Chile Forum

Does anyone have experience with or know someone who regularly (2-3 times per month) commutes from the Lagos area to Stgo? If so, did/does it work out OK for you? Do you feel it's worth the hassle/$ rather live in the basin? Do you use Skyairline? How reliable are these short flights? --- I realize a volcanic eruption/major earthquake may hole things up, but I mean other factors, i.e. weather, engine trouble, etc.

If you do this, do you keep a small apartment in Stgo? If so, how is that going?

Thanks in advance!

I know someone who does it 4 times a month the other way,

He preplans his flights for a long period of time and gets the return fares overlapping so he can take advantage of the Cheaper fares from LAN when staying over the weekend, even tho he doesnt stay for the weekend?, understand, takes a bit of planning tho,

I.e Ticket 1 Monday leave Santiago, return the Friday in two weeks
Ticket 2 Friday leave lagos, returnto lago Monday after the weekend,

But of course he doesnt need to be in lagos for a 8am start each day monday........ there are no "commuter flights" like we are use to back home that are timed to allow you to get to work on time.....

Thanks, I get what you mean about overlapping the tickets to get deals.

On average, how much cheaper are the LAN flights when you book from Chile? Are the prices generally lower than Sky?

I had read LAN upcharges when you are trying to buy from the U.S. online.

snocouchs wrote:Thanks, I get what you mean about overlapping the tickets to get deals.

On average, how much cheaper are the LAN flights when you book from Chile? Are the prices generally lower than Sky?

I had read LAN upcharges when you are trying to buy from the U.S. online.

I have never used sky, and never found a reason to, lan is just as cheap when you use the promotions, book in advance and book over a Saturday.....

The price to areas in los lagos by following those rules, and depending on the airport, right now are $39,000 - 45,000 Return

I've heard of people using the "air taxi" helicopter service to zip back and forth between Santiago and Viña. It's surprisingly cheap to do it that way too. Maybe they offer something similar for your route, but I'm not sure, I haven't really looked into it seeing that I've only been out of Santiago once in the three years I've been here xD

snocouchs wrote:On average, how much cheaper are the LAN flights when you book from Chile? Are the prices generally lower than Sky?

I had read LAN upcharges when you are trying to buy from the U.S. online.

LAN prevents you from using the lowest fares if their online purchase system detects that you are logging in from outside Chile, and it matters not that you are a Chilean resident outside the country.

I never use LAN if I can help it. They don't even fly to Puerto Natales, in southernmost Patagonia. Sky lets me buy lowest fare tickets whether I am inside or outside Chile and they go where I need to go and when I need to go, Sky has been the answer.

One note about LAN's lack of ethical behaviour. During the insurrection here in southern Patagonia earlier this year, the rebels blocked ground access to the airports. If you did fly in, you could only walk out, and the Punta Arenas airport is 26 km from the centre. LAN kept right on booking and flying people into Punta Arenas without telling them that they would be stuck at the remote airport with no way to go anywhere, so the only thing they could do was to fly right out again -- at higher prices, of course. LAN does no one any favours.

We do it, in the busy season, or more exactly my wife does it. She has done the round-trip as much as once a week for meetings and such. We have plenty of relatives and friends to stay with for the overnight trips when needed, so not really worth keeping an apartment there. We had considered buying land and building a house outside of Santiago (no way I would buy something inside Santiago for my own use) for those trips.

We also have had at times some standing tickets for once a month trips, as it is so much cheaper to buy them in advance if you know you are going at least once a month. Even if you don't use it, the numbers work out. Either my wife or I are going or an employee needs to go there. If turns out we are not using the ticket, one of the girls at the office could use it.

I ran the number one time a couple of years ago that it was cheaper for us to simply buy one ticket a week with advance notice for the entire year (or at least a month or two in advance), letting the tickets go unused if not needed, than it was to rent an office and staff it in Santiago. Way cheaper, and I get to keep employees directly under foot. Plus we have drivers, translators, contracts with law firms in Santiago. Plenty of boots on the ground. Thus, why we have no intentions of ever opening an office in Santiago.

All roads and flights lead to Rome, so why do I need to worry about getting to Rome? More concerned about getting to small towns in the middle of the mountains in the Patagonia. That is really not cheap.

We also can get really cheap flights to other cities. The Temuco / Puerto Montt run on sky and lan can be as little as 10,000 pesos, because they always have empty seats south of Concepción. Essentially it is cheaper to fly than to take a bus from Puerto Montt to Temuco, and often costs almost as much and takes longer to get to the airport (40 mins from where we live).

Sky is fine for short hops, and they can be much cheaper than Lan on short notice.

Thnx Admin, that is good to know. Plans to relocate are still up in the air (lots of factors) - but the city of Puerto Varas seems like such a great place to live and raise a kid compared to Stgo. Is it possible to get some garden space with most rental houses? Or do Chileans leave the gardening to the professionals?

What sort of professionals are you refering to?

Professional gardeners, not so sure about.

Yea, if you can rent something with a 5,000 square meter lot or better, then you will get some good garden space.

Puerto Varas is even easier, as the airport is only 20 mins away. There are buses, taxi, and hotel transfers to the airport. Puerto Varas is more of small city now.

admin wrote:What sort of professionals are you refering to?

Professional gardeners, not so sure about.

Yea, if you can rent something with a 5,000 square meter lot or better, then you will get some good garden space.

Puerto Varas is even easier, as the airport is only 20 mins away. There are buses, taxi, and hotel transfers to the airport. Puerto Varas is more of small city now.

Professionals as in buying produce at the market. Which I do also, but home grown is better. Today I brought in about 2lbs. of mixed lettuces. Yum. Can't wait for the tomatoes. Is the soil there OK for tomatoes? God I hope so!

After reading the forum, I wish I knew how to make cheese! I could make a killing making cheese and baking some whole grain bread! My husband and I have some weird dream about moving somewhere and making cheese. There's gotta be milk to be bought. Maybe this is the place. I better study up.

BTW is the milk "boxed" in the Lagos region? Or can you get some that isn't cooked so much?

You will need to cut a deal with a farmer or buy a cow (we know people that have done this for milk).

Most milk in Chile comes from southern Chile, south of Temuco. Mostly around Osorno to the north, but there are very big dairy farms around the lake also.

Buying vegiatables locally grown are everywhere. The soil is typically about 1-3 meters of black loamy silt. Anything will grown in it. With a greenhouse, you can go to nearly industrial levels of production fairly easily in your back yard.

My kind of town!