Chile Forum

I am back singing the praises of Continental and COPA. We recently had a funeral in Arizona and I guess the extra trips to Chile supervising construction etc. put Hubby in "Elite" so he and I were upgraded on most of our flights to First class, very nice. We are returning to Chile in November and (Yippee) flying free using continental miles but flying Delta (we need to fly from DC because of a family wedding in DC) and COPA and were even able to bring our adult son,
AX points plus mileage for only 50,000 each That is a huge bonus! Total value almost 4G

Wooo hooo Helibel! I've been considering flying Copa for some time now (out of LA) but have reservations about flying long haul in a 737. You seem enthused about their service, does anyone else have experience with them?

We have been flying Copa for years now. The only other option for us is AA through Miami, which has always seemed stupid to fly two hours north to spend an extra 2 hours more flying south. The flight from Panama is only 6 1/2 hours (as opposed to 8 1/2 MIA-SCL and all Copa/Continental flights connect in Panama) and we usually opt for the daytime flight that arrives around 7-8 in the evening. There is more legroom than you think, there version of the 737 has only 112 seats in economy compared to 134-144 in an AA 737 (seatguru.com) so it is comfortable, and they don't charge for wine. We have actually been able to use our miles and fly free often, they have dozens of airline partners and miles don't ever expire.

Once, a few years ago, our connecting flight to San Juan was delayed and they hired a bus and gave us a tour of Panama City, the canal and a really good seafood buffet in a downtown restaurant.

Thanks for the seat info, I'll check them out after my AA miles are gone.

Accumulating miles is a very iffy proposition these days. Who will really be left standing and honoring miles in 2 years time?

Well something will probably survive, and I,m at a point where I am doing a lot of traveling so I taking a free trip as soon as I have the miles from now on.

does anybody know about some ticket option with LAN that gives you 3 or 4 flights within Chile for like $200??

Lunkey wrote:does anybody know about some ticket option with LAN that gives you 3 or 4 flights within Chile for like $200??

I know at one point they had something called the "South America Air Pass" or something to that effect. Basically if you arrived to the continent of South America on any member of the One World Alliance you were eligible for the pass, and it consisted of a minimum of 3 travel segments at a discounted rate. But if you are already in Chile (or South America) for that matter you are in eligible, also if you are not flying into South America on partner airline (Air Canada, or United for example) you will not be eligible.

Here is a link to the program:
http://www.lan.com/cgi-bin/compra/saa.cgi

Edit: I forgot to add that the discount isn’t amazing… but to most destinations it is a discount none the less. The problem for anyone already in Chile will be the restriction that stipulates that you have to buy it before you arrive to South America. Chances are that if you are in Santiago already trying to get one of those really cheap flights will be your best bet (you know the one… the Santiago - La Serena for 25.000 or Santiago - Concepcion for 31.000).

Nice tip in re Copa, good prices, esp out of Dulles, which is easy for us to get to. Had planned on visiting in December/January, but some school issues here caused us to postpone to June-August. Downside, we are trading gringo summer for Vina winter, such as it is. Upside, cheaper tickets, cheaper rentals and kids will be able to attend school in Vina.

How far in advance to book for best prices? Thanks.

Just an interesting report.

I was just reviewing the daily Google Analytics report on a web site I'm a consultant/friend to that has a rant about the LAN Chile-only lowest price fare bucket policy and noticed that the USA Department of Justice in Washington, DC paid the site a visit

Excellent, good work.