Tips on booking flights

I’ve learned that booking a flight in English isn’t always the best way to go. Recently, I was searching for a round-trip domestic flight from Santiago, Chile, to Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in Chile and the main jumping-off point for Patagonia (right), which was my ultimate destination. I looked on LAN Airlines’ website , since LAN runs flights to, from, and within Chile, Argentina, Peru, and Ecuador.
What I discovered was that if I booked my ticket in English, the cost for my round-trip ticket would be $485. If I booked it in Spanish, the cost dropped to $195. The reason? Booking in English, I was only given a choice of “flexible” and “fully flexible” tickets, whereas if I booked in Spanish, I also had access to “promotional” and “economy” tickets — ones that had more restrictions, but were significantly kinder to my budget.
I figured there must be a catch, but a LAN representative confirmed that the promotional and economy tickets are available to travelers of any nationality. Since I don’t know Spanish, I got a Spanish-speaking friend to help me navigate LAN’s website and purchase my $195 economy ticket.

Posted by Kari Bodnarchuk, Globe Correspondent