Other North & South America Frequent Flyer Programs - TAM one way award question.

Can I use miles to pay for half of a tkt withinn Brazil?
I searched for a one way reward, no problem, but if I buy the other half (purchase a one way) the price of a one way is almost as much as if I just bought the round trip to begin with, so its kinda of a waste of miles.

However, if I don't use the 10,000 point I have on TAM, they will expire, and go unused.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Can I use miles to pay for half of a tkt withinn Brazil?
I searched for a one way reward, no problem, but if I buy the other half (purchase a one way) the price of a one way is almost as much as if I just bought the round trip to begin with, so its kinda of a waste of miles.

However, if I don't use the 10,000 point I have on TAM, they will expire, and go unused.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

You can use one way award tickets within South America. As long as there is a seat for sale you can snag it for those 10,000 miles.

It really depends on the destination you are flying: try flying TAM one way and check other carriers/nearby airports on your return as prices may be lower.

Usually for domestic flights the price of the round trip is calculated as the sum of the two directions, so one-way should not come as the same price (that is, if it is not a promotional fare, which usually is valid for a round-trip ticket only).
You can check flying with GOL, Azul, OceanAir, Webjet and select the lowest price for the return.

I just did this yesterday, getting a one way on TAM with points and then getting the return on GOL for cash, not so much that it was less(it might have been a bit more) the the schedule was better for me on GOL.

A bit off topic, you can now use US credit cards on TAM's web site. Had to pay the tax on the ticket. Might have to use their US site to do this which is what I did. GOL also will accept US credit cards. Both however, are a bit clunky, and may give you error messages, yet the transaction is completed.

You can also buy tickets from Webjet and Azul using foreign issued website. I did it last September when flying domestic in Brazil.

In the case of TAM, foreign issued credit card is also acceptable but you need to purchase the ticket from TAM's US or Europe website with fares in Euro or US Dollar which means higher fares than available on the Brazilian website in Reais (R$).

Rgs,

You can also buy tickets from Webjet and Azul using foreign issued website. I did it last September when flying domestic in Brazil.

In the case of TAM, foreign issued credit card is also acceptable but you need to purchase the ticket from TAM's US or Europe website with fares in Euro or US Dollar which means higher fares than available on the Brazilian website in Reais (R$).

Rgs,

It used to be like that but my latest experiences buying tickets from the spanish site (in this cases) was exactly the same price than the brazilian site, converted to euros.

Can I use miles to pay for half of a tkt withinn Brazil?
I searched for a one way reward, no problem, but if I buy the other half (purchase a one way) the price of a one way is almost as much as if I just bought the round trip to begin with, so its kinda of a waste of miles.

However, if I don't use the 10,000 point I have on TAM, they will expire, and go unused.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Just as a reminder: Depending where you're going you need to book the tickets some days in advance (Can't check it now cause TAM's site is down but I think it is 7 days for domestic flights)

It used to be like that but my latest experiences buying tickets from the spanish site (in this cases) was exactly the same price than the brazilian site, converted to euros.

Very good development! Probably TAM reacted to competition since GOL, Webjet and Azul were all selling tickets with foreign issued credit cards for the same fares as availble in R$.

Rgs,

On my recent award ticket purchase on TAM, I first looked at the Brazilian site and the charge for the tax was 19 Reais. At the exchange rate of about 1.75 that day, it would convert to US 10.85. However, on the TAM U.S. site, the charge for the tax in dollars was only US 8.00. YMMV.