Hello Everyone,

I'm potentially looking into an anniversary trip to Easter Island in October 2013...I've been wanting to go there my whole life and this possibility is quite exciting!

Firstly...is October a good time of year to go there? If I'm spending all this money on the trip, I'd hope I can get the best out of it.

Secondly, I'd like to fly with the shortest travel time possible. It looks like LAN has flights that are about 17-18 hours from JFK to Santiago to Easter Island and the same for the return trip. Do these flights make the most sense? I can only seem to find them Tuesday to Tuesday...are those the only days that these flights are available? Does it make any sense to stay a few days in Santiago too?

Thirdly, I have about 100k SPG points and about 100k AMEX MR points. Does anyone know the best combination of point trades I should do in order to maximize my dollar per point? It looks like I can trade my SPG points to LAN, but then I'm still stuck with that second ticket and would like to use points for both tickets.

Finally, assuming I'm able to pull this off and use points for both roundtrip flights, does anyone know what the typical upgrade costs are for business class? It's such a long flight!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Or instead of Santiago, how many days would be necessary to stop over by Macchu Picchu?

You can purchase a business class ticket using kilometers. Or you can purchase an economy ticket (with money) and use kilometers just to upgrade as long as you are a LAN elite member and choose fares that are "Base Plus" or higher.

At a minimum you would need 3 extra days if you wanted to route through Lima in one of the directions. A more realistic addition of Cuzco - Machu Picchu would be 5 or 6 days.

You can see Easter Island in 2 full days. Longer obviously if you want to dive or hang around the island. Even longer if you fall in love with a local and move here as I know many ex-pats have done. There are typically 2 full day and 1 half day tours although one of the full day and the half day tours can be done in one even longer full day.

Fair enough. I'm not an active Lan Pass member.

I can only find the information in Spanish, but the site says that you can't upgrade LAN economy award tickets with kms.
If you want to upgrade with kms a paid ticket, it's now restricted to Elite LANPASS members only (the change happened on Nov 2012) and can be from any fare class (base, base plus, flexible, full flexible). Fare class restrictions are only for upgrades with coupons.

You are correct Andrea! I apologize for my error. I was thinking of coupon upgrades which you can use on award tickets.
THANKS for the correction ( I have removed the error from my original post).

You're welcome.
I'd say that mentioning that upgrading with kms is now restricted to LANPASS elites might also be a good idea, as it's not just a matter of having the kms (transferring from SPG or wherever) anymore...

Thanks for the help everyone! Does anyone know the best way to transfer AMEX MR points to LAN Chile? I know that you lose a lot of points if you transfer to SPG (and I would already max out the amount of points I can transfer from SPG), so what would be the best way?

Andrea, when did they make that change saying that only elites can upgrade with kms? I've never seen it (although I do, selfishly, welcome it!).

The change was announced in September and went into effect on Nov 1st (here's the thread about it, which you commented on! / also, link to the LAN site)

AY!--- old age must be sneaking up on me!!!

Me, too! Elite should be elite, just getting int Delta Skyclub that is more crowded than public access spaces in JFK makes you being "selfish" in no time

There's a fare sale to IPC from JFK/LGA for ~$1000 ai in business class right now if you're still looking to book. Best price I've EVER seen considering SCL-IPC usually runs 700 return in coach!