easter island airfare
 

I am planning a trip to Chile in 2009 and I am trying to figure out the most cost effective way to get to Easter Island from Santiago. The airfare seems very expensive and I'm wondering if the way to go is with a tour group to cut costs or to create my own itinerary, which is what I usually do. My wife and three kids are going so I have to try to be realistic about the cost. I know LAN flies there and there are some local carriers as well.
Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks....

As far as I know, LAN is the only carrier serving Easter Island. I'm visiting the island in May, but flying LAN from Tahiti, and then I'll either rent a motorbike or mountainbike to explore the island over three days. Its a very expensive destination to reach, but reasonable once there, but I don't think there are any secrets that will reduce airfare, other than to book early and go in the quiet season (if there is one).

I am also using American Airlines AAdvangate miles for my trip, so if you have these, you may be able to use them to grab some flights. I'm "paying" 70,000 miles to fly from JFK to Easter Island, with a stopover on the return in Tahiti for several days.

There are also some cruise lines that "visit" the island, but I put visit in quotes since some of the ships only spend a few hours on the island (the ships often arrive late and depart on time, so delays will eat into your visiting time).

Thanks for your reply. I hope you have a great trip and post something about it on this site. I think your idea of exploring on bike or motorbike is exactly what we would do.

In EI, we used a guide to better understand what we were seeing. ((*))

It will really depend when and how long your trip is. A couple things to know. LAN is the only airline that goes to the island and there are only flights certain days a week. When I went, there were no flights to or from EI on Fridays or Tuesdays.

I was in Easter Island last December 19-23, and paid $430 for my ticket (which I believe is about as cheap as they come). If you think about it, its kinda like flying to Hawaii from the US and $400 would be a good price for that. Had I traveled one week later, the price was double, so I was able to go before the busy summer season (Jan and Feb). The LAN site offers tickets at different price ranges, so you take the lowest one available, but as time goes on, they open up more seats at the lower price levels, so not all is lost if you see the price currently at $800 or more for the days you want.

The hotel I stayed at offered two tours as part of my package. (Airfare was on my own) These tours covered about 2/3 of what there was to see on the island. I did the rest on my own, hiking, and riding a bike.