behuman

From 1 AUG, MON, THU and SAT all booking classes open. Flights on other days still zeroed out (also in December), but second flight WED and SUN again in the system with no availability (PPT?).

This said, one can neither trust LATAM nor the Chilean government and even less the (vaccine reluctant) Rapa Nui people, especially when it comes to Covid.

I will wait for booking, especially still not having been refunded an IPC flight for one year now :-(.

atcanobbio

Do you see if the IPC schedule is available in 2023? if so, how far out into 2023?

behuman

Until 25 March 2023 it is MON, THU and SAT all booking classes open. Flights on other days still zeroed out, but second flight WED and SUN again in the system with no availability (PPT?).

Stil waiting for one year being reimbursed by LATAM one can neither trust them nor the Chilean government and even less the undervaccinated "Polynesians". I will wait till early August to make a decision taking the considerable risk traveling to Rapa Nui early December. Have already alternate plans passing a couple of days in Buzios, three hours drive from Rio.

There IS Covid hysteria in Chile and testing positive before leaving for IPC would not be funny. While writing this I am for the third time positive, very slight symptoms and will just stay at home and for sure thereafter wear an FFP2 for 10 days or so. It's called self responsability.

atcanobbio

thanks!

when do you think they would load the schedule for April 2023?

I also have an open ticket with LA. I was supposed to travel MEX-IPC in September 2020. I have until end of June to rebook it and I would like to travel April 2023.

Kyyyyyy

We purchased flights when they opened for later this year but now it seems they have been pulled. Did something change..? We can find no info about the date being pushed out from 8/1?

behuman

Looks like they just kept the THU and SAT flights with availability into January 2023 . Looks like they are doing everything NOT to restart tourism to Rapa Nui.

If I were you I would change the flights to those days.

mario

Yesterday I could find restricted biz fares for around 500 USD return but today all that seems available are fully flexible tickets. Does anyone know what's happening?

behuman

For me it still shows the very cheap fare on all dates except twice towards end August and one in October. You may wish to use a VPN and go to the LATAM Chile website. Still only two flights per week tough and I do not trust them even after having got finally the refund after more than one year.

"Normal" discounted business was always around USD 1000, flexible towards USD 1500. It is a long flight.

You may wish to try google flights.

atcanobbio

So I finally re-booked my business class MEX-IPC cheap fare trip i booked in April 2020 for April 2023. I hope it happens this time, can't wait!

remember that some open tickets expire today, don't forget to book!

behuman

Thank you for the heads up atcanobbio ! To avoid expiration one can also ask for a travel voucher which after conversion into credit in the LATAM wallet will not expire.

I am NOT optimistic regarding reopening of Rapa Nui. Let's see on 1 August. LATAM still maintains open only THU and SAT flights which does not make sense.

Semphyra

The good news: LATAM is extending the change window for unused tickets up to December


The bad news: a humanitarian flight to IPC had to leave 150 passengers behind (out of 300) because workers from the Ministry of Health arrived late to the airport so they couldn't test everyone on time. This set a bad precedent for the new goverment's focus on the island

Link in spanish: https://www.elciudadano.com/actualid...-minsal/06/29/

747kona

Any rumors or news on IPC-PPT returning, if or when?

behuman

They can even not fix SCL - IPC, changing daily on expertflyer (December 2022). Just had my return flight from IPC cancelled. Really a huge mess and wonder how they will attract tourists. But this is perhaps exactly what they want .

On a positive note, the LATAM app is quite good for changing flights and even getting instant refunds to the LATAM wallet.

sdsearch

Probably not for a long time. I would guess not at least until after SCL-IPC flights have been actually flying regularly for a while, not just being scheduled and cancelled and rescheduled and cancelled (which is all they're doing right now), and maybe not even for a long time after that.

SCL-IPC (which is used to be daily, and even twice daily some days) is likely to be a much higher priority for LATAM than IPC-PPT, which was only about once a week before Covid.

Throughout the airline industry, once a week flights are a low priority to restore, compared to daily flights. There are lots of once a week flights, even within the USA, that still have not been restarted and who know if and when they will be restarted. Keep in mind that all airlines still have staff shortages, so they can't run all flights, and once a week flights seem like something that wouldn't be all that likely to be restored until the whole airline's schedule is back very close to pre-Covid levels.

And with just about all industries having staff shortages, and with business air travel still down quite a bit from pre-Covid levels (and that was a big driver of airline profits), who knows how many years it will take for most airlines to return to pre-Covid staffing levels and thus a chance of pre-Covid flight schedules.

So I wouldn't be surprised if IPC-PPT doesn't come back for years, even if it does come back eventually. And of course it's not clear if it's ever going to come back, especially if you don't know of any important-to-LATAM reason why that once-a-week flight existed.

atcanobbio

any news on LA increasing frequencies to IPC? It was my understanding that they were supposed to be flying to IPC 3x weekly but, per FR24, it seems they might be operating more than that this month.