Qantas to introduce new codeshare flights to Colombia and Ecuador

[Berlin]

I've just received the following in an email from Qantas:
"Qantas has expanded its codeshare agreement with LATAM to include two new destinations in South America, providing customers more opportunities to earn and redeem Qantas Points and Status Credits on flights from Santiago to Colombia and Ecuador. The codeshare flights are available to book now for travel from 1 January 2019."
When I click "Read more" it just sends me to their generic "Fly Qantas to South America" page and I can't find anything more detailed on the internet either. Does anyone know more- which flights will get a QF flight number, which destinations? I'm mostly keen on Colombia as I have friends there and really like this beautiful country. I'd guess it's only Bogota but who knows...

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Haven't received the email yet but I'm guessing probably just Bogota too. But Colombia has been on my radar for a while so this is good news.

 

[Berlin]

Haven't received the email yet but I'm guessing probably just Bogota too. But Colombia has been on my radar for a while so this is good news.

I just realised that the email was just sent to Business rewards members so normal frequent flyers might get it who knows when. I'd love if Medellin could get some codeshare goodness but I doubt this will be the case. Bogota is better than nothing so great news!

 

[odysseus]

That's nice... though I wonder if the connections to Ecuador will be any better than they used to be. Sitting around in SCL airport for 12 hours, with 5 hour overnight flights in South America wasn't fun.

 

[Berlin]

That's nice... though I wonder if the connections to Ecuador will be any better than they used to be. Sitting around in SCL airport for 12 hours, with 5 hour overnight flights in South America wasn't fun.

12 hours? I find 4 or 5 hours way too long in this airport. But at least the new International terminal should be coming soon or am I wrong? Much needed if you ask me, if it wasn't work the rather nice LATAM lounge, SCL would be on my personal negative list. The airport I'm talking, not the city which I quite like.

 

[RooFlyer]

Calling @juddles to the white courtesy phone.

Alas, too late for you, I think!

 

[Ansett]

Received also this morning and read the article then click on read more and well disapointing I cant see any details. Does any one have any other details

All it does it take me to the Santiago Page..

 

[GoldCanyon340]

A quick query on EF for mid January 2019 shows:

QF3949 (LA546) SCL-GYE 0650-1012
QF4205 (LA572) SCL-BOG 0120-0520
QF4206 (LA576) SCL-BOG 1510-1910

 

[Ansett]

I cant even get on the Qantas website now lol

 

[Berlin]

A quick query on EF for mid January 2019 shows:
QF3949 (LA546) SCL-GYE
QF4205 (LA572) SCL-BOG
QF4206 (LA576) SCL-BOG

So Bogota only, as expected. Well, it's a start and the Y only connections within Colombia are not breaking the bank.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

And the return flights:

QF3948 (LA547) GYE-SCL 0453-1146
QF4202 (LA575) BOG-SCL 1029-1814
QF4203 (LA577) BOG-SCL 2310-0655+1

 

[GoldCanyon340]

So Bogota only, as expected. Well, it's a start and the Y only connections within Colombia are not breaking the bank.

I searched for Medellin but found nothing

 

[RooFlyer]

I cant even get on the Qantas website now lol

There's nothing on this story in their 'Newsroom'

 

[juddles]

This is excellent progress.

A big bugbear of mine for ages has been that it has always been possible to book a ticket online via Qantas from Australia to BOG and return (with either LATAM or Avianca as the Chile-Colombia connection, even though not a codeshare), but never the other way round - this should fix that.

I think expecting MDE (Medellin) is a bit much yet LATAM do not fly direct SCL-MDE, and despite the all-emcompassing LATAM brand, they are very much still (on an operational level) still a collection of rebranded separate airlines/companies in each country.

There is also an issue with the QF/Latam alliance in that QF metal between aus and Chile has premium economy, which is not available on Latam metal, and booking thru Latam on QF metal does not allow PE bookings. (IE QF only sells business and economy through Latam) Another bug is that Latam's website does not happily allow mixed-class bookings. So although they do have PE on certain intra-south america international flights (just narrow body aircraft with the middle seat blocked and slightly greater pitch), they do not offer PE on their wide-bodies, so again booking is a pain. I suspect these things will affect the QF codeshares - I am guessing that it will be a choice of economy and business only. In any case LA572/575/576/577 are 787's or 767's that have economy and business, so maybe this will not be an issue. Also, with the 787 engine maintenance backlog, many of the SCL-BOG flights have been operated on Wamos charters - mediocre hard product , fantastic spanish staff , no Pisco Sours

Pro-tip 1: Unless things dramatically change, it is heaps cheaper to get a ticket between BOG and BNE/SYD/MEL etc with an add-on domestic flight to MDE, than to try to book it all as a single ticket.

As per rooflyer's suggestion, this is in some ways a tad late for me, but I still go there. Or at least I intend to when things are calmer there for me in my world

In case anyone is new to Latam, be aware also that their business model is that their international flights and services attempt to be that of a world-class airline (which they are really), but domestically in any south american country their model is pretty much that of a low cost carrier. There is no such thing as domestic lounges, etc, and they only have economy class. Baggage allowance that you have for the international travel may not be respected for the domestic parts. The LATAM lounge in Bogota is quite nice (as always excellent wines) but food is snack stuff + a few extras.

Pro-tip 2: if you are in Bogota airport waiting for one of those LATAM flights to Chile, there is a line of chairs in the lounge (second floor) that directly looks over the usual departure gate. They usually announce boarding way before it actually happens, so you can merrily keep downing that glorious wine whilst watching the queues form and linger..... You can time it to drink your last wine, casually walk down the stairs, and board just before the flight is closed. To me the 5 hour overnight flight down to Santiago is one of those horrid medium-haul flights where there is not enough time to both eat/drink/watch movie, and also sleep. So by using this technique you can board tanked, and then happily have a pisco sour prior to take-off, and then maximize sleep. God I have fine-tuned that....

 

[juddles]

So Bogota only, as expected. Well, it's a start and the Y only connections within Colombia are not breaking the bank.

Berlin, as per my previous post, getting a separate ticket for travel within Colombia is the way to go. Obviously there are some dangers with booking with a different airline, but Avianca is the clear king in Colombia. They have about ten times as many flights between BOG and MDE than LATAM has, they offer business class (reasonably priced if booked more than a week or so ahead), and they have domestic lounges (if you are star alliance gold or travelling business class)

Pro-tip 3: When leaving Medellin, be careful with early morning departures - fog often causes delays. Because Avianca has so many more flights they can often get you to BOG sooner than Latam.

Pro-tip 4: Do not ever entertain the thought of booking intra-Colombia flights with an LCC such as Viva. Frequent cancelled flights, and an absolute zoo experience for boarding. Picture all the animals trying to board Noah's Ark as the Great Flood reared - but then change your image to make the animals rabid and panicked...

 

[odysseus]

And just Guayaquil airport; perhaps catering for Galapagos tourism. Unfortunately skips Quito as well.

 

[juddles]

And just Guayaquil airport; perhaps catering for Galapagos tourism. Unfortunately skips Quito as well.

If you could be "racist" against a place rather than a race, then I would have to put my hand up and confess I am profoundly racist. I HATE Quito with a passion. I don't really know the place that well, but had to endure a few whole-day stopovers there a few years back. Hideous city that is covered in garbage and absolutely reeks of dried urine. I swore that if I ever returned there, it would only be to deliver a nuclear weapon

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Pro-tip 4: Do not ever entertain the thought of booking intra-Colombia flights with an LCC such as Viva. Frequent cancelled flights, and an absolute zoo experience for boarding. Picture all the animals trying to board Noah's Ark as the Great Flood reared - but then change your image to make the animals rabid and panicked...

Sounds exactly like the line for walk through metal detectors at GOI. Singularly the worst security 'queueing' I've ever experienced.

 

[RooFlyer]

Pro-tip 2: if you are in Bogota airport waiting for one of those LATAM flights to Chile, there is a line of chairs in the lounge (second floor) that directly looks over the usual departure gate. They usually announce boarding way before it actually happens, so you can merrily keep downing that glorious wine whilst watching the queues form and linger..... You can time it to drink your last wine, casually walk down the stairs, and board just before the flight is closed.

You forgot to mention the glories of having OneWorld status when flying LATAM, especially at those majority of airports where they don't have a lounge. Consistently being the sole occupant of the 'Preferente' lane, hence avoiding the free-for-all general boarding and, if you need it, guaranteed bin space!

Pro-tip 4: Do not ever entertain the thought of booking intra-Colombia flights with an LCC such as Viva. Frequent cancelled flights, and an absolute zoo experience for boarding. Picture all the animals trying to board Noah's Ark as the Great Flood reared - but then change your image to make the animals rabid and panicked...

hmmm .. sounds like most of the intra-South American LATAM boarding experiences to me - see above comment!

Pro-tip 3: When leaving Medellin, be careful with early morning departures - fog often causes delays. Because Avianca has so many more flights they can often get you to BOG sooner than Latam.

Maybe @support will start a MED and/or BOG airports to the 'Airport tips' area (which I can't find at the moment, to describe it properly) , and you can load up the info there

 

[Berlin]

Pro-tip 3: When leaving Medellin, be careful with early morning departures - fog often causes delays. Because Avianca has so many more flights they can often get you to BOG sooner than Latam.

Thank you, yes, I'm aware of the fog at Medellin, it's quite a curious airport, this one. Never had issues though on the LATAM connections within South America- they give you a coffee on a 50 minutes flight which is good enough for me and it's usually rather recent A320/A319 models so no complaints.