Canyons, Mountains & Vineyards

[love_the_life]

Travel Insurance lady rang today and suggested they fly us home. While I am sure that will limit their potential losses, +1 didn't want to risk going back into hospital if she started to go downhill again.

At least we made it to Machu Picchu which was the initial reason for coming to Peru.

So no Bolivia for us and despite our third transit through SCL we will still not have set foot outside the airport.

Oh well, maybe next time.................................................

Disappointing but IMO the best option for Gem at least. As you say, there is always next time.

 

[tgh]

Sorry it all fell apart, hopefully you will both come home well and immediately start planning to return.
I had quite negative thoughts about "dangerous" Bolivia.. but the reality was that it was a really easy place to visit with fantastic scenery.
I want to go back….

 

[JohnM]

Sorry it all fell apart, hopefully you will both come home well and immediately start planning to return.
I had quite negative thoughts about "dangerous" Bolivia.. but the reality was that it was a really easy place to visit with fantastic scenery.
I want to go back….

Do it vicariously through me. I'm lobbing in to LPB on 25 June for a couple of weeks touring in Bolivia as first destination on a 10 week DONE5.

 

[Gem56]

Thank you everyone for your well wishes, I am certainly on the mend. A bit of a roller coaster ride still, however each up is a little higher than the previous one. Those 12 days are some that I never wish to repeat. Certainly looking forward to returning home. Thank God for JV, don't quite know how I would have managed without him. A very worrying time for him I might add. He does such a good job planning each of our trips and this was no exception only to find that most of it has had to be cancelled. Nevermind, it could have been a very different scenario.

 

[Fifa]

So good to hear that you are on the road to recovery.
@Jacques Vert would have been a terrific advocate!
Safe travels home and see you soon.

 

[RooFlyer]

Good to hear from you Gem. We'll wait for the continued TR next time

 

[RB]

Hope the trip home goes smoothly. Small consolation I guess but what you had already done was top notch!

 

[Boca68]

Just hope everything goes well, get home , rest up @Jacques Vert @Gem56 Maybe JV needs more rest now. Especially after the hospital food Should have told me guys, could have got my +1 and friends to bring you some home cooked food.

Happy that you got to MP. And the rest of your plans will still be there if you decide to try it again.
Bueno suerte!

 

[Jacques Vert]

Especially after the hospital food Should have told me guys, could have got my +1 and friends to bring you some home cooked food.

Sounds great; may have to take you up on that next time.

And thank you for all the help you gave us in planning this trip and your support along the way.

 

[Jacques Vert]

From the Courtyard in Miraflores we were picked up by our driver and headed for the Ramada Costa del Sol at the airport where we stayed the night as we had to check in by 04:15 for a flight at 05:45 OMG!

The Ramada is directly across the road from the terminal and should have been good except for a couple of fails:

1. At check-in, we asked for a wake-up call for 03:00! No problem Senior; except it didn't eventuate...nothing, nada. Fortunately, I had the alarm on my phone which got us up in time; otherwise it could have been a disaster. There's a lesson here.
2. Also at check-in, the agent made a big song and dance about breakfast being available from 0400, just for people like us with early floghts to catch. Great, except at 0415 breakfast consisted of a couple of cereals, some scrambled eggs and coffee/juice. No other hot items and the staff were still setting up at 0440 when we left to go through security. Perhaps not really a fail but not what I expected after the big build-up at check-in.
3. Checking out, I asked the agent to charge me in US Dollars as I had some pre-loaded on ;my QCash card (yes I know but I will explain later). The agent printed my invoice in US Dollars and payment made. It was only when checking my account later that I realised that he had charged me in AUD, thus costing me another 4%!

I was too blurry eyed at that hour of the morning to notice!

An update on the Ramada at the airport:

This booking was in +1's name so she sent them some feedback advising of our experience and disappointment. She has since been offered and received 15,000 points as compensation, enough for one free night. Probably a reasonable outcome.

 

[Jacques Vert]

A question for the brains trust.

Our flights were on a One World Classic Award. Normally, once you take your first flight you can not change the routing although I believe you can change the date or time of subsequent flights. If you miss a flight then the remainder of the itinerary is cancelled.

Does any one have any knowledge or experience as to what happens when you can't/don't complete a sector due to medical reasons? I will wait until returning to Oz before ringing QF as being on hold from Lima for an hour would be very costly.

(I'll also post this on the One World Wiki.)

 

[Jacques Vert]

It sounds like you have a good travel insurance company. Would you care to share which it is?

QBE via Qantas Assure; Annual multi-trip policy. $675 for the two of us for 12 months. Maximum days per trip = 60.

I forgot to mention that the policy is worldwide including USA, South America and Australia.

 

[Jacques Vert]

A couple for drron...

 

[Jacques Vert]

Leaving Peru, heading home.

Our travel insurance policy has a "like for like" clause in relation to travel class. Unfortunately the connecting flight from LIM to SCL is an all economy bird but as we never actually had a booking for this route, they were not required to book us in anything other than discount Y.

Turns out we are in flexible Y to SCL, J for SCL-AKL-SYD, and Y from SYD to CFS. Not sure what happened at check-in but the agent apologised that there is no lounge in LIM and gave us two vouchers for $US20 to spend at the restaurant near our gate.

A very short transit in SCL saw us go straight to boarding and we get to try LA's 789 J product (2-2)







I think Latam has missed an opportunity with this one. I don't make 6 foot but I still found my feet touching the end of the lie-flat bed at the same time as my head was up against the other end. Certainly not long enough for those over 6'. If you have a window seat you'll have to step over your seatmate's bed to get out at night.

I also found the seat somewhat uncomfortable for day use. My biggest criticism is that you can't move individual bits of the seat separately. For example, all I wanted to do was to lay the back of the seat back a bit but when I pushed the button, the seat base moves forward, the leg rest goes up and/or down and so on. I never did manage to get it "just right".

 

[Jacques Vert]

Sorry about the quality of some of the photos....

 

[JohnM]

Hmmm, I am concerned. Has LA stopped serving my favourite NV Champagne Louis Roederer after all these years?

 

[JohnM]

I forgot to mention that the policy is worldwide including USA, South America and Australia.

My problem with annual policies is that I tend to go away for longer than the maximum allowed single trip.

 

[Boca68]

You are so right about the seat JV, its a bugger! Still annoys me, so convoluted just to lie back, not lie down. And the layout is poor, so I always get a middle seat if flying solo.

LATAM have not had a lounge in LIM for about 2 years now. Before it was the very ordinary Sumaq Lounge. But for whatever reason, they stopped the 3rd party agreement.

I usually get the same $20 voucher and go to La Bonbeneirre for breakfast.

 

[RooFlyer]

That's funny ... I'm usually very picky about my J beds, as I'm a light sleeper, but I just checked my 2017 TR where I had 3 rides on the LATAM 787-9 and didn't have much of a problem with it. Its 2-2-2, isn't it?

Disappointing to hear about the LIM lounge. Quite strange too.

 

[Jacques Vert]

A very short transit in SCL saw us go straight to boarding and we get to try LA's 789 J product (2-2)

Its 2-2-2, isn't it?

Yes 2-2-2; my bad!