Dear Rhinochaser,

Thanks for the information about the guesthouse in Lima. It sounds great; however, when I copied and sent an email to the address you posted it was rejected. Could you check it out for me and either email me directly or post it again. Thanks.

p.s. This is the address I used - [email protected]

vandykes4 -- I suspect that the correct e-mail address is [email protected] (without the exclamation mark).

Schutzee: it is indeed the hot rate pointed out by cy-gone (bookable from Sheraton website only): 72USD weekdays, 70USD w-e. Mind that this does not include tax and taxes are a whopping 28% in Lima.

cfrench: I'm doing LIM-UIO-LIM (VX) on the 8th, LIM-GYE-LIM on the 9th (VH) and LIM-CUZ-LIM on the 10th (TA)

Thanks FoolishRunner for the taxi tip. I thought of going along with Henk's suggestion of a colectivo; I can get by in Spanish but my only notion of the geography of Lima is from maps. As I'll be arriving in the evening and the Sheraton is downtown, I'd be somewhat nervous of finding myself dropped in a none too safe area by the colectivo, so I will probably take the taxi option for my first trip!

I am in Miami so I decided to go by LatinPass to check on my account status. I did have many of my receipts with me but when I got there the receptionist seemed busy on a long personal phone call. Someone else said they would fax my information to me, but could not print it for me as I waited ... I wrote the info down and found that onlt my first round of flights posted. No Thrifty or TWA. I decided it would just be easier to Fedex or Certified Mail all to them because it seemed as though it would take hours to get copies made. (My wife was waiting in the car after getting up at 3:30 AM and a day of flying ...) As I was leaving MauiGirl walked in to give them all of her documentation. What a coincidence and a small world - last saw her in Peru three weeks ago!

MauiGirl - sorry I should have stayed to see how it went. What kind of luck did you have? Any information you can share would be great. Also if you could email me : [email protected] with updates that would be cool! (also did Mr. MauiGirl buy that stock we talked about in Lima? It would have paid for your trips by now!)

As my experience unfolds with postings I will relay to all. Last hotel stays this weekend and hopefully I will be back in "Latin" for Christmas!

cfrench--Looks like we will be on the first leg of our trips together. We will be on Aeropostal 501 MIA to CCS on the 9th. 5 of us traveling. We'll look for you.

Djlawman

nickb......just got back today from million mile marathon.....lima airport is fresh on my mind: regarding airport taxes in lima, you can actually avoid them if you are in transit....this is what you do: when you exit your plane, you will enter the terminal on the ground level, then walk up a long hallway with numerous glass doors....just short of the immigration counters, where the hallway widens, look to your left for a pair of double glass doors for passengers "in transito".....these lead into the duty free area......the first night my brother and i spent at lima airport, we were fortunate enough to happen past these doors just as airline employees were walking in thru them.....we showed them our tickets, mentioned that we were in "transito", and simply walked in.......once thru the doors, to your right and around the corner and upstairs is the diners club lounge....we slept there on couches quite comfortably twice........the second time thru lima, we had to pass thru immigration to connect with a domestic flight to cuzco.....we only had to pay a $4 airport tax (because it was a domestic flight), however upon return we had to pay the full $25 as we were connecting to an international flight........

we also had to pay airport taxes in san jose ($2) where we overnighted off-airport and in cuzco (twice), however avoided them everywhere else simply by grabbing a flight attendent, airline employee or anyone that looked semi official right as we exited the plane and saying "tengo connexcion" or "transito"......generally we were then whisked into the transit lounge and thus avoided immigration, customs, taxes, etc.........

general thoughts on the trip:
bravo to aces airlines.....we were in quito waiting to hop on the evening flight to lima but the airport was fogged in.....the aces personnel provided sandwiches and drinks, and all agents literally worked to departure lounge personally imforming passengers of the status of the flight......it was eventually able to get in (after flying to guayaquil to refuel) - and we made it to lima in time for a 6am connnection. aces truly provided outstanding customer service.

also excellent customer service from grupo taca.....we were upgraded on lima-cuzco for no apparent reason (maybe y ticket), the agent just sought us out and put us up front.

for anyone trying to connect in guayaquil from copa to aeropostal - be sure to tell a flight attendant you are connecting.....they can inform a red coat who will escort you to a waiting lounge, thus avoiding imigration, etc.......plane uses rolling stairs rather than gate, so you will walk across tarmac to lounge......

every flight except the fog delayed aces quito-lima leg operated on time, with generally very modern aircraft and fine service........aeropostal and avianca were the poorest of the bunch....taca, aces and copa the best......

airport hampton inn in san jose is extremely close, very new with excellent service......i would recommend.....in quito, try hotel quito, reasonable rates, great view, accomodating staff.......

billedr: If you get a chance, write a trip report for the airlines you flew under "FlyerTalk Trip Reports."

I actually had good service with Avianca (in C) and mediocre service with Copa (also in C). Aces was the big surprise. They were excellent! Aeropostal was the worst airline on my LP run.

Congratulations on completing your 1M-mile run!

I just got back home from a successful million mileage march, returning on Tues. 5/30. I did the fastest run; 11 flights in 4 days - no sightseeing. I did the run with between one and four (depending on their various itineraries) other "runners" whom I met at different times on the trip.

My thoughts and observations are as follows: (I'll try not too repeat anything that's been posted previously, or that would be of little additional informational value). All the flights with the exception of our Copa flight (which left 2 hrs. late - it was late arriving from its previous destination) from MGA to GUA, left and arrived on time. Even the Copa flight wasn't a problem since it was our last flight of the day, and we went right from the GUA airport to the Radisson. They served food on almost every flight, even the 1 hour flight from Lima to Cuzco and back, and some other short ones. In four days I ate only ONCE that wasn't on a plane, (pizza in the Bogota airport). The food on the planes was consistently quite good. I flew buisness (first?) class on 8 of the 11 flights. Aces and Aeropostal have only one class of service.

The Radisson Guatemala City is a great hotel for the money; clean, neat, modern. They gave me a rate of $80 for a junior suite to earn LatinPass credit (otherwise the rate is only $55 for a regular room) as opposed to $85 that I had read was the going rate to earn credit. Although I just found out that they charged me over $22 in taxes. I'm going to look into that.

The two most enjoyable things on the trip for me were: 1) Crashing a "Quinceanos" (hispanic sweet 16 party - but they do it at 15) party at the Guatemala City Radisson, and interacting with the teenage partygoers, who were all extremely friendly and polite. I danced with a gorgeous 15 year old girl (not the birthday girl - but a friend of hers), and then talked to her (her english was excellent) for probably 90 minutes after we stopped dancing, until the party ended and her mom eventually picked her up. I gave a bunch of the kids the new American dollar gold coins, IF you can find them before you leave, bring them, they were a pretty big hit everywhere.

and, 2) at the end of the Aces flight from Bogota to Quito, a 2nd grade boys soccer team (about 20 or so kids) started a HUGE pillow flight on the plane with some older teenagers; they were singing and having a great time (the had just won a tournament in Bogota). I was laughing my butt off (as I allied myself with the teenagers simply becuase they were one row behind me, and supplied them with ammo in the form of airline pillows - but we were handily defeated). I would have given anything to have videotaped the spirited fight. After the boys deplaned, the pilot chastised the teens, saying (from what he later told me in English) that they were old enought to have known better, and their behavior jepordized safety, because if the captain had to make an emergency announcement, no one would have heard it between all the commotion and the pillows (and blankets!) flying around the cabin. Even though he was right, it still was a blast to watch. He didn't let the teens off the plane until he was done scolding them! Since we were continuing on the same plane from Quito to Lima, I had a chance to talk to the pilot. When I mentioned that my traveling partner, who was sitting next to me (I had met him on the trip - he was also doing the 1 mil. run) was a pilot (actually he's a former naval flight instructor and a decorated veteran of Desert Storm), the Aces captain let him sit in the cockpit for the ENTIRE Quito to Lima flight, INCLUDING the takeoff and landing!

Bogota was not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. We went through it twice, once they didn't even look through my bags; once they did, but it was only the briefest and most cursory search, followed by an even briefer and less thorough pat-down. Avianca had us change planes in Bogota on the flight from Lima to Caracas, even though it was only scheduled as a stop and had only 1 flight number on the ticket. I want extra FF miles for that!

The father south you go, the harder it is to find someone who speaks English. In Lima I felt like finding someone who spoke English was like trying to find someone who spoke Chinese!

We didn't have to pay a large departure tax anywhere. $8 in Managua, $4 in Cuzco, Lima let us go after some discussion with no tax (I think we had to get a "transito" stamp) even thought we had to get some airport executive or other to "ok it." Caracas was the hardest time getting out of the tax. We stayed overnight at the Intercontinental, but we were still only in the country only about 12 hours. We told them we had slept at the airport, and not left, but since we had gone through immigratrion/customs (we HAD to to get our tickets and boarding passes for our next flight!) they kept insisting we pay the tax. They don't actually give you any explaination, they just say "you have to pay." We were firm however, and held our ground, and after much discussion with and between various airline and immigration officials, they let us board without paying.

The Caracas Intercontinental is really overpriced. (Especialy when compared with the The Radisson Guatemala City - which has much nicer rooms for much less $) It's not a bad hotel, especially if you're just sleeping there like I did, but our room was desperatly in need of a makeover (everything looked pretty drab and well worn). My feeling is that the Gran Melia is the nicest hotel in Caracas, but I think it's a lot priceier. If you don't absolutely have to have the miles at the Intercon. as part of your 1 mil. requirements, I think investigating some of the beach hotels in or near Caracas might be worth your time. God knows they can't be father from the airport than the Intercon. That was a 30 minute (and $30!) cab ride each way with NO traffic!

LatinPass accomplished their goal with me, beacuse I definitely plan on returning to Latin America in the future, after some intensive Spanish classes however.

I STRONGLY reccommend flying buisness class over coach. The entire 11 flight trip cost me under $2900, which was only about $100 more than one of my travel partners who flew the entire thing in coach!

We spent the night in Lima at the Diner's Club lounge. It was ok. The receptionist wouldn't let us sleep on the floor, she said we had to sleep on the (4 foot) couches??!! Far from a great night's sleep, but much better that spending all night in the terminal! It was also extremely helpful to be able to check my E-mail at the "internet cafe" at the Lima airport. If you fly buisness class, one more benefit is that you get to use the airline lounges for free. Some of them were quite nice. Avianca's in Lima is clean and comfortable, Taca's in Miami is quite upscale and attractive. We also used the Taca lounge in San Jose and the Diner's Club lounge in Bogota. They were fine, no complaints. Only the Copa lounge in Managua is sub-par, but it's still much better than waiting in the termianl.

Cuzco is cold in the morning, bring a jacket.

All in all, it was definitly worth the time and $ expended.

Nick and others doing the Peru-Ecuador legs... The Sheraton in Lima listed rooms at 170 soles last week for a single at their check-in board. This is about $55 US. I felt like I was wasting my Starwood points at 3000 points for a weekday night. When I took the taxi to the Sheraton the official rate at the taxi booth was $20 and I told them I would take my chances getting a taxi outside. The woman at the booth lowered the rate to $15 immediately, but I told her that I know I can get a taxi for $8. She said to me "But you won't be robbed in our official taxis. They are safe." In the end I paid $11. I did pay $20 for my return, but at 4:30 am and in an urgent situation to get to the airport I didn't bargain. $20 is the official taxi tourist rate for the airport, however it is negotiable. As far as taxis in Quito I paid $2.00 each way and added a gold $1.00 coin tip and the drivers were quite happy. And for Quito if you are staying in a hotel I give the highest praise to the service I received at the Hilton.
Guayaquil has many inexpensive hotels. There is a tourist info office in the domestic terminal and the women (young girls) called a couple of hotels and gave me options for $15 to $25 and the Best Western Hotel Doral ($25) was quite clean and suitable(and I think it would be no problem to get a room just for the day). I paid $2 for the taxi and gave a $1 gold coin tip for the ride downtown.
Feel free to e-mail me if you have more questions.

Did anyone stay at the Radison BOgota? If so have you had your miles post and how long did it take?

Thanks

I'll arrive in LIM on Aces 521 from UIO just after midnight ( 0014 )on June 11 and leave about 0600 for CUZ. It looks like we'll miss each other.

Craz, my total LP fare just went up $50 because Travelocity had to book Aces seperately!

Great! I'll figure out some sort of LP MM'er
sticker to wear (5'10", 200 lb., balding white guy).

Hey Mileage Junkie, I think I may have done the full Million a little quicker: 16 filghts in 5 days with 14 of them in the last four days. I eventually ended up with the following routing:

5/27 SLC-STL-FLL twa,twa
5/28 MIA-BOG-UIO-LIM Avi,Aces,Saeta
5/29 LIM-CUZ-LIM Taca peru x2
5/30 LIM-GYE-PTY-SJO-SAL-GUA Aero,CO,Lacsa,Taca,Avia
5/31 GUA-MGA-MIA-STL-SLC Copa,Taca(Nica),twa,twa


I Echo your sentiments on the airlines, Aeropostal had the least to offer me and I will do almost anything to avoid Avianca. I loved Aces, Copa, Taca ( I GOT TO SIT IN THE JUMPSEAT DURING LANDING IN MIA, WOW! This was the coup se grais of a wonderful and trouble free trip.

I can reccomend the Holiday Inn in Gua and the Sheraton Lima as nice places to stay.

Neat anecdote on the trip, I watched the Indy 500 in a bar in BOG. Juan Montoya won and the entire food court was filled with people cheering as they came out of the bar.

A wonderful trip and should end up at around $3100 with all expenses included.

BSL

BSL:

I'm considering changing my plans to follow your itinerary. Was saeta actually aces?Were you (or anyone else) able to get separate credit with latinpass for aces flight 521 bog-uio and uio-lim even though it's the same flight number? Did you have to start with two separate tickets? I'm sure this has been discussed before, but it's hard to find due to the length of some of these topics. Thanks.