fleuve

So what about "Sky Airlines"?
I heard that they are better performer this year?

enzian

We (2 adults) need to fly one-way SCL to PUQ. I haven't checked the price on the LAN.cl site yet, but found the round-trip fare on the US site is acceptable.

Is there any problem with booking the RT and not using the return?

We actually have the one-way flight booked with Avios, but it is the afternoon flight that makes a stop on the way. This was the only one offered when I booked, and still the only Avios flight that makes sense, time-wise. It is worth it to us to pay around $US400 to fly non-stop--- I am not a good flyer and especially hate taking off and landing. As a bonus we would get there earlier in the day and have some time to look around.

iahphx

Just an update. I had no difficulties booking and paying for internal Chilean flights on latam.cl using Chrome Incognito. I actually did a multi-city booking: it generated the same cheap fares that Latam gives you when you book a simple roundtrip. Free seat assignments, too (I can't remember if that's customary these days in Chile).

The fares seemed remarkably cheap: about US$35 per segment. I'm not sure if that's a special sale. On their website, Sky is advertising a special 4-day sale in that price range so perhaps Latam is matching. For the flight times I needed, Latam was cheaper than Sky.

I did compare these prices to Latam's USA site, and the fares were 3x there.

As a heads up, I understand that a new ultra low cost airline is starting up in Chile this year called JetSmart. This seems crazy to me. Domestic Chilean airfares always seem cheap -- at least if you buy them in Chile. Who needs an "ultra low cost carrier" when Latam is US$35?

https://www.thestreet.com/story/1399...-to-chile.html

FairDinkumMate

I'm with you. It seems like he chose Chile because David Neeleman beat him to Brazil with Azul & without a Brazilian passport Franke couldn't own a Brazilian airline anyway!

iahphx

I'm surprised he's not targeting Argentina. Airfares are much higher there and the new gov't seems serious about encouraging low fare competition.

There's just no need for another airline in Chile. The service is reasonable and the prices are low. Only foreigners who don't "know" how to buy cheaper tickets have any problem at all (at least from my experience).

criced

Waking up this thread after reading it all through...
What's the lastest method to book LATAM tickets for chilean price? Im trying to book SCL-LIM t&r in business class for early january 2018. Google flights says ~$900. Latam chile the same, chilean ITA also. Hum..

I actually figured out its much cheaper for me to buy Avios in BAEC (got silver status) and book as an award then buying this ticket on LATAM:s website. But in that case I would not earn any miles for the flight..

I live in Sweden btw and used Chrome incognito.

Thanks for help

jlarroulet

900 USD for SCL-LIM roundtrip in J doesn't sound crazy high actually.

Keep in mind that the "method" is just switching to the Chilean version of the site in the websites country selector (no need for TOR, VPNs or any other arcane magic).
Alternatively, you can just browse direct to https://www.latam.com/es_cl/

The real fare differences are noticeable on 100% domestic routes (for example, SCL-CCP could cost 70 USD roundtrip on the chilean site, 450 USD rountrip on an international site). On international routes to/from Chile, there may be differences, but they are not quite steep

jimmielin

Yup, bought r/t SCL-IPC and SCL-PUQ tickets for much cheaper than the Int'l sites. No need for tor or anything, just need to change website to Chile.

However, I did encounter a few times when it refused my plastic and I needed to wait 24 hours to try again.

jlarroulet

That's technically unrelated to you using a website not intended for your actual physical location.

You see, there's a local credit card processing service set up on localized versions of latam.com. This is done to enable charges in each country's local currency (as well as enable payments in multiple installments, if it is something the local people expect) and help prevent the user getting charged for foreign transaction fees.
Each credit card processor will have its own rules for fraud prevention (some are simpler than others which are incredibly complex) but sometimes a payment attempt "in chile" with a foreign card, a foreign IP address, above a certain amount of money and with certain travel characteristics -such as being only oneway, or having less than X days of advance purchase, just to name some- may trigger the credit card processor's fraud prevention rules as a false positive. What the credit card processor does to you in those cases is most of the time up to them, not the eCommerce site you are using (this includes temporary blacklisting, which looks to be your case)

On top of that, latam.com does have it's own internal fraud prevention layer, which may also get picky and flag you when your purchase seems unusual.

Even more on top of that, your issuing bank may flag the payment attempt if it sounds unusual to them and, for your own protection, put a temporary ban on foreign payments for a period of time.

Couldn't know what exactly happened in your case, but it's probably something along those lines. Glad to know that eventually you got it to work

Viajero Perpetuo

LATAM is at it again...unless something really has changed.

On the Chile website, when booking the cheapest fare for SCL-PUQ, this message pops up before you choose seats and pay:

Reviewing the rules for these A and G fares, I see nothing about these being resident-only.

iahphx

Honestly, if you've made it to LATAM's local website, you're probably not going to ever be buying their gringo fares. So LATAM is being pretty foolish hassling folks.

I guess if you think they'll hassle you at the airport, just buy from Sky. My Chilean domestic flights on LATAM last month were pretty crummy. They're at 29" inch pitch (but they still allow seat recline -- ouch!) and they no longer give you free drinks and snacks. And one flight was an hour late. I flew Sky a couple months ago: my flight from SCL to Mendoza was short and not memorable, but I don't think it was worse than flying LATAM. As a low level AA elite, I did earn about 300 AA miles for each of my deeply discounted domestic LATAM flights (worth about US$3), but I don't think that will tip my buying decisions very much.

It does seem like Sky has slightly more limited carry-on baggage rules (I don't know if they enforce them), which might be my only REAL reason to prefer LATAM.

iahphx

So I'm trying to practice what I preach by buying a ticket on Sky because LATAM is 2x the price for my days. I've previously had success using their website, but in the past 24 hours, I've tried a few times and gotten this error when I hit the "pay" button: gc_risk_assessment.customer_ip_address el tamaņo tiene que estar entre 1 y 32.

Any idea how to fix this? They claim to have web chat but it seems to be fake. They have a phone number, but I don't have an int'l calling plan, and I think I'd have to pay 30 cents/minute to wait on hold (and then have to find somebody who can understand me). I can't seem to find a travel agent who will sell me this ticket without a significant surcharge. Any ideas?

Viajero Perpetuo

FYI, after my post and inquiry via my LATAM contact, the message disappeared.

Sky, use Skype to call and make sure you book exactly what you want with no future changes on your part or you'll find out how really bad Chilean customer support can be.

iahphx

I'm not a "Skyper" (I've used whatsapp and viber occasionally though). Don't they have to be a "contact"?

So the way I solved my problem was I called the AMEX Platinum concierge desk. After a bit of confusion (they really wanted to try to book the reservation on their CRS), they found an agent who spoke Spanish who called down to Sky and patched me in. The agent spoke good English, and was able to pull up my failed online reservation with my passport number (a bit weird, but good). I gave them payment over the phone, at the same price as on the website.

I asked the agent why this transaction failed (I tried several USA credit cards) when my previous order worked, and she said sometimes int'l cards work, and sometimes they don't. Logically, if I'm running an airline, I'd want to sell as many tickets as I could so I'd try to fix this payment problem, but Sky may have other priorities.

BTW, LATAM wasn't anywhere near Sky price-wise for this trip. I don't know whether that's random, or whether LATAM has now decided that they need to be less price-competitive. Honestly, I don't think most Chileans would pay a lot more to fly LATAM.

JayhawkCO

Just a data point to add to the thread. Using Chrome Incognito, I just booked CJC (Calama)-SCL for $30 less a ticket than the US Site, and that's including checking a bag. No problems at all with my U.S. issued Chase Sapphire.

Chris