villeradieuse

I'm trying to book a SCL-PUQ flight on them. Their website sucks, so I'm trying to finalize and pay for a reservation with the ticketing offices (and any electronic/internet-based payment method they've offered is kind of sketchy). But the fare is one third of what LAN is charging, which so far makes it worth this inconvenience to me. Does anyone know anything about their quality of service, on-time performance, etc.? I tend to think that low-cost carriers try to keep the overhead slim, which explains the bare-bones customer service infrastructure; I'm just generally curious.

Eastbay1K

I travel to Chile frequently. I haven't heard anything really negative about Sky. I've never flown on them. They fly mostly 737-200s but are getting some newer aircraft and are expanding (slowly).

21voyageur

I am in the process of organizing several flights to Chile and Argentina and yes - Skyairline is significantly cheaper that LAN (am flying SCL - PMC and return in Dec). I have been in e-mail correspondance with Sky a few times and although it is inconvenient to not have access to the purchase of flights on line via credit card, I would have to say that their responsiveness has been sterling and far from sketchy. South America just works differently - accept it. Suggest that u e-mail them via their website and they will accomodate your need, albeit in a manual manner. Worked for me.

Happy travels , , , , carpe diem!

villeradieuse

I've been impressed with their responsiveness and their accommodation (offering me one of the lower fare classes that the website says are available for purchase only in Chile). What I'm describing as sketchy is that I've been sent a Word document to fill in credit card information or have been asked to provide this by email. I accept that I don't always have the convenience of an online purchase with a few mouse clicks, but I cannot send my credit card number in plain text over the internet. I suspect it's going to have to be by telephone, which means an awkward conversation in my limited Spanish, but again, it's worth the price difference: US$130 vs. US$420.

tele

I don't blame you for not wanting to email your credit card info. Just give them a call and ask if there is someone there who speaks english. Or ask them that in an email and then ask for that person when you call. Not so different than calling an outsourced csr in india, phillipines or columbia. Si o no?

21voyageur

actually closed the transaction today. Her English was 300% better than my terribly limited Spanish. She even stayed late to get it through before the weekend.

iahphx

I'm considering buying a Sky Airline ticket on my next trip to Chile later this year. They now have an English version of their website, but it includes the following statement: "the fares indicated are only available for sale in Chile. If you are located in another country, please send a mail to [email protected]."

Does anyone know if that rule is enforced -- like will foreign credit cards not work? I'm just a little leery over having to pay a "gringo fare," given some of the antics in Peru and Argentina. Since I will be flying 5 people for a short duration, if we can't get the "rock bottom" fares available to the locals, we won't be making the trip out of SCL.

Is it also possible to use a Chilean travel agency to avoid this problem? Any recommendations: I wouldn't need the travel agent to do anything for me other than the ticketing.

Thanks!

BTW, I have flown Sky before, but it was several years ago. Other than their "hand-me-down" airplanes, nobody would have reason to complain. And I can live with 20-year-old aircraft.

Eastbay1K

They just took delivery of their first A320. The Chile fares are point of sale, not residency, fares, so if you can get it issued, you are in good shape.

iahphx

Ah, nice to see them buying new aircraft. LAN doesn't like to discount, so it's great to have an alternative.

Does anyone know whether I can use a foreign credit card to buy a ticket on their website? Otherwise, I guess I might need a travel agent.

andreadbc

LAN fares are sometimes cheaper on the LAN Chile site (also point of sale restrictions) so just in case I'd compare those as well...

Eastbay1K

The Chile site usually knows you aren't in Chile and kicks you out when you try and make a reservation (brings you to the Choose Your Country page, and Chile isn't an option) unless you know a secret way to overcome the all powerful internets and its identity-location devices

andreadbc

I don't (I've managed to get some sites *coughpandoracough* to think that I'm in the US but I don't know if there's a worldwide cloak solution), but if iahphx is considering using a Chilean travel agent then it would be comparable... Let us know if you're able to use a foreign credit card with Sky.

I think I read in a different thread that if you manage to make a LAN reservation online you can pay for it over the phone but I don't know if this really works or not...

iahphx

Well, I registered on the Sky website and went through the process of making a dummy rez. I clicked on the "pay" button and got "En este momento no es posible procesar su transacción."

So I don't know if I can do this myself from the USA.

Awaiting further info from my esteemed fellow flyertalkers. I have at least a month before I need to book. It looks like Sky doesn't sell out its cheap seats that quickly.

EDIT: I also took a look at LAN pricing. Using their English language site, the prices were nuts -- 3x Sky's. Knowing the funky gringo pricing of LanPeru, I wanted to try setting my country as Chile but, strangely, I don't see that as an option on Lan.com. Help would be appreciated, but my guess is that Lan's pricing will always be a lot higher than Sky's -- which is why I flew Sky the last time.

andreadbc

To switch countries you have to click "Version" in the top right corner, where it says "Version USA" and then choose Chile... Or you can just click here I think it's wrong that you can't buy from the Chile site when you're elsewhere as you're supposed to pick your country of residence, not the country where you're really at.
The good thing is that the Chile prices don't have residency restrictions, they just make it hard for you to buy them (I wonder if you could just call the Chile help desk and buy them over the phone... I don't think that they know where you're calling from, they always ask.)

Eastbay1K

Version Chile is never an option from the USA. You have to put it in manually.