illnative

We are hiking the Inca Trail in September. We would like to be in Cusco 3 days prior to leaving on our trek in order to acclimitize (sp?)

We will be flying to Lima as our gateway to Peru. Is it worth it to stay in Lima for one night before heading to Cusco?

My other thought is to just go straight to Cusco and book the whole sequence of flights on American - in order to make sure they are responsible for getting us all the way to Cusco vs. booking the flights to Cusco on our own (separate ticket). We do not live near an airport with direct flights to Lima - so this requires 3 legs of travel for us (all the way to Cusco) However, this option would not allow any time in Lima. There is a price difference (about $100 per ticket more) by booking straight through to Cusco with AA - but it might be worth the piece of mind in knowing if one leg has a problem they have to rebook us all the way to Cusco.

Those of you that have been there and done this- please let me know your thoughts and where my thinking may be flawed. If we booked on our own - we would probably go with Star Peru - looks like AA uses LAN as codeshares. Thanks in advance.

colduphere

Where is Mlgb when you need her. It seems to me you are not considering the only scenario with flawed thinking - fly straight through to Cuzco on separate tickets. That is what friends of ours did and it worked out fine. If for some reason they had been delayed and missed the Cuzco flight they didn't care as the tickets weren't that expensive.

We had four legs to our trip. We landed in Lima at midnight and stayed that night and the next night in Lima, then flew Taca to Cuzco on a separate ticket. We are certainly happy we saw Lima. On the way back we also had a day in Lima. Most people will tell you not to return to Lima on the same day as your flight home. So we had two days in Lima, one at each end. It certainly isn't perfect - a bit fractured - but Lima had more than enough to offer for both days.

shutterbug85

Here are some points to consider:

- Afternoon flights to Cusco are more likely to get delayed/cancelled than morning flights (due to visibility).
- Everyone will tell you to ensure you have essentially 24 hours in Lima before your flight home because sometimes the airlines change the flight times earlier. It's true.
- Lima has a ton of stuff to see so you won't be wasting time there.

I would not think American is more likely to get you into Cusco than another airline, so I would save the money by getting separate tickets.

mlgb

Hahahaha here I am. What time would the international flight likely arrive in Lima? Sometimes you will wind up spending the night even with a thru ticket.

Personally I would book everything on one ticket for exactly the reason you stated. Another reason is that LAN has many more flights than the others, so if that is your connecting flight, you have a better chance of being put on another flight within a few hours. I'd still try not to have a tight connection. It can take 2 hours just to go thru customs and make the transfer, even if the first flight is on time.

Are there other airlines that you could fly to Peru or is AA your only choice? I flew them from Miami to Lima once on a free ticket and it was the oldest plane I've been on in a dozen years.

The LAN plane to Arequipa was much nicer than the AA plane from Miami.

Last year I flew TACA through Costa Rica and El Salvador from LAX and the planes were great. Even the United/Continental planes were better.

illnative

Thanks to everyone for their replies. Every time I look up flights - AA is by far the cheapest. We aren't going until September - so I have some time. Delta also looks like it has some good flight schedules through Atlanta - so I will just keep watching all of them. We live in the midwest (IN) - so prefer not to fly too far out of our way for the connecting flight.