a year's time...