MilesBuzz! - LatinPass: Who's Really Going?

Has anyone other than me actually booked a trip to get a LatinPass bonus?

I'll be earning 500k in 28 hours on March 11 and 12.

What's the itinerary? Should us fellow FTers be waving from the sidelines like the bearer of the Olympic Torch? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I'm waiting to see somebody actually do the trip *and* get the bonus, before I consider it. I've talked to my wife about it, and she might actually be the one doing the travelling. Again, though, I'd like a confirmation that the bonus is for real before setting out on my own. Good luck, UpgradeMe.

I bought my tickets yesterday. Two friends and I will be taking a GUA-CCS route for the 500k bonus. I was mighty tempted to go for the full 1M, but this plan seems less expensive per mile--at least when flying full fare or business. The full Y cost for this routing is under $1,200 (plus 25k AAdvantage miles to get in & out of South America).

We've got several days planned in Bonaire at the end of the trip. That gives us some slack if some of the flights get delayed or cancelled. If all goes as planned, we'll get the 500k miles in a fairly comfortable fashion and have a nice diving vacation to boot.

I'll take a $118 SFO-LAS-SFO trip on National for the partner segments.

If the miles post in the timeframe LatinPass promised, we might use miles from the first 500k to get the last 500k for under $1,000.

We're still looking at it since we'll be in AUA in April anyways?

If you don't mind please post the flights and times ($$$ too) for the 28 hours and GUA to CCS. I've been spending time on Travelocity and such to see how to do this in minimal time/cost.
Thanks!

UpgradeMe...I would also like to know the details/cost of your itinerary. If you'd rather not post it here, please e-mail to me.

Thanks...

My travel agent and I will be doing a 6 segment trip starting Mar 11th and ending the night of the 12th. If anyone is going around then feel free to e-mail me to see if we overlap. Total cost is $1200 in business class for 5 segments and full coach on 1 segment.

We could have ended in CUR for about 100 USD less, but decided that LIM would allow us to do a same day LIM-CUZ-LIM on Taca Peru if something went wrong with 1 of the flights midway through the trip.


rich

ps. has anyone investigated the locally collected taxes at various airports? Columbia I believe charges $25 to leave the country.


[This message has been edited by RichLond (edited 02-11-2000).]

I'm also still in the planning stage, but I am serious about it. I will combine it with a trip I have to do to Lima anyway (being based in London, UK I have to get to the Amreicas first). I am interested to see the experiences of others.

My itinerary was posted once upon a time in the really long LatinPass thread, but for those of you who really don't feel like wading through 180 posts:

Ticket #1:
3/11
TACA 514 MIA-MGA (qualifies as NICA)

Ticket #2:
3/11
TACA 514 MGA-SAL
AVIATECA 960 SAL-GUA
3/12
COPA 317 GUA-SJO (1-stop)

Ticket #3:
3/12
LACSA 691 SJO-BOG
AVIANCA 77 BOG-UIO
3/13
CO 1248 UIO-IAH
CO 1051 IAH-DFW

Not including the CO flights, this itinerary is less than $1900 in business class. (And since all of my flight coupons read either C or J, I don't have to worry about the ever-changing fare rules.)

I have to be in FLL on March 9 and 10, and in DFW on March 13, so this trip meshes perfectly with my other plans.

I know the trip can be done for less (even in business class), but I was unable to come up with a schedule that fit my needs any better than this one, in part because I will only be in Colombia for less than three hours.

I'll be in MCI for 24 hours on April 9, and I've already booked a MCI-STL r/t to cover the partner flights. Avis rentals (current President's Club member) and Marriott stays (current Marriott Rewards Gold) will not be a problem.

I may be joined on the trip by a good friend who is a well-known travel writer. So who knows, I may end up almost as famous as pudding guy.

BTW: All flights booked through TRIP.com for 3 miles per $.

Rich Lond: I'd love to see your itinerary. 5 b/c segments for $1200? Really?

That is truly astounding Rich. At these prices, coupled with the MEGAmiles, one might be tempted to just "take over" the entire series of aircraft on the route, at least in C, with FTer's.

Maybe a huge mileage party run could be planned in association with an upcoming event like the NYC or Montreal get togethers. It could well be a kind of an extention of the previous highly successful UA PIP flight. The only problem might well be too limited numbers of seats on these aicraft!

Upgrade me,

I will be on the same flights as you on 12th from SJO - BOG - UIO. Send me an e-mail and maybe we could have a drink the night before in SJO.

1 point i may not have made clear was that the 1200 dollars did not include flights to and from the US. Those are an additional 600 bucks on AA from DCA ($450 with VolumeBuy Vouchers) in coach.

The flights are as follows:

Ticket $138.99
TA220 SAL-SAP 08:30-09:15

Ticket 2 $570.00
CM311 SAP-GUA 14:15-15:00
GU911 GUA-SJO 18:25-20:00
LR691 SJO-BOG 10:40-13:45

Ticket 3 $503.80
AV77 BOG-UIO 16:15-17:40
VX521 UIO-LIM 21:35-22:45 < Coach

Total Cost: $1,212.79

rich


[This message has been edited by RichLond (edited 02-11-2000).]

Rich:

Not spending the night in SJO on 3/11, but maybe we can partake of the local custom during our 2 1/2 hour layover in BOG. (On second thought, let's skip the local custom and stick to alcohol.) Or maybe dinner in Quito during your 4 hour layover?

BTW, I don't think it's entirely coincidence that Rich and I selected many of the same flights. The trick for the cheap 500k (at least in business class) is to stick to Central America as much as possible. This is particularly true because Aces, Saeta and Aeropostal are all singles class airlines.

BTW, I selected UIO as my ending point only because CO's business class fare to DFW was hundreds of dollars less from UIO than it was from CCS, PTY or LIM. Because Avianca can get you to all of these places from BOG, it really depends how much it will cost you to return home.

Hi everyone.

I was going to go this thursday, but wife will be coming with me, so, we postponed to mid March. I gave up on the one million cause Saeta (flying, not flying, then flying again.......) 500k should be ok.
I came up with something better.
MEX/GUA/SAL/MGA/SJO/BOG/CCS/MIA- about $1100. Well one need to get to MEX and back from MIA (Was thinking in using FF award), is worth it.

I can recommend a GREAT Argentine steak house in Quito. I'll try and get the details.

I cannot speak for other Flyertalk event organizers but if anyone has any suggestions on any events tied to a F-T event could they PLEASE ASK THE EVENT COORDINATORS FIRST!!!

For my event, I want as few "main" events as possible to give everyone a chance to have free time to enjoy the sights of NYC.

If we have too many events then the whole thing will not be fun.

Thank you for your understanding.

Catman: So if I understand you correctly, FT'ers who happen to be in Quito on 3/12 should not meet for dinner because it might somehow interfere with your NYC event?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

No, but someone suggested linking this Latin Pass mileage run with my cat-Man-do-2.

I want to keep my event as simple as possible without side events or parties or stuff like that.

The dates for my event are March 17-19 so it won't interefer with your dinner in Quito or elsehwere.

And have a great time!!!

In response to a question about airport taxes. When I was in GUA a couple of months ago, I remember having a tax of about US$30 CASH(either US$ or GUA Quetzal) that I had to pay before checking in. This was in addition to any taxes charged in my ticket already. I was already running late (last person to check in), out of cash and the first ATM I went to didn't work(I believe there are only two in the airport so expect a line).

As to hotels in CCS, I remember a clean, safe hotel right on the beach that was only 15 minutes by bus(US$0.50 if that much). There were two restaurants basically connected to the hotel that overlooked the water. The hotel was about US$25. The beer there was cheap and pretty good. I will try to find the name and address of the hotel and another one in GUA and post it.

In order to get around the tax, if we are only connecting in a certain airport (but using our next/seperate ticket) in what countries would we still have to pay the airport tax that is charged at the counter. We would still have to check-in but it might possibly be inside of customs/immigration. If one were doing the 1,000,000, the taxes if US$25/ticket would add up to a significant amount....any advice?

Taxes... Yet another question on departure taxes...

1. When is it charged? i.e. Yes on departure
but is this only if you stay overnight
i.e. leave the airport. I assumed it wasn't charged if your are just an intl
transit e.g. transferring in BOG from a
CCS flight to another International flight
to SJU ?
2. Does anyone know what is being charged
these days for AUA, PTY, SJO , CCS ...

Having fun yet? Thx !

Don't know about the departure taxes in Central America, but Peru and Ecuador are both $25 (not for transit though.) However, if you're doing a domestic trip to Cuzco and Machu Pichu, you will have to pay obviously.

Mark- No intention of stepping on any paws here Catman! The only aspect intended to relate to ANY event, not just NYC, was that FTers from different areas might well have possibly wanted to consider using ANY upcoming event as a possible starting and/or finishing point where a group could get together for a great fun run! Of course these would've been separate from your NYC hosting and naturally I'd have spoken to you if I'd planned to connect it directly. I hope you'll accept my sincerest apologies. In retrospect, my choice of the words in association with, was indeed a poor choice! Again apologies all around.

MileSmiles: Try Starting with Lacsa , LAX-MEX at 12:30 AM Six days a week.

[This message has been edited by Sydneyjb (edited 02-13-2000).]

Milesmiles-
sounds like you found a good itinerary. Can you give the breakdown on times and airlines for the flights? Is this Coach on all flights?

"MEX/GUA/SAL/MGA/SJO/BOG/CCS/MIA- about $1100."
Thanks

After reading this and the other Latinpass thread, I've come to the conclusion that this offer is just too good to pass up, considering I'm planning on going to Europe and Asia this year, my parents to Australia next year.

I'd be interested in flying to Miami in March with my father (US Airways, $200) and then doing the 500k trip for around $1,200 with a stop-over somewhere nice where we could relax for a week and perhaps take advantage of the hotel and car rental requirements at the same time.

I have no idea, however, where to spend this vacation. I'm not looking for sand and sun, rather some place with interesting city life, history, culture, etc. Was leaning towards Peru, if it can fit within the $1,200 range. Costa Rica also sounds nice. My dad speaks Spanish and is pretty adventurous, so we're flexible.

I've already started doing my homework, but any suggestions from you Latin American experts on location or itinerary would be much appreciated!

I am wondering if the car rental requirement effectively excludes children from this offer. If so, does anyone see a way around this?

dhacker:

My brother had that problem. People under 21 are basically excluded. He e-mailed Guy Booth wanting to substitute more flights for the car rental. He wouldn't budge. Thrifty will rent 21+, Avis 25+. He is going to have his father post a rental on his LP account. It should work. He's had his father's Hertz rentals on his DL account in the past.

Thanks. I don't think I'll chance that work around with my 6 and 9 year olds!

Just a note for those waiting to see how the first intrepid Fters fare on this one: I spoke with Latin Pass CS today and they said that miles will be calculated after the July 1st end date and post 4-6 weeks later. Still, I'm also thinking that this deal is too good to pass up.

leroy:

Called Thrifty about the car rental ages, as I might be taking the trip in June with a friend who is 19. Certain Thrifty locations will rent to 18+. The agent I spoke with at central reservations said that from her experience the 18+ locations tended to be in the East Coast. When I called the Thrifty counter at SYR they verified that they would rent to 18+ with a surcharge, I believe it was $20 or $25 per day, for 18-20's.

I called latin pass and the person told me that "connecting flights" did not qualify as multiple segments. She did not know the definition for a connecting flight. I asked her if they were on different airlines she didn't seem to know. She said that have had a lot of questions, but not many answers. The "official rules" are those the same as those posted on the web site. I figured they would have a longer version, with all the legal stuff. Anyway it looks like the best bet is to have each "segment" ticketed seperate, or would this be a big difference in cost?
Anyone get any better answers?

**Also NATIONAL AIRLINES does NOT qualify for the partner airline as they added to the program after the promotion started**

**Where is the other latinpass thread?

[This message has been edited by fabsco (edited 02-14-2000).]

I would tend to avoid overnighting in Caracas these days due to the upheavals from the bad weather. Although I got assurances from a local that the road fm downtown to CCS is now open, be careful...

Also reason for cheap flights from UIO is probably currency weakness...

jl

To add to the "segment" issue: my CS rep said that a one-way flight from LAX to MIA would count as one segment on USAir, whether you had a direct flight or went through Pittsburgh. One ticket = one origin and destination, no matter how many stops in between. But what happens if you fly two qualifying airlines on one ticket? This is still a very murky topic.

It seems to me that judging from LP's attitude to this whole promotion that they will NOT post the miles if they can possibly avoid it. I do not want to give them any excuse not to post my miles. What is a $200 saving by booking multiple segments on one ticket when you risk losing 500,000 miles or a million miles - in relative terms, it's nominal. Be safe and book each segment separately, IMHO.

To any under 24s out there: a very good way of getting the partner segments is to buy a US Airways Youth Flight Pak on the US Shuttle. It's about $230 for four coupons. Yes - I know it's more expensive than just 2 round-trips, but it's flexible. You just tip up when you want to at off-peak times. They do qualify for ff credit. I don't know about US, but on the DL Shuttle, you can stand-by at other times. Given that they're in direct competition with each other, this will probably be the same on US.

------------------
Cheers.

Leo.

I'm surprised the LP reps are sowing confusion on the issue of what qualifies as a segment. The mileage accrual rules on the website seem pretty clear:

Mileage may be earned for scheduled flight segments on which you travel as a fare-paying passenger. A flight segment is any flight which requires a separate ticket coupon

But I guess it would be prudent to confirm everything with LP before actually ticketing a trip.

Hi there. I really would like to know who started the confusion with "what is a segment?". ANY frequent flyer program counts a "segment" as a flight for wich you require a separate flight coupon. Regardles if is a conecting flight /one way / round trip.......

I will be flying from MEX to CCS. Connecting in SAL / MGA / SJO / BOG / CSS it is a thru fare that means on the TKT next to each of the conecting cities there is an X indicating a conection, each of the segments is on a diferent airlines and I don't see the reason why each of the segments should not be posted on my account. The promotion reads: "fly an international SEGMENT on at least 6 of the airlines", Doesn't say: buy and fly at least one tkt for a one way fare on ...........

Well its not quite true that "ANY frequent flyer program counts a "segment" as a flight for wich you require a separate flight coupon. Regardles if is a conecting flight /one way / round trip......."

QANTAS FF credits Ansett NZ connecting flights made on the same day as a single segment regardless of changes in flight number or different flight coupons.

They can define it however they want but once they have defined it in there program guide (as LatinPass have) I don't think that they can then use the term in one of their promotions and rely on a different definition. Personally I don't think that they are trying to change the rules I just think that they haven't set things out clearly but that is not unique to LatinPass - Oneworld's promotion was equally lacking in detail and open to misinterpretation.

Have some concerns about the LatinPass organization and their rules. 3 issues are of concern to me at the moment.
1) Here is what the LatinPass website has to say about their program:
"LatinPass acts as an agent of the frequent traveler programs of the Latin American airlines stated in this document. LatinPass is not responsible for the failure of LatinPass airlines or partners to provide travel or services as indicated, or deficiencies in travel and services provided. Travel on any LatinPass airline will be subject to the appropriate airline's filed tariffs and standard contract of carriage. LatinPass airlines reserve the right to change award level mileage and conditions required without previous notice, and may cancel the program with six months notice. Participating airlines within the LatinPass frequent traveler program are subject to change at any time without notice. All travel award conditions may be subject to government regulations."
I'd hate to have to try and burn 1,000,000 miles in 6 months! Could this promotion break them?
2)Flights on TWA, USAir, and KLM must be booked through LatinPass. Their ticket agents can do nothing but refer you to LatinPass if you want to redeem LP miles. THese airlines recognize tickets bought through LatinPass using LP miles, but do not recognize the LatinPass mileage. If LP does go under (its a program that is less than 5 years old), what confidence can we have that any of the partner carriers would honor our miles.
3) Jesse, at LatinPass, says that to extend the expiration of your miles past 3 years, you must fly on a LatinPass MEMBER airline. Partners, hotels, car rentals will not do.

3) As usual, LP is contradicting itself!! From the web-site:

Mileage Expiration
Mileage does not expire for LatinPass members who remain active. If your account does not have at least one qualifying activity in a 36 month period, all mileage earned will expire. Qualifying activity is defined as accruing mileage credit on any LatinPass participating airline, as well as accruing mileage credit with participating hotels, car rental companies, and other service providers offering LatinPass mileage credits. Transfering mileage to a LatinPass account is not considered a qualifying activity.

My husband and I will be trying for the 500K promo. We plan to travel in late Mar-early April, starting and ending in MEX, connecting to a TWA flight (SFO-ST. Louis- Mex). We plan to use the miles pretty fast too http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I'm beginning to grow a bit weary and leary of this entire program! Rules may well not be made to be broken, but what the heck are they?!

I'm going to go for the full 1,000,000, but will transfer all of them to HHonors except for 150,000 miles - enough for 2 Biz. Class Europe --> Australia.

------------------
Cheers.

Leo.

Hey Leroy11! I thought the last word was that we CAN'T transfer the miles to Hilton Honors!! Did I miss something?

leroy11, I get it. You're going to try to hold them to the original post of the rules, right?

Randy wrote a letter to LP in the latest edition of Inside Flyer and they revoked this rule. See the thread under "Only Randy Petersen."

------------------
Cheers.

Leo.

Anybody planning a mileage run from ord? Email me if you are and maybe we can plan to fly at the same time. Open times for me are march 4/5, 11/12, 18/19.

vman: I'm considering doing the run from STL and would be interested to know your dates and itinerary.
Cheers.

Thinking about doing it here, possibly with my wife, and possibly with one of my partners and spouse also. Partner speaks fluent spanish (3 yrs. teaching in Madrid) and we have a big client in Montivideo that we might stop in to see (tax writeoff too, you say?). but haven't made final decision yet.

An update from a cafe in Bonaire: 6 down, 4 to go. Details when I return...

way to go Pudding Guy. Good luck and enjoy the trip (not just the miles)!

If anyone is considering going from LAX i have just booked a ticket that can be done in a couple of days.
3/11
LAX->GUA (lacsa)0015-0700
GUA->SAL (Aviateca)0820-09100
SAL->MGA (TACA)1348-1453
MGA->PTY (COPA)1600-1820
PTY->BOG (SAM(Avianca)1905-?
3/12
BOG->LAX (via miami)(ACES connecting to Quantas codeshare)0945-2000

The price in Business (except for SAM flight and ACES) was about 2500. The only connection that i was worried about is pty->bog the reason being that i have found different times for this flight. (1650) i booked a seperate fair from pty-UIO, UIO->bog just in case i miss the connection. if not i will send it back. An easier flight can be had as Avianca has a route BOG->LAX but it does not fly on Sundays.

Also- i think that they took the codeshare restriction off of the web site...


[This message has been edited by fabsco (edited 02-21-2000).]

Bon voyage to all the LatinPassers.


Besides the 1,000,000 miles you also may unfortunately earn the attention of US Customs. I went to Colombia on business last summer and ever since then I'm often singled out for special questioning and searches when returning from the likes of Canada and Switzerland. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

We didn't end up with a stamp from Columbia, since we just made a transfer there. Connections through Bogota on two different airlines seems to require you to make a long circuit out of security and back in, but they didn't require any entry/exit fees in the process. Security was tight relative to everywhere else we went. Many people checking papers and tickets, plus a full bag search and pat down. I'd recommend at least 1.5 hours for connections, we had 2 hours and I was still a little worried.

[This message has been edited by Pudding Guy (edited 02-22-2000).]

Is there anybody in ATL who is going, I wouldn't mind some company if I end up doing this.

Tomphot:

I'm not from ATL, but my flight to Guatemala City on DL stops there. I'm thinking of leaving at the end of May.

------------------
Cheers.

Leo.

Leo,
Do you already have an itinerary figured out? Since we are on the east coast, I was thinking about starting and ending in MIA thereby reducing the amount of connections needed outside the US. I was going to go for 500K, what about you?

Tom

I'm looking at leaving from Atlanta on May 4th. Going for the whole gazillion miles on this one. Might have a friend with me, but always looking for more company

Hey Toppshelff. I'm from Indy also (Fishers area). I've been comtemplating going for the bonus. Do you have an idea on a schedule that is cheap? I'm leaning towards the 500,000 bonus.

How safe are the airports and cities in MGA ,PTY, GUA,SAL,BOG and UIO ? I get the feeling that Central America is now ,what the Soviet Union was immediately after the breakup. That is hold on to your wallet and use alot of caution .

How safe are the airports and cities in MGA ,PTY, GUA,SAL,BOG and UIO ? I get the feeling that Central America is now ,what the Soviet Union was immediately after the breakup. That is hold on to your wallet and use alot of caution .

Anyone from the Midwest put together a trip routing ?

Pudding Guy, did I notice that your itinerary started with an American Airlines flight in and out of the U.S. Gee, what a coincidence http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif!

Everybody what's with this sudden emphasis on "anybody from near my city" going? I thought one of the advantages of this board was that location doesn't matter. Seems to me the only "same city" advantage is that my first flight wouldn't be alone (well, I've done that plenty of times!). Wouldn't "Anybody looking at the second or third weeks of May" seem like a more productive pairing mechanism?

Re: LatinPass 1,000,000 miles promotion.

I've got two weeks off, March 17-April 2 and want to do this thing! If anybody wants to work out an itinerary for sometime during this period let me know, otherwise I'm going solo.

breckenridge@quepasa.com

Yes, I used 25k AAdvantage miles to fly into Guatemala and out of Caracas. This kept costs down since I was starting from SFO.

In response to the questions about safety, I'll share a few observations. We spent nights in Guatemala City, Managua, and Caracas, and transferred through airports in San Salvador, San Jose, and Bogota. Other than a slightly wild taxi ride from CCS to our hotel, we felt very safe and comfortable throughout. If you don't check luggage, you can stay in transit behind security at most of these airports--and save yourself the need to pay for tourist visas and exit fees. Without exception the secured transit areas seemed very safe.

Some notes:

GUA: small airport, friendly service, loads of people crowded outside eager to sell you something or find you a taxi. We stayed in the Radisson and felt comfortable walking about after dark for dinner.

SAL: lots of gates given the volume of flights, exceptionally clean, very friendly service. One of the immigration agents actually took me for a brief walk outside the airport to look around a bit. Since I had a business class Grupo Taca flight, I was able to spent my 3 hour layover in the VIP Salon, which wasn't fancy, but had good coffee and snacks. If you check your bags, you'll have to pay either $25 or $35 in fees (depending on the agent) and wade through some confusion at the immigration booth.

MGA: Not my first recommendation for a stopover. It was a long and not-so-scenic shuttle ride from the airport to the Intercontinental. The hotel area was very nice, though. Had a great dinner at Antijitos across the street, then caught a movie for $4 with popcorn.

SJO: Stayed in transit. Seemed like any medium sized US terminal. Nice shops.

BOG: We were in transit, but had to leave the secured area to get our boarding passes for the next flight. Here's the process: from the plane head to the "Airport Tax" counter, which is located in the main terminal. Show the boarding pass for your arriving flight and your departure ticket to get the stamp without a charge. Then stand in line at the airline counter for your departure boarding pass. On the way back to the planes, you must go through several rounds of showing people your boarding pass before going through security. Security seemed quite tight. My bag was thoroughly searched, and I was given a pat down after walking though the detectors. This was the only airport where I sweat a little, because the airport was very busy, and I wasn't clued into the process. I was worried about catching my next flight.

CCS: Nothing much to note here. Stay behind security in transit to avoid a $21 departure fee. It's a long, $35 taxi ride to the Intercontinental.

In summary, I'm happy to report that we didn't experience any obvious threats to our personal safety, didn't share with planes with livestock, and weren't shaken down by the local officials. Viva Latin America!

Congratulations! Now one can only hope for prompt crediting of miles!

Welcome back Pudding Guy. Congrats on completing your newest quest for miles.

I'm also contemplating a run sometime in the first 2 weeks of May (totally flexible on time right now). Not looking to make either a vacation or marathon out of this . . . just do it in a reasonably short time. I'll start in Orlando and end there too, so it looks like MIA is the first leg that really counts. I'd prefer the 1 mil but would settle for the 500K. If others are going around that time, of like mind, I'd live the company!

On 2/24/00 I posted questions on a new thread and was trashed for not using the old thread for the 1,000,000 LP bonus. My excuse is that I'm a newbie and didn't know any better. Now when I try to look up the latest info on this fascinating subject, I see that a new thread was started here by an established member, and one of the people who trashed me for not using the existing thread has left messages on this new thread too.
So, are the rules different for established versus newbie, or are some of you just e-snobs? Or is it made complicated to confus the newbies?
Now we all have to look up two threads to keep up with current input- correct?

dcraigen -
I'm a newbie too, but if we're talking about the same thread - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/002296.html - I don't think Flying Dutchman and Leroy11 were "trashing you." After all, they answered your questions and politely asked you to post in the existing threads so as not to annoy others not going on this mileage run or something to that effect - sounds reasonable to me. Also, the two threads have different subjects. This one asks who's actually going to do it - whilst the lllooonnnggg one is a discussion of the actual bonus. Just my 2 cents.

dcraigen --

I'm awfully sorry if I offended you, and I'm certain that I speak for leroy11 also when I say that no "e-snobbery" was intended.

Definitely. I'm sorry dcraigen for any offence that I may have caused you.

Like any good sized group, there are a few "characters," some of which think they rule/govern the board- but these folks are not among them, IMHO.

It also pays big dividends NOT to be too sensitive, IMHO! We can all always be more polite and respectful- including yours truly!

Got my tickets in the mail on Friday. My wife and I are going on the trip on Friday back on Tuesday 3/7. Just alittle concern after reading FlyingDut.. posting about Latinpass not wanting to post the miles into your account. FD it would be very helpful if you could say a little bit more on what the their new requirments are, I will be spending about $1400 per person between Hotel/cars/tkt etc, it would be a waste of money if the bonus is not going to happen. We are leaving on Thursday, anything would help

MileSmiles - It should be fine as long as you don't need the miles within the next few months. LatinPass isn't saying that I didn't earn the bonus; they're simply trying to delaying giving it to me as long as possible.

FD, thanks for the prompt response. I wasn't actually planning on using the miles before November or so....So it looks it would work. Did you take any COPA flight in your run, and if yes,did you have any problems getting your Latinpass in the record. I called the other day to get seat assignment and get number in record, the agent said since Copa left the grupo Taca you cannot get miles on the LP program any more ???

MileSmiles - that's one I haven't heard before. I received the new LatinPass member guide last week and Copa is still listed as a member airline. Maybe they were referring to Copa's affiliation with OnePass???

I'Aloha! m working on getting my husband and I booked for somewhere around the 20th or so of March, either for the mil or the 500K, depending on what I can put together. Just so happens that we were already booked on TWA from Maui to MIA on the 15th of March, so I figure since our time is somewhat flexible and we are already in MIA we may as well go for it. I'm not looking for a major marathon, but don't really need to be seeing any sights either. I've read all of the posts pertaining to this so far, but any new itineraries or tips would be greatly appreciated. Mahalo! Also if anyone else is thinking of going at this time--the more the merrier!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

From Miami, a relatively inexpensive full-fare coach trip is the following:

MIA-CCS on Aeropostal
CCS-BOG on Avianca
BOG-PTY on Copa
PTY-SJO on Taca
SJO-MGA on Lacsa
MGA-MIA on Lacsa or Taca

With CCS-BOG-PTY-SJO on one ticket, I've had this priced at < $1050.

The biggest downside is inflexibility on some of the routes. There's only 1 flight/day on the specified airlines from BOG-PTY and PTY-SJO. This seems to force you to spend a night in Bogata.

It appears that some people are booking the mga-mia route to qualify as a nica flight for the 500k. The web site says this qualifies for one of the 10 flights for the million miles, can this also be used for one the 6 flights?

To here-i-go

I'll be doing my mileage run starting in Miami on May 12th, and working my way down to Lima to do the final LIM-IQT-LIM for the 1M bonus. I don't have exact routing and prices yet, but I'll post them.

Great ATI!

Keep us informed and we'll see what we all can do.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by UpgradeMe:
[B]
Regarding your attached LatinPass 500,000 mile award itinerary, I talked to LatinPass today and I believe that there is an error in your itinerary. The person I talked to said your TACA 514 flight from MIA to MGA and on to SAL was only considered to be one flight segment in the 1,000,000 mile program. He said the airlines count only a single flight segment if the flight number doesn't change.

I am trying to get a cheap 500,000 mile award flying to and from LAX. Any advice on itinerary and a good travel agent?

Ticket #1:
3/11
TACA 514 MIA-MGA (qualifies as NICA)

Ticket #2:
3/11
TACA 514 MGA-SAL
AVIATECA 960 SAL-GUA
3/12
COPA 317 GUA-SJO (1-stop)

Ticket #3:
3/12
LACSA 691 SJO-BOG
AVIANCA 77 BOG-UIO
3/13
CO 1248 UIO-IAH
CO 1051 IAH-DFW

My work trip to Colombia got reduced from two weeks to one week. Given the uncertainties (perceived or real) with this promotion, I've changed my mind and decided not to shoot for the 500,000 miles.

I'm going to go to the Catman-do the weekend before my trip to South America instead.

I hope it works out well for those of you who are going for it!

Keenert:

A: As Flying Dutchman can tell you, never trust anything anyone at LatinPass tells you.
B: My two segments on TACA 514 are not booked as a through flight. They are booked as two distinct flights, with two different flight coupons, two different tickets, and two different fares. Under LatinPass's published rules, this qualifies as two segments.

C: If LatinPass tries to mess with me on this issue, I'm only three blocks from the courthouse.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by UpgradeMe:
Keenert:
B: My two segments on TACA 514 are [b]not booked as a through flight. They are booked as two distinct flights, with two different flight coupons, two different tickets, and two different fares. Under LatinPass's published rules, this qualifies as two segments.

I called Latin Pass on this today, since my tentative itinerary includes the same flights. At first she said it would count for one, but upon further investigation said that it would definately count as two separate flights as long as there are two different flight coupons. Also, I am a little concerned about having enough time to catch the second flight. I know it's the same plane, but does anyone know if there is something that could hold us up on this. One more thing--does anyone have any advice on what the odds would be of getting into SAL at 5:49 p.m. and having enough time to catch a 6:49 p.m. flight? Thanks for your help. I'll post my itinerary as soon as I get these last few things wrapped up.

Oops sorry--I forgot to list the flights I was concerned about having enough time for in the post above. They are:

TACA 514 MIA-MGA (qualifies as NICA)
2:50 p.m.-4:25 p.m.

TACA 514 MGA-SAL
5:00 p.m.-5:49 p.m.

Aviateca 960 SAL-GUA
6:49 p.m.-7:39 p.m.

Also I won't have any checked baggage and just one carryon.

Keenart:

How about LOS ANGELES - BELIZE - GUATEMALA - QUITO - LOS ANGELES all six airlines, for $1000 dollars. No frequent flyer mileage used. Check out www.leisuretraveler.net (http://www.leisuretraveler.net) they don't sell the ticket but tell you how to get it. I think the same fare may be available for San Francisco departures. My wife and I are leaving June 1. Good luck.

[This message has been edited by cy-gone (edited 03-03-2000).]

Mauigirl-
The OAG flightguide says connection times
for MGA- Int'l to Intl between carriers GU,LR,TA,6Y is 15 minutes
for SAL Int'l to Intl between carriers GU,LR,TA,6Y is 15 minutes

I would highly recommend this guide to anyone doing the trip, especially if you miss a conection and need to make quick changes...

Thanks Fabsco--I'm off to get my guide! My 500K trip is booked. Total 1611.11 from MIA with Expedia, except ccs-mia with Travelocity. I leave MIA on the afternoon of 3/18 and am back in MIA mid morning on 3/20 if all goes as planned. This is the trip I am doing, spending nights in GUA and CCS.
mia-mga taca #514 (for nica)
mga-sal taca #514 (separate flt. from above)
sal-gua aviateca #960
gua-sjo copa #400
sjo-bog lacsa #691
bog-ccs avianca #76
ccs-mia aeropostal #500

I don't have time to do the million right now, but may finish later with the following:
mia-lim Copa #303
lim-uio Aces #520(Saeta)
uio-bog Aces #520
bog-uio Aces #521
uio-lim Aces #521(Saeta)
lim-iqt Taca Peru #10
iqt-lim Aero Continente #2216
lim-mia Copa #302

This sounds like alot, but it's really only 4 roundtrip tickets--cost 1013.21 from MIA Expedia(1174.32 out of LAX). If you had the time this could easily be added to the above route for an additional 692.52, making the total for the million miles 2304.07. I wish I could do it all in one trip. It just so happens I was already scheduled to be in FL and decided to squeeze in the 500K while I am there. I thank everyone on this site for all of their helpful information.

MauiGirl:

quote:

"One more thing--does anyone have any advice on what the odds would be of getting into SAL at 5:49 p.m. and having enough time to catch a 6:49 p.m. flight?"

If you are connecting between planes, I would be concerned about delays in your flight arriving and/or your connecting flight may leave early.

Two years ago I flew TACA from LAX to Honduras. At LAX our flight was scheduled to depart at 11:30 p.m. and arrive at our connecting airport (I forgot the city) at 9:30 a.m. the next morning. We arrived at LAX at 9:30 p.m. only to see a huge check-in line (which proceeded to grow twice as long behind us. Our flight was subsequently "delayed" until 1:30 a.m. As we snaked our way to the counter, we asked the agents if we would have any problems meeting our connecting flight. I had never previously heard the answer we got from the agent. "We schedule the flight for 11:30 p.m. even though we know we won't depart until 1:30 a.m. because this way we "trick" people into getting to the airport with plenty of time. Look at the line, if we really were departing at 11:30, half the people would miss the flight." WOW! I had wondered why for a 5 hour flight, and even taking into account a time zone change, there was about 8 hours between take off and arrival.

Continuing the saga, we had a connection in El Salvador. We arrived on time at 9:30 a.m. and our connecting flight was SCHEDULED to depart at 10:45 a.m. Boarding was called at at 10:15 and we DEPARTED at 10:30 a.m.! I would hate to have been someone who was cutting their connection times close.

We loved traveling in Central America and learned to be very flexible with regards to flight scheudles. From what I could tell, departure schedules were merely treated as guidelines.

We spent two weeks traveling around in Central America and my only advice is to give yourself plenty of time for connections.

P.S. Although our TACA flight to and from LAX was on brand new 767's (configured with 100% coach seats only so no chance for upgrades http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif ), for the rest of our flights in Central America, I now know where alot of the old planes are sent when they are retired from the fleets of most of the major airlines http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

fabsco --

15 minutes is not enough time for a connection in MGA. Even if you are just connecting to another flight, you have to go through immigration, and as another person has noted, the departure times seem to be merely guidelines. 15 minutes in GUA or SAL wouldn't be a big problem, but MGA is the place to allot extra time.

15 mins. - are you mad?? From my (limited) experience of air travel in Latin America, punctuality is not their strong point. I'm allowing a minimum of 2 hrs. to connect.

After reading all the posts on LP ,I'am off for the 500k run on May 6 - 8.
The one question is ,does TRIP.com charge $10 per each int'l paper ticket ,or just the $ 10 FedEx delivery ?

I was not saying that i thought that 15 minutes was enough time, just that is what the OAG book indicates. But in reality she will not be "changing flights" in the hour as it is on the same plane. Flight 514. I have never been to the airport but i believe that it is VERY small. I have also found that the book often overestimates time to connect. ie 2 hours 30 minutes for internation to domestic at lax?

MauiGirl,

With six of the airlines already in your itinerary, why bother with Taca 514/NICA?

We're going the same itinerary as you, but Taca 311 MIA-SAL 1650-1736
Aviateca 960 SAL-GUA 1825-1910

Balance of the trip is identical.

We're leaving MIA April 9th and returning the 11th to MIA.

I see that MauiGirl has lim-uio on ACES listed as a SAETA flight and it has been mentioned elsewhere on the board that this will count but I am wondering if any one hase this in writing through email etc. I am leaving on Friday March 10 for my million mile run and have a SAETA ticket that is no good if the ACEs flight counts I will work it in but I have been waiting to hear back from LatinPass to confirm that this counts. If some one does have it in writing could they forward it to my email. Thanks

Student,

Would you mind posting your 1M itinerary? I've got a nice 500K worked out but was having difficulty piecing together a good 1M... Thanks and buena suerte!

ns

Originally posted by student:
I see that MauiGirl has lim-uio on ACES listed as a SAETA flight and it has been mentioned elsewhere on the board that this will count but I am wondering if any one hase this in writing through email etc. I am leaving on Friday March 10 for my million mile run and have a SAETA ticket that is no good if the ACEs flight counts I will work it in but I have been waiting to hear back from LatinPass to confirm that this counts. If some one does have it in writing could they forward it to my email. Thanks

As per LATINPASS, UIO/LIM or LIM/UIO on ACES will count towards SAETA segment. No other ACES flight will qualify for this segment. However, as soon as SAETA starts operating again, ACES will no longer qualify.

Can you post or E-mail me your 1M-itenerary.

Miler do you have the information on ACES in writing or did you hear it from the customer service line? here is the million mile plan assuming ACES flights count.

Flight: Taca Int'l flight 514 on a Airbus Industrie Jet From: Miami, FL (MIA) Fri., Mar10 2:50 pm
To: Managua, Nicaragua (MGA) Fri., Mar10 4:25 pm (NICA)

Flight: Taca Int'l flight 570 on a ATR Turboprop From: Managua, Nicaragua (MGA) Sat., Mar11 11:55 am
To: San Salvador, El Sal (SAL) Sat., Mar11 12:59 pm

Flight: Aviateca flight 960 on a Boeing 737-200/200c
From: San Salvador, El Sal (SAL) Sat., Mar11 6:49 pm
To: Guatemala City, Guat (GUA) Sat., Mar11 7:39 pm

Flight: Lacsa flight 641 on a Airbus Industrie Jet From: Guatemala City, Guat (GUA) Sun., Mar12 8:00 am
To: San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO) Sun., Mar12 9:35 am

Flight: Lacsa flight 691 on a Airbus Industrie Jet From: San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO) Sun., Mar12 10:40 am
To: Bogota, Colombia (BOG) Sun., Mar12 1:45 pm

Flight: Avianca flight 77 on a McDonnell Dougl MD80
From: Bogota, Colombia (BOG) Sun., Mar12 4:15 pm
To: Quito, Ecuador (UIO) Sun., Mar12 5:40 pm

Flight: Aces Airlines flight 521 on a Airbus Industrie Jet
From: Quito, Ecuador (UIO) Sun., Mar12 10:04 pm
To: Lima, Peru (LIM) Mon., Mar13 12:14 am

Flight: Aeropostal flight 925 on a McDonnell Dougla DC9
From: Lima, Peru (LIM) Mon., Mar13 3:45 am
To: Guayaquil, Ecuador (GYE) Mon., Mar13 5:30 am

Flight: Aeropostal flight 924 on a McDonnell Dougla DC9
From: Guayaquil, Ecuador (GYE) Mon., Mar13 10:30 pm
To: Lima, Peru (LIM) Tues., Mar14 12:15

Flight: Taca Int'l flight 10 on a Boeing 737-200/200c
From: Lima, Peru (LIM) Tue., Mar14 10:35 am
To: Iquitos, Peru (IQT) Tue., Mar14 12:15 pm
Flight: Taca Int'l flight 9 on a Boeing 737-200/200c
From: Iquitos, Peru (IQT) Tue., Mar14 12:45 pm
To: Lima, Peru (LIM) Tue., Mar14 2:20 pm

Flight: Aces Airlines flight 520
From: Lima, Peru (LIM) Wed, Mar. 15 6:00am
To: Quito, Ecuador (UIO) 8:10am

Flight: Aces Airlines flight 521 on a Airbus Industrie Jet
From: Quito, Ecuador (UIO) Wed, Mar. 15 10:04pm
To: Lima, Peru (LIM) Thur, Mar. 16 12:14am

Flight: Copa flight 300 on a Boeing 737-700 Jet
From: Lima, Peru (LIM) Thur., Mar16 6:00 am
To: Panama City, Panama (PTY) Thur., Mar16 9:30 am

Flight: Lacsa flight 624 on a Boeing 737-200/200c
From: Panama City, Panama (PTY) Thur., Mar16 4:05 pm
To: San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO) Thur., Mar16 4:15 pm

Flight: Lacsa flight 628 on a Airbus Industrie Jet
From: San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO) Thur., Mar16 5:20 pm
To: Miami, FL (MIA) Thur., Mar16 9:05 pm

Ticketed:
MIA-MGA with return PTY-MIA $398.80

MGA-GUA $193.00

GUA-BOG-UIO-LIM-PTY $832.80

LIM-UIO-LIM $211.22

LIM-GYE-LIM $330.40

Total: 1966.22 on travelocity

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Flying Dutchman:
[B]fabsco --

15 minutes is not enough time for a connection in MGA.

Thanks for all of your advice. Given what, to me, looked like a very unlikely chance of catching my next flight out of MGA I have added a day and rearranged my schedule a little. Pricewise it was within dollars of the other run and leaves a minimum of two or more hours between each flight. Also, ejulber, the reason I have #514 Taca (Nica) in there is that I am stronly considering adding on what I posted above at a later date and doing the million.
3/18 MIA-MGA TACA #514(NICA), MGA-GUA COPA #318
3/19 GUA-SAL AVIATECA #961, SAL-SJO TACA #623
3/20 SJO-BOG LACSA #691, BOG-CCS AVIANCA #78(there is a #76 that leaves earlier, but it was booked)
3/21 CCS-MIA, Aeropostal #500

MauiGirl,

Now the NICA segment makes sense.

If you have time at the conclusion of your run, please let us know about your hotels, etc. in GUA and CCS.

ejulber

Well I will be going this weekend. I will try to figure out real connection times for the different airports. I will be in GUA, SAL, MGA, PTY, and BOG.

1) Those who buy single tickets which include segments on different carriers should confirm with Latin Pass that this is allowable. I'm not sure but I did read a blurb on the website which suggested that "codesharing" tickets won't necessarily apply (not sure what that means but it sounds suspicious).

2) Who runs Latin Pass? I spoke to a woman at the 1-800 number and she didn't seem to know the exact rules. My impression, it's based in Latin America (which would make disputes and such next to impossible to pursue).

3) My hunch, the program is legit but if July 1 comes around and they've dug themselves into a hole they'll ditch the thing after one year's notice or partner airlines will start dropping out (eg. KLM). But that's just a guess. It's also quite possible they'll just never offer such a promotion again.

Comments?

Since this there does some to be interest someone here should get the lowdown on the precise rules and who is responsible. I wouldn't buy a split ticket on a hunch.

Is anyone overnighting in BOG any of the nights 3/21, 3/22, 3/23. or 3/24? I'll be there on a business trip and would love to connect with anyone doing the LatinPass mileage runs.

Plans are ever changing! We are looking at a run in May. Borrowing from earlier plans we have a 500,000 plan as follows.

[PLEASE see if there are any problems with this plan . . . all help appreciated]

Miami (MIA) to San Salvador (SAL)
Taca International 311
Boeing 737 4:50 pm MIA 5:36 pm SAL
Business

San Salvador (SAL) to Guatemala City (GUA)
Aviateca 960
Boeing 737 6:25 pm SAL 7:10 pm GUA
Business

Day Two

Guatemala City (GUA) to San Jose (SJO)
Copa 400
73G 6:00 am GUA 7:25 am SJO
Business

San Jose (SJO) to Bogota (BOG)
Lacsa 691
Airbus 320 10:40 am SJO 1:45 pm BOG
Business

Bogota (BOG) to Caracas (CCS)
Avianca 78
MD 83 9:15 pm BOG 12:05 am CCS
Business

Day Three

Caracas (CCS) to Miami (MIA)
Aeropostal 500
Airbus A320 May 06 7:20 am CCS 9:30 am MIA
Coach

Total Airfare (including taxes) USD 1893.80

We also like to consider a million mile run over a 4 day period, beginning and ending in MIA. Any suggestions?

THANKS http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Here-I-Go,
I have been considering the same route, the only thing I don't like about it is the connect time between the first and second legs. Does anybody else have any comments on this?

Here-I-Go,

We booked the identical trip and for the first five segments, used Expedia's multiple destination screen which allows up to five legs. MIA-CCS booked at $1,001.40, which was about $250 less than our travel agent could get it done for. CCS-MIA was $279.87.

Total: $1,281.

ejulber

Hi there, came back today from my 500k run. This was the itinerary:
Travl Day one (I actually started in MEX)
GU 961 MEX-SAL 6am-9:10am
TA 571 SAL-MGA 1:48pm-2:53
CM 111 MGA-SJO 3:25 - 4:15

Was in Costa Rica for 4 days

Travl day 2:
LR 691 SJO - BOG 10:40am -1:45
AV 076 BOG - CCS 3:45 - 6:35

Travl day 3
VH 500 CCS - MIA 7:20am- 9:30am

ALL the flights were on time actually arrived earlier than scheduled.

Cost: $900.00 (without the flight to MEX)

If you are connecting in MGA, you DONT have to go thru customs or immigr. just transit.!!, the same thing in BOG/SAL

Are any of you planning to do the Lima - Cuzco / Iquitos trip in one day?? I've noticed that Taca has only one flight a day on these routes - so we'd end up taking the ourbound and returning half an hourlater. This could create a LOT of confusion amongst the crew and airport personnel!! What do you think??

leroy11 -- I'm sure they would wonder what you were up to. ("Uh, Sir, are you sure there isn't an error in your reservation?")

I'll never forget the face of the check-in agent at my first flight when he saw my itinerary! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Milesmiles,

It looks like your connection in MGA was only 30 minutes, was this enough time?

Thanks Tomphot & Ejulber. I'll check out both the fare and connect time. Still looking for additional input on this run as well as a good 1mil run. . .

[This message has been edited by Here-I-Go (edited 03-08-2000).]

Well, I've put together a somewhat different 1 million mile run. I've e-mailed it to LP to get the "OK" and will post it once I got a reply. By the way, it seems that there is a shortage of good hotels in Tegucigalpa?, Honduras and Managua, Nicaragua. Although many of you probably would not stay in Best Westerns, they could be a good place to stay in these places. The Best Western in Tegucigalpa is located 3 miles from the airport with a courtesy car for most of the morning and the one in Managua is located directly across from the airport - a 200 m walk. Finally, the one in Caracas is 2 miles from the airport there. So, they seem to be a good bet!!

------------------
Cheers.

Leo.

Tomphot & Ejulber,

Can't do much to improve the first leg connect time.

The price I listed is for BUSINESS class except for the last leg which is COACH.

Still hoping for a good 1mil run plan . . . and further input on our plan!

Thanks!

[This message has been edited by Here-I-Go (edited 03-09-2000).]

Tomphot & Ejulber,

Can't do much to improve the first leg connect time.

The price I listed is for BUSINESS class except for the last leg which is COACH.

Still hoping for a good 1mil run plan . . . and further input on our plan!

Thanks!

A concerned learned of my plans and emailed me this link and article. Thought I'd pass it along. I am an adventurer, but I'll arrange not to have to leave the airport in Bogota.
http://news.excite.com/news/r/000307/08/odd-colombia

Afraid to Go Outdoors As Crime Spirals


Updated 8:15 AM ET March 7, 2000
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Almost three-quarters of Colombians are frightened to go out at night and most avoid talking to strangers because of a rising wave of violent crime, a poll published on Sunday suggested.
Most of those polled believe the situation was getting worse in this Andean nation, which is torn by a three-decade-old guerrilla war and already has the dubious distinction of being one of the most violent countries in the hemisphere.

Colombia, with some 40 million inhabitants, is widely recognized as the kidnap capital of the world, with 2,787 abductions last year, according to police statistics. It also has one of the highest murder rates in the hemisphere with 23,172 homicides last year -- only about 3,500 of them a direct result of the civil conflict.

In 1998, the United States, with a population of about 270 million, had 16,914 murders.

Colombian police said most categories of violent crime rose in 1999 from 1998.

"Going out on the street is an odyssey. Citizens of Bogota are hounded by the fear of suffering express kidnappings in a taxi, being robbed on the bus, attacked in the street, of being mugged," the leading El Tiempo newspaper said in its Sunday edition.

"And if you go out in your own car, you could also be robbed of the vehicle or your belongings," it added.

In a poll entitled, "Fear On The Street," 71.75 percent of those surveyed in Colombia's five largest cities said they were now frightened to go out at night as often as before because of rising crime.

Among respondents, 57.3 percent said they no longer went out at all at night in order to stay home and guard their houses.

Almost 60 percent said they believed the crime rate had spiraled over the past three years, and 38 percent said they had been attacked or mugged in the past 12 months.

More than 85 percent of those polled said they no longer talked to strangers, while about half said they had put bars on the doors and windows of their houses and apartments to reduce the risk of break-ins.

The Feb. 19 poll of 1,005 adults, carried out by polling company Solutions Factory for El Tiempo and the RCN TV and radio network, had an estimated margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

A concerned friend learned of my plans and emailed me this link and article. Thought I'd pass it along. I am an adventurer, but I'll arrange not to have to leave the airport in Bogota.
http://news.excite.com/news/r/000307/08/odd-colombia

Afraid to Go Outdoors As Crime Spirals


Updated 8:15 AM ET March 7, 2000
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Almost three-quarters of Colombians are frightened to go out at night and most avoid talking to strangers because of a rising wave of violent crime, a poll published on Sunday suggested.
Most of those polled believe the situation was getting worse in this Andean nation, which is torn by a three-decade-old guerrilla war and already has the dubious distinction of being one of the most violent countries in the hemisphere.

Colombia, with some 40 million inhabitants, is widely recognized as the kidnap capital of the world, with 2,787 abductions last year, according to police statistics. It also has one of the highest murder rates in the hemisphere with 23,172 homicides last year -- only about 3,500 of them a direct result of the civil conflict.

In 1998, the United States, with a population of about 270 million, had 16,914 murders.

Colombian police said most categories of violent crime rose in 1999 from 1998.

"Going out on the street is an odyssey. Citizens of Bogota are hounded by the fear of suffering express kidnappings in a taxi, being robbed on the bus, attacked in the street, of being mugged," the leading El Tiempo newspaper said in its Sunday edition.

"And if you go out in your own car, you could also be robbed of the vehicle or your belongings," it added.

In a poll entitled, "Fear On The Street," 71.75 percent of those surveyed in Colombia's five largest cities said they were now frightened to go out at night as often as before because of rising crime.

Among respondents, 57.3 percent said they no longer went out at all at night in order to stay home and guard their houses.

Almost 60 percent said they believed the crime rate had spiraled over the past three years, and 38 percent said they had been attacked or mugged in the past 12 months.

More than 85 percent of those polled said they no longer talked to strangers, while about half said they had put bars on the doors and windows of their houses and apartments to reduce the risk of break-ins.

The Feb. 19 poll of 1,005 adults, carried out by polling company Solutions Factory for El Tiempo and the RCN TV and radio network, had an estimated margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

I just booked Aces #520 outbound & #521 return LIM to UIO. The fare was 211.22 roundtrip and was classified as a "VSpecial". I spoke with the mileage supervisor at Aces and he assured me that that fare would acrue mileage and count for the million mile promotion with Latin Pass. Does anyone have any info on this? Just want to be doubly sure that it will qualify. Also if anyone needs to call Aeropostal, they have a different phone number than the one that is listed, it is 888-912-8466. (which I was told by all of the Latin airlines that you will need to do 3 days prior to flying to confirm your flight or as someone mentioned on here you could risk losing your seat) One other note--Latin Pass just added a FAQ section to their webpage. Aloha!

Be sure to reconfirm your flights! Two of my flights for this weekend have time changes.

MileSmiles: What hotels did you stay at during your trip? How far from airport? Use
a shuttle / taxi / ?? Cost? Thanks.


[QUOTE]Originally posted by MileSmiles:
[B]Hi there, came back today from my 500k run.

Well, I'm heading off on a 500K run on 3/28... Doing MIA-SAL-GUA-SJO-BOG-CCS-MIA..

Mahalo to MauiGirl and everybody else who helped produce my itinerary. I'll remember to check in w/the various airlines 3 days prior to departure to be sure that I'm not stuck in Bogota.

Cheers,
ns

An echo to the reconfirmation refrain---remember that in many of these countries aviation is a critical lifeline to remote areas that have limited roads---the airlines operate intensively with limited resources for a local clientele. Reconfirm, reconfirm, reconfirm!

My friends and I are now in LIM to complete our trips for the 1M miles. If all goes well, we be done tomorrow...

Having a great time in Lima. This city seems to stay active all night long, which is good for us since all the flights seem to arrive around midnight and leave around 6 am. Great ice cream and coffee, reasonable prices, friendly people. We got quite a history lesson from our bus driver (in spanish--covered about 3000 years..

Just got back to LAX from my 500k run. Almost all of my flights were very timely, and most connections can be made rather rapidly. Here are my flights and my impressions of the airports.

LAX->GUA Lacsa in Business Flight left about 20 minutes late and arrived 15 minutes early. Sat in row 3 would recommend rows 1 or 2 as 3 does not recline all the way. The crew was great and food was good. Guatamala airport is small and allows for quick connections. You could connect in 15 minutes easy, you do not need to go through customs if you are connecting.

GUA->SAL Aviateca. Business. Very short flight. Flight time is about 30 minutes. Arrived 15 minutes early. Americans who are going to leave the airport need a tourist card. You just buy it at immigration it cost $10. Most other nationalities do not need it (ie Europe).

SAL->MGA TACA Plane was small and hot! MGA is Another place to make quick connections. Make sure to tell someone if you do the same connection that we did which is to a COPA flight because it is a strange combination. This is because the copa flight that we got on originated in SAL, ie we could have stayed on the same plane (in their eyes). I'd say 15-20 minutes to connect. Flight was on time.

MGA->PTY Copa. Business. Good flight. Landed on time. PTY needs a little more time for connections while OAG says 1:30 that is way to long. If you are chaning from copa to avianca (or another Copa) 30 minutes is good I'd say 45 minutes for most other airlines.

PTY->BOG SAM(avianca) The only flight that we had that was late. The 6:50 flight from PTY apparantly never leaves on time. We left at 8:00pm. We stayed in Bogota. Not a bad place to stay at all. I would recommend staying at the Travelodge, close to the airport. The locals know it as "el capital" we paid $84 and they have a free shuttle. The bogota Airport is the most modern of the Airports that we went to. They go through your luggage throughly, If you stay in Bogota you should get there 2 hours early for the flight.

Bog->Miami Aces. Aces is ecomony only. The meals were very good for economy. We had a choice between Veal and Trout, both good.

Anyway i'm back home in less then 48 hours.



[This message has been edited by fabsco (edited 03-13-2000).]

Joseph Stagner, Marc Renson, and I finished up our quest for the 1M mile bonus this morning. All was smooth. The turnaround LIM-CUZ-LIM was made in plenty of time, though the agent at the CUZ check-in counter seemed worried about getting us on the plane.

We were really blown away by Quito. This was, by far, the best LatinPass city we visited. Had a great time walking through the old city. Most things were incredibly inexpensive. A cross-town taxi ride from the airport was $4. We had tasty t-bone steak dinners for $1.76, and ice cream sundaes for $.75. FlyerTalkers, plan to spend some time in Quito!

Pudding Guy,

Congratulations on bagging the million.

What was your itinerary for your recent run? Did you fly from SFO? What hotels did you use?

We're making the 500k run in early April and our thoughts are to use some of the 500k bonus to return to LatinPass country to complete the 1M in June.

ejulber

Hmmm Pudding Guy... congrats.. and thanks for the info.... We are proud that you are flying to earn even more miles..... You bonus guy you....

I am thinking of a good trip (not really Latin Pass related for 500,000 miles) but to see some of hte area.. any good ideas?? Cities not to miss?

Have to agree with PG about Quito - it's an amazing - it's one of my favorite cities in the world. Will post more tonight.

We returned from our 500K mile run yesterday and had a great time. Our goal had been to complete the 6 segments in 28 hours from departing MIA to returning to MIA. Met student and his sister in GUA for a great meal. Also met UpgradeMe on 2 of our flights. Our only problem that others may want to be aware of occurred in MGA.

We arrived in MGA at 8:10 on a Copa flight from GUA. Our connection on TACA was due to leave at 9:55. Immigration told us to wait in the "transit" area for a TACA rep. When no TACA rep appeared we asked a person at the security booth what we should do. She went to the TACA counter (outside of security) and was told that we should continue to wait and an agent will be there shortly. At 9:20 a TACA agent appears and informs me that he did not know we had been waiting. He also told me the flight was overbooked by 30 and we would not have seats on this flight. With only 40 people in the boarding area my travel agent (who was with me on the trip) thought he just did not understand us and demanded from another agent who had arrived to see a supervisor.

I also could not figure out how this flight could be full, until a few minutes later a group of at least 80 children all with "Unescorted Minor" badges appeared.

After boarding was completed the supervisor appeared and told us we would be going on an AA flight in 2 hours. You can imagine his confusion when the 3 gringos in front of him in chorus yelled "NO, we MUST fly a Grupo Taca plane". In the end he agreed to put me and 1 of my companions up for the night with meals and Business Class the next day. The other member of our party chose to go on the Lacsa flight later that day. All 3 of us ended up paying $11 in fees since we were in transit.

the moral of the story being, if connecting from Copa to Taca in MGA, you should collect your boarding pass from the TACA agents in GUA. Do not take no for an answer from them or you will be sorry and have to pay fees to reach the check in desks or risk our situation.


Other things to note:

The Lacsa flight from MGA-MIA, although it keeps the same flight number, required a change of planes in SJO. Thus 2 boarding passes were issued.

We were downgraded on our TACA segment from SJO-SAL when they substitied an Avianca plane with no Business Class. The flight number remained TACA.

Our gate to gate connection time in BOG was exactly 45 minutes. However, it helped that we were the first off an 80 percent FULL 767 from MIA to reach the ONE immigration agent.

Hope everything goes well for the rest of you.

rich

Congrats rich!

I kept looking for FlyerTalkers on my flights, but didn't see any obvious candidates (no one else did the turn-around LIM-CUZ-LIM for example). While waiting in the airports, I'd occasionally yell out, "FlyerTalk?" to see if anyone turned my way. What's the sign, anyway?

I thought about leaving something behind in the Lima airport for the LatinPass FlyerTalkers to sign, but didn't follow through with this idea.

Regarding Rich's problems in MGA, this can be an issue at many of the airports. At Lima, for instance, there didn't seem to be any Aces staff on hand to provide boarding passes. As Rich noted, there's apparently some way to notify the airlines and have them provide boarding passes without leaving, but his experience shows what can go wrong. When we were faced with this situation, we chose to just leave the transit area, wait in line for a boarding pass at the ticket counter, and pay the airport tax when required.

We got pretty tired of paying the airport taxes. We paid three times in Lima! We stayed the night and had to pay $25 for our next day trip on Aces, then $4 for Taca-Peru trip (domestic fee), then another $25 to head back home. No real way to avoid this given our travel plans.

The airport tax rules varied from place to place. In Quito, for instance, we left the airport and spent 12 hours in the city, but weren't required to pay a tax. On the GUA-SAL flight, my friends were asked to check their bags because each weighed more than 10 kg. They then had to leave transit to get their bags and pay the $25 airport tax. One was also charged for a $10 tourist visa! Pretty expensive 30 second walk to get a 11 kg bag.

One more note: If you're planning on spending midnight to 6 am in the Lima airport, don't count on getting much rest. The international terminal was very busy and noisy all night long. The in-transit lounge wasn't so nice, and was hot the night we spent. The back gates were more calm, but LanChile kept rousing us away. Check to see if buying a business class ticket will get you access to the VIP lounge.

To Those that Completed Trip:

1) What were "Transit Lounges" like for Food, Seating, any entrance into Club (ie. Admirals) from Transit area, etc.

2) Please name airport hotels if you stayed at any, cost, shuttle service, etc.

3) Is there a good way to "notify" gate agents that you are in the Transit Lounge so they will come and get you checked in? Sounds like this was the major problem. (Seems if you are "in-transit" there should be a way to get checked in.)

4) If you had "changable tickets", was it easy to reschedule flights.

5) If you used taxis, any problem communicating or with payment?

6) Do you need local currency in all countries (espec. if just in transit)and, if so, how did you get it. Or did most take Dollar bills?

7) Any problems or hints on how to get the LP acct number in the airline record for automatic posting. (Also anyone had probablms with number in Radisson, Hol. Inn, Avis, TWA, etc.?)

Good job on getting back. Hope they post your miles soon. Keep us posted.

Guess thats all. Appreciate the info already given and any more will be of help to all of us who are going over the next 3 months.

Thanks...

[This message has been edited by SAPMAN (edited 03-14-2000).]

Pudding Guy -

I seem to remember you noting that the night-life in LIM does not stop. Could I get into LIM at 12:15, go catch some night-life and then head back to the airport to catch my early morning flight to CUZ?? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Congratulations to all completing such a fantastic mileage run and of course to pudding guy for his second million miles- the "hard" way!

Back from a 28 hour trip to pick up 500k. Shared two flights in C with RichLond and his entourage. Shared several segments with Student and his friend as well.

To answer several recent questions:

All transfers were a breeze except Bogota. San Salvador is a Taca hub, and you simply walk to your next gate. Also transferred from Copa to Lacsa in San Jose. It took the Lacsa agent a minute to figure out how I could be in the departure area without being checked in, but once I explained that I was in transit, he was o.k. Taca would not let me off Flight 514 in MGA, even though we had a separate boarding pass for the next segment. My friend spent the half hour flirting with the gate agent in the jetway.

Bogota is an experience. It took us an hour to transit, even though we were flying in C. I would guess that you should allow closer to two hours in Y. Thanks to Student for explaining how to avoid the departure tax.

All flights were on time, and service was fine. All announcements were made in English. Overall, it was easy.

"Overall it was easy!" Great attitude! Congratulations!

[This message has been edited by doc (edited 03-14-2000).]

leroy11, I can't say I experienced the Lima discotecas myself. We stayed at the Holiday Inn, which is about 20-30 minutes away from the airport. There seemed to be a lot of entertainment in this area. Can't wait to hear your report...

We stayed: GUA--Radisson; LIM--Holiday Inn; MGA--Intercontinental; and CCS-- Intercontinental. All were nice. Plenty of choices in GUA fairly close to the airport. Hotels were more distant in LIM, MGA & CCS. The Holiday Inn was the least expensive and also had the largest room. I didn't see much in MGA except the Intercontinental.

All airport taxes were listed and paid in US$ . US$ were accepted without exception for taxis, food, and purchases. We had good luck with all our taxis.

Non-Spanish speakers should be fine. Many ticket agents, taxi drivers, and waiters didn't speak English well, but there was usually someone nearby to help. I speak so-so Spanish, which definitely helped us out, although we still ended up with a few surprises--mainly when our food arrived. Once, in trying to order a plain peppercorn hamburger for my friend, I succeeded in ordering two: one plain and one regular. I managed to eat this mistake, just had to order another beer to wash it down. Similarly, I ended up with a "Haiti-style" dinner one night that featured steak, a fried egg, ham, a hot dog, french fries, and fried banana. Again, I ate.

Several of the hotel and rental car agents, and even a few of the airline agents seemed unfamiliar with the LatinPass program. Most everyone was able to figure it out, though.

While travelling, be sure to drink an Inca Kola in Peru and grab some of the famous fried chicken in El Salvador.

UpGradeMe.... I think I missed this if it was discussed before... What tips did student give you to avoid the departure tax? Thanks!

Pudding Guy -

I think I may take the discotecas option - there's 5 of us going so it should be interesting!! A report will follow ... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

We did not have a problem changing from Taca to Copa at MGA. The trick was we told a person there before we got to immigration, as we were walking up the walkway. That person took us through a door (bypassing immagration) and to the gate. They had us wait in the bording area and had an agent bring up the passes. (in some cases it helps to speak spanish.) But for all of our connections we tried to let everyone know when we did not have boarding passes. They always went to get them for us.
We did not have to pay departure tax on any of our connecting flights. In Bogota if you stay the night be sure to get a slip when you check in for your flight that allows you to pay 1/2 of the departure tax. I think you also save if you pay in pesos. We paid in dollars but found out later that it would have been cheaper to pay in pesos.

[This message has been edited by fabsco (edited 03-15-2000).]

Fabsco:

Where did you stay in BOG just in case?!

Congrats to all of you who have completed your runs and thanks for all of the valueable tips! My husband and I leave Maui on the evening of the 15th for MIA. We will begin the first half of our million mile run on the 18th, getting back into MIA on the 21st. Will let you know how it goes. The second leg is booked for the beginning of May. Anyone else going this weekend? Aloha!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I am considering going for the 500K miles, but had a few questions for those of you that have/are going for the bonus.

What do you plan to do with all of those miles you get on LatinPass? Which airline are you going to transfer them to? Besides using Hilton HHonors, is there any other way to use the LatinPass miles on non-latinpass member airlines?

In my case, having miles on the LatinPass member airlines is not very beneficial.

Thanks.

Phil

The short answer is that you can redeem the points for trips on the partner airlines i.e. TWA,National,USAirways and KLM. Look at the "Award Tables" entry on the LatinPass page (www.latinpass.com)

Originally posted by leroy11:
Fabsco:

Where did you stay in BOG just in case?!

We stayed at Travelodge. It is the closest place to the airport. The locals know it as "el capital". We paid 84 dollars for the night. They have shuttles to the airport in the morning and very nice rooms. The taxi driver had plenty of cheaper of hotels to recommend, but we stuck with this one (recommend by immagration in bogota.) It is about 10 minutes from the airport.

Originally posted by leroy11:
Fabsco:

Where did you stay in BOG just in case?!

We stayed at Travelodge. It is the closest place to the airport. The locals know it as "el capital". We paid 84 dollars for the night. They have shuttles to the airport in the morning and very nice rooms. The taxi driver had plenty of cheaper of hotels to recommend, but we stuck with this one (recommend by immagration in bogota.) It is about 10 minutes from the airport.
Also there are a ton of atms on the departure floor.

Has anyone had miles actually post to their LatinPass account? If so how long did it take? I am now past 4 weeks on my Thrifty Rental Car.

rich

Has anyone had miles actually post to their LatinPass account? If so how long did it take? I am now past 4 weeks on my Thrifty Rental Car.

rich

Neither my car rental nor my hotel stays have posted yet.

Neither my car rental nor my hotel stays have posted yet.

I just had my 500K run from MIA booked and ticketed today for travel at the end of this month. My itinerary is:
MIA-BOG AV9 10-00am-1.30pm
BOG-SJO LR690 3.00pm-4.10pm
SJO-SAL TA560 4.50pm-6.09pm
SAL-GUA GU960 6.49pm-7.39pm
next day
GUA-MGA CM317 7.15am-8.20am
MGA-MIA TA515 9.55am-1.25pm

All booked in J or C class on one ticket, except the MGA-MIA segment, which is on a separate ticket and in economy (M class). Total cost of GBP921 (approx USD1380). The MIA-BOG on AV is a real bargain, at approx USD330 in business (would have been circa USD150 in economy), about half the price of the MGA-MIA on TA. This will leave me the four 'southern' airlines (Aces, Aeropostal, Saeta and Taca-Peru) and perhaps some tourism for another trip if I eventually decide to go for the 1M.

I noted RichLond's comments on connecting from CM317 to TA515 in MGA and UpgradeMe's warning on the need to be quick off the plane at BOG (thanks to both of you). The other thing I am slightly nervous about is the tight connections (40 mins) at SJO and SAL between LR/TA and TA/GU. Anybody knows whether the LR check-in agent at BOG will be able to check me though to GUA, since LR, TA and GU are all Grupo Taca airlines? Alternatively, anybody knows whether I can go to the check-in desks of LR and TA (and GU, if they have any) at MIA and check-in there for a flight later that day within Latin America?

I have not booked a hotel in GUA yet. I am thinking of booking a room at the Marriott, since (a) it is one of the Latinpass partners and a stay there will contribute to the 500K requirements and (b) it is not too far from the airport and provides a shuttle service. Any comment on this hotel or any alternative?

From one of Pudding Guy's messages, I understand that it could be helpful to speak some Spanish in difficult moments. I can more or less just about get by in ordinary Spanish but have no notion of air travel lingo (things like 'through check-in' or 'landside/airside', etc...). Anybody knows of an online source of air-speak Spanish vocabulary?

Also, did anybody come across any lower carry-on allowances than the 10Kg on GUA-SAL that Pudding Guy mentioned? With my itinerary, I definitely do NOT want to find myself having to check in any hold luggage.

Something which might be useful for those non-US nationals transiting via the US who normally rely on the Visa-Waiver programme to enter the US: you may want to check that the South or Central American airline you plan to return to the US with participates in the programme, otherwise you may well have to get a US transit visa. TA is OK, and I would suspect that LR is too, but I would not be 100% sure about Aces, Aeropostal or Saeta (if or when they resume UIO-MIA flights).

(apologies: duplicate message)

[This message has been edited by NickB (edited 03-15-2000).]

(and again...)

[This message has been edited by NickB (edited 03-15-2000).]

Nick:

Any Grupo Taca airline agent should be able to check you in for all Grupo Taca flights.

We stayed at the Marriott GUA. Nice hotel, especially at $95. Airport shuttle runs every 30 minutes. However, RichLond would probably tell you to save $30 and stay at the Radisson.

I see it is taking a long time to get LP partner activity posted. Anyone had any hotels, rental cars, or other airlines posted yet?? If so, how long did it take (and please mention the partner.)

I want to know how long to wait until I start to voice my concerns.

NickB,

that was our EXACT itinerary and you will be amazed at the service on the Avianca Business Class flight!! However, u will sweat all the extra calories off when u arrive in Bogota.

We were also worried about the tight connections, but had no problems what so ever. The Aviateca flight was actually held a few minutes for connecting passengers when our Bogota flight was delayed. You will be checked in for all your TACA flights in Bogota. They will also take all 3 of your TACA flight coupons.

I would strongly recommend the "All-Suite" Radisson in Guatemala. We were able to obtain a 65USD rate using a web saver. The taxi from the airport was 7USD and we took a free airport shuttle from the hotel back to the airport. There are some great places to eat right outside the hotel.

In reference to the Copa to Taca connection in MGA. I would strongly recommend you get the boarding passes at the GUA Taca desk. However that said, I am pretty pleased we got bumped. Sue and I were not scheduled to return to DC until Monday, so rather than sleeping at the Miami Airport Farfield Inn, we got to spend an extra day in MGA at a top notch hotel with all meals paid. The upgrade to business was a bonus.

Good Luck and have fun,
rich

RichLond, NickB
I was wanting to book the same itinerary but I need help.
In NickB's post, the 4th leg says GU 960 6:49 - 7:39
When I look that up, Flt 960 shows being an Aviateca @ 6:25 - 7:10
Grupo Taca shows Flt 514 6:49 - 7:39
Which airline is the 6:49 flight on?
Thanks

Tomphot,

You are right. The Aviateca flight is now departing earlier. This was not the case last week when we did our mileage run. My belief is that you would still be able to make that connection quite easily in SAL assuming no delays from SJO.

rich

Tomphot: on the date I am traveling in two weeks' time, the timing is still 6:49. The 6.25 departure seems to be a seasonal change for the spring/summer. I take some comfort from Rich's comment that Aviateca might be ready to hold the flight for connecting passengers. As this must be the plane's last rotation of the day and as the chances of there being passengers on the flight connecting to another flight out of GUA are limited, there is a reasonable likelihood that they would hold it if need be.

Rich, looking forward to that AV flight. On the MGA connection, I have factored in an extra day in MIA before returning to Ireland to allow for contingencies, so if everything goes well up to MGA, I could tempt fate. I am somewhat nervous that the next day flight might be full though, which would leave me in a pickle, so I'll probably follow your advice and get the boarding pass at GUA.

On hotels, the Radisson does indeed look good value. Can't get the USD65 rate, as I'll be there on a weekday, but they have a weekday rate of USD80 (compared with USD119 at the Marriott), so I may end up there. Apparently, you can get the shuttle from the airport to the hotel too if you ask them in advance.


[This message has been edited by NickB (edited 03-20-2000).]

Okay - I'm a little confused about this Aviateca flight. The Aviateca and TACA flights departing SAL for GUA around the same time in the evening around 630p - they're still separate flights and will be credited as Aviateca??

Thanks!!

Has anbody actually get bonus miles posted to their account yet? All the rules are so very vague and confusing as to be left open to interpertation. I live not far from their dumpy office and went there yesterday to have them look over my itinerary, they refused saying it was against the rules. I asked for my membership card, since it's been about a month since i've signed up, they said I have to wait another 2 weeks. LP has only been in business since 1995. I'd like to go for it, but I consider it a gamble.......perhaps I should head to las vegas?....might have some fun!

Pudding Guy--How did you like the Intercontinentals in MGA and CCS? We are planning a leisurely (4 Day) 500K run in June, and will be staying at the CCS, SJO and MGA Intercontinentals. Restaurants? Time to/fr airport? Thanks for any input.

Djlawman

NOT an attempt to boost my post count, just and inadvertent duplicate post.

[This message has been edited by Djlawman (edited 03-16-2000).]

Same

[This message has been edited by Djlawman (edited 03-16-2000).]

ditto

[This message has been edited by Djlawman (edited 03-16-2000).]

The Managua Intercontinental sits on a small hill with a nice view of the city and lake. It's a 30 minute shuttle ride to the hotel that highlights the less scenic areas of the city. We had a nice dinner at Antijitos, across the street from the hotel. Also, there's a mall nearby, with American fast food and good donuts.

It's a 40-60 minute white knuckle taxi ride to the Caracas Intercontinental. Traffic was incredibly busy, and the fumes were terrific. If your eyes aren't red from the travel, they will be when you exit that very long tunnel through the mountain. We ate at the hotel restaurants. Good food, but no bargains.

Richlond - where do you find the websaver fare for All-Suite Radisson in GUA ($65)? Is this the "Hotel Radisson Suites - Villa Magna" on Avenida 12??

It's booked! A similar routing to what others have:

MIA-SAL TA 311
SAL-GUA GU 960
GUA-SJO CM 317
SJO-UIO LR 661
UIO-BOG VX 520
BOG-MIA AV 6

Cost: about US$1170. My travel agent priced it at a much lower fare than I was able to get on Travelocity, itn, etc. As well, almost all the flights are in C business class. Everything is on this one ticket (much cheaper than booking separately), including my connecting flights to MIA on US Airways from BOS, for a total of $1297.

With regard to previous posts skeptical about Latinpass, I guess we'll have to see how it all turns out, but I did note on the Avianca website that it says that Latinpass was started at the iniative of airline. I think I feel more secure with a large, reputable airline like Avianca standing behind the program. Worst case scenario, one could always tranfer the miles to Avianca Plus or HHonors.

Leroy11
There are in fact two distinct flights, one on Taca and the other on Aviateca leaving at less than 1/2 hour between each other. Up to April 1st, the Taca flight leaves at 6.25pm and the Aviateca flight at 6.49pm. From April 2nd onwards, it is the other way around. You will only get credited for GU if you book the GU flight and mutatis mutandis for the TA flight. As far as I can gather, the TA flight is a continuation flight from MIA and MGA (flight TA514).

BJJ
AFAIK, there is only one Radisson group hotel in GUA. Its address, as per the Radisson website, is 1 AVE.12-46 ZONA 10 GUATEMALA CITY, 01010
This hotel offers web specials at weekends for USD65, bookable via the Radisson site, currently, the USD65 for the next two forthcoming weekends (Fri to Sun). It is possible (perhaps even likely) that a similar offer will be available for later weekends, closer to the date. However, in so far as this is a 'last minute' web-special, it can only be booked fairly close to the date and only via the Radisson website.

Well I am back. I did the full million run in one fell swoop along with my sister. I don't know how I missed pudding Guy in Lima. I was at the holdiay Inn and the Airport for three days. Glad you can do the turn around in CUZ I would not recommend it for IQT. They told us the flight was closed and did not want to let us board we finally did get a seat. They did upgrade us to business class on the way to IQT. I think SAETA is flying again at leaast the had a flight posted in Lima yesterday. I agree that Quito is very nice. We went to the equator and visted a museum and got a room at the Hotel Quito very nice for $35. I just got back to Philly today so USAir is out of the way I have a car rental next week and I am done. I will post more later. Good to see flyertalkers along the way and good luck to those who are now planning

Freeflyer,
When I look up UIO - BOG VX 520, I show that it gets into BOG @ 10:15 which is the same time that AV 6 departs for MIA.
Are you sure about that?
I would love to find an itinerary that would let me spend a day in Quito

Tomphot,

It was cheaper to go VX UIO-BOG & AV BOG-MIA than the other way around, and I want to spend a couple of days in BOG. In any case, there's no other way to do it. Looking at the schedules, it would seem that one could fly AV in the morning UIO-BOG (arrive at 9:00am) and then VX BOG-MIA which departs at 9:45, but this is not a legal connection, especially given the lengthy security checks.

AV 8 BOG-MIA leaves at 4:20 pm, but only on Wed., Fri., and Sat. and gets in to MIA too late for me (8:00pm). But I suppose this might be an option for those who don't want to stay in Colombia.


[This message has been edited by freeflyer (edited 03-16-2000).]

BOOKED

3/30 - Taca # 311 MIA - SAL 4:05 - 5:51
3/30 - Avieteca # 960 SAL - GUA 6:49 - 7:39
Spend night in GUA
3/31 - Copa # 317 GUA - SJO 7:15 - 9:20
3/31 - Lacsa # 661 SJO - UIO 10:30 - 1:30
Spend day and night in Quito - I made the trip longer because of the reviews on this city. What about that Steak House?
4/1 - Aces # 520 UIO - BOG 8:55 - 10:15
4/1 - Avianca # 8 BOG - MIA 4:20 - 8:00
This 6 hour layover in BOG is the only thing I really don't like. The only other flight back to MIA on Avianca leaves at the same time my flight from Quito gets in. I'm not sure if we're going to leave the airport in Bogata. Is there anything worth doing?
Total cost in business and full coach $1390 booked with my travel agent.

Tomphot - I'll drop my friend an e-mail about that steakhouse - probably won't get a reply 'til Monday!

Quito's a great town - ENJOY!!

[This message has been edited by leroy11 (edited 03-18-2000).]

Originally posted by student:
Well I am back. I did the full million run in one fell swoop along with my sister. I don't know how I missed pudding Guy in Lima. I was at the holdiay Inn and the Airport for three days. Glad you can do the turn around in CUZ I would not recommend it for IQT. They told us the flight was closed and did not want to let us board we finally did get a seat. They did upgrade us to business class on the way to IQT. I think SAETA is flying again at leaast the had a flight posted in Lima yesterday. I agree that Quito is very nice. We went to the equator and visted a museum and got a room at the Hotel Quito very nice for $35. I just got back to Philly today so USAir is out of the way I have a car rental next week and I am done. I will post more later. Good to see flyertalkers along the way and good luck to those who are now planning

Originally posted by fabsco:
Just got back to LAX from my 500k run. Almost all of my flights were very timely, and most connections can be made rather rapidly. Here are my flights and my impressions of the airports.

LAX->GUA Lacsa in Business Flight left about 20 minutes late and arrived 15 minutes early. Sat in row 3 would recommend rows 1 or 2 as 3 does not recline all the way. The crew was great and food was good. Guatamala airport is small and allows for quick connections. You could connect in 15 minutes easy, you do not need to go through customs if you are connecting.

GUA->SAL Aviateca. Business. Very short flight. Flight time is about 30 minutes. Arrived 15 minutes early. Americans who are going to leave the airport need a tourist card. You just buy it at immigration it cost $10. Most other nationalities do not need it (ie Europe).

SAL->MGA TACA Plane was small and hot! MGA is Another place to make quick connections. Make sure to tell someone if you do the same connection that we did which is to a COPA flight because it is a strange combination. This is because the copa flight that we got on originated in SAL, ie we could have stayed on the same plane (in their eyes). I'd say 15-20 minutes to connect. Flight was on time.

MGA->PTY Copa. Business. Good flight. Landed on time. PTY needs a little more time for connections while OAG says 1:30 that is way to long. If you are chaning from copa to avianca (or another Copa) 30 minutes is good I'd say 45 minutes for most other airlines.

PTY->BOG SAM(avianca) The only flight that we had that was late. The 6:50 flight from PTY apparantly never leaves on time. We left at 8:00pm. We stayed in Bogota. Not a bad place to stay at all. I would recommend staying at the Travelodge, close to the airport. The locals know it as "el capital" we paid $84 and they have a free shuttle. The bogota Airport is the most modern of the Airports that we went to. They go through your luggage throughly, If you stay in Bogota you should get there 2 hours early for the flight.

Bog->Miami Aces. Aces is ecomony only. The meals were very good for economy. We had a choice between Veal and Trout, both good.

Anyway i'm back home in less then 48 hours.

[This message has been edited by fabsco (edited 03-13-2000).]
how much did it cost,i will pay 100 dollars if you can help me,call at 1 888 386 9739 and leave a message for best contact time

I know this question has probably been answered in the past, but I just recently decided to try and get in the fun: How do you get credit for the hotels, car rentals, and partner airline segments? Do you have to give your LatinPass number each time you check in or can you send in receipts later for credit? Thanks for the help.

------------------

Tomphot: it looks like our itineraries are overlapping on SAL-GUA and GUA-MGA/SJO.

NickB,
Are you staying at the Radisson in GUA?
If so we can share a cab.
I'll be traveling with a friend who has a beard and I'm 6'6" so we should be easy to spot.
Hope to see you in SAL

Tomphot:
I have not booked a hotel yet, but it is likely to be the Radisson.
Anyway, I'll seek you out

Okay, here's my itinerary ... I'm leaving in a couple days time and apart from having a million things to do before I earn my million miles, I'm just rearing to go. If anyone is going to be on any of my flights or in any of the cities the same time as me, please drop me an e-mail so that we can meet for a drink while discussing our obsession with frequent flyer miles!! Note, I'm gone for three weeks as I am a big fan of Latin America and am taking the time to visit the area and to see some friends. The bonus miles are really just that ... a bonus! (Right!!) This also explain the routes I have chosen to fly (in case it appears convoluted to some!).

March 23, MIAMGA TA0514 departing at 14h50 (Nica segment). Overnighting in Managua.

March 24, MGASJO LR0631 departing at 08h20 connecting SJOBOG LR0691 departing 10h40. Spending the weekend in Bogota (hey, I'm Canadian and we're a hardy bunch!) (LR segment).

March 26, BOGUIO AV0077 departing at 16h15 and connecting UIOLIM VX0521 departing 22h04 and arriving at 00h14 (AV and VX segments).

March 27, LIMGYE VH0925 departing 0345 and arriving 0530 then returning that night, GYELIM VH0924 departing at 22h30. These are the killer segments ... over three hours wait in the wee hours of the morning in LIM then a same day return that evening. This one was purely for the VH segment.

March 28, LIMIQT TA0010 departing 12h15. Spending two days explorig the Amazon. I did the Louvre in 3 hours so doing the Amazon in two days should be just about right! (Taca Peru segment)

March 30, IQTLIM TA0009 departing at 12h45 and arriving LIM at 14h20. Overnighting in LIM.

March 31, LIMUIO VX0520 departing at 06h00. Taken recommendations of fellow FT'ers and friends and taking some extra days in Quito. Was thinking of going to the Galapagos but not enough time or money! (EH segment)

April 5, UIOBOG AV0080 departing at 12h25 and arriving 14h20 (spending a last night in Bogota!).

April 6, BOGPTY CM0100 leaving at 08h20 0940 and connecting PTYSJO CM0110 leaving at 10h30 and arriving at 10h40. Overnighting in San Jose.

April 7, SJOMGA CM0110 departing/arriving 11h05/11h55 connecting MGASAL TA0514 17h03/17h52 connecting SALGUA GU0960 18h25/19h19 (CM, TA, GU segments). Tight connection to Guatemala City but worse case is a night/day in San Salvador. Will spend 5 days in Guatemala, also on advice of friends.

April 12, GUASAL GU0961 departing 07h25 connecting SALMGA TA0571 departing/arriving at 13h48/14h53. Overnighting in Managua.

April 13, MGASJO LR0631 departing 08h20 connecting SJOMIA LR0626 departing/arriving at 09h50/13h35.

Now all I have to do is to get to/from MIA using AC reward which will be a piece of cake compared to putting together and ticketing my itinerary!

Well, thank goodness we had already gotten our LatinPass memberships prior to the cutoff. We (myself, my wife, and three others) are going for the 500K run in June. We are going to do it somewhat leisurely, over about 4 days, June 9 to 12. Planning MIA to CCS to PTY to SJO to GUA to MGA to MIA. Staying at Intercontinentals on the way in CCS, SJO, and MGA. Getting the tickets this week. Full details when we have them in hand.

My husband and I just got in from the first half of our million mile run this morning. All in all what a wonderful travel experience! I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Two of our flights (MGA-GUA Copa and SJO-CCS Lacsa) were an hour or so late, but everything else went off without a hitch. I made some notes and will post the details of my trip when I have more time later.

MauiGirl - Congrats!

All - Good thing we got in under the wire.. I called Latinpass today, and those of you who haven't received your printed membership materials.. They're being mailed out next week.

In the meantime, I'll be doing the following:
3/28 MIA-SAL 4:05p-5:51p TACA 311
SAL-GUA 6:49p-7:39p AVIATECA 960
Holiday Inn (tentatively)
3/29 GUA-SJO 6:00a-7:25a COPA 400
SJO-BOG 10:40a-1:45p LACSA 691
BOG-CCS 9:15p-12:05a(+1) AVIANCA 78
Hilton
3/30 CCS-MIA 4:00p-6:10p AEROPOSTAL 502

If any Flyertalkers are going to be around, let's get a drink. Look for a goateed guy with a blue Univ. of Hawaii backpack and a blank expression (my default).

Cheers,
NS

MauiGirl - Congrats!

All - Good thing we got in under the wire.. I called Latinpass today, and those of you who haven't received your printed membership materials.. They're being mailed out next week.

In the meantime, I'll be doing the following:
3/28 MIA-SAL 4:05p-5:51p TACA 311
SAL-GUA 6:49p-7:39p AVIATECA 960
Holiday Inn (tentatively)
3/29 GUA-SJO 6:00a-7:25a COPA 400
SJO-BOG 10:40a-1:45p LACSA 691
BOG-CCS 9:15p-12:05a(+1) AVIANCA 78
Hilton
3/30 CCS-MIA 4:00p-6:10p AEROPOSTAL 502

If any Flyertalkers are going to be around, let's get a drink. Look for a goateed guy with a blue Univ. of Hawaii backpack and a blank expression (my default).

Cheers,
NS

I came across an interesting page today regarding the formation of Latinpass. Check out http://www.rwmann.com/LP.htm.

Congrats to those who have finished the mileage quest. Good luck to the rest of us still planning. I finally decided to go for it too. Thanks to everyone for the generous info sharing.

I note that the consensus on this thread is to fly full Y or biz. Has anyone been persuaded by agents to fly on other fare codes? For example, a Lacsa agent told me H fares count toward the promotion, and Taca Peru told me V fares count also.

btw, thanks especially to Leroy for your itinerary.

On the eligible fares issue, there is also another (shortish) thread which you may want to read on the possible source for confusion and contradictory answers from Taca reps on eligibility of low fare classes (W,Z etc...) on Grupo Taca airlines.

I'd have a question re Bogota airport: as I mentioned in an earlier posting, my itinerary will involve a connection at BOG from Avianca (from MIA) to Lacsa (to SJO) and beyond on other Grupo Taca airlines.
In the light of the earlier postings on the mad rush for connections at BOG, I wondered whether there would be a way to avoid it.
Assuming that I am able to get boarding passes for my onwards flights to SJO and beyond from a Lacsa or Taca representative before leaving MIA, would it be possible for me to walk straight to the gate without having to go through immigration and security, or is Bogota airport and/or its procedures designed in such a way that you simply cannot avoid going through immigration when disembarking from MIA even when you already have boarding passes for your onward flights?
On a separate note, any special recommendations for restaurants in GUA near the Radisson?

Duplicate...(original timed out but still made it)...lots of probs posting..



[This message has been edited by billhallNY (edited 03-22-2000).]

Duplicate...(original timed out but still made it)

[This message has been edited by billhallNY (edited 03-22-2000).]

mauigirl,
Welcome Home!
I think I just booked the same beginning
flights as you (TA514 MIA-MGA,
TA514 MGA-SAL, AV960 SAL-GUA).

How did your connections go?
Were there any problems with TA514-AV960 in SAL?
Any recommendations of where to stay in GUA?
I'm looking at the Marriott since they
have a $85 easter rate (week before).

Are shuttles/taxis/etc easy from GUA to hotel?

i.e. Please send any other
suggestions/recommendations/experiences too!

Thanks!

Has anyone seen a HE30 fare code from Copa?

I'm trying to verify it qualifies.

FlyingDutchman...Sorry you took down you're
site. It still had useful information, maybe
just a disclaimer would have been best.
Could you send me the valid fare codes page?
No guarantee but it would help to glance at it. Thanks!

I took the chart off my web site because of conficting reports about which booking codes do or do not qualify for the promotion. You can still access it here (http://home.flash.net/~mwilkins/booking_code_chart.html), but I would highly recommend that you ignore it altogether, and get all of your tickets booked in Y or C. Why create headaches for yourself?

is there anyone going in april on any of these runs?

gua-sal-mga-mia Av961/Ta515

lim-uio-*lim*-cuz-lim *Overnight LIM airport

mia-ccs-bog-pty
vh503 1910-2320 overnight in CCS airport
av79 0615-0705
cm100 0820-0940

it would be nice to have company for tight connections or airport all nighters.

[This message has been edited by dubbdc (edited 03-23-2000).]

For those who went, what kind of luggage did you use? I'm trying to decide between a backpack and a wheelie, both small enough to fit major US carrier carry-on restrictions. Comments?

To clarify: were the carry-on size restictions more stringent for any of the LP carriers than a major US airline?

[This message has been edited by golden girl (edited 03-23-2000).]

The airlines told me 1 carryon bag total of 22#

The airlines told me 1 carryon bag total of 22#

guess I should have posted here firtst..

I WANT TO GO, but need to go with other people. I would not like to do this mileage run alone, and it's too late to get my friends to sign-up for Latin Pass.

I could go next weekend!!m or after... NickB? others? pls email me or post... thanks

RedRobin

I know a group of people (4) leaving on the 22nd of June.

i´m in mexico city. i fly to gua and back tonight on klm, and then to gua again on klm tomorrow for my third partner flight. i´ll met my sister in gua for the rest of our million mile run. other than a near crash on landing at mex, all is well so far. i´ll stay at the holiday inn downtown tonight. its $60 plus $25 in taxi fare round trip. cheaper than hotels close to airport, and can pick up a hotel stay. Wish me luck

Ticket problems from ITN/Amex...

Just in case it might help someone.
I booked 1/2 my flights via ITN/AMEX and
1/2 with Sabre/Travelocity. I verified
that the tickets were unrestricted/fully
refundable. Today I received the tickets
from ITN , they had changed them to a lower
non-refundable/non-endorsable fare. Luckily,
I have most of the important screens printed
and filed , so they appear to be handling
the refund / etc.

It's amazing how many hours I've spent and lost booking/doublechecking /onhold (ITN
has terrible long waits on the phone)...And
I'm using online web booking systems.

Darn, Now more hours of phone calls to get
the seats and FF seats assigned with for the
new reservations ;-( I'm definitely earning
these miles!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by golden girl:
[B]For those who went, what kind of luggage did you use?

They were definately more stringent with their carry-on policies. Taca 514 MIA-MGA was actually checking everyone's carry-ons to make sure they weren't too heavy or big. I don't remember which one, but one of the airline reps told me that they had an 18lb. limit. I noticed that alot of the people who had the wheeled carry-ons that we normally see were forced to check them at the gate from MIA-MGA. I carried a duffle type carry-on and my husband had a backpack. I don't think I would have wanted to take a chance on much more.

My husband and I are back in Maui after the first half of our million mile run. I took some notes along the way, so here are my observations of the trip.

Taca (for NICA) 514 MIA-MGA. Check-in in MIA was extremely slow. We were second in line and waited for about 30 minutes. I was glad we were there early as the line got much longer by the time we left. The flight departed on time and arrived several minutes early. Newer aircraft--roomy, good meal and good service.

Copa 318 MGA-GUA After reading some of the previous posts on here, I tried to get our Copa boarding passes in MIA. They wouldn't give them to us, but did call MGA and told us that there would be someone waiting for us in a red jacket when we got off the plane that would have them. When we arrived nobody was there and after some confusion we were able to talk one of the TACA flight attendants into calling the COPA counter and explaining our situation and taking us to the transit area so that we could avoid customs. Approximately 30 minutes later a Copa rep came by and took our passports and tickets and returned about 15 min. later with our boarding passes. The flight was supposed to leave at 6:35 p.m. By 7 p.m. we were still waiting and there was no sign that our next flight even existed as there wasn't even a rep at the counter. Finally someone showed up and about one hour later we were leaving. We then made an unscheduled stop in SanSalvador to drop off passengers from an earlier flight that was cancelled. We were about two hours late getting into GUA. Customs in GUA was a breeze. We stayed at the Marriott there. I had called in my flight numbers before we arrived and they had a shuttle driver waiting there for us. It was a 5 or 10 minute shuttle ride to the hotel, which was very nice and only $85 per night. Everyone that we ran into at Marriott spoke good English.

Aviateca 961 GUA-SAL Fast check in at GUA. $20 airport tax. Quick flight-on time. Stayed in trasit in SAL (you don't need to do anything special to stay in trasit here). The TACA Salon was closed for repairs that day.

Taca 623 SAL-SJO (this was listed as a Taca flight, but we took a Lacsa aircraft--Taca assured me that this would count for Taca with the Latin Pass program)On time flight, newer aircraft, good food. Easy customs. We stayed at the InterContinental which was gorgeous. We paid $190 p/nite before tax for a concierge floor room which included cocktails and appetizers in the evening and breakfast in the morning. The service and rooms were impeccable. There was someone waiting at the baggage area with a shuttle (again I called ahead with our flight numbers). It was about a 20-30 minute ride to the hotel. One thing to keep in mind that I was not aware of, is that the shuttle only runs one way, you have to get a cab back to the airport for $13 USD, there are plenty of them at the hotel. There was a nice modern mall across the street from the hotel. The guide lists this property has having a casino, but it is closed. Wish we would have had a few more days here.

SJO-CCS Lacsa 610 Had we been checking luggage we could have missed this flight. The line was at least three hours long. We were able to go to the express check in desk which only took about 10 minutes. Also if you are only staying one night you need pay only a $2 airport fee in SJO. If you like coffee this is the place to pick up some coffee beans, they are cheap here. The flight was about an hour and 15 min. late leaving, they said that they were waiting for the crew to arrive. Newer aircraft, good service and food. Not all of the announcements at this gate were made in English. Easy customs into CCS. We stayed at the Inter-Continental. I orginally had reservations at the Best Western, but after talking to two people from Caracas online, I changed them. I mentioned this to several people from Caracas that were sitting next to us on flights and they said that this was a good idea since the Best Western is in a bad part of the city and one that is having alot of problems with crime since the mudslides in Dec. Again, I notified the hotel ahead of time of our arrival and they had a driver there to pick us up. He was a good driver and I didn't feel in danger, although it was plain to see that with some cabs it could have been a harrowing ride into the city. The ride took us about 45 minutes or so and cost $22 USD per person each way. I was glad to get through the tunnels as the air was very bad there. The rooms at this InterContinental were nothing like SJO. At first they put us in a 1st floor (basment) room that looked like an old room at a Motel 6--after complaining, they found something on the 6th floor with twin beds. This was much better, but not what I would expect for $190 p/nite at this type of hotel. It was extremely outdated with dirty carpet and old furniture. The hotel itself was nice and we felt quite safe. We had room service dinner which was excellent. I also worked out in their gym which had good weight equipment, but was crowded. They had the windows open, which made the air seem like you were working out behind a bus. Not good!

CCS-MIA Aeropostal 500 Fast check-in. Allow an extra 15-20 minutes for all of the extra check points. There was more security getting out of Caracas than we encountered anywhere. Had to show our passports and boarding passes at least four times and got a pat-down at the gate. The departure fee was $21 USD (we didn't have correct USD change, but they would prefer it). The flight left and arrived on time and again the service was very good. I had ordered special meals, which were delicious (mushroom crepes and fresh fruit) and looked better than the normal meal.

All in all, the trip went very well. We felt safe throughout. The people were extremely friendly everywhere and for the most part spoke English and Spanish. I know limited Spanish and found it handy a few times, but you could pick up a translation guide and do fine. We used only USD and AMEX without any problems. Bottled water was easily accessible. All of our flights on this run were in full fare coach, which I was surprised to see included alcoholic beverages at no extra charge. I had one glass of Chablis which was decent for Chablis.

I can't wait for our next run in May from LAX-LIM, LIM-UIO, UIO-BOG, BOG-UIO, UIO-LIM, LIM-CUZ, CUZ-LIM and LIM-LAX. I did book the LIM-CUZ trip on a V-Fare which I confirmed with two agents and Juan, the head of Taca's mileage program. All of them said that without question it would count for Latin Pass.

Good luck to Natural Springwater and all of the rest of you embarking on your adventures. You will have a great time! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Many of you have flown and plan to fly Taca flights within central america. I received an email from Taca Distancia suggesting that only Taca flights connecting to OUTSIDE central america count towards the promotion. This suggests that one needs a MIA-MGA (or vice versa) flight for Nica --AND-- a MIA-MGA (or MIA-SAL etc; or vice versa)flight for Taca.

Quote:
LASTIMOSAMENTE NO ACUMULA PORQUE ESTE VUELO AUNQUE ES ENTRE DOS PAISES CENTROAMERICANOS, ES CONSIDERADO COMO VUELO DOMESTICO, Y ESTA PROMOCION SOLO APLICA PARA VUELOS INTERNACIONALES.

I asked about Taca 141 GUA-SAP and Taca 142 SAP-GUA. I was told by two Taca phone agents that the flights accrued miles. While this may be true, the Distancia email message clearly states the flights are not eligible for the bonus. Note that this conflicts with the definition of international flights posted by Latin Pass. And raises the question of why an international segment is different for Taca than for other Taca Grupo flights like Lacsa etc.

Quote:
What is an International Flight Segment?
An international flight segment is any flight from one country to another country which
requires a separate flight ticket coupon.

Has anyone received written confirmation from Taca/Distancia that their intra-central america Taca flights count towards the bonus?

[This message has been edited by flymetothemoon (edited 03-25-2000).]

The response from Taca is strange. I guess I'd like to read the question before reacting.

As you quoted above, the LatinPass FAQ clearly defines "international flight segment" for purposes of the bonus.

Maybe I missed the big news, but last I heard Honduras and Guatemala were still separate countries!

My question to Taca/Distancia:

"Does Taca flight 141 GUA-SAP 4/18/00 qualify for mileage accrual and the Latin Pass million mile promotion for BOTH the Y and H fares? Gracias!"

PG, since you and your friends seem to have been verified by Latin Pass as million mile winners, I'd be interested to know what kind of flight counted for your Taca segment. If you prefer not to be specific, please provide a suggestive example or two, or please email me. Gracias!

[This message has been edited by flymetothemoon (edited 03-25-2000).]

Altavista translation of the Taca representative's response to flymetothemoon:

PITIFULLY IT DOES NOT ACCUMULATE BECAUSE THIS FLIGHT ALTHOUGH IS BETWEEN TWO CENTRAL AMERICAN PAISES, IS CONSIDERED LIKE FLIGHT DOMESTIC SERVANT, AND THIS SINGLE PROMOTION APPLIES FOR INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Hee hee.

We had long-haul Tacas in our trips, SFO-SAL and SAL-SFO, so your response remains mysterious. We also ended up with few extra Tacas in the end.

On on unrelated note, have you tried Taco Bell's latest--the Aviataco? No, that's not it...it's called the TacaNica. The special comes with Lacsa salsa and a Copa Pepsi... Sorry, I'm hungry...

flymetothemoon
Quote
"What is an International Flight Segment?
An international flight segment is any flight from one country to another country which requires a separate flight ticket coupon."
This is posted on the Latin Pass site in the most frequently asked questions section of the promotion. It is very clear as to what an "international flight segment" is for this promotion! Something is clearly missing in the translation, as golden girl so eloquently pointed out. What may be misunderstood is the TACA flight that substitutes for the Nica segment. This flight is required to be from Miami to MGA. This is the only segment that is specified to be from the US to Central America. I have made my reservations, and purchased the tickets in compliance with the rules as stipulated on the Latin Pass site. I do not believe TACA/Distancia is changing the rules it is just a language problem.

distancia also has a promotion for 50,000 miles for a roundtrip to latin america from the us. maybe there is some confusion beween the distancia and latinpass promotions.

Now in GUA at the Radisson Suites. Called the hotel from the airport, and they had a free shuttle van there for me in less than 10 minutes. My room is on the 17th floor - large and very nice, free internet access downstairs. I do not see how you could beat this in Guatemala. Tomorrow I meet my sister here and we fly on together on TACA to MGA. I have reserved Best Western Las Mercedes -conveniently located across from the Managua International Airport - swimming pools, gambling, open-air bar -sounds great!-for 80 dollars plus 15 percent tax.
My problem at the moment is to figure out how to get connected in BOG to Aces and then another Aces without going through customs. We will arrive BOG on Avianca from CCS. We have over 5 hours connection time, but would rather not come out of international area, to avoid customs and departure tax -if there is one. ideas?
Also, still need a hotel in Lima. We will arrive very late, and leave very earlly, so would like to stay close to the airport. Hilton = $250 -too much! Intercontinental - so far away. More ideass? I can check here Sunday morning early.

BJJ - Your two questions:

1. My brother is going to LIM (I am only going on the 500K run, so will not get there). He could not find a hotel there either. But found a nice guest house in Miraflores where the owner speaks English and will pick him up and return him for a reasonable fee. Unfortunately, he is now is NZ and I don't have the name of place. But there is a Central Reservations Tel. 4466895 that you can check with. Or try San Antonio Abad Hotel T 4476766 that has a shuttle. A drive may be necessary, but better 4-5 hours sleep than staying at airport.

In BOG they are not supposed to charge you a fee if you are leaving on same day. But I think you can (from what I have read) stay in the transit area - assume no checked bags. But may be difficult to get an agent to get you boarding passes. If you leave, make sure they stamp passport with date of arrival so you can prove when you arrived.

Please post this info after your trip as, I think, the biggest question for most is how to handle plane transfers at the various airports without exit taxes. And BOG is a main transfer point and many concerned with possible problems there. Thanks and Good Luck!

BJJ, we couldn't figure out how to stay behind security in BOG, but it wasn't a big deal--especially if you have the time. Just present your boarding pass from your arriving flight to the airport tax counter (across from the Iberia counter, I believe) and they'll stamp it without charge. Then get your boarding pass for the next flight. I was somewhat nervous in there, having read about people stealing passports and luggage, but didn't have any trouble.

In Lima, we stayed at the Holiday Inn in Miraflores, booked through their web site. It was $85/night for a huge room. The place seemed nearly vacant when we were there. We took a bus from the airport to the hotel and back. It was pretty cheap--about $10/person I think. We had them pick us up early the next morning, and the driver was there as promised--or even 10 minutes early (something like 3:15 am). It's about 30 minutes from the airport to the hotel.

A better idea might be to pay business class for your flight the next morning and camping out in the LIM VIP lounge. Grupo Taca clase executiva tickets will get you in, for example. You probably won't get much rest no matter what you do.

I look forward to your report from the LIM internet cafe...

If you do not have biz tkts but are a member of Diners Club, consider hanging out in the 24hr DC Lounge at Lima airport. Complementary beverages etc. If anyone has been there, please confirm.

DC apparently also has 24hr lounges in the airports in Guayaquil, Quito, Miami.
http://www.dinersclub.com/diners_lounges.html

BillHallNY - Originally I was booked at the Holiday Inn, GUA, but after reading posts here I decided to go with the Radisson for $80 (plus megataxes), free shuttle to/from airport. I was able to arrange for the airport shuttle in advance on Radisson's 1-800 number (1-800-333-3333), but BJJ said he called from the airport and they arrived within 10 minutes. BJJ just posted that they have free net access ;-) there, so I'll comment when I get there on Tues (3/28)..

ALL - Anybody know what to see/do in Caracas? I will be staying at the Hilton and will have all morning (til 1pm). Do you think I can get a half-day city tour? Or should I just hoof/metro it?

Cheers,
ns

Re: BOG layover. My itinerary involves a layover of 7.5 hours in Bogota.. waiting for a late flight to Caracas.. Anybody know if I could get a late afternoon tour of Bogota arranged at the airport? Or should I just stay in transit and avoid tax and potential safety concerns?

ns

If anybody's making a 500,000 run from the Detroit area in the near future, I would be interested in hooking up. I also could make a trip from Mexico City as business may take me there in the next couple of months. I'm looking to make as quick a run as possible and obviously the least expensive as I didn't get my wife registered quick enough so I will be making a solo run. Thanks!

------------------

I have a 6 hour layover in Bogota this Sat.
I had dinner with a customer last week who was from Columbia and he strongly suggested that we not venture out into the city.

Has anybody had any luck with getting boarding passes for a flight when you are not in the country from which you are flying from?

NSW and tomphot: Please see my report on Bogota El Dorado airport in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/002076-16.html

Also, I wrote a trip report about a week long stay in Bogota in the section "Flyer Talk Trip Reports" if you're interested.

I would be glad to answer specific questions as best I can here.

Hello all, and thanks so much for all of the information. I'm just finishing the booking of my million mile run leaving May 4 or 5 from MIA. I'll return there on May 14. I'm likely travelling alone, so would love to meet up with folks along the way. I'll post my itinerary later this week, when it is confirmed. Anyone else travelling in this time frame?

My husband and I are off on 3/30 for the 500K trip. Our route will be MIA_BOG_SJO stay the night in SJO (?Marriott, check out the volcano) Then SJO_SAL_GUA, the night in GUA (Holiday Inn), then GUA_MGA_MIA back on the 1st of April.

We were wondering about renting a car in San Jose to drive to the Volcan Poas. I beleive the Marriott has a shuttle rfom the airport. Any suggestions for restaurants in SJO and GUA? Thanks!

DGOLDS: I saw what you and Pudding Guy wrote about El Dorado airport (thanks guys. Most helpful). One specific question though: Assuming that one is able to get boarding passes for connecting flights (a big assumption to make in my case, but never mind...), is it possible to stay airside, or do you have to go through immigration in any event (arriving from Miami)?

NickB: I didn't see a way that you could stay in the airport without going through immigration, but that doesn't mean it's not possible. If you do have to go through immigration, allow at least an hour for clearing customs, and a couple of hours for checking in to your next flight.

You might give Avianca or ACES a call, I'm sure they could give a definitive answer.

Disregard my earlier request for information regarding day tours in Bogota. I am going to hole up in the airport for the 7-hour layover.

Check out the latest the State Dept. info on Colombia: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif http://travel.state.gov/colombia.html

NO CONCERNS??

I am surprised not much response to the post above (see partial below) regarding TACA inter Central Amer. flights not valid for the LP promotion. Has anyone contacted LP and got a definite answer WITH a name of representative, date, etc. for future reference?? I would have thought this would be a MAJOR issue to be resolved for many going on the LP trip.


See full post above (and a couple of replies):
=======================================
posted 03-25-2000 09:56 AM
Many of you have flown and plan to fly Taca flights within central america. I
received an email from Taca Distancia suggesting that only Taca flights
connecting to OUTSIDE central america count towards the promotion. This
suggests that one needs a MIA-MGA (or vice versa) flight for Nica --AND-- a
MIA-MGA (or MIA-SAL etc; or vice versa)flight for Taca.
==========================================

PS. I did read of a Airport Hotel next to LIMA airport which "looked" like it was adequate. It was in the "footprints" book on South America (reddish cover) in the Lima section and had a small ad besides being mentioned in the article. Can't remember name offhand. I have book at home and will review if anyone has interest.

SAPMAN: I can't remember if it is in this thread or the 1000000 Miles one, but a number have submitted flight plans to LP for pre-approval which involved intra-central America flights, and these were cleared, as far as routing is concerned.
In any event, I just cannot see how Taca could unilaterally decide to re-define the English language in a highly peculiar manner through unpublished rules. It would be a different matter if Latinpass had published a definition of 'international'. Unless explicitly defined otherwise for the purposes of the promotion, international must mean between two distinct countries, wherever those two countries are situated.
Awareness of the rules of the Latinpass promotion does not seem to be overwhelmingly good among Taca agents and their statements need to be handled with a healthy degree of scepticism. I was told by them that I only needed to fly on 9 airlines for the million miles! needless to say that I am not going to rely on that...

Okay I've finally got the address of the Argentine steakhouse in Quito - it's Rincon del Gaucho, Almagro 422 y Garcia Local tel no. 547-846. However, PLEASE note that it was 3 yrs. ago when I was there and things may have changed since then. There was also a great pub just off the Avenidas Amizonas in Quito. I'm sorry, but the only thing that I can remember about its location was that it was opposite a strip club - sorry! Ask around - the pub (which is not seedy) is a good popular spot.

[This message has been edited by leroy11 (edited 03-27-2000).]

Delphi, sorry I didn't see you question earlier. Please feel free to e-mail me. I'm going on May 4-14, for the whole million. It would be nice to meet a fellow FF Hoosier.

Delphi, sorry I didn't see you question earlier. Please feel free to e-mail me. I'm going on May 4-14, for the whole million. It would be nice to meet a fellow FF Hoosier.

Thanks Leo,
I will have dinner @ Rincon del Gaucho in Quito this Fri night
Tom

i am concerned about the taca "intl" flight. remember the airlines can change their mileage requirements at any time. just because a central american flight was good last month does not mean it is good now. also why choose to ingore taca on their definition of an intl flight and believe them when they say a V class ticket on taca peru counts, when it expicitly says only Y and C class on their web site. has anyone had any other confirmation, yes or no, as to what class of fares are good for the promotion. thanks.

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[This message has been edited by MauiGirl (edited 03-28-2000).]

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[This message has been edited by MauiGirl (edited 03-28-2000).]

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[This message has been edited by MauiGirl (edited 03-28-2000).]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SAPMAN:
[B]NO CONCERNS??

I just spoke with Latin Pass on this and they told me that it doesn't matter what Distancia's rules say, it's the rules posted by Latin Pass that are in effect for this promotion. I also spoke to a Taca rep who claimed to be familiar with the million mile offer and he told me that it didn't matter which of the Grupo Taca airlines you flew on, they would all count for the Latin Pass promo. In other words you could take four Lacsa flights and they would count for Taca, Lacsa, Nica and Aviateca. So I definately know they don't have a clue. In my dealings so far Latin Pass seems to be the most helpful and knowledgeable.

From the FAQ on the Million miles promotion on the Latinpass website:
"3- What is an International Flight Segment?

An international flight segment is any flight from one country to another country which requires a separate flight ticket coupon."

I emailed Latin Pass the following question:

"Hola,
Are Taca flights (that accrue miles such as Y or C class) between Central American countries eligible for the million mile bonus?"

And just now received this reply:

All full Y class fares and C class fares are eligible for mileage accrual,and as long as you travel from country to country, you will be eligible for the bonus promotion.

It's nice to have it in writing.
Gracias Latin Pass!

[This message has been edited by flymetothemoon (edited 03-27-2000).]

duplicate

[This message has been edited by flymetothemoon (edited 03-27-2000).]

duplicado lo siento

[This message has been edited by flymetothemoon (edited 03-27-2000).]

duplicate, sorry.



[This message has been edited by NickB (edited 03-28-2000).]

duplicado otra ves

[This message has been edited by flymetothemoon (edited 03-27-2000).]

Sorry about the multiple posts, my computer was giving me a timed out message each time I attempted to post so I didn't think the message had been sent. My apologies!!

Do only Y or C class tickets qualify??? I asked LatinPass, and they kept saying it depends on the indivdual airlines. So I have been asking Taca,Avianca etc, and they've been assuring me that my tickets qualify. I have double checked with the airlines, triple checked even.. no one ever said anything about only Y or C class.

My husband and I are leaving this Wednesday!

Does anybody know what a "J" fare is?
I am flying business class on the flight from BOG - MIA on Avianca. All my other Business class came back as "C"

C and J are both Business class.

Why risk the bonus over a few dollars? Book everything in Y and there will be no question if it qualifies for the bonus.

[This message has been edited by Tango (edited 03-27-2000).]

Sorry Duplicate post

[This message has been edited by Tango (edited 03-27-2000).]

Has anybody heard when TACA PERU is expected to begin international flights, or when SAETA is expected to begin flying its LIM-UIO route? I'm not leaving until late April for the Million Mile Run, but I won't be completing these segments until sometime during the first week of May. My dilema is that if I book my flights now on TACA-PERU for a domestic hop from LIMA to CUZCO, and do the same on ACES from LIMA to QUITO, and they start these new services, I'll probably have to restructure my plans.
Finally, has anybody heard whether a "W" fare basis ticket on Taca-Peru would qualify for the mileage?

I have no idea on Taca Peru Intl and Saeta
But Latinpass answered 1 of my emails that
said as long as I booked and had tickets issued before they started flying ...Latinpass would honor the flights as substitutes...

But being a bit "cautious" I'd ask them again since their Taca Peru answer was a "bit" vague. Let us know what you find out.

I'd suggest an email since it's more easily
returned to them if questions arise later.

Tango,
I agree.
I didn't want to risk anything when I booked this trip, that's why booked in business class. Other posts have also said "why risk it, book in full coach "Y", or business "C". When I got my tickets, all of my business seats were C except the one flight which came back as J. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't some kind of discounted business seat that would not qualify.