- Planning the Trip
- (LIT/DFW)-DEN-SFO-ORD-GRU-EZE
- Buenos Aires
- Iguazu/Wrap Up
Iguazu
While on our trip we took a day trip to Iguazu falls! There are several flights a day to Iguazu, but they are quite expensive. My wife booked the flights since she was responsible for planning much of the trip, and I didn’t think to look for miles and points options until later (terrible, I know)! First, you should definitely consider going to Iguazu falls, because this is what they look like:
Awesome view atop the falls!
They are both wider than Victoria and Taller than Niagara, but don’t win in either category. Still, it’s one of the more impressive sights I’ve ever seen, and you can visit everything in the park with a 1-2 night stay pretty easily. The falls are on the border between Argentina and Brazil (that’s Brazil on the other side of the falls in the photo), and there’s a cool spot in town called “Tres Fronteras” (Three Borders) where two rivers meet and you’re standing in Argentina, across one river is Brazil, and across the other is Paraguay.
Brazil on the left, Paraguay on the right, taken from Argentina!
Now, if you want to get to Iguazu on miles and points, your two options are LAN and Aerolineas Argentina. LAN is a OneWorld member, and since it’s a short haul flight using British Airways Avios is a great option for the redemption!
Aerolineas is with SkyTeam, which honestly I have no experience with booking. Avios are really easy to get – there’s the co-branded credit card, and it’s a transfer partner of Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards. And while you might have to call the call center for British Airways (since the website doesn’t have the airport), it is possible to find space.
If you are a SkyTeam person, or end up paying for flights, we flew with Aerolineas, and were on a ERJ-190, which was comfortable enough for the 90 minute flight to Iguazu. They even had personal video screens and fed us (a snack box), which is much better than what you’ll get on any regional jet flight I’ve ever been on.
Aerolineas Seats
Returning Home
We came back much the way we came, through a circuitous amount of flights (though I detoured to Houston on Southwest). There was one interesting tidbit, our flight from Buenos Aires to Sao Paolo was only a 2 hour flight on TAM, but we flew on a 777! Never in my life have I taken such a short flight on such a large airplane, though it was completely full. This was even more mind boggling because we flew an A319 going the same route in the other direction on the way there!
Our 2-hour 777?
Economy boarding
Business class seats
The flight was pretty comfortable, and we got back after a great trip! It was a great vacation, and we earned a lot of miles on a really cheap fare to Argentina. Taking advantage of opportunities like this to earn miles is part of the game! Coming soon will be my trip report on our trip to the Maldives, and you’ll see why I’m now even more addicted to this miles and points thing, and why you should be too, if you’re not already! Thanks for reading!
— Ethan Carter
