LAN LANPASS - LAN Pass or AAdvantage

Hi - I'm not sure if this is better to ask here or on the American forum but since we are not supposed to cross-post, I'll start here.

I'm based in southern california and am a dedicated United flyer (1K for the last several years) but I also end up going to South America every year. I usually do United on the US-South America trip (sometimes with miles) but I like to bounce around South America. Mostly it's been on LAN (which I feel most comfortable with) because Star Alliance has lousy representation in South America. I plan on continuing this pattern every year for the foreseeable future.

I have been posting the miles to my AAdvantage account but now wonder if I should post to LAN? I'm not sure if I would fly enough to make a difference in either regard. Is there more advantage to one versus the other?

My flights on AA in the US are very limited/rare.

Your kind insight would be much appreciated!:)

One thing to consider is that AA miles don't expire as long as you have activity (earning or burning) of any amount at least once every 18 months.

On the other hand, LAN has unavoidable expirations. They're longer than 18 months, but I forget exactly how long. So the problem is that if you don't end up needing to use them, leaving them parked in LAN will make them eventually evaporate, while leaving them parked in AA (as long as you "touch" them occasionally) will keep them there until you need to use them.

Furthermore, if you're based in the US (and especially in Southern California), you have way way more opportunities to earn miles on the ground with AA than with LAN. For starters, there's an AAdvantage Dining (very similar to MileagePlus Dining, except sometimes one has a bonus going when the other doesn't), while there's no LANPass Dining. Similarly, there's AAdvantage Shopping, while AFAIK there's no LANPass Shopping. AA credit card signups have bigger bonus offers, and if you sign up for two of them at essentially the same time in different kinds of browsers (eg, one Firefox, one IE) you can apply for two of them at the same time. And you can repeat this every 18 months or so. While there is a LAN credit card you can get in the US, there's only one AFAIK, and the signup bonus is smaller.

Finally, on the redemption, IIRC, you can get AA to redeem AA miles for LAN one-way or open-jaw flights, but LAN itself only allows (at least online) redemptions with LAN miles for round trips. Depending on the kind of "jumping around" you want to do that might be signficant.

OTOH, it might sometimes be a bit trickier to book LAN awards from AA (where they have to bridge between different reservation systems at the two airlines) than within LAN. Also, on the LAN side, LAN can presumably book awards on new LAN subsidiaries right away, while AA can't until they actually complete joining OW. (That's an issue right at this moment with LAN Colombia.) Don't be surprised to see a similar issue at the start of TAM integration into LAN (assuming that gets fully approved).

(If you're mostly going to be earning, rather than burning, on LAN flights, then the last two issues shouldn't matter much, except that earning might be affected by new LAN subsidiaries too.)

Btw, whichever way you end up going, remember that Alaska (in case you ever find yourself on it, being based on the west coast) partners with both AA and LAN, but doesn't partner with UA. (And that would seem to bring up the possibility of Alaska as a third choice of earning partner, although I'm not sure if the Alaska-LAN partnership is as certain to stay there long term as the AA-LAN partnership. I'm not saying it won't, I'm just saying I know nothing about it except for having checked Alaska's partner chart a minute ago. :) )

Wow - good info. I think the idea of LAN benefits and, rather deludedly, the idea of maybe some sort of "elite" status was what I thought might cause me to go with LAN.

In fact, if the options were positive, I would even consider flying LAN to south american versus United. I like the routing from LAX much better.

However, it sounds like there are more AA positives than LAN positives.

The other possibility is BA Adios (really Avios).
While they became hugely devalued recently for most US customers (esp. West coast) they are still a viable option for one way short segments (in US and SA), although not nearly as good as they used to be.
They are not a good value any longer for long haul to SA (or Asia) or most places other than LHR, but could be an option if you fly UA to SA and use Adios on LAN (+ plus they can be searched for and booked online with BA, unlike AAdvantage miles with LAN).

OTOH, it might sometimes be a bit trickier to book LAN awards from AA (where they have to bridge between different reservation systems at the two airlines) than within LAN.

That's quite an understatement! Consensus on the AA forum is that, even when LAN awards show as available on the BA & QANTAS web sites, they're usually not available on AA.

That's quite an understatement! Consensus on the AA forum is that, even when LAN awards show as available on the BA & QANTAS web sites, they're usually not available on AA.
My understanding is that that is mostly a "temporary" problem (even though "temporary" in the geologic timespan sense more than in the everyday sense, perhaps!), in that it did not always exist, and that they hope to someday fix it again.

But, yes, in the meantime, it works quite badly, but sometimes it does work.

Here are some additional things to consider about Lanpass:

- per their website, elite bonus miles are only earned on LAN and AA flights, not any other OW partner airline.

- per their website, miles are not earned on AA flights with fare code "O" (which I have seen a lot when booking cheapy cheapy domestic flights on AA)

- there have been complaints throughout the years on FT about how LAN changes something in Lanpass with no notice.

You can still buy SouthAmerica pass with LAN by arriving to South America on a OW carrier. So your Aadvantage account would still serve you well.

One more thing... not sure where in S.A. you are flying but don't forget Copa Airlines. You earn EQM on CM and you can mirror your 1K to CO Onepass to get the upgrade benefits.

Try to search this forum.

There's no doubt AA Advantage is far better than LANPASS, even with AA strugling in chapter 11.

LANPASS sucks in perks and, as LAN in general, in customer service.

Stick to AA (or Copa, or Avianca/TACA). In terms of FF program, all are far better than LAN.

Something to consider: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17896019-post1.html

I didn't want to start a new question (let me know if I should), but I am AA Platinum and I fly to South America a lot. I typically take AA from JFK to SAO and then LAN within S America. Whenever I fly LAN I expect to be treated as a OneWorld Sapphire (basically I want the pre-boarding and priority baggage check). What is extremely frustrating is that LAN never recognizes my status!! Inevitably I need to e-mail LAN after the flight, and they are extremely unhelpful (borderline rude) and then I e-mail AA and they post the points.
Am I doing something wrong pre-booking? I usually enter my AA number on the reservation (via BCD Travel at work). Do I need to do something to link them or do I need to sign up for LAN Pass?
To be clear, I'm seeking AA credit, I don't care about the LAN (goods points were raised about this previously in the forum)

I find it frustrating that OW is supposed to make these things easier, but I spend more time e-mailing for credits, I would rather just fly TAM or an alternative airline. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

Has anyone found a OneWorld contact so I can write to them? I have been through the website, but there seem to be no contacts. It's just frustrating that the customer service desk at LAN has been absolutely no help and pretty much tell me to contact AA; LAN could care less. Nice thanks for spending thousands on their inter-American flights each year.

I didn't want to start a new question (let me know if I should), but I am AA Platinum and I fly to South America a lot. I typically take AA from JFK to SAO and then LAN within S America. Whenever I fly LAN I expect to be treated as a OneWorld Sapphire (basically I want the pre-boarding and priority baggage check). What is extremely frustrating is that LAN never recognizes my status!! Inevitably I need to e-mail LAN after the flight, and they are extremely unhelpful (borderline rude) and then I e-mail AA and they post the points.
Am I doing something wrong pre-booking? I usually enter my AA number on the reservation (via BCD Travel at work). Do I need to do something to link them or do I need to sign up for LAN Pass?
To be clear, I'm seeking AA credit, I don't care about the LAN (goods points were raised about this previously in the forum)

I find it frustrating that OW is supposed to make these things easier, but I spend more time e-mailing for credits, I would rather just fly TAM or an alternative airline. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

Has anyone found a OneWorld contact so I can write to them? I have been through the website, but there seem to be no contacts. It's just frustrating that the customer service desk at LAN has been absolutely no help and pretty much tell me to contact AA; LAN could care less. Nice thanks for spending thousands on their inter-American flights each year.

Welcome to FT dddcar!

Not saying you are doing anything wrong, but maybe doing an extra step of frustration. If you fly LAN using your AA number, and no points show up, just email AA and they will solve it. No use doing the extra step of contacting LAN, there is nothing they can do, they can't put points in your AA account.

Now, for sure you shouldn't even need to do that, the points should show up automatically. It does in the other direction: when I fly AA using my LANPass number the kms show up pretty quickly in my account.

Thanks for making me feel better bingocallerb22, ha...at least I'm not doing anything wrong. You're right, I guess I just incorrectly and optimistically thought that members of OW would have their act together a little better and be able to cross-reference these things. I'm sure we all know what people say about assumptions though...

Good point, I should not waste my time with LAN anymore and should just go right to AA, their Platinum Service desk is actually more helpful than I would have expected.

Thanks for welcoming me to FT, I hope to do a lot more responding than asking in the future.

dddcar
Welcome to active FT!
You're only experiencing the usual LAN ground staff issue unfortunately for you not helped by some of the stunts I've seen some of your fellow AAdvantage people try to pull at EZE, LIM and UIO. My experience with the LIM, UIO and GYE staff is that for the Premium Economy/ Economy only flights they seem to be a little bit forgetful about inviting non LANPass status passengers to board, usually there's the Preferrente on your boarding pass that let's you in. I'd check you BP for you FF number and OW status (you should have Sapphire) right next to or just below it which should get you the early boarding. I have seen people use their card at the gate as well. You might need to remind the check in people about the priority tags, I know that I've had issues with AA and BA not putting the priority tags on my bags as a Sapphire, not that it means anything for getting your bags off first anyway...

The only material reason I can think of to join Lanpass is that your elite status gets you into OW lounges worldwide, while your AA status doesn't get you into most North America lounges without buying membership (there are a few route/class exceptions). I've been wondering where I'd end up if the AS/LA partnership ever ends, and as much as it pains me, it would likely be AA.