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What is the cheapest and fastest way to get from the U.S. to Buenos Aires, preferably on an airline that is a mile partner with American Airlines and/or United Airlines? I would most likely be departing from Los Angeles, Boston or Washington, D.C.

Depends on the time of year. The cheapest way would be to go at somepoint other than their summer, or the high season (ski demand) of their winter. So, for us in North America, that would be our really late spring/early summer, or really late summer/early fall.

Not one of your cities, Interstingly, American now has nonstops from Chicago to BsAs. The cool thing about a LONG-arse overnight flight like that it it's PLENTY of time to eat, and get a good night's sleep (at least 8 hours) & eat breakfast again.

American also flies there non-stop from New York/JFK, Miami, and Dallas/DFW.

LAN is an American/Oneworld partner, and I think they go to BsAs nonstop from some of those cities, but not sure. Check carefully, as some of their routes are indeed REALLY cheap non-stops, they usually have ones from Miami on sale. Some of their flights connect in the middle of the night in Lima, where you're pretty much stuck on the plane for a while, or at a gate area with nothing else.


I'd look at the travel/ticket websites mentioned so many other places around BnA, (kayak, sidestep, cheaptix, etc).

Cheapest and fastest are town words that rarely go together when you speak about flights. Choose one or the other.

Yes, I thought of that after posting. I would appreciate knowing both please. Then I'll make a decision. I might be willing to pay a little more if it will save me four hours.

Not sure about United, but AA.com has a "Price & Schedule" search option that is pretty cool, and shows you both.
If you're purely looking for the fastest way there on AA and/or LAN, then just check the "schedule" search option, select "AA & Oneworld" for carrier, & see the list that comes up, looking at the right colum on how long the flights are.

To be honest, on an overnight flight, I don't mind a longer flight, esp. if I've got my Ambien with me and/or an upgrade to business. That gives me plenty of time to eat dinner, get a decent length of sleep, & eat breakfast, & arrive a LITTLE more rested. Sometimes, shorter flights--while truly getting you there sooner--can get you there tired-er, more tired, as you've not had time on the plane to sleep. Just a thought.

>> if I've got my Ambien with me and/or an upgrade to business.

Classic. Ambien or Ambien CR? Which works better?

Either one is dangerous to drink with, however.

You must travel quite a bit if you are getting business upgrades.

Upgrades to business aren't as impossible to come by as people think (tons of posts on that subject over in the airfare threads). For me, flights in business class and/or upgrades to business on international flights are a HECK of a better use of FF miles than for free domestic trips.

Ambien--the thing to remember is that you have to have about 6-7 hours of "planned" sleep time. You take it, it kicks in 15-20 minutes later, & you wake up 6-7 hours later, without the usual "fog" than benedryl-based sleep-aids like TylenolPM leave you waking up with. Took it on my first trip to Buenos Aires---took it right after dinner & woke up in time to fasten my seat belts for landing. Great, since overnight flights to BsAs land early in the morning, and you're refreshed & ready to hit the city.

I thought getting upgraded to biz class is just a matter of flying all the time to earn tons of miles. There are tricks?

Have you ever tried Trazodone as a sleep aid?

perhaps too little, too late but I ran across this...
$619 incl taxes...

Dear clients,
We would like to tell you about our special fare to Buenos Aires from New York or Miami: $619 round trip, including all taxes! This trip has a stop in Brazil.
Due to the high demand, some flights are sold out on this fare. This fare does not apply for trips between June 26th and August 5th, and the trip must be completed by December 9th.
To make a reservation or for more information, call us at 1-800-ARGENTINA or visit our webpage, www.1800ARGENTINA.com
This is only an example of our promotional airfares. For airfares from other cities and to other destinations, please visit our webpage:
.:

Buen viaje!
Carbone Travel
PS: Some restrictions apply. This fare is subject to change and availability. We suggest you to book your ticket as soon as possible since there are a limited number of seats available, and the fare can expire at any time. Argentine taxes not included.

When I went to BsAs, I flew United directly from Washington DC (SFO-IAD-BsAs) I believe they just do one flight a day. My original flight was SFO-ORD-BsAs, but they discontinued the ORD-BsAs flight. It may be a seasonal thing.

I know folks who went through Miami, as well. And NYC. But I don't know what airlines. I don't know what you consider cheap, though... these days with the price of oil, things are high.

For those interested...

QANTAS has re-instated it's Sydney - Auckland - Bs.As. route. No more transit in Santiago (with Lan Chile) to draw out an already long trip. Plus - you get to go closer to Antarctica!!

You can use miles to upgrade a coach ticket.
You can use miles to just get a biz. ticket.
Or, again, you can get a coach ticket and take an "Ambien" upgrade .

Or, if you've got one of the airline-based Citi cards, they come out with "reduced mileage awards". Example: Last summer, someone with a Citi AAdvantage master card could use a Citi Reduced Mileage Award and get a SWEET ride south in First Class on AA's 777's for 80k miles (a first class international award usually runs around 125k miles).

I wouldn't necessarily steer clear of the longer flights from, say, JFK or ORD. Going practically due south, you won't be crossing a ton of time zones and having to deal with jet lag. And, on a longer flight, you can sleep longer. Plenty of time to catch some zzz's after dinner & before breakfast.

If you get miles with an AAdvantage MasterCard, are they transferable to certain other airlines? Is that the best credit card to use?

Does Ambien really work that well? Because I'm typically not able to sleep on flights. And I usually don't have enough miles to upgrade. I was thinking of a day flight, plugging my laptop into a power socket (does that work?), and watching a bunch of movies in Spanish. But maybe the Ambien is a better way to go for the really long flights.

quote:

Originally posted by dthf90210:
If you get miles with an AAdvantage MasterCard, are they transferable to certain other airlines? Is that the best credit card to use?

Does Ambien really work that well? Because I'm typically not able to sleep on flights. And I usually don't have enough miles to upgrade. I was thinking of a day flight, plugging my laptop into a power socket (does that work?), and watching a bunch of movies in Spanish. But maybe the Ambien is a better way to go for the really long flights.

Plenty of ways to transfer AAdvantage miles to other airlines, thru sites like points.com. Or, I think you can use AAdvantage miles for travel on AAdvantage/OneWorld partner airlines (see the AAdvantage section of aa.com)

I'd suggest a search on the "sleep aides" or "sleeping on long flights" or "how do you sleep on a long flight", as I think there's a few threads on those topics around here. For me, Ambien works well. The last time I used it in economy on a flight to BsAs, I took it right after dinner, fell asleep a few minutes later & woke up in time to put on my seat belts for landing. I like it because it doesn't leave me with that "fog" when I wake up like Benedryl-based sleep-aides (tylenol-pm, etc.) do. A lot of over-the-counter, often Benedryl-based sleep aides, leave me with this sort of non-coherent, "huh?", mental fog thing when I wake up, that lasts for a while, kind of like when you didn't get a good night's sleep. Not so with Ambien. I wake up feeling like I got a great night's sleep. Now, with it, you have to have a minimum amount of hours set aside for sleeping (at least 6 I think, probably 7). It's available by prescription only, so ask your doctor. (I am NOT a doctor, and this is just all my experience, NOT any kind of medical advice whatever).

A day flight, to say, Europe, is a great idea since if you can stay up all day thru the flight, you'll land at night tired & ready to sleep, and won't have as much jet lag to deal with from crossing all those time zones. For going to South America, the "time zone crossing" thing isn't as big of an issue.