Post: #1

Intra-south american flights are surprisingly expensive. From Colombia to Brazil I paid almost $700, triple what I paid from Washington D.C. to Bogota.

I found out that when you go searching on an site like kayak.com, it will give you a series of flights using the same airline (or one of its partners). But because South America has so many different airlines that don't serve many cities, you get these inflated prices with out of the way connections.

The trick...

Step 1. Identify the hubs of the country you're in. I want to book a flight from Sao Paulo to Cordoba. I found a Gol Airlines flight for $380 with a layover in some weird city. Can I do better?

Step 2. I know Porta Alegre is a major Brazilian hub for Argentina/Uruguay. So I searched for flights from there to Cordoba and found one for $190 from Gol. Not bad.

Step 3. Now I could take a bus from Sao Paulo to P.A. for I'm guessing $80, but it's about 20-24 hours. Went searching again and found a flight instead from TAM airlines for $120. TAM is not partnered with Gol, and doesn't provide flights to Cordoba so they didn't come up in my original searches.

Step 4. Book them! I have two separate flights with four hours of layover in between. $70 saved for 10 minutes of work.

If I had trouble on the Argentine side I'd look at flights to Buenos Aires, and then another to Cordoba.

In the United States NYC is a major hub. If I find huge savings there, I would take the 5 hour Chinabus from DC at a cost of 20 bucks.

Post: #2

good tips roosh.

where do you go to look at these random airline companies? through a third party site or its main website?

We need to list which airlines to take in what countries, it would help ppl out tremendously.

I need to find the cheapest flight to get from medellin/bogota to buenos aires. any suggestions?

Post: #3

If you type in a city name + airport + wiki it lists every airline that fly's out of the airport.

So for example this link lists all airlines that fly to/from Buenos Aires (EZE)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministro_Pi...al_Airport

Post: #4

(03-24-2010 10:52 PM)dlmelvin86 Wrote:  I need to find the cheapest flight to get from medellin/bogota to buenos aires. any suggestions?

Try separate flights to/from Lima or Santiago and see what turns up.

Post: #5

You have to book once you get down there, don't try to book south american flights from the states. Don't use anything like expedia or any of that shit, used south american companies. You might need to have a Brazilian buy the tickets for you if you need the whole Brazilian social security number type deal.

Post: #6

(03-24-2010 11:21 PM)Brandon E Wrote:  You have to book once you get down there, don't try to book south american flights from the states. Don't use anything like expedia or any of that shit, used south american companies. You might need to have a Brazilian buy the tickets for you if you need the whole Brazilian social security number type deal.

you can also use their websites.

Post: #7

I caught a cheap Sky Airline flight from Calama, Chile to Santiago. On their website they ask for a social security number so they can give higher prices to foreigners. LAN does the same as does Aerolineas Argentina.

I just showed up at the Calama airport and got the non-gringo ticket price.

Post: #8

Well done Roosh. I´ve been doing it for a while, even sleep in airports if I have too.
I went to Brazil by TAP (portuguese airline company).

TAP would make:
Lisbon - São Paulo
São Paulo - Lisbon
For 850 euros


So I started to search from London and found out the same trip from London, also by TAP:

London - Lisbon - São Paulo
São Paulo - Lisbon - London

costed only 545 euros.

The funny part was that they make stopovers in Lisbon. Because there´s much more competition in London they have to make it cheaper.

So I thought to myself I can enter in Lisbon stopover and get out in Lisbon stopover. The only catch is that I can only carry with me one handbag.

I sended an email to the company asking if it was posible. They said it was ok on the first email. They later realised the scam and sended me an email saying I couldn´t. By then I already bought the ticket so I told them that they had to let me travel. Finally they did.

Next time I fly to Brazil I will buy the same ticket, fly to london, and on the return leave in the stopover in Lisbon and let my empty seat to London.

Conclusion also pay attention to the stop overs.

I normally use this site in Europe:

http://www.skyscanner.pt/

Inside Brazil I searched Gol, Azul and TAM. TAM due to a promotion was the cheapest, but normally Brazilians would say it´s GOL.

BTW I´ve been looking for some tickets to New York. The cheapest was from London and Dublin. Any US citizens flying to Europe even if your destination is let´s say Lisbon, by yourself a ticket to london and then separetely by another ticket from London to Lisbon by another company with a low cost.

Post: #9

Nice tips :-)