Late 2016 - LATAM Chile booking question (from outside Chile)

[susiedillon]

OK, so I tried Chrome Incognito, and a VPN - Unblock-us , and continued to have the same problem when it came time to process the payment. By that stage I thought I would have to go to the LAN office in Curico to complete the purchase ( at the higher Chilean price for the tickets plus US$35 each for the privelege of so doing.) However, in a moment of clarity I phoned the LATAM help line to check on the address of their office in Curico - guess what - despite the Google entries to the contrary, there isn't one!!! TG, I found out before I drove the 45 minutes in to town! But during this call I also was told that the reason I could not complete my ticket purchase on line - ever - was because I was using either a Mac laptop or an iPad, and LATAM does not "play" with any Apple products. I cannot believe this is the case in this day and age but my experiences over the last 48 hours suggests that it might well be the case. I am so un-amused! Anyway, a happy ending .... expedia.ca came through with an excellent price ( and less than the one I had been trying to buy for the same itinerary.) So thank you all for your suggestions, finally exito! The beach awaits.

[susiedillon]

TRobo, Your suggestion sounds a bit more complicated than my final solution, but I will keep it in mind for future flights.
EEexpat and John, I only tried a Visa cc. Perhaps I might have had some more luck with a MasterCard. But the issue of the Mac vs PC still amazes me if it is true. And its worth noting that we had better online experiences buying tickets in Africa ...

[john]

susie, congrats on the happy ending. BTW, my Capital One is a Visa credit card and I used my Mac laptop to buy the LATAM tickets to Isla de Pascua.

[passport]

Yeah I used a Mac and a Visa a few weeks ago too.

[eeuunikkeiexpat]

Sounds like the idiots at customer support don't know crap and give Chilean bullshit excuses for things they don't have a clue. How can LATAM not be Mac friendly when there are a shitload more Mac users in Brasil than Chile?

OK, IME, if Mac Safari craps out on a Chilean site, Firefox usually works.

Always clear cache and cookies and use the most updated version of Firefox or Chrome.

Realize you may may be SOL if you have used any third party site for the booking as LATAM can say you have to go talk to your ticketing/travel "agent" to fix a problem say in an IRROPS situation.

Anyways, have a safe trip.

[papageno]

Anyone know why one-way tickets often cost more than round trips? Sometimes, a lot more. (Other than the stock answer "because they can")
Or if it puts a black mark on one's record with said airline for habitually abandoning the second half of a round-trip ticket?

[FrankPintor]

Congratulations Susie and have fun. Charles' recommendation for the archipelago of Islas del Rosario / del Pirata is spot on. The walled city is amazing, very atmospheric, and being restored piece by piece. I don't think you will be disappointed. At night, you can take the very alcoholic chiva around town, or a horse cart ride around the walled city. All perfectly safe, we've done it, just remember, as Colombians say "no des papaya".

[admin]

Congratulations Susie and have fun. Charles' recommendation for the archipelago of Islas del Rosario / del Pirata is spot on. The walled city is amazing, very atmospheric, and being restored piece by piece. I don't think you will be disappointed. At night, you can take the very alcoholic chiva around town, or a horse cart ride around the walled city. All perfectly safe, we've done it, just remember, as Colombians say "no des papaya".

My wife and I were having a great time just wondering the old city at night, stopping at sidewalk cafe / bars for a drink, and watching street performers.

was because I was using either a Mac laptop or an iPad

That is sooooo moron chilean web design 101. I was on a Chilean bank web site yesterday, where the form they were using could not handle the fact my keyboard was set to English (it kept swapping periods and commas in numbers). In what frigen world does someone build a web form that is dependent on the language settings of someone's keyboard to use.

But, like I said before, the Reason I hang on to my LAN stock, in spite of them pissing me off, is because I am hoping one day the management wakes up, fires their IT people, and realizes by simply fixing their web site they will have 100x the sales and half the overhead of customer service fixing the errors the web site makes. I know. I guess I will keep dreaming.

[admin]

One thing we accidentally discovered about the Pirate Island resort is the weekday bookings is there is typically no one. We took the speed boat tour out to the Isla Rosaria day trip. It stopped for lunch at the Pirate island. That was a sunday afternoon. All the guest for the weekend were getting on the speed boats we were on, to head back to the city. I looked around, and realized this place was going to be empty for the rest of the week, and told my wife we are totally staying. My wife checked at the desk, and they had no one booked. So, we stayed, in spite of having already payed for a hotel room in the city for the night. who cares. When do you get a private dessert island resort in the carribean for like $80 a night all to yourself?

By 11 p.m., when all the staff headed home (by canoe, they live on a nearby island), we really did have the entire place to ourselves. They were back early in the morning. The island is only about 2 hectares of land. We took a canoe and canoed around it in about a half hour the next morning.

Now I would just totally book something like a Monday through Thursday, if I ever go back.

http://www.hotelislapirata.com/esp/

[susiedillon]

I think the person on the LATAM helpline was probably an American, certainly not a Chilean or even a Latin American, as he could not pronounce any of the city names here that he reeled off as being "my nearest LATAM offices" - nor did he have any idea of the geography. So perhaps it follows that his lack of any real knowledge regarding all things LATAM related runs to how OS's work on their website! I feel a tweet coming on!

Realize you may may be SOL if you have used any third party site for the booking as LATAM can say you have to go talk to your ticketing/travel "agent" to fix a problem say in an IRROPS situation.

I would have preferred to buy directly with the airline for just that reason - though I haven't a clue what IRROPS is, it sounds dire!

We have lots of time in Cartagena waiting for our daughter to arrive from the other side of the world (!!!) so we will definitely go to the islands and quite possibly a few days in Medellin and surroundings. All suggestions for that area would be most helpful.

And thank you again everyone for your help and comments. I learn so much from this website - especially comforting somehow knowing I am not alone in these constant Chilean desafios.

[eeuunikkeiexpat]

Anyone know why one-way tickets often cost more than round trips? Sometimes, a lot more. (Other than the stock answer "because they can")
Or if it puts a black mark on one's record with said airline for habitually abandoning the second half of a round-trip ticket?

Many airlines only sell one ways in the highest fare buckets (full blown Y or similar) which means they have no or few restrictions and probably fully refundable.

[papageno]

I think the person on the LATAM helpline was probably an American, certainly not a Chilean or even a Latin American, as he could not pronounce any of the city names here that he reeled off as being "my nearest LATAM offices" - nor did he have any idea of the geography. So perhaps it follows that his lack of any real knowledge regarding all things LATAM related runs to how OS's work on their website! I feel a tweet coming on!

Realize you may may be SOL if you have used any third party site for the booking as LATAM can say you have to go talk to your ticketing/travel "agent" to fix a problem say in an IRROPS situation.

I would have preferred to buy directly with the airline for just that reason - though I haven't a clue what IRROPS is, it sounds dire!

We have lots of time in Cartagena waiting for our daughter to arrive from the other side of the world (!!!) so we will definitely go to the islands and quite possibly a few days in Medellin and surroundings. All suggestions for that area would be most helpful.

And thank you again everyone for your help and comments. I learn so much from this website - especially comforting somehow knowing I am not alone in these constant Chilean desafios.

"IRROPS" = Irregular Operations. It got my curiosity going, so I looked it up. There's a whole lot more you can see about it on Flyer Talk.