Clobber

I would like to take a trip through South America and I have a few spots I would really like to see. I have been reading but am still struggling with routing and stop over options. Please give me some advice.

My home airport is Nashville, TN(BNA).

I want to visit Ushuaia, 1-2 days.
I want to visit Buenos Aires, 3-4 days.
I would like to visit The Chilean Lake District, so maybe Puerto Montt.
I would like to hit Cusco to visit Machu Pichu, 2 days.

My schedule is very flexible. I would love to plan for March or April, but really am open for anytime.

Can I hit all these locations for the 80,000 point business class Fare?
How would you recommend routing this?
We have spent time in BsAs and Mendoza and loved it. Any other stops that would fit well or make this a feasible trip you would recommend?

Thanks

rajuabju

No, to the best of my knowledge that routing wouldnt work with a single ticket + stopovers because the stops you want are not "along the way" so to speak in that you cant continue going on to your next destination without having to back track.

jerry a. laska

Whose miles are you using? If AA you should look at these threads and ask your questions there:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ing-rules.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-9-2009-a.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...er-awards.html
If BA, the BA forum is best for discussing award flights for using BA miles. That said BA is more liberal in allowing stopovers.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/13303093-post14.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ight=lan+award

thetravelabstract

it all depends on where you parked your miles. I am not a pro at building multi stops but I am sure this is a tough task. I know you can get BNA-DFW then DFW-SCL. The problem is within SA. LAN airlines will dominate for flights between SCL-EZE. That would make your trip a multiple oneworld award and quite expensive.

I would try flying into a LAN hub city and take LAN business the rest of the way. I know there are tons of MIA.SCL 40k Biz oneway. LAN is also the carrier for SCL-PUQ-PMC 10k econ one-way.

I hope somebody can help you with the multi stop option. Hood luck

wrp96

One note, you aren't allowing enough time to visit Machu Picchu. It requires a minimum of 3 days - fly into Cusco on day one, visit Machu Picchu on day two, fly out of Cusco on day three - and that only allows you a few hours at Machu Picchu. It is better if you allow at least 4 days or more.

Clobber

Would BNA-Lima-EZE-Ushuaia and then return through Santiago be possible? I could then do Lima-cusco-Lima on my own.



Thanks also for the tip on Machu Pichu. I had read but it hadn't I had a lapse in the brainstorming of trip planning.

rajuabju

I'm confused on how (what airline) you are planning to get to Lima from BNA...

Are your miles with AA or BA or another airline?

Within South America, you basically need to be flying LAN (using AA, BA or some other OW carrier miles)...

Clobber

Yes, BNA-LIM on AA was what I thought. Their website shows it as an available option. Will that not work?

And yes, my miles are with AA.

rajuabju

Couple of things-

1) I'm not an expert on AA award routing, I highly suggest you check out the AA forum and ask your questions there.

2) From my limited knowledge of AA stop-over rules, your proposed routing would require at least 2 separate award tickets (3 if you wanted to do Lima/Cusco)... even then I think there would be some difficulty because you are talking about doing BNA-LIM on AA metal, then the rest of your trip would be on LAN ... so you're talking about AA+Partner award tickets which are more expensive in terms of miles required.

Paulchili

This is a tough one. If you want stopovers you pretty much have to use BA miles and LAN as a single carrier.Thus you would have to get yourself to JFK or MIA on your own (or a separate AA award). Then you could fly to Lima (stop); then to Cuzco and back on your own. Continue Lima to EZE (stop) then from AEP to USH (destination).
If you could get yourself overland from Ushuaia to Puerto Natales/Puerto Mont you could start you return flight from there via Santiago (stop) to Guayaqil (?stop for Galapagos) to MIA or JFK.
You might post this on LAN boards for routing suggestions.
Also, would plan and book this very soon as BA mileage tables will probably change after Nov 15th and might require a lot more miles. As long as you book before any changes, you can book 355 days out with BA.

Clobber

Thanks for the input folks. I have much to learn. This rules and routing stuff is confusing.

Does anyone have links for the rules for different awards tickets? I could not find rules for the One World South America pass on their site.

Paulchili

The rules you need to follow are the rules of the airline that you are using for the award (AA, BA, etc). BA awards to SA are very good as the award levels are not seasonal (unlike AA) and allow stopovers (unlike AA). In the extreme you can even fly to Easter Islands for the same miles as S.A. - with AA it is considered South Pacific - a lot more miles. LAN's award redemption rules are incomprehensible for most people (if you have LAN miles).
In your case you might ask on the BA board about the rules of routing/stopovers in S.A. (if you are using BA miles for the award) or on LAN board re: available routes on LAN.
Good luck.

jerry a. laska

The rules for rewards using AA miles can be found in the links I gave you earlier. There are a number of very knowledgeable people that participate on those threads and can be a great resource for missing information.

Regarding the Visit South America pass you have to fly into South America on a Oneworld carrier, paid or reward flight. You have to buy the Visit SA Pass outside of South America, in your case I assume you would purchasing it from AA. A few people have reported purchasing them in the past. Some have reported that a LAN Visit South America Airpass is cheaper but I have never checked into either pass (see links below for some discussion).
http://www.lan.com/en_us/sitio_perso....../index.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...h+america+pass
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...h+america+pass
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...h+america+pass
No link to further rules that I know of.

dbuckho

Back in 2001-2002 (over New Year's) I flew IAD-GIG (via ATL), GIG-IGU, IGR-AEP, AEP-BRC, PMC-SCL, and SCL-IAD (via ATL) as part of a South America visit. But there was no way to route that as one award ticket. So I did a J award on DL with an open jaw (the IAD-GIG and SCL-IAD legs), purchased GIG-IGU via an internet fare on Varig's website, and did the remaining 3 flights on a Mercosur Airpass (flew with LAPA, Aerolineas Argentina, and LAN). Originally I had all 4 Latam legs on the airpass, but found the cheaper Brazil flight just before ticketing. I believe the visit South America airpass replaced the Mecosur.

And back in 2008 I did a similar open jaw J award for my wife LAX-GRU (via MIA) and EZE-LAX (also via MIA) on AA so she could accompany me on a business trip (work paid for my business seat). On that trip we also flew GRU-GIG and GIG-EZE. Did not have enough flights for an airpass, but I found fares on the TAM Brazil website that were lower than what an airpass leg would have cost anyways.

As others are suggesting, perhaps find your award availability BNA-LIM and then perhaps SCL-BNA or EZE-BNA and then see what the cost is to purchase the flights in between.

Gardyloo

Moderator note -

A reminder that this forum is intended to address topics related to the Oneworld alliance and its products/members etc., and not to one specific airline's FF program. Plenty of advice and guidance is available on the airline-specific boards.

Thanks,

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator