drvannostren

So,

I've read that LATAM award space are a bit stingy. But I have a few questions as an Alaska rookie.

I found availability for a flight that I wanted via the BA tool. In fact I found 2.

Flat out told no, 0s across the board over the course of 7 days by the Alaska agent.

Is it even worth looking into? There's stingy, then there's ridiculous. I also am confused as to why any airline would involve themselves in one of these partnerships where they are forced to have an agent take their time to look into these things.

My fear is that CX awards are the same, but at this point, while the agents are friendly...I'm finding MP to be more and more useless, despite the billing of how versatile the points are. Anytime I look for anything it seems to involve overnighting in SEA/DFW/MIA for seemingly no reason, can't find any LAN space, CX space is sparse as is according to the BA tool, I shudder to think what the phone agent will tell me.

Any tips specifically for LAN? Or am I just chasing ghosts here.

PABE

I've booked a number of LAN flights in the past - all in business class. When calling, be sure to let the agent know that you are looking for LAN/LATAM flights. Sometimes newer agents don't know that it has to be done in a different system.

Also, just ask them to search for the LAN segments separately. If flying SEA-LAX-SCL, request that they search LAX-SCL on days that BA shows have seats.

drvannostren

Ok I'll go for a HUACA

I did have to walk her through part of it, like when I told her I was starting in YVR, she then started going on about how they don't fly there, which I knew of course.

I spelled it all out for her and then she got a bit pushy and said "well I see the flight number, but we have only 0s our agreement with them is different than BA they don't necessarily release the same amount of seats to us". Which, I do understand, but it seemed as if they release 0 seats to you. But then I also had an agent on the previous call say that a CX business award wouldn't grant you lounge access...which I was pretty sure was wrong. So I can't tell if I should ever trust what these agents say on the phone lol.

To be honest, I don't know all the background info but it seems a bit stupid to enter into an agreement like this while forcing yourself to have agents wasting time over the phone searching availability for people.

In the end, is there anywhere other than the BA search tool to display availability? I know I could search on the LAN site, but they'll show more to their own members obvs. I'd just rather find out myself then call.

Eastbay1K

Award Nexus is pretty accurate, but it is not free.

AS agents don't book a lot of LanChile/LAN/LATAM during the history of the partnership. I've had everything from total frustration to easy peasy during my many calls over the past 16 years - from being told I could not fly Lan Chile to Santiago (not because of lack of availability) to agents that know all the routing rules and obscure airport codes).

drvannostren

Just trying to get to EZE without spending a night in PDX/SEA/DFW/MIA...hopefully in business class and without paying huge scam charges.

I've got enough points to do it from AA/SQ/AC/AS yet proving to be very difficult.

sdsearch

As mentioned, you can use Award Nexus (www.awardnexus.com). And contrary to what has been mentioned, it can be free up to a point. Just click "more signup options" under the green Purchase button to be taken to a page where you can sign up for free using your FlyerTalk account info, and you get 200 points free, and every 90 days you can get another 100 points free (if you're below 10 points left at that point). Each flight direction you search for one day will use 1 or 2 points. Obviously, if you search a number of days, points will go by faster.

But the important thing is that Award Nexus is just an interface to BA and/or QF. So you still have to search one flight leg at a time (XXx-YYY separately from YYY-ZZZ), not the whole flight direction at a time (ie, not XXX-ZZZ). BA will often report "phantom" inventory (from many airlines) when you search connections, and it'll report that both on its own website and when you search via Award Nexus. And there's no guarantee that QF won't report "phantom" inventory either.

However, the other thing to consider specifically in the case of LATAM is that LATAM (to its own members, at the very least) doesn't support one-leg redemptions. (Officially, it doesn't support one-way redemptions, but one-way redemptions consisting of two legs seem to work, just not one-way-single-flight-leg redemptions.)

So, unfortunately, with LATAM you have to worry about whether you're searching for flights with "too few" flights or "too many" flight legs.

While you can do all this searching yourself at the BA and/or QF websites, as you've discovered, the BA website is really clunky. Meanwhile, I think you'll find the Award Nexus website much nicer. (And it's exactly the same user interface whether searching only through BA, only through QF, or through both, at Award Nexus.)

At the very least, even if you don't complete your search successfully with those initial 200 free points, by that time you should have a good idea of how Award Nexus and the BA site compare for you and can make a better decision whether to pay a bit for more points or go back to using BA directly.

yerffej201

Anyone been able to book longhaul LAN space in J when it shows on BA? E.g. LIM-JFK, space shows on BA but AS can't book it.

eponymous_coward

Here, does that help?

yerffej201

No... I've called multiple agents with the same results... and I'm not quite sure what LAN restrictions on their own points has to do with AS...

jamespvg

I've experienced both BA availability and nothing on AS, and nothing on BA but available on AS. Rhyme, reason, etc...

maal99

When you booked your flights, were you only going from the US to South America?

I'm interested in booking a trip from CUZ/LIM to SDU for next year but I know one flight is operated by LATAM Peru (to Santiago) while the other is LATAM Brazil.

From the website: Mileage Plan is working with LATAM to add TAM flights to our award-winning program. However, Mileage Plan members can currently only earn and redeem miles on LAN-operated flights.

But it also has a link to info about Brazil on that same page (which I thought was TAM), so I'm a bit confused about what's allowed right now.

Is there a way to tell which flights are LAN and which are TAM when searching BA/Award Nexus?

dcpdxtrans

Any updates to this thread?

Unionruler

I am looking for a SCL-ORD business class award...my question is can AA metal flights be booked together with LATAM metal on the LATAM pricing? I prefer routing SCL-JFK-(AA)-ORD instead of SCL-LAX-(AS)-ORD because it's less time in a recliner.

Eastbay1K

No.

wolfpacktrojan

Delta has bought a 20% stake in LATAM, and they are leaving OW. Will be interesting to see what happens with AS’s partnership with LATAM, if anything.