I always enjoy reading stories of people trying to book award flights to different places. I find it instructive to look at how different people approach booking award tickets. Personally, I seem to have a problem with analysis paralysis and for whatever reason, it takes me longer than it should to book trips. I’m working on it 🙂
The background
My wife and I are planning a trip to Lima Peru next summer. From what I’ve seen, US summer is the best time to visit Peru (though I’m willing to be corrected on that). We’d probably head down there in late May / early June (though we’re pretty flexible on that)
(SEE ALSO: The truth of the traveler’s triangle: The relationship between Time, Price and Location)
The options
I read an excellent piece over on MileValue talking about lie-flat business class availability over to Peru. There are lie-flat seats operated by Avianca, United, and LAN. There are also flights by American and some of the United flights do not have lie-flat seats, so you have to be careful.
Oneworld (American / LAN) flights in red, Star Alliance (United / Avianca / Air Canada) in blue. Delta also flies it from Atlanta (green) and Spirit and JetBlue fly from Fort Lauderdale (not pictured)
Lie flat…. or not?
I know all the miles and points world talks about are lie flat seats and business class. And I understand the attraction – when we flew first class in Emirates from Dubai to JFK, the one thing I really enjoyed was being able to get on the flight at 2 a.m. and immediately sleep for 6 hours
(SEE ALSO: My first class trip around the world)
And the miles difference from coach to business class is not unreasonable – for example using Alaska miles it’s 17,500 miles in coach and 30,000 miles in business class.
But on a shorter flight (4-5 hours), especially if it was in the daytime, I wouldn’t be opposed to flying coach.
American / LAN / oneworld availability
AA.com does not show LAN availability, so you have to look on britishairways.com. Most of the LAN flights I looked at from JFK or MIA only had 1 business class set availability. Interestingly, BA was showing 7 seats available on an AA codeshare
I called AA but they were not able to see anything on AA7739, so perhaps that’s just phantom availability.
Checking out United / Avianca / Star Alliance
United.com’s search availability was pretty irritating too. I mean it’s all well and good to have a button that says “Show nonstop availability only”, but when it doesn’t actually work then….
Although that Houston-Lima flight is nicely timed and has lie-flat seats, I could not find any dates with any availability in either economy or business class. I did see plenty of availability from Houston to Lima connecting in San Salvador, El Salvador, though arriving at 1:40 a.m. would not be my first choice. There was availability from Newark connecting in Miami to an Avianca Peru flight MIA-LIM.
So…. what would you do?
The other problem I have, specifically with partners is that I don’t live in any of these cities :-). It’s not as big of an option if I were to use, say, American or United miles. But I would have to fly something like CVG-EWR-MIA-LIM. I was hoping to find a one-stop flight. I can’t fly CVG-MIA-LIM on United because there is no United flight directly from Cincinnati to Miami. And of course, with United’s recent website “enhancements”, if you can’t find it on the website, they’ll charge you extra.
Ideally I’d use Alaska miles, but even though Alaska partners with both American and LAN, they only let you use 1 partner on a ticket, so I couldn’t fly American CVG-MIA and LAN from MIA-LIM on the same ticket. Etihad miles, especially with their current 20% bonus from Citi ThankYou points, would also be a good option, but they only partner with American (not LAN)
The flight times from CVG-JFK and CVG-MIA are also not super conveniently timed
All of that was 600 words to say… I don’t know what I should book.
What would you do in my situation? How would you book your flights to Peru?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I flew Delta to Lima – JFK-ATL-LIM this summer. We went to go to Machu Picchu – and the summer here is great in Cuzco, but Lima is in “winter” mode – it can be rainy, but the temperature usually falls at around 60 degrees, so not terrible (I’d bring a light jacket). The ATL-LIM flight departs at 5:50pm EST, and the return leg leaves Lima at 12:45am – which is great since it gives you the whole day in Lima, but from what I hear, this return flight is almost always delayed (mine was). Just about all flights leaving Lima for the US depart at around this time so the lounges are always packed. Enjoy the trip!
Awesome – thanks! We are planning to go to Machu Picchu as well. I’m not opposed to the Delta flight but the award availability is pretty bad
LAN now flies IAD-LIM, I think 3X weekly. Maybe you could find availability there?
Oh you’re right – I think I saw that. I still have the same problems connecting to IAD but that’s another good one to check!
I was in the same boat as we’re going to Peru in July. I kept looking at United award space only to find the same business class available through San Salvador which I didn’t want to book since they are angled seats. I finally saw prices flying AA from Las Vegas in coach for $683/pp and went ahead and bought them. Not lie flat, not business class, but oh well
I’m taking my daughter and niece to Peru next June as well. We’re flying coach on Copa, since that’s one connection and the fastest way to get there from our base of MSY, since Copa’s MSY-PTY flight is our only nonstop to Latin America.
The other good thing about Copa is that they are a non-alliance partner of Flying Blue, so coach was 35k each. We’re actually doing something a little different and flying Copa into Chiclayo in the north and flying out of Lima.
Inside Peru, LAN has great availability. Keep in mind that, while you can get a one-segment flight for 4500 Avios, AA’s chart has a 6000 award for a route inside Peru, so a connecting flight inside Peru (say CUZ-LIM-IQT) is best booked with AA miles.
I got home from LIM>PTY>TPA yesterday on United Award. No lie flat. No lounge access in LIM (!). No IFE…only one movie shown overheard. Avoid Copa Airlines. Not worth it.
You were in business class and no lounge access in LIM? Or economy?
I’ve got DCA-JFK-LIM-CUZ booked in March in the new LAN 789 biz flatbed and LIM-IAD biz for the return. Used AA miles to book last May. Very good availability that far out.
I’m seeing good availability on IAD-LIM but not much on JFK-LIM
I’ve seen this situation where BA shows award availability, but AA (USA) reps don’t. Call AA (Australia) via Skype. I booked my award Etihad first class itinerary through AA Australia in 5 minutes, whereas AA USA denied the existence of award availability for 4 weeks.
Have you tried booking United with Amex Membership Reward points using the Business Platinum with the new 50%. point Refund? My guess is it will price cheaper than the Stabdard United award redemption and slightly higher than a Saver Award which are scarce these days. You will also get flight and United mileage credit if you need that for status.
May-June in Peru is winter. keep that in mind. Lima’s 60 degrees doesnt sound bad but when you add humidity and seabreeze, its not so easy.
And Cuzco once you add high altitude is not so simple either.
I fly EWR-FLL-LIM on jetblue. greatest experience ever. by far beats my experiences with UAL & AA. Extra leg room, your own TV, free wifi. no flat beds tho.
my two cents would be maybe delta for CVG-(NYC area) and then NYC-FLL-LIM. but that’s it.
Thanks Mom!