best airline for carryon for Antarctica

Ron Niebrugge wrote:You are welcome. I don't have any experience with United.  I flew Delta, American and LAN / LATAN at least as far as Santiago or Buenos Aires.  My airline choice was usually motivated by who was an Alaska Airline partner.  :)   I might add, I found by flying with LAN / LANTAN from LAX, I found I was definitely treated better on the Buenos Aires to Ushuia leg, then when traveling with the U.S. carriers.  

The other consideration - and I used to spend WAY too much time on planning this travel - but all things being nearly equal, if you can fly on a 787, it is a much better experience on those long over-night flights.  LAN and American both used 787's the last time I went South - that could have changed.

Thanks, Ron. all good to know.
Roberta

neverspook wrote:

Ron Niebrugge wrote:You are welcome. I don't have any experience with United.  I flew Delta, American and LAN / LATAN at least as far as Santiago or Buenos Aires.  My airline choice was usually motivated by who was an Alaska Airline partner.  :)   I might add, I found by flying with LAN / LANTAN from LAX, I found I was definitely treated better on the Buenos Aires to Ushuia leg, then when traveling with the U.S. carriers.  

The other consideration - and I used to spend WAY too much time on planning this travel - but all things being nearly equal, if you can fly on a 787, it is a much better experience on those long over-night flights.  LAN and American both used 787's the last time I went South - that could have changed.

Thanks, Ron. all good to know.
Roberta

Hi Roberta, Ron's recommendation on choosing the 787 is spot on. It is a really good choice. Avianca is also flying 787s down there and I fly one regularly to Japan (ANA flies a lot of them). I like the 787 a lot better than the 737-800/900s that many airlines fly to South America. 

Avianca only files down to Buenos Aires though. Avianca is part of Star Alliance (United, ANA, etc) and LAN/LATAM is part of One World (American Airlines etc) I think.

Good luck!

To your question about United, all major American carriers (American, Delta, United) are pretty much the same when it comes to carry-ons. There is simply no issue as far as carry-on space is concerned as I've written about before early in this thread. The bigger issue is the flight to get to the city where you get on the plane to BA which will likely be a 737 or A319/320/321 because people bring everything but the kitchen sink aboard - if you book a premium economy ticket that won't be an issue either - again as I have already written. As for aircraft for the long international leg, you are likely to be on either a 777 or 787 or possibly even an A350 (which is the newest of them all). Both are pretty much equal when it comes to passenger comfort. The 787 has some systems such as UV filtration and humidification which makes it more comfortable for some but personally either is fine for me. You won't be on a 737 as suggested above. There are no models of 737 that have the range to get from any US or Canadian city to BA. It's a 10 hour flight which is about 3-4 hours beyond the max for a 737.

Thanks!

E.J. Peiker wrote:To your question about United, all major American carriers (American, Delta, United) are pretty much the same when it comes to carry-ons.  There is simply no issue as far as carry-on space is concerned as I've written about before early in this thread. The bigger issue is the flight to get to the city where you get on the plane to BA which will likely be a 737 or A319/320/321 because people bring everything but the kitchen sink aboard - if you book a premium economy ticket that won't be an issue either - again as I have already written.  As for aircraft for the long international leg, you are likely to be on either a 777 or 787 or possibly even an A350 (which is the newest of them all).  Both are pretty much equal when it comes to passenger comfort.  The 787 has some systems such as UV filtration and humidification which makes it more comfortable for some but personally either is fine for me.  You won't be on a 737 as suggested above.  There are no models of 737 that have the range to get from any US or Canadian city to BA.  It's a 10 hour flight which is about 3-4 hours beyond the max for a 737.

Mostly true except for the 737 comment. Copa Airlines flies 737 from SFO - PTY and also from PTY - EZE. Copa is part of Star Alliance (United).

SFO-PTY is 2800 nautical miles or about 6.5 hours of flying time. I said any city in the USA to Buenos Aires which is about double that distance.

I have flown with LATAM and I had no issues with carry ons. Where you may have issues is with getting baggage checked through. The way around this is to have all your flights on the same itinerary. If you buy the international leg separately to the domestic they won't check the bags through. You will probably have to claim your baggage in Santiago anyway but getting it checked through on the way home saves hassles. The airport at Santiago seems well organised at least air side.

ChrisRoss wrote:I have flown with LATAM and I had no issues with carry ons.  Where you may have issues is with getting baggage checked through.  The way around this is to have all your flights on the same itinerary.  If you buy the international leg separately to the domestic they won't check the bags through.  You will probably have to claim your baggage in Santiago anyway but getting it checked through on the way home saves hassles.  The airport at Santiago seems well organised at least air side.

Thanks, Chris. My travel agent has recommended all flights on the same/partnered airlines so they will address things if I am delayed and miss a flight. You have give another good reason to follow her recommendation!

I am flying LATAM inside Chile every once in a while.

They sometimes weight hand luggage while you wait to board the plane. After observing them (I carry a waaaaay overweight photo-backpack) doing this I noticed that they only bother to weight the cabin trolleys, and bags that are laying on the floor. So I kept my camera backpack on my shoulder the whole time (pretending it was very lightweight), and was fine. I've done this a few times now, and it has always worked. Also, a friend also familiar with the airline said that if you show them the content of the bag, and try to explain to them that it is very fragile, they're ok to let you go through.

Another way is to buy a business class ticket. Note that buying the flight on latam.cl, in spanish, with Chilean Pesos, you get a ~50% discount compared to buying the ticket on the english-speaking version of the same site, wherever you are located (you don't need to be in Chile to get the special price). Sounds weird, but worked for me. I bought, from Europe, a flight to easter island from Santiago this way.

DavidSutton wrote:

neverspook wrote:That is all very alarming! I don't have a lot of spare time to go to BA days ahead of time...

Roberta

Forewarned is forearmed I suppose. Even if you can get to Ushuaia a day ahead that will give you a little leeway if there is difficulty. When I let the office staff know I was catching a boat they went out of their way to help.
David

I had weather difficulty getting to BA from Atlanta even though I had a 2 hr layover in Atlanta as the Flight from Chicago was delayed.  This is a one flight a day thing so I lost a day.  Fortunately, I had planed 2 days in Ushuia. On these types of trips where if you miss the boat you are totally out of luck, I would allow at least 1 and preferably 2 days at the port before it sails.  Your time can be spent productively and it can avoid a real catastrophe.