I've come across a couple different ways to get to Mendoza or at least that other groups have gotten there. I've heard of people booking their flights directly to Mendoza thru Santiago and I've also heard of them booking a flight to Santiago and then at Santiago booking a separate flight to Mendoza.

Anyone here have any recent experience with this or know of anyone from the states that has flown down there in the last few years? To me it makes sense to just book it straight through from the states and not deal with attempting to get another ticket from Santiago to Mendoza. But maybe I'm missing something here?

My Spanish is very poor so less contact with people while I'm there might be better to avoid some logistical/language problems. It appears they could attempt to hit you with a fee for entering Chile as well? But you should be ok if you show you're only in the airport and "in transito".

Thanks for the help.

To me it makes sense to just book it straight through from the states and not deal with attempting to get another ticket from Santiago to Mendoza. But maybe I'm missing something here?

The only reason is cost. Check it first and then decide. Sometimes it's much cheaper to book US to Santiago and then Santiago to Mendoza on separate tickets. That's the only reason anyone does it. If it's not cheaper at the time you check, it's pointless, but if it saves a few hundred dollars, it may be worth it.

If you transit through Santiago with a pre-booked ticket to Mendoza, Chile will not charge you the "reciprocity fee". You simply stay in the international terminal. I'd expect this might not be the case if you are listed as destinating in Chile and are shuffled straight to immigration and out of the terminal.

Separate tickets allows you to use two different airlines. Depending on where you are travelling from there may be only one airline that does both legs of the trip so there is no competition. The leg from Santiago to Mendoza may be covered by several local airlines, so you get could the benefit of price competition by buying that ticket separately - of course if you are buying that ticket from your home country that might not apply. A few years ago I had to buy a ticket from Lima to Cusco at the Lima airport and it was fairly cheap; tickets from the states to Cusco are considerably more expensive that tickets to Lima.

Don't discount flying through Buenos Aires. Argentina's economy is kind of whacked-out right now, but check if that might actually save you a few $$$. The biggest stickler might be getting from the international airport (outside the city) to the domestic airport (near the center of town, overlooking the Rio Platte), but back when I was there they had a free shuttle to transport folks between the airports. It made travel to Mendoza pretty easy.

Thanks for the ideas & thoughts. From what I could tell from a few searches the price is only minimally more to book it direct to Mendoza. I think it was less than $100. To me that's worth it having the peace of mind knowing it's already booked. Again my Spanish is pretty poor, ok, very poor. Getting into a travel bind is more of a concern than the actual climb itself. Not being able to communicate and having travels issues could be bad. I might end up on a one-way flight to Singapore or something - haha.

I would eliminate the option of Buenos Aires just because a guy would have to add the extra bus travel, language barrier, extra time for travel, flights and layover. Not to mention the extra time to fly there.

Thanks SunnyBuns but I'm flying out of Appleton. It's 25 mins from my home, I work on the airport grounds and have free parking for the entire 24 days. Plus it's a smaller airport but I can be from my car to my gate in 15-20 mins. I'm also leaving on the 20th of Dec. Prices are a tad bit higher due to Christmas traffic.

Also the flights shown there are almost all in the 24 long area. I found flights, for more money of course, in the 14-15 hour range. I would also gladly pay more to save 10 hours of travel time. 14 will be long enough no need to make it 10 hours longer. Heck, it's only money right?