Airfare deals are typically only available on limited dates. We recommend that you use Google Flights to find dates to fly, then book through an online travel agency, such as Orbitz, which allows you to cancel flights without penalty by 11pm Eastern Time within one day of booking. Remember: Fares may disappear quickly, so book right away and take advantage of Orbitz’s courtesy cancellation if you’re unable to travel.
For less than twice the price of Friday’s $562 fare to Rio, you can fly even deeper into South America in business class. TAM is offering business-class fares from New York to Santiago, Chile for $1,035 round-trip. That’s more or less the going price for coach on this 6,000+ mile route, though you can occasionally find sale fares available for less — and business-class deals even pop up from time to time. You can book cheap flights from Santiago to the wine region of Mendoza (1 hour) or Buenos Aires (2 hours) for less than $250 round-trip (and you can fly Air Canada’s 767 or KLM’s 777 to Buenos Aires for that price).
There’s terrific availability for this fare, but only through the end of September, so you’d need to travel within the next two months. Unfortunately LAN’s nonstop Dreamliner flight is not included — you’ll need to connect in either São Paulo or Rio, but you can fly down to South America on either TAM or an AA codeshare. AA is flying its reconfigured 777-200 on this route, however, so this is a good opportunity to try the airline’s new lie-flat seat. LAN’s 777s and 767s also have lie-flat seats.
Airline(s): American and TAM
Route(s): JFK to GRU
Booking Link: Orbitz
Here are a couple examples of flights we found:
New York to Santiago in Business Class in August for $1,035 (earns 12,760 AA EQMs):
New York to Santiago in Business Class in September for $1,035 (earns 13,240 AA EQMs):
Maximize Your Purchase
Don’t forget to use a credit card that earns additional points on airfare purchases, such as the American Express Premier Rewards Gold or Citi Prestige (3x on airfare) or the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (2x on all travel purchases). Check out this post for more on maximizing airfare purchases.
For more on Santiago, see Destination of the Week: Santiago and Skiing in Chile, Travel to Chile’s Atacama Desert on Points and Miles and TPG’s Follow Me (And My Mom) On Our Mother’s Day Trip To Chile!
H/T: Flyertalk
If you’re able to score one of these tickets, please share the good news in the comments below!