Other North & South America Frequent Flyer Programs - Flying with TAM in August, can I credit miles straight to Avios

I booked a domestic flight on TAM a little while back. TAM now seems to be leaving Star Alliance sooner rather than later:

http://www.melhoresdestinos.com.br/star-alliance-tam-copa-avianca.html

I'm new to the whole Avios thing (was doing fine with Diamond Club). If TAM joins OneWorld, could I have the miles credited straight to my Avios account? Or would I a BA Executive Club membership first?

Guessing there's no way to credit them to Star Alliance anymore

Previous articles I've seen have said it could be a while before the merged airlines, which would continue to fly with separate names for a while, had to decide which alliance to be in, though most speculated TAM moving to Oneworld was probable. This is the first one I've seen saying TAM must move by a certain date. I've not yet seen any other article, nor any announcement by Oneworld or Star.

Avianca Brasil is still operating separately from Avianca International, and the last I saw there was yet no decision as to when/if they'd join the Star Alliance (presumably they would fairl soon), so maybe that gives TAM some time. Found this article:

"Structurally, a decision will likely be made by the end of this year on whether to bring Avianca Brazil into the publicly traded holding company Avianca-TACA. The Brazilian carrier is still owned by the Synergy Group, the holding company controlled by the Efromovich family which also owned Avianca prior to its merger with TACA (the Efromovich family now has a majority share in Avianca-TACA Holding). As a result, Avianca Brazil remains separate although it has a co-branding arrangement with Colombia-based Avianca.

In parallel, a decision will also likely be made this year on whether to have Avianca Brazil join Avianca-TACA in Star. TAM was reluctant to approve its local rival Avianca Brazil as a new Star member in late 2010, when the alliance approved Avianca-TACA. But this will soon no longer be an issue because TAM is expected to switch from Star to oneworld following its merger with LAN, leaving Star without a Brazilian member and eliminating any potential overlap with Avianca Brazil."

I hadn't heard of Avos before. Will have to look into it. Have you contacted them directly?

Avios = the name for points in BA Executive Club, Iberia Plus etc

OP - you will be unlikely to be able to credit it to BA or IB. If TAM join Oneworld, it won't be for some time yet.

You can still credit TAM flights to any Star Alliance program as they remain a member, just not bmi Diamond Club, because they (as you know) are no longer part of the alliance.

Thanks good to know. Just when that article above suggested they would leave Star Alliance as soon as June 22nd, I got confused :confused:

I opened a US Air Dividend Miles account, so I guess I can try and save the miles there

I'm new with avios (usually get them through credit card or Tesco ClubCard). If I was to, say, fly on American Airlines, I could just credit the miles straight to my avios number?

galego, I read the article the same way, and I was confused, as well. I think we don't yet know when TAM will leave Star, so maybe you will accrue the miles and maybe you won't. colmc's supposition does seem logical, however.

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/94413961-world-s-biggest-airline-to-form-in-11b-merger.html?cmpid=taboola.video says that LAN seems likely to leave the holding company that owns British Airways but I assume that has no effect on its membership in Oneworld.

I opened a US Air Dividend Miles account, so I guess I can try and save the miles there

Yes you can. (Just make sure that the TAM fare class earns points on US! Classes I, N, O, R, T, W, X don't)

If I was to, say, fly on American Airlines, I could just credit the miles straight to my avios number?

Yes, if you have a membership number for BA or Iberia, you can have it placed on your AA reservation and any Avios earned will go to whichever scheme you are a member of.

galego, I read the article the same way, and I was confused, as well. I think we don't yet know when TAM will leave Star, so maybe you will accrue the miles and maybe you won't. colmc's supposition does seem logical, however.

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/94413961-world-s-biggest-airline-to-form-in-11b-merger.html?cmpid=taboola.video says that LAN seems likely to leave the holding company that owns British Airways but I assume that has no effect on its membership in Oneworld.

A bit confused there. The Bloomberg video in no way says that LAN is any part of the holding company (IAG) that owns British Airways. It is not, and never has been. Let's not confuse the already confusing Latin American airlines situation more than it already is! :)

What that video does say, is that the holding company that owns BA is likely to look at investing in some South American airline or some other airline that has strong service to South America (they mention Portugal's troubled TAP, a *A member with service to Brasil), because they expect LAN will leave BA's alliance (alliance, not holding company, in other words, oneworld.)

I was one of the first to speculate on my travel blog that LAN will leave oneworld to join TAM in Star, even though the conventional wisdom is that TAM will leave Star to join LAN in oneworld. I'm happy to see that Bloomberg News now agrees with me, jejejeje. By the way, so does the ground lead agent for Copa in Washington Dulles. When I asked him two weeks ago about when Copa is finally joining Star (it's 2 1/2 months overdue already), he said in mid-June (about now), and when I asked when is AviancaTaca, he said "never".

Remember, the only reason Latam Airlines Holdings (the combined LAN/TAM entity) cannot join Star, is that the Chilean antitrust court, as a condition of merger approval, forbid Latam from joining any alliance which AviancaTaca Group is in or is in the process of joining. The only other relevant condition is that within 1 year post-merger (which means this time 2013, not now), LAN and TAM must be in only one alliance (the ruling says "at most one of their current alliances" which opens the door to Star, OR ow, OR anybody else.)

LAN is forbidden to join Star because AviancaTaca is supposed to be in Star already. Guess what? I don't see AviancaTaca in Star. I may be dead wrong on this, but it is being speculated upon by more than just little old me.

Meanwhile it is business as usual. TAM is a Star Alliance Member, and will be for at least several more months, most likely through June 2013. So you can credit TAM to any *A program, but keep in mind that each program has its own earning rules for what JJ fare classes earn and at what percentage. For example, pre-UA/CO FF program merger, I flew TAM on a V-fare that credited 100% to CO OnePass but was a reduced credit had I booked it to the original UA Mileage Plus program.

As far as I know, the only oneworld program to which you can currently credit some TAM flights is LANPass. And that excludes any South America-North America flights. My guess is TAM's Star partners demanded that be a condition during the still-in-Star, merger-pending period. They don't mind if you fly Uruguay to Brasil or Brasil to Chile on TAM and credit to oneworld's LANPass program, because Star currently can't fly you on any of that. But they sure don't want you flying TAM and building loyalty to LAN when you should still be building loyalty to UA, US, LH, or AC (or others) if flying to North America.

If you're interested in my speculation I have a long analysis at my fuzzywanderer.com blog.

I'm also prepared to eat humble pie in a week if AviancaTaca in fact joins Star along with Copa.

Hi, does anyone know what is the best program to credit miles from a flight in TAM on a W fare? The flight is from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo and is part of a LAN itinerary. The LAN fare for the whole ticket is Q (in the SP family), however when I called TAM they tell me their flight appears as booked in W.

Last time I flew TAM I credited to United, but W doesn't seem to give miles. What would be my best option to get the most miles?

* American Airlines AAdvantage. Could I credit it since it is sold as a LAN flight?
* LAN's LANPASS, but apparently that would be 25% miles flown...
* TAM? Couldn't find their mileage earning rate for W.
* Any other StarAlliance program?

Thanks!

Yes you can. (Just make sure that the TAM fare class earns points on US! Classes I, N, O, R, T, W, X don't)



Yes, if you have a membership number for BA or Iberia, you can have it placed on your AA reservation and any Avios earned will go to whichever scheme you are a member of.

Is it codeshare? LAN flight number, operated by TAM? If so, only programs you can get miles are TAM and LAN. W is very discounted fare, so I'd say 20% (200 points) on TAM Fidelidade.