Please help with inner-Peru flights!
 

My husband and I are tentatively planning a trip to Peru in June and I have been floored by how expensive it is to get around the country! It seems the only way to get anywhere is to fly, but one-way flights are so expensive! About $315 per person to fly from Juliaca to Lima and $215 to fly from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado! This is driving the cost of our vacation up so much that we are going to have to look at going elsewhere unless anybody knows of any tips to find cheaper fares. These seem ridiculous for such short flights! Thanks so much for any help/advice!

It's a problem. I know. I don't think there's a good answer. That I know, LAN Peru seems to have a lock on those two routes now. Add to that the spike in oil prices last year, and domestic fares in Peru have gone up a lot.

Peruvians pay a lot less for domestic flights. You purchase tickets from outside Peru, and those rock-bottom fares don't show up on LAN's website. I've purchased domestic tickets while I was in Peru and was able to get the local price, but I had a lot of flexibility and time to play around with. I wouldn't have done that if I had just a limited amount of time and had to be in such-and-such a place on such-and-such a day.

I think Peru is one of the most amazing countries in the world to visit, but certain things are becoming expensive there. This is one of them. Not that LAN isn't justified charging $215 for a 55-minute flight -- that may be what they need to turn a profit -- but I hope it doesn't dissuade too many visitors.

http://www.go2peru.com/flights_airlines_peru.htm

Go2 Peru is showing Lan flights:
Cusco to Puerto Maldonado US$147
Juliaca to Lima US$157

Tickets are prepaid, no refund, no change.

We used them for our three flights on Lan within Peru last March, the prices are maybe 15-20% higher now than they were last year at this time.

Go2Peru was an OK company to work with as I recall. They also sell tickets for Star but we have only used Lan.

Well you can try booking on www.apunake.com, if they go back on line as planned tomorrow. They usually have the cheaper flights.

We asked the local guide that we're working with to organize our April trip to purchase our domestic flights - saved quite a bit.

If you are traveling to Peru on Lan or another Oneworld Airline such as American you can get the South American Airpass. See the US version of the website for information under Special Offers. For one way flights I found the airpass was about the same price as Lan Peru. It seemed better too since you don't have to worry about having questions on the day of your flight if they ask you for proof that you are Peruvian.

The really cheap fares on the Lan Peru site are only available for round trips.

Another plus I forgot to mention for the South American Airpass- it allows changes for $20.

I booked the same flights back in August 2008 whilst in Lima and found that they were 30% cheaper on the Lan Peru website than on the european or American sites. Of course you have to navigate the Spanish site but that didn't prove too difficult. Strangely, we could not actually pay online but got a code which we then took to a supermarket and the printed till receipt served as our ticket!

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