Our daughter is teaching in Chile this year and wants us to come visit her there and then we would all go to a close friend's wedding ceremony in West Java, Indonesia. This would be around Christmas time.
Has anyone done this? Is it doable and what about the safety of international flights from BA or Chile to Indonesia? I think we'd probably leave from BA because it's the best way to get to where she is.
I was curious so I checked Kayak to see just who flies there. Wow! Many of the flights do not go the way I expected. There are no directs between either Santiago or BA to Jakarta. That is not surprising. You will go through one of the major international hubs - some going east, some going north, few going west. It also takes a considerable amount of time ~35 hours or more. Some of the options - Lufthansa go via Frankfurt and Singapore. I saw one that went to Sao Paolo and then on South African air to Hong Kong. One went through Dubai. Some will go via Auckland or Sydney. Another option was to use American Airlines and return the US. It also looks like there is frequently a third leg with one of the Asian/Oceania hubs (Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong). One or two of the options used Argentina's or Chile's national airline for the first leg to Sydney or Auckland. Qantas also flies that leg but only from Santiago.
I've flown on LAN Chile within Chile. Flying is the best way to get around in Chile and we did 5 flights within the country. I flew mostly on new Airbus planes. I used American to fly to Chile because we got a better price than using LAN Chile.
You'll have to study the options if you book on the web. You might also want to consult a travel agent in this case since it look like it might be a bit more complicated. I'd also check Flyertalk forums for more information on specific airlines and routes. I had not heard of Asiana Airlines before flying to Borneo. I used the forums on Flyertalk to find out information about the airline and Seoul airport. They turned out to be an excellent airline.
