update (post 22) - it's official - indirect via south america (for only £60 more)

[disneyholic family]

the TA had just issued DS and his wife's tickets (about 20 minutes ago) and when i called DS up to reconfirm DDIL's middle name, he said...."ah....what would you think about us going to chile?"

gulp....cough....

so it turns out, he meant going to chile for two weeks, then flying from chile to orlando on the same day we arrive...
and then fly home as scheduled...

and if you think the prices are high to get to orlando, you ain't seen nothing..
try getting a flight to santiago!!

my TA had a heart attack just now when i called him too...he quickly cancelled DS's tickets and is waiting for my call in the morning with the new instructions....

so....just when i thought i had it all planned...

off i go to figure out how one gets to chile....

 

[disneyholic family]

so tried kayak and expedia...
i have no familiarity with flying to south america at all...

the best connections include copa airlines...say what?
who's copa airlines you ask? and even if you didn't, i'll tell you...the airline of panama....yeah right....somehow that doesn't sound so safe to me..

i wish i had access into the TA airline system....i'm sure it would be easier to figure out a multi-leg flight on different airlines..

they could fly Air canada and it would take them a mere 28 hours to get to santiago
the shortest connection there is 21 hours....not exactly a walk in the park...

the price isn't as bad as i would have thought though...
it's about £2,500 per person....could be worse

on the bright side, they won't have many costs once they're there...
they'll stay with DDIL's family (she's chilean)....let's hope there are no earthquakes while they're there

 

[orangetiggs]

just had a look on statravel and iberia fly there so might be worth looking at

 

[orangetiggs]

http://www.flightstosantiagochile.co.uk/

sir france also fly too and aitalia

 

[disneyholic family]

thanks!!

yes, no shortage of airlines,,...
i have to get them back to orlando when we get there....
so a bit of figuring there..

and then send them back at the end from orlando the same way they are now...

confusing...
and now the prices are going up - since it's multi-leg, multi-airline and on very specific days (to match ours)..

if they were just going to santiago and coming back it would be much more clearcut..
but they have to stop in orlando on the way back...

glad it's them and not me..
South America is one of the continents i've never had much interest in visiting...
if i had spare time and money, you'd find me flying east to asia...

anyway....back to the internet...

i'm just trying to gather enough info, so i can talk intelligently with the TA in the morning....and so i know the prices he should offer..

 

[crabbie1]

Oh Beth you have been so organised sorting your orlando trip out as well.I think perhaps you should take up trip planning as your second job. You poor thing.Hope you get it sorted

 

[disneyholic family]

Oh Beth you have been so organised sorting your orlando trip out as well.I think perhaps you should take up trip planning as your second job. You poor thing.Hope you get it sorted

i know!!!! i thought i had it completely finished!!!!...

i really feel like i'm planning a military invasion...
we'll be flying across the atlantic to MCO (via JFK), while they're flying up from South America to North America...from Chile to MCO...
getting us all to WDW at the same time more or less...
synchronize your watches....

there are so many ways for them to go..
tomorrow i'll have to work with the TA to figure out pricing, but i'm thrilled to have found what seems to be workable combinations...
i can fly them on American Airlines from Chile to orlando via miami and get them there a few hours before us...

and to get them to chile, i can fly them through sao paolo, brazil...
the leg to brazil is easy....the continuation to santiago chile is more difficult..
(a lot of the flights are already sold out!)

what i don't know is how much all these individual legs will cost when they're added together....

we shall see...

but this is a big one time trip for them....DDIL really wants to take DS 'home' to see her family and friends....so who can blame them...and it makes it a bit easier on them to combine the two trips....(i say 'home' because she left chile 10 years ago - hasn't been back since...it's just too far away)>..

 

[2Tiggies]

Well Beth, I am no help to you at all here, but you have my full attention here as this is one I have never seen on the DIS before

Sorry, as I say, no suggestions - best I can offer you some moral support

 

[disneyholic family]

i never realized that it's considered dangerous to fly across the equator...
who knew....regardless of which way you fly across it - over the atlantic or over land (crossing between the americas)..

something about warm moist area causing extreme thunderstorms that reach 10 miles high (making it impossible for planes to fly over them)..

i guess that's why south and central american airlines don't have such great safety records....they encounter those storms....
(what can i say, every time the name of an unfamliar airline came up, i checked its safety record....)

 

[torsie24]

I flew to Lima with Iberia via Madrid. Was fine albeit very long and VERY bumpy. At one point all our drinks hit the ceiling!

I felt sorry for anyone in the toilet!!

 

[disneyholic family]

I flew to Lima with Iberia via Madrid. Was fine albeit very long and VERY bumpy. At one point all our drinks hit the ceiling!

I felt sorry for anyone in the toilet!!

yikes!!!

i'll tell DS to stay in his seat - not even go to the bathroom....
13 hours shouldn't be too long to not go to the bathroom...right?

that happened to us on a KLM flight from amsterdam to tel aviv...
somewhere over the alps (which seem to often be a cause of severe turbulence)..

suddenly, out of nowhere, the plane dropped.....sort of like tower of terror..
we weren't experiencing any turbulence and then boom....the bottom dropped.....
and of course, we were eating dinner at the time...

it was such an extreme drop that the pilot came out right away to see if there were any injuries....fortunately no one was in the bathroom at the time...

that one really rattled me...i haven't taken that route since...

 

[disneyholic family]

ok...so the preferred route came up at $9500 per person....(fewest stops possible)
a wee bit pricey?

back to the drawing board...

 

[disneyholic family]

if they fly through budapest it drops the price from $9500 to $2800 !!!

go figure...
this is entertaining...

 

[irongirlof12]

wow Beth that is a staggering price difference, good luck with it all.

 

[disneyholic family]

i found a combination that would be a few hundred more dollars than their original flight (just to orlando)..
and then my genious TA managed to pull out one of the legs of the multi-city routing - making that leg a separate one way flight on its own ticket, and the cost of the whole thing dropped by another $200..
so now it's only $100 or so over what it would have cost to just orlando..

but it's a really lousy set of connections, including flying through JFK on the way to santiago.....which means having to go through US immigration even though they're just in transit from europe on to south america...

anyway.....we're now in waiting mode as there is a better combination of flights that would cost somewhat more, but would connect through toronto (much better than third world JFK)..

but we're waiting for the airline to come back with a counter offer...the TA tried to convince them to match the cheaper package..

so we'll see...

but for sure they'll go on one or the other, and i'll buy them their tickets tomorrow...

this is really great - since they're going to be able to go to both chile and orlando for almost the same as just orlando alone....fantastic!!!!

if they did it in two seperate trips it would cost twice as much...so it's good..

and DDIL is so excited!!!!
when i spoke with her on the phone today, she couldn't contain herself...
she's so excited to be seeing her family and friends.....she hasn't seen them in 10 years!!!! (since she left chile when she was 14)...
she started crying she's so happy!!!
and DS is excited to be going to south america for the first time in his life!!

and i'm happy it's not going to cost much more than the orlando only flight!!
so everyone's happy!!!

 

[Chilly]

wow great work on getting it all sorted

 

[disneyholic family]

no wonder American Airlines is so cheap..
i've been checking their on board seat back entertainment...
in a word - none...

on the trans-atlantic flights they only offer seat back video entertainment in the first class cabin.....nothing in economy...
are they kidding?
even funnier....if you go on their website and go to their on board entertainment section, they list 4 magazines as their entertainment...
each magazine is listed prominently with a complete description ..
that's their definition of entertainment????????????????

 

[WiganTony]

i've been checking their on board seat back entertainment...
in a word - none...

on the trans-atlantic flights they only offer seat back video entertainment in the first class cabin.....nothing in economy...

Certainly our flights LHR to MIA last year had seat-back TVs with plenty of films, comedies etc - and in economy (I'm too tight to pay for anything more!!).

Have you tried this site to look into routing options and prices? Just use the multi-segment option to book all of the legs.

 

[disneyholic family]

Certainly our flights LHR to MIA last year had seat-back TVs with plenty of films, comedies etc - and in economy (I'm too tight to pay for anything more!!).

Have you tried this site to look into routing options and prices? Just use the multi-segment option to book all of the legs.

their 777 planes have seat back entertainment throughout the plane..

but they also fly 757 and 767 across the atlantic...
and the route they're on goes through paris on the way out and zurich on the way back...
757 then 767..
on both of those there is no seat back entertainment in economy..

i'm going to look at that website now!!! thanks for the link!!

 

[2Tiggies]

each magazine is listed prominently with a complete description ..
that's their definition of entertainment????????????????

It's like being stuck in the 1970's Or in a doctor's waiting room - for 9 hours!