Now, I am a stereotypical millennial.
College educated, hopelessly single and most likely perpetually childless, and
instead of being one of those people that goes bankrupt buying the latest gizmo
and brand name clothes to impress the Jones, I prefer to travel because I love
traveling.
And yes, I am guilty of traveling abroad a lot more than locally.
Depending on how you count the countries I have been to, I have either been to
9 or 10 countries so far ever since I graduated med school in 2011. I have made
a huge effort even now that I am temporarily earning 40-50% less money than as
a GP to travel abroad at least once a year. I might break the tradition this
year though because I need a certain amount of money to purchase my titulation
papers and specialist registrar license.
Now, I have been to South America on 2 occasions and have flown on LATAM
airlines on both occasions. On both occasions, the flights have been to
Santiago de Chile because for some reason that still confuses me, even though
Chile has a more robust economy thanks to a stable government and copper
mining, tickets are almost always cheaper for me than if I went directly to
Argentina. One could argue that if I was very clever and didn't mind
connections, I could still land a great deal flying either to Peru, Colombia or
Panama on a wide array of different airlines including the quality mexican ones
such as Interjet or Aeroméxico, where I could then connect to Buenos Aires for
a lower fee. Since I am still currently a poor graduate student earning a
modest but still sufficient scholarship, I haven't bothered to check that out
for now.
Back to the topic at hand, the first trip to Chile was a direct 8 hour
lugger via LATAM and I found out one day before I left Mexico that Chile has a
sort of reciprocity tax with Mexico and Australia. Apparently, Mexico charges a
similar tax to most Latin American tourists, even countries with stable
economies (such as Chile) where citizens that would be unlikely to weasel
themselves into the country and work under the table without getting work
visas.
Now, since this entry tax is not a visa "per se", Wikipedia
never really gave any thought about mentioning this little tidbit of
information. I believe it was some random mexican backpacking tourist blog that
revealed this critical information to me the day before I left, so that I could
be prepared to fork the 400 MXN in US currency when I showed up (there is a
MXN/Chilean peso conversion booth in Terminal 1 of Mexico City's airport... the
problem is that all direct flights to Chile are in Terminal 2 where the
currency booths only offer the really popular money conversions such as USD or
Euro). I showed up at Santiago de Chile's airport and walked the plank of shame
along with the scant few other mexican citizens to the pay-me-up booth instead of
going direct to customs like everyone else. Long story short, while the blog
post was correct that you had to pay 23 USD to enter Chile, it has to be exact
change. I brought 2 20 dollar bills. Had I known they were going to be so
picky, I would have gone to Banco Azteca anytime and convert exact spare
change. I ended up having to pay the tax with my credit card, which is
something that always annoys me because mexican CC's charge like a 30%
surcharge for international transactions plus the unfair USD/MXN conversion.
Luckily when I got home, my credit card bill stated I was only charged for the
regular monetary conversion rate. If you ever travel to Chile on an Australian
passport, they charge a much heftier 160 USD. Just to let you know.
Anyhow, my first trip mainly focused on Santiago de Chile for 2-3 days,
a side day trip to Valparaíso, and then I flew to Calama domestic via LATAM and
easily reached the very touristy San Pedro de Atacama. Don't worry about the
fact that Calama airport is still 45 minutes away from the town. 90% of the
people flying to Calama are tourists just like you and there's a whole ton of
shuttle companies fighting over each other to convince you to ride with them. I
highly suggest buying the return ticket for a 20% discount, they usher you to
your hotel directly and you can also call them to change arrangements with no
extra charge. I then did the 4 day Uyuni trip in Bolivia which is really,
really, really worth it. People claim Mexico is cheap and whatnot. They don't
realize it would be impossible to book a quality 4 day tour with food, booze
& lodging included along with really friendly tour guides that explain
everything every step in the way (in Spanish only) for only 4000 MXN, at least
in the really touristy areas such as the Mayan Riviera. You would be lucky if
you can book a 1 day entry to Xcaret or the half day whale shark snorkeling
tour for only 2000 MXN per person.
My second trip to South America was also via LATAM and I spent 5 days in
Easter Island. In case you are wondering: the island is freaking awesome. Some
people claim that you can rent a car and see it in 1 1/2 days. Theoretically,
it could be possible if you already know where all of the cool places are
(hint: a lot of the cool stuff is not mentioned in the maps and barely covered
on the internet travel blog sites. You have to know a local from the island to
tell them to you). Easter Island is safe from earthquakes, hurricanes and
tsunamis, which is good. The bad thing is that 50% of the time, it can be raining
cats & dogs. You never know when you will get a dud day. No, it will not be
sprinkling little droplets of water, it's going to be monsoon rain bad. And
just to let you know; most of the best parts of the island are outdoor
activities. Even the museum on Ororo volcano requires a very long trek in the
wilderness that will become a mud slop during bad weather.
I didn't do it because I lack the permit (I would love to do it someday
though!), but Easter Island has one thing that is a real bling bling bargain:
scuba diving classes. I was amazed at how cheap it was to get the PADI permit.
Still a bit more pricey than Roatán, but cheaper than if you got it in Cancún
without a buddy discount. There is an underwater moai!!! <3
So, in case you are wondering, that is the main reason why the majority
of people visit Easter Island for several days. An ideal itinerary would be 7
days, some people that simply want to take things very slow spend 10 days. I
would have liked to do 10 days, but even though lodging in a guesthouse where
you can cook your meals is very affordable (around 50-80 USD a night), food is
expensive. There is a reason why everyone suggests foreign tourists to bring
food from back home that can be legally brought to Chile such as cereal boxes,
pasta and soup packages in the plane. Believe me, bring your food and then
splurge on 1 meal a day. Your wallet will thank you for it.
In a nutshell, I had 2 really great trips to South America and while I
think LATAM could offer a larger variety of in plane meals because they always
offered a very limited selection of pasta alfredo and tomato raviolis, the
airline offered good deals backs then. I still can't believe I snagged round
trip tickets to Easter Island for only 745 USD (taxes and everything included).
------
Sadly, and this is the reason why I decided to write this tediously long
blog post, LATAM changed their policies early this year. Some brilliant
executive higher up in the food chain has decided to emulate crummy American
companies and start nickel and dime tourists for every menial surcharge. This
is especially annoying to mexicans such as myself in part because everything
charged in USD is 200 times more expensive for our already limited wallets due
to the always unfair exchange rate and the country's chicken little paychecks.
Mexicans are also not used to be treated like disposable sardines by airlines.
In comparison to american companies, most Mexican airlines still offer a lot of
services. Before Interjet's finances began to crumble in a good percentage due
to the NAIM airport disaster where everyone is now paying AMLO's stupid
wambulance temper tantrums with a 800 MXN tax when they fly international from
AICM (yes, even to nearby destinations like Texas or Guatemala get slammed with
the same awful tax as people flying to China or Europe), Interjet offered you 1
can of free beer. Ah, those were the days!
Back then, when LATAM offered you an outlet deal, the deals were good,
real good. 450 USD round trip to Lima with taxes included, you choose your seat
for free, 1 piece of free documented luggage that was max 23 kg, yup yup!
Now, LATAM started issuing a really crummy deal: their "cheap"
350 USD round trip tickets to Lima do not include a documented luggage and
these "bargains" do not include the taxes either which usually ump
the plane ticket price 100 USD.
As a millennial where I am used to being told everything moneywise in my
face so that I can make an informed decision instead of wasting my time, I
would prefer to get the full price of my ticket so that I don't waste time
typing my name and yadda yadda yadda, only to discover that "bargain"
is in reality 500 USD.
I also detest airlines that are emulating every bad corporation decision
by American airline companies to dump every surcharge on customers because they
whine that they are always bankrupt... only to never remove these awful and
very pricey fees once they become solvent. Just to let anyone know, there is a
reason why I seldom travel to the USA even though I can enter the country
whenever I feel like it. They few times I travel there, I always fly mexican
airlines.
Airlines claim that surcharging tourists is a good money grab. Yes, in
theory, it is. The problem? Since most people traveling to South America are on
short trips such as myself or people visiting friends & family, they are
usually not going to be bringing Fido the dog and their golf clubs. They will
be traveling with clothes, shampoo and a laptop. I am used to traveling with a
backpack and have learned the delicate art of traveling with only sufficient
changes of clothes for 5 days and then hire a laundry service abroad for dirt
cheap. And I suppose at least for the trip towards my destination, I can suck
it up and carry 1 piece of luggage on the plane and buy shampoo abroad.
The problem when everyone dumps their luggage inside of the plane?
Everyone packs their luggage to the limit and then you are waiting in
the aisle like the stooping idiot while everyone is stuffing their turkeys in
the overhead bins. Along with the fact that it is epicly annoying to have to
search all over the plane for a place to stuff my luggage even everything is
already filled, airlines are losing money for every minute the plane is in the
airport because it cannot take off until all of the bags are stuffed and the
passengers seated. In a way, enticing clients to document luggage saves the
airline time & money. But when you make it prohibitively expensive to do
so, will people bite the dust?
I really, really hope LATAM reverses this decision. They have a luggage
document surcharge that, well, it boosts the plane ticket price to the upper
economy pricing system. That 400 USD plane trip to Lima with the luggage
surcharge boosts it to 500 USD but without any of the perks of the upper
economy ticket (such as seat selection and a better ticket cancellation
policy). Might as well just buy the upper economy ticket that has the free
documented luggage included and get over with it.
LATAM has an absolute power over flying to Easter Island, there is no
other way to avoid it unless you Travel via the USA to other pacific islands or
make complicated round trips all over SE Asia and go there via Tahiti. Their
Lima-Rapa Nui route was also canned because Chile is insanely strict regarding
bringing diseased fruit & vegetables to their country. In that sense, I
think the policy to continue viewing Rapa Nui as a domestic flight to protect
their already fragile environment from diseased foreign food to be good mojo.
I am definitely not a fan of LATAM's new luggage policy that renders
every "deal" to be a dud. Perhaps I would have to suck it up
buttercup and bow to the overlords in order to visit Easter Island again, but
that doesn't mean I have to do the same for LATAM's other routes.
Aeroméxico travels to several South American hubs such as Santiago.
Tickets can be a bit on the pricey side, but Aeroméxico continues its 1
documented luggage for free at least to South America (this is obligatory
according to mexican law and they can get penalized for millions of dollars if
they try to do this gimmick to any international destination that isn't Canada
or the USA). If you are patient with outlet sales (and Aeroméxico has been
holding quite a lot of them lately), chances are you will fly to Santiago
cheaper with them.
Your second option is using the huge array of competing airlines for
travel to Lima and Colombia. The Airbus A350 is perfectly capable of flying
from Mexico City and Cancún to Peru and Colombia, so you can get good deals on
Interjet. Volaris doesn't fly to South America yet, but they have been
expanding their fleet to Costa Rica and now even Nicaragua. It is only a matter
of time before the two budget airlines fly to Panama, which will open the doors
to South America on the cheap.
If I were a tourist wondering if I wanted to fly to South America, I
would avoid LATAM unless the Upper Economy ticket was a better deal over the competition.
Maybe they can get away with Brazil and Argentina, but plenty of cheaper
airlines fly to the closer South American destinations.
Buyer beware.