Airlines to South America

[Bailey & Sophie]

We're thinking of taking a Panama Canal cruise that starts in Valparaiso Chile. Any recommendations on an airline that flies out of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN?

I can get Delta and American. Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

[paul929207]

LAN - Chile has flights. Air Canada and Aeromexico also.

[worldspan]

Lan Chile is very best! Beats any American flag carrier hands down!

 

Worldspan

130 cruises strong

[Bailey & Sophie]

Thanks - I will check these out.

[Keith1010]

You may also want to ask this question on the Cruise Air board. There are several knowledgeable people who post to that board frequently.

 

Keith

[biker1972]

Your international flight will start from Miami, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta or Chicago most likely. Air Canada flights will be from toronto. They are generally overnight flights leaving the US between 8:00 and 11:00. Lan is an excellent carrier. Another option

[Sandy R]

We're taking LAN this coming February to Santiago. Booked business class with American miles. Seems every carrier flying into South America has only economy and business class. Another place to get information is on flyertalk.com... great site, forum is divided by airlines and besides those of us who post needing info or advice, most of the posters fly thousands of miles a year and really know their stuff.

[smeyer418]

I used TAM last year and they do have first class. they leave from either NY or Miami....and it was much less than other airlines...

 

LAN and TAM I believe are in the process of merging....

[Sandy R]

I checked and TAM does have 1st class but what LAN business class has is lie-flat seats... a big bonus when traveling on a long flight. Whatever flights you book, check the planes each flight is using on seatguru.com. The more info you have, the better decision you can make.

[Coolcruise02]

Took LAN out of Miami Great experience!!

[Fattony]

You'd fly to Santiago, of course. Price is no object? You "get" just American and Delta using what resource? You can look at the usual sites listing multiple (though not all) airlines, such as Kayak, Travelocity, Expedia, etc. Using an arbitrary date, Expedia showed fares for (some in combination with other airlines) United, Air Canada, Copa, Delta, American, TACA, Continental, Sky, Avianca, LAN, LAN Peru, Aeromexico, TAM and US Airways. It looked, offhand, like Air Canada had the most direct flights, with a change in Toronto. When we took a cruise ending in Valparaiso and wanted to fly from Santiago to LAX, the cheapest flight was on Avianca, with a change of planes in Bogota, Long story, but due to mechanical problems, Avianca put us on the LAN non-stop to LAX (even put us up in a hotel for the night in Santiago).

 

I would choose based on price and number of connections, and times, and possibly frequent flyer miles. You'd have to see what looks best on the particular dates you have in mind. I would hesitate to recommend a particular airline until I knew the differences in prices, times, etc. You're flying economy class?

 

Some airlines flying to South America have just two cabins, so that business class is the top class (e.g., Continental Business First), while on others, such as United and TAM from the U.S. to Brazil, there are three cabins (economy, business and first). And cabin configuration can vary (see http://www.seatguru.com, etc.). Among those with two cabins, I kind of like Continental's 2-1-2 configuration in Business-First on their 767s, but my wife preferred US Airways, even with 2-2-2 configuration, since their biz class seats are truly lie-flat. Copa, requiring a change of planes in Panama City, flies just narrow-body 737s; there is a first class, but it's more like first class on a domestic flight in terms of space.