1

Are you going to be heading straight from the mainland to the Galapagos? The flight from Quito to Baltra goes via Guayaquil (stops there for half an hour to pick up more passengers).

I don't know, but it might be cheaper to fly into Quito, and then get a flight from there to the Galapagos, rather than getting yourselves down to Guayaquil independently. It would also make more sense to stay a day or two in Quito before you went than a day or two in Guayaquil as well!

LAN is absolutely fine to travel on.

2

Agree with above. Book your flight from Quito to Galapagos. There is a lot to do and see in Quito, and if by some chance your bags don't make it all the way there, you have a couple of days for it to catch up with you. LAN is a very good airline.

3

Only ever flown LAN once from Auckland to Santiago but it was by far the nicest aircraft I flew on on a round the world trip.

4

We have always enjoyed our LAN trips from Sydney to Quito also and bleong tot LANPASS so will hopefully use our LANPASS points for an extra special trip soon...

5

Thanks for the replies so far, and good info about spending time in Quito if possible. We are getting ourselves to Guayaquil because we meet our tour operator there. Other comments are welcome. Good to know LAN is good. Thank you!

6

Looks like I'm going to be the bad guy here. On our 6 week SA holiday last March:-

1) Our checked-in bags didn't arrive at Quito airport. The LAN staffer got us to complete a form and said they would call us at the hotel and deliver our bags. That never happened. The next day, under our own steam, we returned to the airport with a local who retrieved our bags easily from a room full of "lost" bags.

2) Twice after collecting bags at other SA destinations we were stopped by LAN staff and asked for ID. I didn't notice anyone else stopped, not even some shifty looking locals. We don't fit the criminal profile being a white, middle-aged, well-groomed couple.

3) At Santiago airport our flight back to Australia was delayed. The LAN staffers were uncommunicative and generally useless. We eventually found out that LAN had overbooked the flight and given our seats to others despite us having paid 6 months prior and getting our auto-tickets the day before. LAN ignored our requests and enquiries and, only after a lot of angry shouting from me, were we given seats on the plane (our seats were not together).

I am grateful that competition has started from other carriers such as Qantas.

7

If you have a few days consider travelling overland to Guayaquil visiting many of the beautiful destinations on the way. Also Delta arrives just before midnight and LAN's flight will not be until the next morning, so you'll get half a night in Quito. You say you are travelling after February so you might want to rethink, as the new Quito airport (way out of town) will be opening in February and as yet there is nowhere nearby to stay, so you could be looking at a long and expensive taxi ride in each direction, and might like to rethink about flying direct to Guayaquil