South American Adventure

So back in November, my father was on Facebook comparing me against the babies of his high school friends when he came across a post by The Flight Deal that promoted TAM Airlines flights from New York to Buenos Aires for under $400/person. So he checked his March 2013 calendar, and surprise surprise... it was wide open. Booked!

Now I'm not an expert, but a $400 flight is damn cheap! In fact, because he likes to do such things, he checked the price for the same itinerary the next morning. It went back up to $1,200/person.

Apparently, it was a "mistake fare" - meaning someone in the pricing department accidentally published the wrong fare.

Maybe they left off the 1 in front of the 400?

Maybe someone in IT was disgruntled and played a prank?

Maybe it was part of a conspiracy by an international media mogul to get Americans to buy Argentine jeans because the Cuban embargo cut off the supply of Sansabelt slacks.

Who knows? But nevertheless, our tickets were booked and paid for at $400 each. And next week, we're off to tango in Buenos Aires!

Best of all, we'll be earning around 12,000 United miles because TAM is still part of the Star Alliance (until their merger with OneWorld's LAN Airlines closes early next year).

As my 3 readers know, I've yet to visit South America. The closest I've come is watching Disney Junior on cable where every other cartoon character that isn't Mickey Mouse has a Mexican accent.

My father figured that while we were all the way down in Argentina, we might as well swing by some other places. He was considering Iguazu Falls or Patagonia, but let me pick and I decided on Santiago, Chile instead.

Given we had just done the whole Amazing Nature thing in Thailand, I wanted some more cosmopolitan surroundings with museums, sidewalk cafes and historic landmarks. And my mother wanted some proper shopping in stores where the salespeople weren't barefoot or eating lunch in front of you.

So my father booked some flights between Buenos Aires and Santiago with a stopover in Mendoza (Argentina's wine country), returning to BA two days before our return flight back to New York.

I'm really looking forward to our next adventure and getting some more stamps in my Israeli passport (American passport holders have to pay $160 entry fees for both Argentina and Chile).

Even though it would have been nice to space it out a bit more from our recent Thailand trip, my father said he preferred having our big exotic trips done while he was still technically employed and getting health insurance benefits. Fine by me since my calendar was pretty wide open for March.

Here's our itinerary (for now):

1. Buenos Aires - 5 nights at Own Palermo Hollywood (cash)
2. Santiago - 5 nights at W Santiago (cash & SPG points)
3. Mendoza - 4 nights at Park Hyatt Mendoza (cash)
4. Buenos Aires - 2 nights at Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt Buenos Aires (Hyatt points)