michael1023

I already booked my jetblue flight...i tried right now on latam.com and it still didnt show a direct flight, did latam post this info themselves? I tweeted at them 2 weeks ago and they said it resumes in january

SCL767

I'm seeing these nonstop flights on latam.com as well as different booking engines...

michael1023

oh well, LATAM's loss, does anyone have a screenshot that i can see?

michael1023

bump....

ElvisNYC

Well, my jfk-gye flight was cancelled. No flights in December.

I bought 4 business class tickets back in May, for August travel. They cancelled the Aug trip, so I rebooked them for Dec 18th. That was cancelled and changed it for Dec 13th.

I was notified just two days ago that Dec 13th is getting cancelled. With a possible covid travel restrictions due to second surge and tired of getting cancelled by this airline, I requested a refund.

Im so disappointed, I was looking forward to spending a nice 3 week vacation with family and friends.

Not sure why Latam is selling tickets for flights they have no intention of providing to the public.

Brandinho1

Latam isn’t the only airline to have done/doing that through this.

berlinflyer83

Same, our flight on Dec 23rd was cancelled. We actually got no notification yet, but I see it when managing my booking on LATAM.com. They're offering re-routing through LIM, landing on Christmas day and keeping the original direct return flight. That doesn't work, and I really doubt the GYE flights will start operating in January.

What do people think about the prospect of Eastern Airlines actually operating the flights scheduled in Dec? Or for that matter, the wisdom of even travelling at all given the COVID situation?

michael1023

We have our direct Jetblue flight from Dec 16 to Jan 1st, 2021. I am not too sure about Eastern Airlines though. Anything can happen in the next month, but I am hoping they don't start cancelling flights because of the cases going up, either in gye or nyc. Airlines wont survive another complete shutdown of flights, especially with no stimulus in the near future. I would think if the cases keep going up, people would just not travel anymore, but I think the airlines will still operate. As for actually "doing" anything once in gye, i.e. curfew, restrictions, thats a different story. Me and my family will just always order food to go, and maybe just take daytime rides around the city, no public transportation or possibly not even walking around a mall or something.

theboss7593

Sorry for the delayed response.

I would avoid Eastern at all costs. They have 2 planes in their fleet, if something happens your cancelled for sure... (and their MX record is spotty at best, your odds of dying in a plane crash are like 1 in whatever million flying Eastern adds that 0.1% chance to the cards)

JetBlue will be the most reliable... Do the extra space seats and be done with it if going direct is a must. Otherwise AA via Miami they are flying the 787 Lie-Flats from MIA-GYE for the next couple of months.

LATAM isn't going to run JFK-GYE until June is what I'm hearing....

I'm still waiting on a 6K refund from LATAM so don't hold your breath....

"Not sure why Latam is selling tickets for flights they have no intention of providing to the public."- so they can steal more money before they fold for good... They won't make it out of Chapter 11, Avianca will.

"Do you happen to know when in gye they ask for the negative pcr test, if you have been there recently?" A good answer above, it's all a joke anyway the REAL numbers in GYE are way way north of what they are in the US. It just is being covered up, not reported, etc I know people on the ground in GYE,CUE,UIO. Key reason I haven't gone back... (let's make it look like were real serious about this by making foreigners show all these papers)

Ecuador Gov. a joke as always. Morena will be gone come Feb (next election).. 77% approval rating to a 7% rating. (before COVID)

Numbers in Cuenca are holding steady,(the best place to be IMO right now in Ecuador) Quito is starting to have a big problem...

michael1023

yes i will be flying jetblue in a few weeks, bringing my pcr test

yeah i guess the best airline right now would be jetblue direct, followed by via mia for a jfk-gye route...

i just hope gye doesnt start shutting down things again, i.e. big lines for supermarkets, certain days for cars on the road based on license plate numbers, etc

theboss7593

Depends what strings Morena pulls thinking it'll help his re-election (which it won't) but there are two ways to go about shutting down or not shutting down, so the situation for political reasons (of course) is very fluid.

michael1023

i just read on some obscure travel site you also have to show proof of some insurance that covers covid19? can anyone attest to this when entering ecuador? i am already bringing my negative pcr test

edit: I think it’s fake news. I couldn’t find anything on the state department website or the Instagram account of gye airport...

michael1023

well, just got back from gye yesterday, and guess what, a few days after we landed, boom, curfew and license plate restrictions, and lines for supermarkets. ugh, i posted on YouTube how i was pretty disappointed/depressed and with anxiety the whole trip because of that, not knowing because of the new strain of covid, if they were going to close the airports, etc, so we left two days early .i feel guilty, but hope to be back in April or may,

is there anymore info if LATAM is going back to jfk-gye? even though i believe the outbound is always at an ungodly time, at least i can try for the lie flat seats..jetblue was a bit of a mess unfortunately, see my post in the jetblue form...

i see these crazy routes on latam.com for jfk-gye, but they make you connect in like SCL and GRU, or something like that, ugh

theboss7593

Right now it's on track for JUL 1 return JFK-GYE.

GYE-LIM (767 service which is operated by XL "Latam Ecuador" and is the second leg of JFK-GYE route) is still on for a Mar 28th return but I have a feeling it'll be nixed.

I saw your post in the JBU forum, I reserve the first row whenever I fly JBU and whenever I show up anytime after early boarding I never have overhead space which is quite annoying I feel that if you reserve EMS you should be entitled to that overhead space. ( So I feel your pain there) The whole reason I board last is I have ZERO reason to get on the plane and just park my butt (for anywhere from 30-60 min) and let everyone else get on. Even in domestic J I like to be one of the last if not the last to board. Literally hours saved every year by doing this.

If you plan on returning before July and they run the 767 GYE-LIM segment, Go JFK-LIM-GYE 787-767 if you don't mind the extra time. It's priced well with LATAM miles. 31K ea way. Otherwise go AV via BOG. J tends to go out 1/2 full on the GYE-BOG segment and the BOG-JFK segment is widebody (lieflat galore), lounges in BOG are suitable for SA standards. Although I would like to get to the Sala VIP Lounge in UIO sometime to check it out, whenever I fly out of UIO it's always the domestic portion of the terminal so I never get to check it out.

Just don't fly Eastern I heard their giving out PBJs in Business Class.

michael1023

thanks for the info. we will probably be flying back before july, so even though my wife was upset/angry at jetblue, we mosttt likely will be flying jetblue again, mostly becuase she (and myself) don't like to connect, we like to spend as much time with family as possible...we will adjust our expectation for boarding/carry on's accordingly...i saw some videos of avianca, nice business class on the aircraft

as far as LATAM, why the july date for flying direct to gye? they want to prioritize other routes? covid reasons?

thanks