Hey guys,
I'm planning a trip to South America, hopefully for 6 months, later this year.
I'll be in Europe just prior to the trip, so wondering if a 'round-the-world' ticket would be ideal, or just come home and go to South America?
Ideally I'm after a good deal, and will leave around July this year.
Any tips on Routes/airlines/deals?
Thanks in advance!
These are one of the rare instances where a travel agent may be necessary. Round-the-world tickets are so confusing you may wish to try many different travel agents to score a good deal.
If you did it yourself one-way you'd still cop an expensive flight no matter what returning to Australia since there's no Air-Asia/Scoot level competition to-and-from South America as far as I know. They have rare gems from Europe (Germany, Spain) to random cities in South America but you'll mostly cop it there too. So if you did it yourself you'd be paying typical one-way long-haul prices 3 times.
You didn't state your starting point but from Sydney, my previous hack was to fly cheaply to Auckland return and from Auckland to Buenos Aires return (with Aerolineas Argentinas or even LAN was cheaoer with a stopover in Sydney than flying from Sydney direct:)), but I don't think you have this option anymore. Even exploiting the cheap Sydney to LA flights ends up not so cheap once you wish to cross South of the Panama canal (especially is you wanted to get to Chile or Argentina, which will take almost as long as flying from Sydney :).
Hi movieman,
The only airlines that fly South America - Australia in a direct sense is Qantas and LAN. Aerolineas Argentinias will finish flying on 2nd April. LAN make 1 intermediate stop in Auckland on the way. You will need to make your way from wherever in South America to Santiago to pick up both of these flights.
From my knowledge, it can be quite hard to pick up a bargain fare on this route. In my advice, i would use a round the world fare to get there, as a simple return flight is coming up around $2400(out 14/7, return 23/7)on both QF and Expedia.com.au and approx $2500 on Kayak. Keep in mind, that the Football world cup will also be held in Brazil between 12 June - 13 July, so may be worth avoiding that time gap as well.
Good luck with your plans.