I always find something useful in Wendy Perrin’s column in Conde Nast Traveler and when catching up on my magazines lately I ran across an especially good one. How to snag a bargain seat in business class delivers on the title.

There’s nothing specifically about flying to Latin America, but the same tendencies apply. Often a business class seat from a major U.S. city to a major one in South America will be less than double the price of a coach ticket. As she points out, as airlines (especially U.S. ones) have starting tacking big co-pays onto business class upgrades, often just buying a business class ticket will be cheaper than upgrading from coach—while gaining miles instead of using them!

Her specifics on landing a good fare range include some good resources and advice:

- Consolidator Etravelbid.com – right now they’re advertising NYC to Rio, Buenos Aires, and Santiago all under $3,000.

- JoeSentMe.com charges $49 a year, but offers access to the best business class fares each week. There are a lot of services promising to do that, but this one gets consistently high marks from users.

- Book at least two months ahead to see the best selection

- Look at foreign carriers you don’t expect to fly that route. Granted there aren’t as many of these serving Latin America, but you can fly on Copa to Buenos Aires from New York or Santiago from Los Angeles, for example. Taca goes to a whole long list of cities via its hubs in Central America and LAN serves a lot of routes as well. I’ve found the best representation of foreign airlines (though it’s far from complete) to be on Vayama.com.

- Fly to business capitals. For obvious reasons, you’re going to find a lot more business class seat selection between places where business travelers fly. So Sao Paulo is easier than Rio, Lima is easier than Montevideo. And if you don’t live in a major U.S. business city, you’ll probably need to buy two separate flights. One from your airport in coach, another from the major city in business class.

Where are the world’s most expensive hotel suites? On this luxury travel blog I’m usually discussing the scene in Latin America, but since that whole region is a great value, the prices there don’t make the cut.

The Wall Street Journal recently did a big feature story on the Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons New York City. If you want to book this lavish suite with panoramic Manhattan views, you’d better be loaded. It’ll cost you $35,000 a night. Don’t even think about asking for a discount and forget any party plans: because of all the expensive furnishings, no more than 10 people are allowed in at one time. Read the whole article to see all the expensive features that go into this price. But for a start, there’s a $120,000 chandelier, Thai silk with gold threads on the canopy bed, and an energy-hogging 850 light bulbs.

This is the most expensive suite in the Americas outside Las Vegas. Some there go for an even higher rate, but are frequently given away free to high-rolling whales with an account of half a million or more. Here are some of the other expensive suites from around the world listed in the article:

Hugh Hefner Sky Villa/Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas – Price per night: $40,000

Bridge Suite/Atlantis, Paradise Island in the Bahamas – Price per night: $25,000

Royal Auite/Burj Al Arab in Dubai – Price per night: $19,000

The Ritz-Carlton Suite/Ritz-Carlton, Moscow – Price per night: $13,900

How does Latin America compare? Well the only suite I can find in our reviews that tops $10,000 per  night is really a house: the four-bedroom Villa Cortez at the One&Only Palmilla in Los Cabos, Mexico. It has a top rack rate of $12,000, but that includes a private staff of 12 (with two chefs), the huge private infinity pool pictured below, a big cinema room, a full office, and a prime spot on the beach.

The best suite at the Four Seasons Costa Rica goes for close to $10,000 in high season, but is also a villa with multiple bedrooms.

The top suite is under 5 grand at Capella Pedregal in Los Cabos, Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya, Ritz-Carlton Santiago, and the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge.

For more information on luxury travel and hotels outside of Latin America, see JustLuxe.com

The plummeting euro has been all over the news the past few months. In a strange twist of fate, the non-Chavez-leaning countries of Latin America are looking like models of fiscal stability now compared to their colonial cousins in Spain and Portugal.

The euro is at its lowest level in five years against the greenback as the flight to safety continues. So what does that mean for your travels to Latin America?

Not much, actually. As I’ve pointed out on here before, many of the currencies in Central America and South America move in lockstep with the U.S. dollar. In Ecuador and Panama, the dollar is the currency—you don’t even need to change money upon arrival. In others, like Honduras and Belize, there is a very narrow trading range.

The most volatile exchange rates are the ones attached to the most developed roaring economies: Chile and Brazil. Expect a lot of volatility if you’re heading to those commodity-rich nations. Things are a little brighter right now though: the dollar is up 6% in Brazil and 7.1% in Chile since the new year started.

The bad news is, that’s coming off a very strong 2009 for those currencies. The news is worse elsewhere, with the dollar faltering a bit against the currencies of Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, Uruguay, and Costa Rica. Not by much though—the declines are all under 5%.

Mexico is basically flat for the year, which means around 12.5 to the dollar—still a great exchange rate in historic terms. Argentina is still hovering around 3.9 to the dollar, after being at 3-to-1 before last year. (Unfortunately, they’re making up for it with high inflation and increased visa fees upon arrival.)

Does any of this matter if the changes aren’t dramatic? Not a whole lot for your biggest expenses. If you book a tour with a company marketing to North Americans, they’re pricing things in dollars anyway. Most luxury hotels set their rates in dollars as well in this hemisphere, with Brazil being the main exception. Latin America real estate may or may not be priced in the local currency: it depends on the target market and the location.

Where you really lose or win is when you buy things or services that are priced in local terms. When the dollar is strong, you will pay less for taxis, restaurant meals outside the hotel, and excursions you book with a local company not affiliated with your hotel. Local flights will usually be in the local currency, except for places like Peru and Argentina where they like to play the game called “soak the foreigners.”

Naturally if you’re living somewhere for a while in a vacation home or retirement home, these fluctuations matter more. They then affect your property expenses and labor expenses.

To see historic exchange rates, follow this link to fxtop.com

Just two months after instituting a reciprocal visa fee for tourists to Argentina (meaning an extra $131 per person for Americans), the government of Argentina seems to be determined to rankle as many people as possible.

The latest is “the biggest inflation surge to start the year in two decades,” according to the Wall Street Journal, as Argentina Confronts Soaring Inflation. The worst part of this, for locals and tourists alike, is a 25% rise in beef prices. Chronic overspending is to blame, which has led to a big soap opera of the former head of the central bank being fired for not handing the government the bank’s foreign reserves to spend, his refusing to step down, then his being forced to step down when he was barred from his office. Kirchner’s yes-woman replacement is not sitting well with economists or the business leaders.

Bad government policies are mostly blamed for the beef inflation since price controls and export bans have led to a reduction in cattle, from 61 million in 2007 to 50 million today.

Good news for us is, the peso has dropped against the dollar to a nearly 4-to-1 ratio from around 3-to-1 in years past. So prices are rising, but so is the value of the dollar or euro for those coming in from elsewhere.

Your cruise stop in the Falkland Islands may cost extra though. Argentina is trying to force ships to get permission from Buenos Aires to pass through Argentine waters to get there. This move has gotten the support of Hugo Chavez, which tells you how well it’s going to play out with more sane leaders…

Keep an eye on international news if you’re planning a trip to Argentina. Hopefully an international recovery—or new elections—will right the ship before things get ugly.

[photo from Living in Patagonia blog]

There are a lot of elements that go into the price of a flight, from staff costs to government fees to landing gate charges at airports. One big variable—and the ones most airlines use to justify all kinds of add-ons and extras—is the price of fuel. Well how much does it really cost to carry each passenger a thousand miles through the air?

Spirit Air is doing its best to figure that out and share it with its customers. It has published a handy dandy chart showing how much it costs them in fuel to go a certain range of distance. You can see the full breakdown at this link, but here are a few examples:

• A short hop of 400 to 599 miles costs them $21.67 at current fuel rates
• Going 800 to 999 miles is a shade over $30
• Their longest hauls of 2000+ miles costs $78 per passenger in fuel

So to put that in real terms, for Ft. Lauderdale to Cancun, fuel is only around $22. Flying all the way to Lima from there, fuel is more than $78 per passenger. All these rates assume an 80% load factor, so if the flight is jammed full the actual cost per person would be a bit less. I’m not sure how cargo is figured in. And what if my seatmate weighs twice as much as I do? Should those who can’t fit in a regular airline seat multiply by two?

Think about this next time you see a $300 “fuel surcharge” on your legacy airline flight to Europe. Where’s that money really going? Why isn’t it just included in the price of the ticket?

When you see these fuel prices though, it makes Spirit’s cheap fares look even better, especially if you’re part of that $9 fare club. If you can snag one of those rates, you are flying for less than the cost of the fuel, never mind all the other costs the airline bears. So smile when you pay that checked baggage fee or a swipe your credit card for a cup of coffee in the air. Chances are those fees might not even get you back to even.

If you just want to get from point A to point B and have plenty of cash left over for spending after arrival, Spirit Air serves many Latin American destinations besides Cancun and Lima. They’ll get you to Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, and four locations in Colombia.

More on airlines serving Latin America. Thanks to SmarterTravel for the original post on this.