wholeinone04

So I'm trying to book a trip for my wife and I to Machu Picchu in September 2015. I've got 200k AA, 150k USAir and 150k BA pts. I honestly can't find one flight though with award availability. Seems like I should be able to find it (if it's available) through BA website right?

I've got a somewhat flexible 2 week period to travel and we'll probably go for 7-10 days.. Any tips or idea what I'm doing wrong?

Would love to get on that 787 and if available, biz class is good too

Viajero Millero

You may have to consider doing LAX-DFW-LIM or LAX-MIA-LIM. I'd encourage you to keep trying to find J space with LAN (LAX-LIM or MIA-LIM) but at some point you will have to settle with AA.

Keep in mind you could also do LAX-DFW-MEX-LIM or LAX-MEX(with Alaska)-LIM. MEX-LIM consistently has space in J. Another option would be LAX-MIA-PUJ/BOG-LIM if you want to be extra resourceful.

I'd definitely save the Avios and instead use 30K AAdvantage (one-way). It's an amazing deal for J to South American.

wholeinone04

Yea it looks like LAX-DFW-LIM would be 70k RT x the two of us (140k total). I have plenty of AA/US Air pts so not a huge deal but is 70k RT for this flight a good deal? At least the seats would be in MCE since I'd be paying AAnytime fares.

What is the best way to find J space with LAN though (LAX -LIM), that flight seems just so much better, especially if I could try out a new 787 I search on BA's site and I literally can not find any flights at any time of the year.. Maybe I'll try calling in next time I have 30 mins to kill..

sdsearch

Book 11 months out.

I'm serious! LAN releases award inventory in J on this flight when they put the flight in the schedule, and then between 1 day and a couple weeks* after that they remove J award inventory, and may or may not every put it back again until maybe just days before the flight.

*Couple weeks after is the exception rather than the rule. It was for the day before Thanksgiving that I was able to find LAN J award availability LAX-LIM-EZE, no other days around that, on the day that my return EZE-LIM-LAX two weeks later appeared on the schedule. Most J award inventory disappears within a day or two after schedule opening.

And I not only did see it on ba.com, I actually booked it on ba.com with Avios points, because AA couldn't see the seats available in one direction that BA could. (Though that will be a poor value after April 25 with the coming longhaul business/first devaluations in BA Avios.)

wholeinone04

Wow that's ridiculous, seems like there isn't even a point to looking on BA's website. Oh well, guess I'll just have to book two MCE seats on AA

cheaptom

I booked a similar flight from LAX-LIM, and return from SCL to LAX.

No J was available leaving LAX, so we settled for coach. (17.5 K miles each). SCL to LAX is J. (50 K miles each).

As far as booking the award travel, I got no where through BA. On LAN.com, I was able to see the flights I wanted, but couldn't book it. Finally, I had to bite the bullet and call AA to book it.

wholeinone04

Oh that's interesting, hadn't thought about returning through SCL in J.

So it sounds like it's pretty much impossible to find/book any type of award LAX to LIM/SCL and vice versa with BA?

So really my only option is to book through AA although can't really justify J at 65-75k miles one way or whatever ridiculous amount it is..

cheaptom

Yeah, after Cuzco, we are heading to Chile, so flying back from SCL was a good option. It was 50K miles for the J ticket from SCL-LAX.

We also wanted to spend the 50K miles from LAX-LIM, but like I said, that was not available and we had to settle for coach for 17.5K. It won't be ideal, but a cheap coach ticket on a big jet for a non-stop flight is sometimes better than a J ticket on a smaller jet with pesky connections along the way.

I don't know about you, but it just seemed a waste to sit in Miami or Dallas airport for 4 or 5 hours when I could have (and did!) simply book the direct flight LAX-LIM.

wholeinone04

Gotcha, I did some more searching. I wasn't able to find anything on BA's site before bc I was searching for two travelers. When I switched to 1, I found sporadic availability in Y on LAN for 30,000 Avios. I also called AA and they had the exact same availability but for only 17.5k which would be a great deal except for the fact that I need two tickets!

Ideal situation would be to book with AA two Y fares for 17.5k each LAX-LIM direct on the 787 But no availability for two on the way there or the way back at all. How did you get around this? I suppose I could have booked earlier but if they don't have 2 seats at all during the whole month of September I bet LAN doesn't release more than 1 in Y for partners..argh.

So I think my next best option/only option is to book either an Aanytime award in Y (35k each) LAX -dfw/mia - LIM or I could also do a J aanytime award (65k each) same route but with the stop and on two older planes..

So 140k total for two MCE seats or 260k to travel in biz.. Have the points for both but seems like a lot..

Thoughts/suggestions?

cheaptom

I booked about 7 months in advance, and I think I just got lucky with having two seats available both heading into Peru and then returning.

From what I understand, if LAN doesn't sell the seats, then eventually they'll let their partners give them away for award travel. All airlines operate this way, but LAN holds onto them more tightly than other airlines.


Our total spend was 135,000 AA miles for two decent coach seats outbound and two J seats returning. I've called AA back a few times to ask if I can upgrade to J for the outbound, and they always tell me nothing availlable...BUT they encourage me to keep calling because LAN will release J seats eventually. That's the best advice I can give you...keep calling AA.

wholeinone04

Gotcha, I'm about 6 months out which is usually good timing to find 2 award seats..oh well.

I think I'll probably settle for two MCE seats RT for 140k total LAX-DFW-LIM but I'll keep checking/calling AA to see if 2 lan seats open up..

That would be awesome if they released J but right now just hoping they'll open up 2 Y seats LAX-LIM

What's in Chile? Planning on doing 7-8 days doing Peru/Machu Picchu and could tag on 4 more days somewhere like Chile..

cheaptom

We decided to go to Easter Island (Chile) also while down in South America. To get there, you have to go thru SCL and LAN Airlines.

Our plan is to do a week in Peru in Lima, MP, and Puno, and then 4 days in EI.

We used our miles to get down there and back home, but we paid $$$ for the flight from CUZ-IPC-SCL, and it was pretty reasonable.

Tried to use miles for the IPC legs, but it was getting pretty complicated with layovers, and the IPC flights are only only about 4 or 5 times a week. People on this forum were warning us about connections and slow LAN lines, and if you miss your IPC flight, you have to wait 2 more days for another. So it was worth it to pay $$ to ensure we got safe flights.

silver02accord

My wife and I are looking to fly J from SAN-DFW-LIM 9/2016 using AA points. Is there anyway to find out what aircraft goes from DFW to LIM? We could also fly LAX-LIM(via AA or LAN I believe). This will be our time flying J(normally Y) so we'd like to do it up.

carlosdca

Lan lax lim in J is much better (fully flat seats, large entertainment screen, ok service on board)

The best you could get with AA is a slanted flat seat, a tablet for entertainment (on 763s) and hit or miss service. AA does not serve DFW-LIM with ther newer nicer places.

But me being from San Diego and having done it before , I wouldn't say that commuting to Lax is pleasant or cheap (rental, train or drive and park, all not ideal). The hassle of commuting to lax makes the non stop lax lim not as desirable. You can add the san lax commuter flight to your award for same amount of miles. But believe it or not. It might be difficult to find matching availability on both san lax and lax lim.

If I'd have to commute to LAX for the LAN flight I might opt for AA SAN-DFW-LIM instead.

But as always, you probably won't have the luxury to choose, since availability is always limited and you will probably have to go for whatever you can get on the dates you want. In general, you have very limited options to be picky and choose routing when it comes to award travel, IMO.

silver02accord

That's exactly what I was thinking. I despise the LA commute so flying out of SAN is a much better option. I'll look into the commuter flight options however. I am currently seeing excellent availability for next Sept. SAN DFW LIM. We will probably end up flying J one way and Y the other way.