Best airlines to South America

[Mountie]

How about some opinions on the best airlines to fly down to South America?

[bonniejoy03]

LOVED Lan!!! We flew them last November. Nice staff, nice food, FREE wine/drinks. Real utensils (not plastic-except don't try to take them off the plane and through security....don't ask.) The inner country flights are just as lovely...nice snack box, great service, etc.....LOVED THEM!

[omegaet]

LOVED Lan!!! We flew them last November. Nice staff, nice food, FREE wine/drinks. Real utensils (not plastic-except don't try to take them off the plane and through security....don't ask.) The inner country flights are just as lovely...nice snack box, great service, etc.....LOVED THEM!

......depends!

If we have to "buy" a ticket with real money, then LAN is our first choice....newer aircraft, fairly good in-flight food & snacks (and drinks) and usually pretty good connecting for domestic connections.

On the other hand, if we are using FF miles, then AA is our first choice, since we have a fairly good supply of AAdvantage Miles and usually have pretty good luck on scoring upgraded seats (rather fly BIZ in an older plan than coach in a new plane).

So, since we typically fly out of MIA, both LAN and American usually serve the same South American destinations.

Good question, mountie, are you considering a trip to South America in the near future?

[jsattapr2]

How about some opinions on the best airlines to fly down to South America?

mountie, we used LAN to fly from Miami to Lima on our recent trip. The flight was aboard a 767 and we managed to get side by side seats in a two seat section of coach. Very comfortable and exceptional service.

[kapper]

How about some opinions on the best airlines to fly down to South America?

We have used LAN for our last two trips to South America. We have been extremely pleased with their service and their airplanes have been much newer than those we have flown on American Airlines in the past.

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I fly out of Philly/Newark area so I always use Continental - still have no baggage fees for international flights and in the past year I have been able to upgrade to business 1st for very little $

We do not travel enough to earn elite status so usually always have to pay for our flights and I find that in my area, Continental is always the least expensive to latin America

[ngallag]

I agree, Continental usually has good prices on flights to Central and South America. I also enjoyed LAN--new planes, nice amenities. They had a better deal on their Chilean website than when I booked through the English website a few years ago so if you understand Spanish-it's worth a try. I'm not sure if it was a blip or one time mistake or not.

[bonniejoy03]

Hi N....Somehow it is less expensive to book via the Chilean site. It wasn't a blip. It is common.

[omegaet]

I agree, Continental usually has good prices on flights to Central and South America. I also enjoyed LAN--new planes, nice amenities. They had a better deal on their Chilean website than when I booked through the English website a few years ago so if you understand Spanish-it's worth a try. I'm not sure if it was a blip or one time mistake or not.

ngallag...or get a travel agency in the SA country to book the travel for you on LAN and in probability, you will save a substantial amount. We have used this approach for recent trips to Peru and Chile, booking our LAN flights, and could not match the fares booking on-line or through phone reservations.

[Mountie]

Spoke with LAN this morning and going to finalize my dates and see what they can do.