How to Fly to Easter Island with US Airways Miles
Easter Island has been on my list for a very long time and I finally get to go in December! I personally booked my ticket using a oneworld explorer award on American Airlines, but that’s no longer available. The interesting thing is that using US Airways miles is an even better deal to visit Easter Island than what I booked. As US Airways only joined oneworld in March, using US Airways miles was not an option for me, but it is now! I am going to go over exactly how to book trips with US Airways miles to Easter Island plus stopover options. I am also going to explain options for earning enough miles for the trip.
In my opinion, US Airways has a distinct advantage over American Airlines when it comes to using miles to Easter Island in that you can build a stopover into your itinerary without using any extra miles. That said, it’s not clear what the award chart will look like once the two airlines combine. So if traveling to Easter Island with miles is something on your wish list, you may want to keep in mind it’s not clear whether this particular award will be available next year.
How Much Will Awards Cost?
According to the US Airways partner award chart, a round-trip from North America to the South Pacific will cost:
- 80,000 miles round-trip in Economy Class.
- 110,000 miles round-trip in Business Class.
- 140,000 miles round-trip in First Class.
With these round-trip awards, you get one free stopover anywhere along the way. I personally booked a trip from New York in business class with a stopover in Buenos Aires for several days. This cost me 130,000 American Airlines miles with the oneworld explorer award, but would have only cost me 110,000 miles if US Airways miles could have already been redeemed on oneworld flights at the time. I am still, of course, happy that I made the best use of what was available at the time and I could not wait as award space would disappear. But it’s clear I would have been better off using US Airways miles.
Planning The Trip
The only airline that currently flies to Easter Island is LAN from either Tahiti or Santiago, Chile. Going through South America is generally easier and closer for most folks, plus you can use the free stopover to visit a cool destination in South America along with a trip to Easter Island.
To fly there, you can use a combination of any oneworld award space on TAM Airlines, American Airlines, Qatar Airlines (which happens to fly from Sao Paolo to Buenos Aires) and US Airways. All these can be combined on a single US Airways award ticket.
Booking the Award
The unfortunate downside of booking flights to Easter Island with US Airways miles is there is no way to do it online. You must call US Airways customer service to do this. You should find availability for every single flight you want ahead of time before you call and simply provide the agent with the exact itinerary you want. I’ve found US Airways agents are not very good at searching partner award space so you need to do your own research. The one issue is that US Airways does not show award space for many of its partners, including LAN, Iberia and Qatar Airways. I personally searched the partner award availability on the British Airways website, which will show award space on TAM, LAN, American Airlines and US Airways all at once.
Stopover Options and Sample Itineraries
With US Airways, you can have a stopover anywhere along the way, if you play it right. This includes pretty much all of South America provided you can find award availability. You can spend a week or a month in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Peru or any South American destination your heart desires!
There is technically a rule where you need to stopover in either a partner hub city or a transatlantic gateway city, but with US Airways, awards routes are validated by the customer service agent and not a computer. They rarely have a clear understanding of what exactly is and is not a hub especially with all the new partners and, although some agents enforce it, many don’t. If you get resistance on booking a stopover in a particular place, I’d say hang up and call again to hopefully get an agent that overlooks it.
Another option is to not stopover in South America, but to continue all the way to Tahiti. LAN flies between Easter Island and Tahiti so you can make your trip visiting both islands. In fact, with both Easter Island and French Polynesia being far in the South Pacific, this may just turn out to be the perfect itinerary for a few people out there.
Sample Itinerary
Let’s take a look at what Svetlana booked in Business Class for this December and how a stopover would work.
- Los Angeles to Sao Paolo on American Airlines, Sao Paolo to Buenos Aires on Qatar Airways
- After a 6 day stopover, Buenos Aires to Santiago on LAN, Santiago to Easter Island on LAN
- Easter Island to Santiago on LAN, Santiago to Los Angeles on LAN
This is a round-trip ticket that would cost 80,000 miles in Economy class or 110,000 miles in business class.
Advantage using US Airways Miles vs American Airlines/British Airways
American Airlines miles and British Airways miles can also be used on the same oneworld partners, but there are a few differences these programs have vs. using US Airways miles.
American Airlines does not allow stopovers nor does it allow transit through a third region. This means you either need to pay for two separate awards (one round-trip North America to South America, one round-trip South America to Easter Island) making it very expensive or fly directly to the South Pacific and connect in Tahiti. You will not be able to stop there although American Airlines also partners with Air Tahiti Nui, which flies there. That said, the options for getting to Tahiti are limited and it will be a much longer trip for most people.
British Airways miles charges separately based on distance per segment. While these miles are great for short-distance awards, they are terrible when it comes to long distances and many segments. Although you can fly from just Chile to Easter Island for 12,500 miles/25,000 miles in Economy/Business class, it’s generally best to avoid using these miles for the full trip.
How to Earn Miles for the Trip
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As I mentioned earlier, you will need 80,000 miles for an economy class ticket, 110,000 miles for a business class ticket or 140,000 miles for first class. If you have the miles collected, then great! All that stands between you and a trip to Easter Island is finding some award space and calling Customer Service. If not, there are a few ways to collect them:
US Airways has its own co-branded credit card with Barclays, which is currently offering a 40,000 mile sign-up bonus after your first purchase and paying the $89 annual fee. This is probably the easiest way to rack up some miles for a ticket to Easter Island or anywhere else.
Application Link: US Airways® Premier World MasterCard®
US Airways is also a transfer partner of Starwood Preferred Guest. For every 20,000 Starwood points you transfer, you will receive 25,000 US Airways miles. Typically, the card offers 25,000 miles after spending $5,000 within 3 months. However, until the end of June, it has a temporarily increased bonus of 30,000 points after spending the $5,000. The limited time offer also provides 5,000 points to anyone who refers friends to the card so, if you do have any friends who have it, you can help them out by letting them refer you. Once you meet the spending requirement, you would have 35,000 points and have the following options: Transfer 35,000 points to 40,000 US Airways miles or earn an additional 5,000 points for a total of 40,000 miles and transfer to 50,000 miles. For those who are starting from scratch and want to fly business class, Starwood offers a business and personal card and it is possible to sign up for both.
All I can say in conclusion is… I am definitely looking foward to my trip to Easter Island!
For more posts on US Airways miles, check out:
Why why why must you do this to me TMP? I was set on using my US Airways miles to fly business class to Sydney with a free stop over in Tokyo. I was set!! I was excited!! Now this!! Easter Island with a stop over in Buenos Aires, Business class!! I can’t decide!!! How does one choose?
Great post!!
Sounds like you have a tough decision to make! Both great ideas :)
Yes. It’s going to be a tough one. You made all this possible though. Thanks again for simplifying the miles process!!!
Sherell, how do you find the flight to Sydney? I tried the US Airways site and they said it’s not available. I’m sure there is a trick to finding it and I wanted to know if you’d share that with me. Thanks for giving me the idea on how to maximize the miles.
US Airways will not show any oneworld partner availability except itself and American Airlines. The British Airways website is the place to search for availability on Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines or other carriers. You would then have to write down your flight numbers and call US Airways customer service to book the award.
Hi MP, I have read that the BA site is the place to go to find flights but when I try it, I usually just see the calendar with no available BA flights. I’ve never (or rarely) seen any other airline flights. Maybe it’s because I’m searching from the middle of the US (Denver). All that I have read has lead me to believe that I must not be doing it right since everyone else says that BA is the “go to” site. Thanks for your comments and help and keep up the great work!
Ah, I see. British Airways is not very good at searching flights with connections. Try searching hub city connections separately like DEN-LAX,LAX-HKG,HKG-SYD if you want to try to have a stopover in Asia on Cathay Pacific. If you are just trying to find Qantas space to Australia without a stop in Asia, then you should use the American Airlines website as it will show Qantas space very easily.
Hi MP and thanks for the reply. I’ll give that a try and see if I don’t get better results. Keep up the good work and info! Thanks again.
Does the stopover has to be at a OneWorld hub or transatlantic gateway city?
There technically is a rule like that (and I added it to my post for clarity, thanks!), but as award routes are validated by customer service agents and not computers, it’s not always enforced… so if someone offers resistance, I just call back and hope the next agent books it!
Easter Island has been on my bucket list for quite some time. Hope you have a great time!
Please post details of your trip! Can’t wait to read all about it!!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge in award booking to exotic destinations. Only Ben and you share such valuable info as far as I know. Darius does but not the destinations I am interested in. How far ahead do you suggest booking for travel next March/ April from LAX to BUE and Easter Island? What happens if my mom cannot take the flight next year if I book it before year-end and US & AA already merged their FF program before the flight? What accommodation do you arrange for stay in Easter Island?
I personally booked 11 months in advance because I was going during the very high holiday period and award seats disappear within days of becoming available then. I think after Carnival, South America availability becomes better so finding seats during that period should be decent if your days are flexible. I would think that if they do merge and you need to cancel, you’ll just pay the usual redeposit fee and get back your miles in American Airlines.
Sadly, there are no points hotels in Easter Island… I am likely going to go with something I find in Expedia or TripAdvisor and just pay cash (or Barclays miles). My trip is 6 months away so I haven’t booked anything yet. All on the list!
I’m actually kind of glad there are no points hotels on Easter Island. I would hate to think of such a remote place having a Marriott, Best Western, etc.
MP, Excellent post. We have been thinking going to this place and now that you even added/mentioned going all the way to Tahiti.
That means, stop over in Easter Island and final destination is Tahiti, correct?
All of this for 110K US Miles on business?
Also, when is the best time to visit Easter Island?
Yes, that’s correct… I personally am not doing Tahiti and Easter Island, but that would be an awesome award! I like to visit warm places in Winter so I am going in December. The average high seems to vary from 60’s to around 80 with it being warmer in winter. It also rains less in the winter months… so, in my opinion, a great time to go!
Thanks for your reply and info. What’s the chance of getting two first class from EWR or JFK to Tahiti with stop over in Easter Island?
Wish i had seen this post earlier. I already booked a flight to Santiago for this december using AA miles. I was earlier only going to do Torres del Paine. Now thinking about adding a trip to the Easter island. What are my options now since my flights to SCL and back from US is already booked? My wife and I have about 80k miles in total. RT flights from SCL and Easter island are about $550 RT.
You can actually book on LAN using British Airways miles for 12,500 each way in economy or 25,000 miles each way in Business. This is the cheapest way to get a side trip to Easter Island in South America.
Thank you!
Hi Miles professor, its me again. I couldnt sadly book using miles but I ended up booking a ticket to easter island anyway. I was wondering if you have a blog on your experience (i couldn’t find it). I will be there in the last week of december. Any tips appreciated :)
So timely! Thanks MP. Actually I was looking to book a flight to easter island, solely from Santiago. So that BA 12,500/25,000 mile rate is just what I’m looking for. You’re right! Using some of these websites is really a hassle. Any advice for that? Check the LAN website and then call British Airways?
British Airways actually shows LAN availability on its own website so no need to even call and it can be booked right online :)
I’m thinking something’s up…searching the BA site, there are NO Santiago (SCL) to IPC (Easter Island) flights at any point from May through August 2015? I found nothing searching traditionally and tried One Mile at A Time’s guide for searching the site (http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/04/01/use-british-airways-award-search-tool/).
Does this make sense? Is there an update on the BA-LAN availability I missed?
Are you sure that US classifies IPC as South Pacific? It doesn’t say so on their award chart (as it does on AA’s). Technically, Easter Island is part of Chile, which is clearly South America.
I’ve checked weekly since September on the BA site and there is nothing for any of the summer months (May-August). I finally gave up and called to speak with BA. Nothing. I’m stumped. Any other suggestions?
If I wanted to do a trip from NYC to Easter Island with a stopover in Buenos Aires using 110,000 US Airways miles, what flights would I actually have to search for? NYC to Buenos Aires, then Buenos Aires to Santiago and then Santiago to Easter Island? Would I have to use British Avios points at any point (such as from Buenos Aires to Santiago) or it’s all on the same award using US airways miles? I’m getting confused with the connections and the multiple transfers.
You can use US Airways miles for all of it for the 110,000 miles and just have a stopover in Buenos Aires. So no British Airways miles needed. Just you would have to use the British Airways website to search for availability on LAN as that’s the main site that will show it. But once you’ve found the availability, you just call US Airways and give them the flights.
I couldn’t find direct flights from Buenos Aires to Easter Island, so it’s ok if there are multiple connections on LAN for Buenos Aires to Santiago and Santiago to IPC? Then returning home it would be I guess: IPC to Santiago, Santiago to X city, then X city to NYC?
You can only fly to IPC from Santiago. Not having a direct flight is no problem and connections don’t count as a stopover. To return, you can fly IPC-Santiago. I have a non-stop flight from Santiago to NYC, actually, but you have to take flights where there is award availability.