Flying to Quito, Ecuador from San Francisco - ADVICE Please!!

Dear Cruise Critic Family,

Please help! I am in the early process of planning for our cruise to the Galapagos (it turned out to be the bucket list trip, I didn't even know I wanted to go on!).

This process has included, among other things, thinking about airlines and flights to get to Quito. We will probably end up using Celebrity's Choice Air service, but I would like to go into it knowing the typical routes and fare costs.

HOWEVER, it looks like the process of departing from SFO, which is our nearest major airport (SJC and OAK also possible), will be a nightmare with multiple connecting flights that will take us anywhere from 12- 20 hours to get there.

Does anyone have suggestions for which airlines and routes would be better? I am already thinking that splurging on Business class or at least premium economy will be necessary.

I appreciate any help/suggestions you offer.

A big West Coast thank you in advance!

Sally

Check out whether you get good connections via Panama City. We flew out of Miami with LAN, very convenient, our own arrangements. The Celebrity people picked us up at the Quito airport and took us back to the Quito airport at the end of their package.

I live in Sacramento and am flying to Peru this coming January. I booked Sacramento to Dallas to Lima to Cuzco on American Airlines. I think the one-way fare is about $900. I booked independently. I'm picking up my cruise in Valparaiso Chile, after hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, so not going to Quito, but you can expect air fares to be on the expensive side, at least they seem a bit expensive to me.

I've also flown on LAN before the last time I was in SA. They are a very good airline.

I know Miami is a popular connecting path to South America.

American Airlines also flies from Miami to Quito at about the same hour as LAN.

Check a map and you will discover that Florida is almost directly north of Quito in a straight line. I think Atlanta is at the same longitude as Lima, Peru. The Galapagos are south of Louisiana.

Have you tried a search engine like Kayak.com? Without knowing any of your specific requirements I did a quick SFO to UIO R/T and it looks like United, American and Aero Mexico among others have one stop flights available for under $1,00 and are only 10-14 hours long. The flights back on AA all have long layovers in Mia on the return so they may be less attractive. There are 4-5 other search engines like Kayak that allow you to set filters for number of stops, layover durations (my wife HATES long layovers) and total duration among others. Just a thought.

Greg

Thanks for the tips! I will definitely look into LAN.

Hopefully we can narrow it down to just 1 lay over.

Check the United Airlines site. They show SFO-HOU-Quito which is a pretty direct flight. We enjoyed our Celebrity cruise of the Galapagos. Enjoy.