The islands of the South Pacific are among the hardest in the world to get to using frequent flier reward miles. In particular, Easter Island in Chile had escaped me for a substantial amount of time. With a remote physical location in the world, a lack of airlines serving Rapa Nui (the Polynesian name for Easter Island), and limited airline alliances that allow for connectivity to and from this area, it’s a challenging region to visit on miles and points. This story is how we set out to visit the remote Easter Island and how with a little extra time in the schedule, we used international business class to get us there and back.

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Trip Introduction: Easter Island, Chile via LATAM Business Class and Alaska Airlines First Class.

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Trip Background:

I had always wanted to visit Easter Island, Chile. It was a remote corner of the world that had always escaped me, even over several past trips to Chile. I had previously checked award programs but always found limited business class availability with LATAM / One World; the only carrier that services this part of the world.

When I discovered a deeply discounted business class fare on LATAM, it was a no brainer. I called across the living room to MrsWT73 who surprisingly agreed to go without question. This was despite our earlier trip a few months ago to Fiji, French Polynesia and a family trip to Hawaii. She must really enjoy the idea of sitting on a beach on an island in the middle of an ocean! With that, it was booked right away with no issues on the LATAM site in Canadian Dollars (from Vancouver). So off we went on the trip to and island (that was like Hawaii in the 1940’s) to see hundreds of beautiful stone heads. Never in my life would I have thought that we’d travel to all 3 corners of the Polynesian Triangle in the space of one year, but here we go on the last chapter of this corner of the world.

Trip Planning and Organizing:

Airfares:

We had happened upon this trip through the Flyertalk Premium Fares deal forum. It advertised a full business class fare on LATAM from Mexico City to Easter Island via Santiago, Chile. The fare was posted at a rock bottom $1,020 USD return for Premium Business in Z fare class, which was an exceptional deal. The fare came to $1,274 CAD and with $207.09 in taxes and fees, we paid $1481.09 CAD per return ticket Mexico City – Easter Island.

As our onward ticket was departing from Mexico City, we needed to position there in order to catch our onward flight. With several Alaska Airlines Companion Vouchers sitting in our accounts, we used an Alaska Companion Fare that came with the Alaska Mileage Plan Mastercard. The Alaska Airlines Companion Fare allowed for the purchase of a second ticket on the same routing for $99. We purchased a Vancouver to Mexico City Ticket (via Seattle & San Francisco) for $493 USD plus $172.94 in taxes and fees, totalling $665.94 USD. We were able to add the companion fare to this ticket for $111 USD + another $172.94 in taxes and fees; for a total cost of $949.88 USD for two to travel from Vancouver to Mexico City round trip. We were both Alaska Mileage Plan MVP’s at the the time, so we were eligible for complimentary First Class upgrades. We were further upgraded to First Class between San Francisco and Mexico City on each leg.

All in, our combined airfare from Vancouver to Easter Island was under $1,500 USD with about 85% of it in First and Business Class. This was a great deal considering it’s usually about $6,190 USD to fly in Business Class on a comparable but more direct Seattle – Easter Island Chile routing.

Hotels:

There was lots of choice in Mexico City for hotels. Since we only had a short stop, I put us into the upscale Polanco neighbourhood. It was a toss up between the JW Marriott and the W Mexico City. Being a leisure trip, we ended up with the more exciting (or annoying dependent on your perspective) W Mexico City. This ended up being a reasonable choice and an interesting location to spend a few days in Mexico City. It was also conveniently located near the hop on hop off bus tour. The neighbourhood of Polanco would be my choice on a second visit to Mexico City. It allowed us to visit both the world class restaurants of Quintonil and Pujol.

In terms of Easter Island, there isn’t a lot of choice to be had. There was the over the top Explora Hotel which was retailing at being $780 USD per night. Since we were staying 5 days, we ended up at the more economical Taura’a Hotel. The Taura’a Hotel was reasonably located and with a friendly Australian host.

The trip ended up looking like this in the end. While it was a little difficult to get down to Mexico City, we made the most of the value offered on this trip, which was pretty inexpensive overall.

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This post is one chapter on our trip to Mexico City, Mexico and Easter Island, Chile. This trip was enhanced through Alaska Mileage Plan and through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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If you’ve gotten to Easter Island, Chile, how did you maximize value in getting there ?

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