London to Santiago

[retiredbrit]

Has any one flown from London to Santiago. I am trying to get an idea if it is Direct (ie same plane) or if we would perhaps fly to Spain / Holland change planes and go on from there. It is probably too far for a non stop flight.

We are booking with Celebrity for South America on Infinity over Christmas and New Year 2007. Santiago to Buenos Aires

 

If you have done this journey did Celebrity give you an overnight hotel in Saniago at the start of the cruise and an overnight hotel in Buenos Aires at the end.

 

Some UK agents are showing hotels and others not, Celebrity tell me it is too early to know!

 

Any tips or help welcome

 

regards Alan Berkhamsted UK

[Bill S]

Alan: we have never done that trip, but we did fly to Santiago a few years ago and connected from Las Vegas through Dallas-Ft Worth. While there, we met a British couple who had flown from Great Britain to DFW and then to Santiago. We were on an American Airlines flight. It was about a 9 hour flight from DFW to Santiago. Hope this helps you a bit.

[celly]

Hello Alan,

 

Last year we took an Air France flight from Amsterdam to Paris and then a direct flight to Santiago de Chile.

This year we will be doing the same as it was a perfect flight, the transfer in Paris Charles de Gaulle was easy and the flight to Santiago is on a new Boeing 777, with comfortable seating(even in economy), footrest, private TV, good food and drinks(choice menu, food served on a large tray, no plastic, during the night self service drinks, sandwiches, Haagen Dasz icecream etc. etc), little things like earplugs and sleep mask and the service was very good.

We got a good deal through our travel agent for the Air France flight.

I suppose you can fly from London to Paris and then straight to Santiago.

Good Luck!

[Sekhmet]

We are sailing HAL Rotterdam Rio de Janeiro to Santiago on November 20th, and our return flight is Santiago to Buenos Aires, change to a direct Buenos Aires to London Heathrow. This is with British Airways.

 

It seems there are a few combinations available out there.

[retiredbrit]

Thanks for the information - I shall just have to wait untill Celebrity let me know next year.

It sounds as if there are plenty of alternatives

 

regards Alan

[blue cruiser]

hi .

i will put my twopennies in if you choose the cruise lines air you will be routed how they want you not maybe the quickest or most easy way.

it could be direct or via Europe or even the us and do not forget you could have a layover between flights of at worst case 8 or 9 hours say. if going via us as some flights arrive midday to the us and leave very late at night. i met some people who had been traveling 21 House from the uk to get to the ship.

when i flew last year i flew via Germany and then direct to Santiago and direct from Rio back and at that time was the cheapest way, also i knew my dates well an advance and times and also that gave me the time to have some time pre and post cruise, so could do what i wanted when i wanted.

this year doing transatlantic to Rio have done airfare this way again so that i can add on some of the things i missed last time.

you need to spend some extra time in bueno Aires and if you can swing it some time in Iguassu one of the wonders of the world.

also us agents drop rates on cruises sometimes when booked ,uk agents ? ,yet to find one. and i get service that we lost over here a long time ago.

i do hope this help you

[edinburgher]

If its any help, we flew this year in March with Princess. We were flying Edinburgh to Santiago.

 

We heard onboard there were a variety of routes on offer but by the time we booked we had to choose from via Paris with Air France or via Madrid with Iberia. They were both non stop from Paris or Madrid.

 

Once onboard we heard that some of those on Iberia had missing and/or late luggage, whilst those on the London routings took the longest to arrive with more than one change along the way. We cant remember exactly but think they maybe had two changes after London. We had a two hour delay at Paris on the way to Santiago, not leaving CDG until 01-15am instead of 23-15.

 

Whichever way you do it, its a horrible journey. We were 28 hours home to ship (Valparaiso) and of course theres 5 or 6 hours time difference once you arrive.

 

We enjoyed the trip nonetheless.

 

You could probably check the airlines routings and times on their own websites, and see how many changes there are and the overall journey time. Booking early may mean you could request a particular airline.