LAN visit South America pass or point to point ticket?
May 9, 2012, 10:04 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 206
LAN visit South America pass or point to point ticket?
I would like to visit South America, but only Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Easter Island is my main destination in Chile. I am a budget traveller and plan on spending a few months travelling by road in these three countries. My question, for the flights to Easter Island, is the LAN pass a better option than a rtn ticket from Santiago? I am asking because I have to buy three segments for the pass. My flights to South America are on AA and each segment of the pass costs a little more than if I were travelling on LAN to SOuth America.
Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
May 15, 2012, 8:54 am
#2
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Lima, Peru
Programs: LAN Commodore
Posts: 733
LAN has extremely cheap flights now to Easter Island. You should do some dummy booking on their site. Direct flights are available from Lima as well as Santiago with the advantage that you don´t have to pay the reciprocity fee for entering Chile.
May 21, 2012, 2:52 pm
#3
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: LAX
Posts: 3,639
It's hard to imagine a better bargain than the OneWorld (or LAN's similar) Visit-South-America fares. These are approximately the OW fares:
Zone 1: 0 to 560 119 (USD)
Zone 2: 561 to 750 143
Zone 3: 751 to 1280 179
Zone 4: 1281 to 1810 203
Zone 5: 1811 to 2300 263
Zone 6: 2301 to 3500 359
My source said "Dec 2008" but we flew some 14 segments last winter (and are still "en-route" with 5 more to go) and the pricing seemed fairly close.
The LAN fares are similar but different. We used OW because those fares can be booked by AA (RTW desk) - a huge benefit in having someone besides LAN behind you.
(At one point LAN canceled our remaining itin and when I noticed and called their agent said 'too bad'. The AA desk responded like the fire brigade and soon had us re-booked, in one case on a Y fare since nothing else was available (xmas season)).
The OW fares are B or K (SCL-IPC in V), giving 100% AA miles and 100% qpoints, and are easily changeable for a modest $20/$50 charge. Not appropriate to your needs, but you're limited to 16 segments due to the computer - we added several past that after flying some - and you can't fly the same segment in the same direction but once.
AA can book seats for you. LAN has 48-hour OLCI, but be sure to ask AA or LAN to cross-reference the AA PNR to the LAN PNR since the LAN computer won't recognize the AA PNR.
Zone 1: 0 to 560 119 (USD)
Zone 2: 561 to 750 143
Zone 3: 751 to 1280 179
Zone 4: 1281 to 1810 203
Zone 5: 1811 to 2300 263
Zone 6: 2301 to 3500 359
My source said "Dec 2008" but we flew some 14 segments last winter (and are still "en-route" with 5 more to go) and the pricing seemed fairly close.
The LAN fares are similar but different. We used OW because those fares can be booked by AA (RTW desk) - a huge benefit in having someone besides LAN behind you.
(At one point LAN canceled our remaining itin and when I noticed and called their agent said 'too bad'. The AA desk responded like the fire brigade and soon had us re-booked, in one case on a Y fare since nothing else was available (xmas season)).
The OW fares are B or K (SCL-IPC in V), giving 100% AA miles and 100% qpoints, and are easily changeable for a modest $20/$50 charge. Not appropriate to your needs, but you're limited to 16 segments due to the computer - we added several past that after flying some - and you can't fly the same segment in the same direction but once.
AA can book seats for you. LAN has 48-hour OLCI, but be sure to ask AA or LAN to cross-reference the AA PNR to the LAN PNR since the LAN computer won't recognize the AA PNR.