How to get to Easter Island on a budget with LATAM
Easter Island is known as the most isolated inhabited place on Earth.
To the west, you have Tahiti, some 4,200 kilometres away.
To the east, the Chilean coast lies 3,800 kilometres off.
This isolation was never more true than during the COVID period. All air links to the island were suspended for 27 months!
During our first round-the-world trip in 2016-2017, we took advantage of the Tahiti-Santiago flight that stopped over on the island to visit it for 3 days.
Since COVID, this route has not been restored.
Now, there are only two ways to get to Easter Island:
- By Polynesian canoe, but that takes time
- By plane with LATAM, from Santiago
Finding a cheap flight to Easter Island with LATAM
In early 2024, we’ll be in South America for several months. We’re keen to stay on Easter Island again, so we’re checking flight prices from Santiago.
We used Google Flights to find the cheapest dates (not easy to do directly on the LATAM website).
When you arrive on the LATAM site, it asks whether you want to access the French or Chilean version.
Quite naturally, I chose the French version. The text is in French, prices are in euros—it’s more convenient.
It’s more convenient, but it’s a mistake; the round-trip fare (per person) comes out at 1 284 €.
When I repeated the process but chose the Chilean site, the text is in Spanish and prices in Chilean pesos.
I got a fare of 345,000 CLP for exactly the same trip, which is €377! That’s more than three times cheaper!
Honestly, it’s practically a rip-off! Likely a way for foreigners to subsidise locals’ travel.
Luckily, nothing stops you from making your purchase through the Chilean site; everything will be in Spanish, but it’s manageable.
During the process, you have to enter your nationality. This doesn’t change the fare, so the trick seems perfectly allowed.
Payment
Things get a bit more complicated at the payment stage.
You have a fairly standard card payment form. But I tried with several different cards, without success.
I finally managed with my American Express card, which is a “real” credit card (unlike most French cards, which are “debit” cards).
The only slight downside is that American Express charges foreign exchange fees; it cost me €21 for this transaction.
But €778 for a round-trip Santiago-Easter Island for two people, i.e. €389 per person, is completely beyond our hopes! We were prepared to pay twice as much (but certainly not the “tourist” fare!).
If you can’t pay with your payment methods, I can refer you so you can get an American Express Air France Gold card, 100% free for one year. It’s a great card to have when travelling (more info in this article).