Lax is better than any other

- AC via YYZ
1155 1925 AC792 763 daily except sat (only 3 dont have flatbed)
2345 1535+1 AC92 77W daily

- UA seems to have flatbed from IAH and IAD

~ not sure about DL (ATL)
http://www.delta.com/traveling_check...s/progress.jsp
764 and 777 = flatbed

...

* are there LA without flatbed?
interesting - KE to GRU then change airlines, including QR - dont recall if flatbed

UA: from IAD, it's a late-night departure at 10pm on a 763 which has lie-flats. This allows you to take UA 653 LAX-IAD that arrives at 8:25pm. The days I'm searching, that domestic flight is on a international 777.

from IAH, it shows a Continental 762 with reclining J seats.

AA: 777s with the angled lie flat NGBC from MIA/JFK and 763 with the same seat from DFW. There is a 777 service from LAX-MIA which would allow a connection to the EZE flight, and ample 762 transcon service from LAX-JFK.

DL: from ATL, it's a 763 with reclining J seats. You can get the 77L from LAX to have the international J experience on the LAX-ATL flight, but it's a 4.5-hour daytime flight.


I'd say UA through IAD is your best option.

This is extremely helpful! Still boggled by what would cause delta to downgrade the ATL-EZE from the 764 to the 763 during peak EZE time.

UA: The good part is that their 767 to/from EZE is equipped with fully-flat seats and good IFE. The flight is long enough to enjoy a meal, relax, and get a full night's sleep. On the outbound you will also get a 777 from LAX which means a comfortable seat on the domestic portion as well. The IAD-LAX flight will be the standard domestic first class seat, however. The other negative is that, IMO, UA J service, food, amenity kit, and airport lounges are the worst of the lot.

CO: The best of the bunch in terms of service and meals. IAH is not the greatest airport, but the routing is direct. The biggest drawback is that the seats are recliners on the long legs; I would avoid.

AA: Although AA doesn't offer fully-flat seats either, they have the overwhelmingly largest number of flights. You can connect in DFW, JFK or MIA. Their J seats are actually pretty comfy (they are flat, just angled). If you connect in MIA you can fly the 777 all the way. The drawback, however, is the MIA-EZE flight is fairly short. The service is abbreviated relative to DFW/JFK-EZE to maximize sleep, but I still prefer the longer segments. For this reason I would choose the JFK or DFW connection. DFW is a great airport and the 2-class 767 service to EZE is more premium than the 777s from JFK/MIA. JFK is a bit out of the way and prone to delays, but the LAX-JFK route is nice and offers good service and recliner seats.

DL: Sounds like you are familiar.

I'm going to see how the UA IAD flight times/prices look. But if it comes down to AA vs DL which would you take?

Is a codeshare booked as an AA flight ok? Most LAN flights codeshare with AA.

I just looked, codeshares don't even show (since we have to book using our internal version of getthere.net--which is also making this that much more difficult).

AA doesn't codeshare SCL-EZE, but it does codeshare on SCL-MDZ-AEP and SCL-COR-AEP (the other airport in Buenos Aires). It's an extra stop, but you get to fly LAN direct from LAX and also don't have to pay the Argentina entry fee that you would if you entered Argentina at EZE/AEP. Also, AEP is much closer to the city than EZE.

Don't know what the price would be for your dates, but it's an option ...

Another thing you may want to consider is EQMs earned. If you fly UA LAX-IAD-EZE and back, you'll get roughly 15K base miles, +7500 for having a discount J ticket, bringing you to 22,500* RDM/PQM on UA. If you get a status match to 1P, you'll get another 50% and end up with 30K RDMs.

If you fly AA LAX-JFK-EZE and back, you'd earn 15500 base miles, you'd earn 23,250 AA EQM/RDM. I don't know if you can get a status match on AA since they do challenges, but you could sign up for the Platinum challenge and status match to GLD with your Delta GM. You'd then get an extra 25% RDMs, making it about 27,125 RDMs on AA. Since you're buying a J ticket, you'd easily complete the PLT challenge through this trip and get PLT.

*I rounded all these numbers, but they are close.

Thanks for thinking outside of the box. So the LAX-SCL codshare is showing up (in policy), however, no codeshares from SCL-MDZ/COR-AEP are showing up. The $140 entry fee is a moot point because my work will pay for that and will view it as separate from my airfare decision.

Also thanks for the EQM/PQM/RDM analysis. Definitely playing in the back of my mind. As far as AA status match - AA still allows it through our travel desk (wouldn't DL GM be matched to PLT? or is that not how it works)?

If all else failed you could do an AA Platinum Challenge - 10,000 elite qualifying points within 3 months (1.5 EQP per mile in business class.) LAX-MIA-EZE or LAX-JFK-EZE would earn the 10K points on the outbound portion.

I don't know how your travel desk would make it work, but I called AA to discuss a possible status match for myself and what I learned was that you don't get status while doing a challenge. However, if you have status on another airline, they'll match you to GLD if you do the PLT challenge. If your travel desk can status match you to AA PLT, you'd get more AA RDMs since they give 100% more for PLT vs 50% for UA. However, you'd get an angled lie-flat...

Anybody else care to chime in? Trying to weigh all my options before I spend a good chunk of time with our travel desk trying to book this (want to know what I want to "push" them for)

AC not option?

Nope, like LAN, it is showing as not a "preferred" airline. (Therefore the fare would have to be 20% cheaper than an available "preferred" choice)