Before you book an airline ticket, it is important to research flight routes and establish which South American cities your Airlines will fly to / depart from.

I'll give you an example why I suggest 'research flight routes'. If you are departing from Australia or New Zealand you will learn that ALL direct flights arrive/depart only from Santiago, Chile. So if Aussies & Kiwis (on direct flights) have to arrive in Santiago, it could be advisable to start planning their South American holiday beginning in Chile! Or at least they have an option of considering a Santiago stopover to look around for a few days.

If you are flying from USA, Asia or Europe you will be able to decide between various direct flight route options to numerous South American locations.

It is important to know what direct flight options and connecting flight options are available to you - often a Travel Agent will only give you their preferred option and then promptly ask for your credit card... has this ever happened to you? You should research ALL your flight options before you make a booking.

Personally, I no longer use Travel Agents to search flight options - I much prefer using the internet. What I like about the internet is that it allows me to carefully consider all my flight options with no pressure to make a decision-on-the-spot.

The simplest way to search flight route options is to use a free internet flight search engine.

I’ve test driven numerous internet flight search engines. I recommend this search engine provided by a company called T2-Global

Nicks Travel Notes: Many flight search engines are frustrating because they only show selective flights on selective routes. I like using this search engine because:

Ease-of-use.

It is a super fast compared to other frustraingly slow flight search engines (yes!).

It will list COMPARISON Flight options from your departure destination to arrival destination. Choice is good!

It compares prices between each option (including airport taxes).

You can compare prices using your own currency (yes!).

If you haven't already done so I recommend you click into their flight search. With no obligation you can research a few different South America destinations to learn how the flight search engine works. If you're not sure about your exact travel dates just put in hypothetical arrival and departure dates. Don't worry, you won't be asked for your credit card details whilst searching flight options.

Keep a notepad handy to write down a list of the various flight routes, flight options and costs you have researched on T2-Global.

When you eventually decide upon your preferred flight options & price I suggest you go ahead and make a booking. By actually booking your flight(s) you have set the ball-in-motion and have finally set the date when you will arrive South America. You can now focus your energies on getting ready for your trip!

Booking Internal flights in South America
Previously I listed this topic as a separate section and provided website link addresses to all the current South American airline websites. Booking internal flights used to be a bit of an effort!

But now all the South American Airlines are also linked into the T2 Global flight search that I discuss above.

Internal flights are particularly useful if you are travelling on limited time, or if you wish to avoid a long haul bus journey.

Examples of internal flights you may consider:

Flights across the Andes to avoid the bus trip. In Peru I took an internal flight from Lima to Cuzco.
Chile - north / south trips along the lengthy coastline. ‘Lan’ Airlines is an excellent South American airline. They provide staff that speak English if you need to change the dates of your flights. I took a flight from Iquique to Santiago to avoid the long bus trip.
Argentina – from Buenos Aires to Patagonia areas (Bariloche, El Calafate, Ushuaia). I took a flight from Buenos Aires to El Calafate to avoid another very long bus trip!
Brazil – there are huge distances to cover in all directions. Internal flights may save you a 2 day / night bus trip.

2007 South America Travel Advice