Buying tickets on LATAM within Peru
 

Have read horror stories about people buying flight tickets within Peru, and discovering later that they purchased tickets at fares reserved for Peruvian citizens, and having to cough up a huge penalty.

I am trying to purchase tickets within Peru on LATAM airlimes, on Lima-Cusco, Cusco-Arequipa and Arequipa-Lima sectors. At no stage on the LATAM site does it ask about being a Peru national/foreigner, and I don't know how to tell whether I am buying the right ticket. I am getting fares of $ 179, $ 137 and $ 182 for the 3 sectors respectively, for dates in mid-December. Are these the fare for foreigners ? How to tell ?

Help would be highly appreciated.

I am pretty sure it is not a "huge" penalty but more the difference between the fare for nationals and locals. We got caught by this on our first trip to Peru and certainly only had to pay te difference.

If you log on to the LATAM site for your particular country you will get the correct fare. The problems tend to arise for those going onto the Peruvian site where the flights for nationals.

You could always use another airline. I think LATAM are the only airline that still actively discriminate against foreigners :-)

Yes, I think the stories are dated from years ago, when people would try to backdoor either by using shady travel agents or logging on as Peruvian residents to get the Peruvian local airfares on LAN, the predecessor to LATAM. I think that Avianca may also charge the higher fares to nonPeruvians.

The fare difference at one point was quite large..nearly $200 IIRC.

If you are using the correct country of origin on the offical website as crellston says you will be fine.

Thanks for the reassurance. Will book tomorrow.