Santiago De Chile Airport

Our flight was from Seattle to The Falklands with Santiago being a two day layover. The LAN Chile flight from Santiago to the Falklands was direct and we were a group of tourists scheduled to meet a ship going to Antarctica. Out of our group one passenger's hand luggage and another's suitcase - mine went to Ushiuia Argentina instead the Falklands and we faced a six week polar trip without our important gear. Counting in the check-in and check-out times we went fourteen hours without any significant meal. I was glad I still had a chocolate bar. My advice is to wear everthing you've got even if it means two bras and four underpants. On a second trip the Santiago customs agents confiscated smoked fish and jam from the luggage.

A first class airport with one major exception. The line for paying the airport tax is not clearly marked and 90% of passengers go through the entire immigration line only to find that they have to go to another line first to pay the tax. The tax line usually has only 1 or 2 windows open so it takes forever then you have to do the immigration line all over again! There are airport employees herding people through the immigration line but they do not warn passengers that they have to pay the tax first. I was first off the plane but ended up one of the last to leave the airport.

A modern clean somewhat austere business-oriented airport. Virtually no place so sit in the cavernous check-in hall. There are several kiosks for various airlines though not for all. For some (eg Avianca) you need to ask or know to walk to the 4-story office building next door. Very few dining options outside of security. For any shopping at all you need to wander over to the domestic wing where there are some small stores including a pharmacy. Saw no central location for info on transportation options into Santiago. There are two different companies offering busses but you need to talk with both to get full info on prices and options on where you can go. New Holiday Inn across from the terminal is a bit pricey but nice and offers an alternative if somewhat expensive dining option.

Generally a good modern airport but there can be confusionwith respect to payment of departure taxes for transit passengers. Although all of us were in transit some were charged tax and others not. Signage between domestic arrivals and international departures needs improvement.

All round excellent experience. Particularly impressed by exit formalities quick security processing with almost no line ups. Many airports could learn from this one.

We arrived in Santiago early morning from MIA on AA. At the time we landed there were two other major flights arriving. I saw people from Iberia LAN and Delta. Immigration lines were long speacially on the foreigners lane. People had to do two lines one for paying the reciprocity fee for Americans and then the regular line to enter the country. We paid the visa tax on prior trip so we proceeded straight to the immigration officer. Immigration a bit of a mess but Baggage claim went without problem. Signage is good and exiting customs was very quick and easy. Once arrived is a bit confusing to get a cab to get downtown. Clean ordered and modern building.

Modern bright and clean airport. International arrivals easy. Signs to pay visa reciprocity fee clear and easy to follow. Quickly moved through immigration. Baggage arrived quickly and easy to pass through customs. Options to transfer to city available before leaving secure area so easy to organise and reasonable prices. Domestic departure was smooth and easy. There are a couple of eating/drink options available after domestic security although prices a little high by Chilean prices. Overall probably one of South America's best airports with modern facilities and very easy to use.

Flew Atlanta-Santiago-Puerto Montt and Buenos Aires-Santiago-Atlanta in March 07. Connecting to domestic flight required going through passport control and customs in Santiago. As you come down the stairs to arrivals the desks for paying the reciprocity fee require something of a U-Turn. Don't go directly to passport control. There are two areas for passport control but both lead to the same baggage claim area. After you pick up bags they will be scanned before you leave the secure area into a fairly cramped meeting area. There are several ATM's. Signs for domestic connections not that clear. You have to go upstairs and find the airline - LAN is a bit of a hike. Check-in area bright and open. After security for domestic flights there's one boutique a Starbucks and a local cafe. That's it - it's pretty sleepy. We had to ride a bus from domestic departures (very few gates) to plane parked at an international gate. Connecting from an international flight to an international flight much easier. Bags checked through. You exit passport control (if boarding in Santiago) into large duty free area. Good variety of restaurants in international terminal including Ruby Tuesday's Starbucks and Dunkin Doughnuts as well as local options. Some construction is going on to expand the terminal. I found the dining options better than Buenos Aires and in general the airport was pleasant. Surprisingly few airline staff spoke English though.

Immigration at Santiago's international airport is a slow and painful process if you arrive in peak periods. We have recently twice arrived at the midday to 1pm period and had to wait over an hour to reach an immigration officer. After a long flight this is a dreadful experience. It must be particularly bad for people who are elderly sick or with children as there is nobody to assist give such people priority. Our suggestion would be to wait airside with a good book until the queues subside (as they do seem to do) and then go through. It is not a good welcome to Chile and here's hoping that the immigration authorities in Chile will remedy this simply by putting more officers on during peak arrival periods.

Arrived at Santiago after an all-nighter on Delta. Arrivals was very simple – US citizens veered to the left (at least in the terminal we arrived in) just before immigration to pay the $100US reciprocity fee. The booths were clearly marked and the lines went very quickly. They will staple a receipt in your passport good for the life of the passport. Immigration followed also very efficient. We exchanged $100US for Chilean pesos before we left the secure area. A subsequent ATM withdrawl showed we had paid a premium of about 3 ½%. Certainly not a big deal. Next we picked up our bag & exited customs. All luggage including carry-on was x-rayed & you turn the customs declaration form in as you pick up your freshly x-rayed bags. We probably took 20 minutes from the time we left the plane until we were in the free world including making the reciprocity payment passport control money exchange luggage pick-up & customs. Once outside it was a hectic mess. Everybody & their little brother wants you to arrange a taxi through them. We picked an official-looking fellow with a portable radio and agreed upon $25 US to the Marriott. There was no need to have exchanged money at the airport – the cab driver was happy to get the $27US I gave him. The exchange rate at the Marriott appeared to be exactly the same as at the airport. Departing was a little different. My wife went ahead and the bellman put our bag in the “hotel taxi”. I asked how much & was told $40000 (about $80US). I said no way took the bag out of the trunk & said I just wanted a regular taxi & pointed to one on the street. The bellman said it would cost $50000 to the airport. I said no way I’d only paid $12000 when I arrived. A little Spanish between the parties and I was offered the hotel taxi (down-scale limo?) for $16000 (about $32US). Okay. Based on posts here and other places we elected to get to the airport about 3 hours ahead of flight time. Good choice though this will probably not apply to you. We booked our South America itinerary (SCL-ASU-MVD-EZE-GIG) through TAM for $1253 (two tickets) in Miami. We had called 4 times in the previous 3 months to make sure there would be no issues & every time we were told the tickets were electronic & all we had to do was give them the number at the ticket counter. Don’t know why we were suspicious but it was an issue. After 2:45 screwing around with every TAM rep in the building and calling Miami twice we finally got paper tickets issued. TAM doesn’t use e-tickets throughout most of S.A. I was perhaps most perturbed when the TAM manager came down & said it was our fault because the “agency” issued the tickets incorrectly. The “agency” was TAM. He finally understood & I was happy to tell him exactly what I thought of his professionalism. Other than TAM related issues the departure was fine: about 10 minutes to go through a courteous immigration control plenty of duty free shops (though we didn’t have time to even stop for a bathroom break) and it appeared there was plenty of seating. Couldn’t tell about eating places – again because of TAM. Overall a very good airport experience and a rather poor airline experience.