LatinPass/GlobalPass - Still have LP (GP) miles left?

Remember the good ol days of the LP Million miles runs? And all the questions, changes, questionable routes, etc.

How many miles do YOU have left? How many let them expire? How many will go unused?

My wife and I have used up all but about 40K. In fact, I may need to use someone else's miles for a S. Amer. trip!! Probably should be in Coupon Connection (but this is too specialized!!), but anyone interested in a trade, email me.

I assume in a year this forum will be all but dead -- but it was fun while it lasted. And we went to lot of places we may have never got to (and some we probaby wish we hadn't :D )

I still have about 280k. Will probably do another family vacation to Costa Rica sometime, unless I get very lucky and find 2 C seats IAD-AMS on KLM.

My wife and I collectively still have about 200,000 miles. We also expect that they are probably going to be used for trip(s) to Costa Rica, depending upon how many of us go (just us, or the two kids as well). Or maybe a trip to South America.

Djlawman

I still have 480,000 miles left and more plans to travel to South America. Two of the friends I went with also have over 400,000 miles left.

I'm down to 190,000 miles out of my million. All went to Marriot, Hilton, and one business class trip to Costa Rica for two.

I still have 622726. I transferred a bunch into my Hilton Hhonors account and some into Taca Distancia while those transfers were still available. I've only booked one trip so far (to EZE) using my miles.

I've been working on getting a million miles on AA for lifetime Gold status so have been flying mostly paid AA flights the past couple of years. There are persistent rumours about this AA benefit going away soon so I'm transferring some of my Hhonors points to AA (taking quite a bath in the conversion rate) to put me over the top this year. So thanks GP! I couldn't have done it without you.

Once that project is out of the way I plan to do a lot more free flying to Latin America. Thanks again GP!

perhaps somewhat bravely I still have almost 700k miles left. I've only redeemed 6 tickets on GP so far - but from europe the travel options are limited - avianca dropped london shortly after i got my million, and availability on KLM has been zero.

I still have in the range of 600k of miles left in my account. I only moved about 100k to Hilton, the rest have been trips for either myself or my family/friends. I have to say I'm very happy that I still have a sizeable account left as the possibilities for flights to Central and South America are awesome.

I appear to be the winner so far:

I expended the 530,000-ish to under 5,000. Don't think we will see the likes of this anytime soon.

My wife and I have about 500,000 left, have spent 1.5 million, transfers to Hilton, Marriott, Distancia, a few flights to Cental and South America, and even two KLM business class tickets to Kenya from LA, but that was a long time ago.

Word of warning about Distancia transfers, they are only good for three years and all miles expire. Only way to extend miles is to take a paid flight on Distancia member airline (TACA etc.) Hotel stays car rentals do not extend miles in Distancia like LP. Paid flight only extends miles for one calender year. If you have miles expireing this year you are able to use for ticket next year but you must pick up ticket before end of this calender year. Good news Distancia still allows accounts to be combined for a ticket.

Distancia does allow combining accouts for redemption BUT they say both parties must be at a TACA ticket office to do it. So if you are in Seattle and friend in Omaha - not much chance of happening. On other hand, rules vary depending on who you talk to and on which day. :rolleyes:

Yes, if you have Distancia miles, they may expire end of DEC -- best to check. If you cannot get a TACA trip beforehand, better get a trip for 05.

I actually just got a ticket from Taca by combining two accounts, it is true you must appear in person to get the ticket, but the person who you are combining miles with does not have to appear in person.

I was required to present a signed letter from the person giving me the miles; the letter I was told had to stipulate the account name, FF number and pin number for the account I was getting the miles from. I was asked for copy of both my Distancia cards and the person giving me the miles card, when I got the tickets.

From the time I started the process in the Los Angeles office to completion it took several phone calls and almost two hours so be prepared for a long day. but it can be done!

cygone, thanks for the input. One gets different info from different agents. But what a pain to 1) have to go to airport, especially if you do not live in gateway area, 2) have all that documentation incl. the CARD, 3) and the phone calls and 2 hr. time. I think Distancia would be much better off having a process where they get emails (and called owner to verify) from parties and handle it in an office. The time and hold up for others at a ticket gate is so inefficient, especially when they need to call Distancia office to get it done!! Good thing 3 of you did not all show up at same time. :D

I went to ORD to get Distancia award processed as told (I was there anyway, so really not too bad for me) and then found out someone else handled with fax and phone calls with same ticket agent in ORD. We email each other and that helped. NOTE: Once you get all approved, cr. card charged, etc., it took about 2 weeks to get the itinery receipt in mail!! Yes, it was eticket, but without some paper work in hand - I was uncomfortable.

Sapman,
I agree it is a major headache to get Distancia tickets, I believe they require you to go to their ticket office for any FF ticket, much less a ticket that combines accounts. I have only received two tickets from them and both required I pick up the tickets at the ticket office.

On the plus side my wife had 15,000 miles in her account, I had 20,000; and most of our miles were set to expire at the end of this year. With 500,000 LP miles still waiting to be used it was highly unlikely we would take a paid flight this year. Being able to combine the accounts and get a free ticket is an advantage no other FF program I know of offers.

It was a hassel but I was in LA anyway and had some time to kill. You are right however about how inefficent Distancia is. Both times they issued a FF ticket to me, the agents acted as if, my ticket was the first they ever had done. I am certain Distancia has implemented the present system of redemption in place to discourage the use of miles. Certainly if they made it as difficult to get a regualar ticket as it is to get a FF mileage ticket they would not be able to stay in business very long.

I am still sitting on a little over 300,000 miles. 730,000 miles to hotel point transfers has been worth about $30,000 in hotel rooms over the years. I consider the whole LatinPass adventure the great travel coup.

I just had two confirmed KLM seats to Amsterdam, but work constraints made me cancel that reservation. I want to try for SFO-South Africa this next year.

I still have 360000 left from a Million Mile run. I occassional have a stay at Hilton credited to my account to reset the 3 year clock on experation. It is hard to use the the remaining miles from Seattle. With the loss of Hilton transfers and US Air, there is no way to burn points from Seattle. I have thought about using KLM from YVR to AMS but have never called GlobalPass to see if there is any availablility. I can only hope that some day GlobalPass gets:

A. A North American Domestic Partner.
B. The Taca group starts flying out of Seattle.
C. GlobalPass allows Hilton or Marriot transfer out of GlobalPass.

I am not holding my breath for any of these to happen soon...

I still have near 575,000 miles remianing. I transferred most of them to Hilton and routinely stay at Hilton and double dip to GlobalPass to keep my account current. I am hoping for some free travel in the future to Costa Rica and S America. Perhaps GlobalPass will add more partners.

The LatinPass run was the trip of a lifetime! I agree that we did get to see areas/countries we may never have visited. I do intend to return to Machu Picchu with my wife some day. My friends still do not believe that I was able to travel for 12 days with just a very small carry on!

Hopefully this thread will keep alive to share ideas on how to use these miles!

David B.

About 180,000 miles left from the 530,000 earned.

The Latinpass run was a great experience and worth it without any redemption of miles. Three of us departed Oregon and five days later returned with lots of stories. One of the best was of the three of us having dinner in Guatemala City at the steak house south of the hotel (forgot the hotel name); we ate and drank with excellent service, all for about $25 each.

Sadly, Dan, one of my Latinpass adventure partners, died last March very unexpectedly at the age of 50. At his memorial, I got the chance to tell his brother of our Latinpass adventures, leading to tears from his brother and me.

It's one of those stories that is truly memorable, just a crazy and wild scavenger hunt for miles through seven countries in 42 hours.

We used miles:

1. FC on USAir SEA-Reagan/DC for my son and I
2. FC on TWA PDX-MCO for our family
3. Hilton transfers
4. Marriott transfer -- 90,000 LP points for the Marriott 200,000 point reward (since cancelled), which we used for two tickets to Hawaii and a week at the Maui Marriott Ocean Club.

Hoping to hit Costa Rica someday with the balance of the miles.