cmerrell

Hi everyone,

I'm needing to purchase round trip airfare from Lima to Cusco for my upcoming Peru visit in November.

I just checked Lan's site and they are charging 400$ pp RT! My international airfare from Florida to Lima wasn't a lot more than that, so I'm feeling a bit sticker shocked at the moment.

As a comparison, I checked the other domestic carriers I'm aware of. Star Peru charges ~200$ pp RT. Taca would charge about the same, but apparently doesn't fly that route on Sundays (when we would need to travel). Aero Condor's site just returns a broken link.

Why would Lan be so much more expensive? They would be my preference, but I'm not sure I can justify the price.

That said, anyone familiar with Star Peru? I need to fly from Cusco to Lima in time to catch a late afternoon international flight, and want to make sure I give myself enough padding. Is Star fairly reliable?

Thanks for any info!

Jeff_Costa_Rica

LAN is always more expensive, although I've never known them to be double the price of the other airlines.

Star Peru is fine. I've flown them and would have no qualms about booking with them again.

Give yourself plenty of buffer time though. Since you are booking this as two separate tickets, if your Cusco-Lima flight is late and you miss the international flight, you'll be a no-show and will not be protected.

Bad weather can happen, and there's no way to predict anything this far out. The rule of thumb is that you should try to fly out of Cusco in the morning. Afternoon flights have a greater tendency to be delayed or cancelled. Cusco's altitude and weather can play havoc with flight schedules, especially in the afternoon.

cmerrell

Thanks for responding Jeff.

I'm relieved to hear that Star Peru is a decent choice. I will be sure to give myself a very generous buffer to hopefully offset any unexpected flight delays.

Thanks again!

Leslie_S

Jeff --
We have a late afternoon flight out of Cusco to Lima on LAN, then connect to Miami, also on LAN. If we are delayed due to weather I assume they would put us on the earliest possible flight the next day - hopefully giving us time to make our connection in Miami that afternoon (on American).

If we get to the Cusco airport early in the day can we stand-by for a possible earlier flight on LAN? Any opinion on whether that is a good idea or if they are always flying at capacity and stand-by is a waste of time?

If we did try for stand-by should we still print our boarding passes the day before at our hotel or does that confuse things? Thanks for any advice.

Jeff_Costa_Rica

Leslie, I think that would be okay since it's LAN to LAN and eventually to American. Is the itinerary all on one ticket?

I have taken afternoon flights from Cusco to Lima and it has worked just fine. The problem with the airport is the high altitude and the winds which can pick up in the afternoon, making it difficult to fly. There are plans to move the airport out to the Sacred Valley about 15 miles north of Cusco, where this won't be such a problem. That's still about three or four years away, I've heard.

Leslie_S

No, it's not one ticket - -when we get to Miami it's a separate ticket to Philly. Kicking myself for booking it that way but it saved (for 2 people) around $500. LAN has changed our itinerary twice since I booked in July and that squeezes one connection in Miami from 4 hrs to 2 hrs. So if I'd booked all with AA I wouldn't care. But that's a whole different question.

So back to flying stand-by in Cusco -- since we're checking out of our hotel that day anyway we might as well go to the airport early and sit there and see if we can get on an earlier flight to avoid any weather that might come up in the afternoon. Then we'd just have to sit around a while in Lima airport also.
Is there any total negative to sitting around in the Cusco airport if it ends up being many hours -- like is there no real area to sit & wait? Ours is booked for 4:30 pm -- looks like there are 6 flights in the afternoon before that one. Might be worth a try.

Jeff_Costa_Rica

But it's still LAN domestic to LAN international on the same ticket. That seems to be what you're saying. You would protected on that part of the itinerary. I'd actually be a little more concerned about that connection in Miami if you have only two hours. Is that on the way back?

I wouldn't worry about it now. When you get there, you could have your hotel call LAN and ask what they'd recommend. Or if you have an extra hour in Cusco yourself, you could go to the LAN office itself and ask. It's on Avenida del Sol, near the Qorikancha (Temple of the Sun). The chances are good that it will be okay the way you have it.

Cusco's airport is small and not very interesting. I wouldn't want to spend several hours there if I didn't have to. Lima's airport is much bigger and more interesting, but a whole day there and you'd run out of things to do before it was over.

Leslie_S

Thanks, Jeff.
The 2 hr connection is going down not coming home. I'm going to try stand-by for our first flight and hopefully get to Miami earlier.

The going home part: I just figured if we got delayed getting to Lima then had to go on a later flight Lima-Miami, if we miss our flight in Miami it would be American not LAN and on a separate ticket so they might charge us to rebook a later flight out of Miami. Altho' since American & LAN are partners perhaps they would not charge - I'm really clueless about how that works.
I'm sure it'll all be fine - I'm just trying to do what I can to minimize potential delays which could translate to more money spent on new tickets.

kywood1955

We used Star Peru @ 4 years ago for the Lima-Cuzco leg. No problems. Left on time and arrived basically on time.

crellston

I just flew Lan fro Lima to Cusco and bought the tickets on the Lan Peru website (whilst in Lima) as they were about 30 per cent cheaper than the UK or US sites (worthwhile struggling through the Spanish site!)

When we got to the airport they were very flexible in moving people on to an earlier flight and Lan staff were wandering around teh termoinal asking people if they wanted to switch

Leslie_S

Good to know! Thanks crellston.