Which airline for UK to South America?

[calmac]

I'm starting to look at flights to South America for our cruise next March. We'll be flying from the UK to Buenos Aires and back from Santiago.

 

At the moment it seems that Air France have the lowest fares and only one stop (Paris) both ways. Other options all have 2 (or more) stops each way. What we want is a good flight with few changes at a reasonable (but not necessarily the cheapest) price.

 

Any thoughts on which airlines are best for this route and any which should be avoided will be much appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[ab0si]

Air France has improved greatly recently. I used to avoid them like the plague but since their merger with KLM they have become one of my favorites for crossing the Atlantic. CDG in Paris is a bit of a puzzle palace, however.

 

Lan Chile will most likely be more expensive; Iberia should be avoided regardless of price and I'm not a huge fan of Aerolineas Argentinas. United and American service these routes, but transferring in the U.S. is a huge pain.

 

Of the one stop choices, Air France seems to be the best, imho.

 

Paul

[calmac]

Thanks very much for your thoughts, Paul. At the moment it looks like either Air France (about £700) or Lufthansa (about £900) as our two best choices.

 

I looked at the price for United as we are both members of Star Alliance frequent flyer programmes - about £6,800 per person in Economy but only about £6,500 in Business - guess something is wrong with their pricing!

[FlyerTalker]

One thing you ought to consider is the value of the FF miles to you. If you are earning on Star Alliance (BMI??), that extra price for the LH ticket might be worthwhile. (I admit that I am NOT a Star Alliance guru, so there may be some earning restrictions on some fare classes you might want to research -- always research!)

 

Going from Edinburgh or Glasgow (assumption from your Scotland location) to Frankfurt to Buenos Aires, then back from Santiago works out to almost 16,000 FF miles. For that kind of mileage, I'd be buying my preferred program if at all reasonable. It would be a big step towards either elite status or a higher tier of status.

 

If you aren't earning on FlyingBlue (AF) or another SkyTeam program, you might just get 15,000+ miles where they really aren't doing you any good -- the prototypical "orphan miles". Given a metric of $.02 per mile (and more if you cash them in for intercontinental biz or first, either tickets or upgrades), that's over $300 in FF value for you to consider. Plus any value of elite status that you might accrue.

 

For long international tickets, I consider the FF mileage to be almost a kind of rebate on the ticket price. From here on the west coast of the USA to Singapore (a fun "run" for me), that's over 16,000 flying miles. With my status bonus miles, it works out to over 36,000 total FF miles. I figure that the "real" price of my ticket is whatever the fare is, minus the $700+ value that I get in mileage. Plus the value of the status.

 

Just another thought for you (or anyone planning a LONG itinerary) to ponder.

[calmac]

Thanks for your reply, FlyerTalker. I must admit that the only reason I'm even considering the Lufthansa fare is because fo the FF miles. I am a FF with bmi and DH is a FF with United (due to work). I've just dropped back from silver as I haven't travelled with work recently and my last United flight was using FF miles to fly from Miami to Edinburgh (nearest airport) business class after our transatlantic In December :D. Thanks for the reminder about the fare class being eligible for miles - DH travelled 3 times from Edinburgh to Singapore before finding out that the fare class didn't give miles :mad:.

[FlyerTalker]

Glad to have made some good guesses. If you are both Star Alliance (*A) flyers, either BMI or UA, then it really makes sense for you to be on LH. Just too many miles not to consider. Sounds as if DH has status, which brings bonus miles into the equation as well. And I know you would like to get back into the elite ranks (yes, it IS an addiction). Op-up opportunities would go to elite fliers, so that comes into play as well. Plus, FRA is a much easier airport than CDG.

 

I will confess that early on, I missed out on a bunch of miles on a Korean (KE) trip that was in a fare class that didn't earn DL miles. Over 15,000 that didn't show up in my account. As they say, fool me once....:) I wised up and it hasn't happened again.

[calmac]

I've only been on one return journey via FRA - on the outward journey our flight into FRA was late so my friend and I had to RUN for what seemed like miles - we were sure that some of the security people were watching us on CCTV and having a good laugh :eek: We made our connecting flight (just) but our luggage didn't!