The quest to get from Budapest to Puerto Varas in one go.

Since We loved Chile last year and we had no time to discover most of the Patagonian part we decided to go back and do it this year. The plan was get to Puerto Varas as quick and possible and drive from there. Initially we booked a Wizzair flight from Budapest to Rome then an Alitalia flight from Rome to Santiago, then LATAM to Puerto Montt as the thrid flight. Wizzair however changed the schedule of its Budapest – Rome flight to the late afternoon getting in around 9pm and our flight was scheduled out of Rome at 10pm. So this wasn’t an option anymore, we claimed the ticket costs back and booked a separate ticket with Alitalia from Budapest to Rome which gets in at 8pm. I even called the Alitalia customer service line to make sure that they can check our bags all the way through to Santiago and the answer was “Yes, but you have to discuss it with the ground staff in Budapest”. For the record flew many times from Koh Samui through Bangkok and Doha to Budapest and having separate tickets for the Bangkok-Budapest leg then a separate one with Bangkokair for the Koh Samui – Bangkok leg. They never even asked a question at Koh Samui airport they just checked our bags all the way through to Budapest. I thought since this is even the same airline it shouldn’t be a problem, only to find out at the Budapest Airport that due to a new policy they can only check our bags in until Rome, then we have to collect them and check them in again in Rome for the Santiago flight. We only had 2 hours to get the bags and recheck them in Rome. We asked the ground staff to – at least – put a priority tag on the bags so we get them first, which they did and this was our luck. We landed on time in Rome and had to take the bus to the baggage area. The screens showed that our bags will start coming out at 8:30pm, last check in for the Rome-Santiago flight was at 8:45pm so that was really tight to say the least. My girlfriend took the initiative to go upstairs to the departures and try to persuade them to wait for me as I am still waiting on our bags.

Luckily the bags started to come out around 8:20pm and our bags were amongst the first ones, thanks to the priority tag. Once I had the bags I rushed upstairs and we managed to check in just in time. Bloody hell this was close, if we’d have missed this one flight the whole trip was gonna go down the gutter.

After rechecking our bags, we went straight through security and passport check. I would like to highlight here the passport check thing. It was all automated for European citizens and there were no queues at all and it went real fast. I have seen something similar at Amsterdam airport a few years back but that was a true disaster. This however was very impressive along with the whole Rome Airport. I heard horror stories before about Alitalia and Rome Airport. Even if it was bad years ago I can assure you that it is very efficient now, the airport looks brand new, restrooms are clean, so it was a very good experience in general. It is a pity that the airline is in financial limbo and might not be around much longer.

The Rome-Santiago leg took 15 hours. We had tickets for economy class, it wasn’t smaller or bigger than any other airline’s economy seat. The entertainment system was however top-notch very nice, responsive tough screens and a state of the art flight progress map.

I even managed to sleep a few hours. Food-wise, well, I have pre-ordered the gluten free option up front and it was terrible. I have to keep reminding myself that gluten free is not low-carb so I couldn’t have half the items on the tray.

Landing in Santiago was very smooth, we got out of the airplane very quick and we got through immigration in a record of 15 minutes. I like that officers on the ground take the initiative to open up the lines reserved for Chilean citizens when the foreign line is too crowded and the line for locals is empty. if you come in to the United States, citizens and green card holders go one side and the rest of the people go the other side. I have been to multiple airports in the USA but I have never seen them opening up the lines reserved for USA citizens just because it was empty… Once we collected our bags, we had to check in one more time at the LATAM desk for our Santiago – Puerto Montt leg. This time we had plenty of time and luckily nobody cared that we checked in 3 hours early.

Long story short we got to Puerto Montt 15 minutes late. The weather was really bad, cloudy, rainy, not what I expected for this time of the year.

The last task was to pick up our rental car from Econorent. Surprisingly there was no wait, they even had our cross border permit ready and I got the make and model I asked for which never actually happens anywhere else. So good job Econorent,  I really needed this win after 30 hours of traveling. I am now happily sitting on my hotel room in Puerto Varas drinking my 4th beer and being happy that all this is behind me.