LatinPass/GlobalPass - Effective 6/30/2005 - NO MORE GlobalPass Awards [miles for money]

Interesting posting on the GlobalPass site. Note the last paragraph in particular. Any idea if the "million mile" bonus miles are available in the MFM scheme?


"A New Era Begins at GlobalPass

Effective July 1st, 2005, GlobalPass will launch a new Web Airlines booking engine making GlobalPass truly “global”.

Most travel websites offer the ability to purchase airline tickets by credit card and then allow customers to earn flown miles with the corresponding airline program when they are the flying passenger.

GlobalPass allows customers to purchase airline tickets for passengers on over 500 airlines worldwide with the distinct advantage of being able to pay using Miles as Money; or, earn 4 GlobalMiles per dollar when payment is made by credit card; or, pay with a combination of miles and money. Customers can continue to earn flown miles in the airline program when they are the flying passenger.

If customers don’t have enough miles accumulated in GlobalPass, they can transfer miles or points from participating Transfer Programs. Please review www.globalpass.com for additional information on Transfer Programs.

No other mileage program or travel website offers more ways to earn miles and the flexibility in forms of payment as GlobalPass!!

Effective June 30th, 2005, GlobalPass will no longer offer “award” seats in the traditional airline manner. GlobalPass Affiliate Airlines (Aeropostal, KLM, Southern Winds and TACA Airlines) will no longer participate in GlobalPass and customers will no longer be able to earn flown miles as of June 30th, 2005. GlobalPass customers must have confirmed award reservations by June 30th, 2005 and award travel must be completed by June 29th, 2006."

If we can't get traditional awards, and can't use "Bonus" miles as "Miles as Money" due to the 50% limit, it seems like any remaining balances from the LatinPass Run would be of limited value. Or am I missing something?

Though it probably won't matter, does anyone know how the "Miles as Money" deal works anyway? I couldn't find any conversion charts. An old press release says it's 40,000 miles for a ticket up to $299, but that's the only data point I've seen.

Ah, the effective end of the frequent flyer program at Latinpass. Cannot even get Taca/Lacsa awards anymore. At least they gave us a little advance notice this time. I imagine the ladies will be very busy the next couple of weeks making reservations.

I beleive we've talked about this before, but as the website says; on ly 50% of "bonus" miles can be used as 'miles for money'. My big question is what exactly is the miles to money conversion rate?

I mean, what are they valuing any miles at? 1 cent per mile. 2 cents per mile? 5 cents per mile? 10 cents per mile? Can anyone decipher that yet?

I just edited the title of this thread to reflect the major change in terms.

IMHO, a bare minimum of six months notice should have been given for such a drastic change.

Can you say Class Action? Let's remember that the LatinPass Million Mile bonus miles were earned under a system where LatinPass was the agent of the airlines. Here from the terms and conditions of the program at the time:

"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. "

So, if LatinPass (now GlobalPass) is not responsible for their failure to provide services, the airlines must be. They reserved the right to cancel (and this amounts to a de facto cancellation) with six month's notice, but have given three weeks notice.

Since participating airlines were subject to change, I doubt any action could be commenced against those which have departed, such as COPA, US Airways (bankruptcy wipes it out anyway), or various others.

But I think there is probably a good argument that TACA and KLM are responsible for recognizing the miles, at least until they give six months notice. Given LP/GP's history, I would be surprised if all those who want to ticket within next three weeks are able to.

This is major news. Make sure everyone is aware of it.

What would I do without FlyerTalk.

Thanks for posting this info, I would have missed it for sure.

I still have 65K left and my friend has 270K which we will have to burn.

I just called Global Pass and was told the following:

KLM no longer available

TACA available until 6/30/2005, call Taca for reservations, GP to ticket

Miles for Money- you can use BONUS miles to pay fo 50% of a ticket on any airline booked thru Glabal Pass. You can use flight earned miles for 100%. Click on Miles as Money on the tree on the left of the GP screen to claculate value of miles. For example, $1,000 equals 153,000 miles

I'm not happy, but is seems the bonus miles from my million mile run still have some value.

I just called Global Pass and was told the following:

KLM no longer available

TACA available until 6/30/2005, call Taca for reservations, GP to ticket

Miles for Money- you can use BONUS miles to pay fo 50% of a ticket on any airline booked thru Glabal Pass. You can use flight earned miles for 100%. Click on Miles as Money on the tree on the left of the GP screen to claculate value of miles. For example, $1,000 equals 153,000 miles

I'm not happy, but is seems the bonus miles from my million mile run still have some value.


Only if you earn enough non-bonus GlobalPass miles to equal the other 50% you need for a Miles for Money award. I am assuming that the new miles you earn from GlobalPass Mall and purchasing any airline tickets through the Globalpass site will qualify as your matching miles to go with the bonus miles, but it is not clear from the web site at the moment.

No, I was told I can use 50% miles and 50% cash.

In any case, based on GPs record of trying to screw us, I have decided to donate tickets to Students for 60,000, a local youth organization, for trips to Managua. see http://educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat145.shtml

So if planning on using TACA do I have till June 30 to book and June 30th of next year to use?

I just talked to Daniellia and she said tickets can be changed etc the dates. You must book by June 30 as all accounts will be closed on that date. So book tickets and you have one year to change dates for a fee or destination. If need be burn them going first.

I knew this day was going to come, and am not surprised by the short notice given to us by Globalpass, either. I have 270k of 500k left, and after calling Taca yesterday and today was able to book for my family 4 business class tickets to Costa Rica and 2 economy to Panama. Date changes are a reasonable $35 per ticket. I hope to finalize plans and ticket these reservations with Globalpass next week. After my second call to Taca today, it seems that available dates and reward seats are going fast. Oh well, it was still a good ride while it lasted. :)

I sent an email message to GP early this morning regarding viable routings to Managua. Amelia, from GP, gave me a call this afternoon to answer my question. She also asked me if I was ready to book any tickets as she was ready to help me. They continue to amaze me with their great customer service!

I know that there are some "million milers" who disparage GP constantly. However, I really feel like many of us, myself included, took advantage of a promotion that was not intended for us, and may have caused some hardship for GP. I feel fortunate to have been able to use most of my miles and see a great deal of Central and South America. Currently, I have tickets to BA reserved, and tickets to Manuagua and Lima on hold. I hope I can use most of my miles, but I agree with the previous poster that it's been fun while it lasted.

p.s. If you don't know how to burn the last of your miles, consider starying at Morgan's Rock in Nicaragua. It's a new eco-lodge (resort) that's getting great reviews.

GP has pulled the "Miles Needed" link ffrom their website. Can someone remind me how many miles are needed for the following?

North America to Central America C/Y
Central America to Central America C/Y
Central America to South America C/Y
South America to South America C/Y

I have 400,000 miles to burn and am planning another LatinPass run revisited (This time on miles) for next May and June.

Plus, can some one tell me how many days out one can book Taca? Is it 330 or 365 days?

Finally - can one book open Jaws within the same region?

davistev
I can help with a few of your questions as I received answers yesterday to similar inquires. Miles needed for Central America from the US: 35,000 in coach and 50,000 in business. Miles needed US to South America, 50,000 in coach and 65,000 in business. You are allowed open jaws in a region, I booked a ticket to Bolivia, and am returning from Santiago Chile and LP/GP has said this is acceptable. I do not know the other mileage requirements.

I tried booking next March and April and was told of no availability for the four different ittineraries I inquired about. I was told that allocation of seats for the time period beyond February 2006 may not be made until later in the year, so the 330 day or 365 day booking period is not a reality. I booked seats in Febuary knowing I would have to change them to later dates as I also want to travel in May or June of 2006. LP says the change fee is 35 dollars as long as tickets are issued before end of month.

I tried booking next March and April and was told of no availability for the four different ittineraries I inquired about. I was told that allocation of seats for the time period beyond February 2006 may not be made until later in the year, so the 330 day or 365 day booking period is not a reality. I booked seats in Febuary knowing I would have to change them to later dates as I also want to travel in May or June of 2006. LP says the change fee is 35 dollars as long as tickets are issued before end of month.

I take it that we need to call LatinPass to make the date changes and not Taca. Is this correct?

Thanks for your help. I am in Miami for the next 10 days and I hope to complete all the bookings before I go back to Africa. The only time I have to do some leisure travel is next May so I will be very happy if it all falls in place.

In my experience, you can just call TACA and change them directly with them without paying a fee at all. They are very accomodating!

Gotta burn 350K!!!!!!!

I have a crazy idea. FOr those that have waaay more miles than they can possibly use before they expire, how about sharing them with other FTers and organizing a party in...say....Quito or Panama City or someplace else?

If someone shared their dying GlobalPass miles with another FT, perhaps they could get that FTer to reciprocate by covering their hotel bill or some good meals.

Anyone like this idea?

I have a crazy idea. FOr those that have waaay more miles than they can possibly use before they expire, how about sharing them with other FTers and organizing a party in...say....Quito or Panama City or someplace else?

If someone shared their dying GlobalPass miles with another FT, perhaps they could get that FTer to reciprocate by covering their hotel bill or some good meals.

Anyone like this idea?

Good Idea, if one can coordinate timing. My wife and I used up all our LP Miles, so are willing to "trade" some other miles (AA, CO) for some LP/GP miles for a trip to Argentina (where we have been twice before). If anyone has tons of miles, email me and we can talk. My brother also has some LP miles left, but unsure how many.

Wow, this is a shocker. At least I "spent" my miles and got a good deal for that MR.

i've still got a lot of miles left. from europe redemption was always very difficult, and became increasingly more difficult over the years as airlines dropped out of London (avianca), or dropped out altogether.

if someone wants to do some form of exchange on miles drop me a pm (although i may not answer until Tuesday as i will be at the paris air show)

Most of us who received the million mile bonus really have received good value out of this program. The best and most loyal customers are the ones affected most significantly by the changes. My nephew travels to Costa Rica quite frequently; his employer has a plant in San Jose. He has accumulated 140,000 miles in the GP program not by bonuses, but by flying on LACSA and that takes a lot of flying.

I spoke to him today and he had no idea about the changes in the program. He told me he has two business class tickets booked to Santiago, Chile in December using miles. He planned on having GP issue the tickets in October or November, as the old policy called for tickets to be issued within thirty days of departure. The business class tickets cost a little over $2,500 each or a total of 700,000 Global pass miles in the new program. Fortunately for him he now knows to have his tickets issued by the end of the month and pay for it with 130,000 miles from the old program.

My point is Global Pass should have made some effort to contact at least the very best customers and notify them of the changes. Even the notification on the GP web site is disguised to appear as if only minor changes are occurring. I know if I had a reservation and was told it would take 130,000 miles when I made it and by the time I ticketed the amount had risen to 700,000 miles I would be a little more than upset. Certainly they should have sent out a letter, or at least tried to contact participants by email. If you know anybody who still has miles, it is time to call them and tell them of the changes.

Yesterday, we called Taca several times to make 3 different bookings and we just had to book in "D" class for Business Class (or, if you want "T" class for Economy Class). Don't worry about them telling you that the price of the ticket is $2600 each, or something like that. Just ask them to hold it for a few days and get the confirmation code. Then you call Globalpass (I got them right at the opening time of their office this morning) and give them your Globalpass account number and the confirmation codes, and then after you hold the line, they will confirm that the reservations were set up correctly and take your credit card information for the international taxes and the $15 issuing fee.

The only question I had was whether we should pay the extra to have them use the expedite service and send you the tickets this week, because as their normal procedure, the GP agent informed me that they would be shipping out the tickets via Fedex about 4 weeks before the date of each flight. Is there a danger of losing the tickets in the next few months, even though their system now shows ticket numbers, i.e. if they go into bankruptcy in the next couple of months which would be still months before my flights?

If LP/GP will do it, I would definately use Expidite Service, even though it will cost more. Any decent company would waive the fees due to the abrupt change in the program (and one would think they would want to "wash their hands" of any future work regarding Awards asap.) But with LP/GP, I doubt it. :mad:

Get the tickets in your hot little hands

...if they go into bankruptcy in the next couple of months which would be still months before my flights?

Isn't it clear that that is their plan? They've dumped the partners one by one. Now they just bk a small insignificant Miami Co. and get rid of the mileage liability.

This has been a sweet ride...errr a sweet 'liability dump' for the actual carriers involved. I wonder how many miles will get swept under the rug.

The only question I had was whether we should pay the extra to have them use the expedite service and send you the tickets this week, because as their normal procedure, the GP agent informed me that they would be shipping out the tickets via Fedex about 4 weeks before the date of each flight.

I booked some tickets with TACA yesterday for travel in December. GlobalPass told me I could expect the tickets in a week or two -- so apparently the previous practice of waiting to issue the tickets until 4 weeks before the flight has been changed.

they told me that they still send the tickets out 4 weeks prior to flight dates, unless you pay a $50 expedite fee per record locator to have them sent out now.

tom

they told me that they still send the tickets out 4 weeks prior to flight dates, unless you pay a $50 expedite fee per record locator to have them sent out now.

tom

Yes, that is their policy that they have been following for years, i.e. not shipping out tickets until 4 weeks prior to the flight date. I called TACA today regarding a flight that I had earlier today called GP to use my bonus miles for and TACA already had ticket numbers in the record so that might be some assurance.

Miles needed for Central America from the US: 35,000 in coach and 50,000 in business. Miles needed US to South America, 50,000 in coach and 65,000 in business.

This is good info.

Just to verify, is all of South America a single zone?? I know TA Distancia has an upper South America and a lower South America--- maybe I'm mixing programs in my mind.

Thanks guys!

This is good info.

Just to verify, is all of South America a single zone?? I know TA Distancia has an upper South America and a lower South America--- maybe I'm mixing programs in my mind.

Thanks guys!

As I recall from the old LatinPass reward chart, I'm pretty sure the 35k/50k rewards apply to Central America as well as Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. The rest of South America would be 50k/65k. And too bad flying to and from Ecuador on Taca usually can't be done on a same-day connection.

Yes, that is right. Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador are 35K/50K

so would you pay the expediate fee to be safe or risk that they will mail them out.

Has anyone tried to contact management at GP, or indeed at AvMan, such as Guy Booth, or that grand old doyen of Latin American aviation Bob Booth and ask a few questions?

I made a request Monday for KLM awards. This is the email response I received today.


"Thank you for contacting GlobalPass.

KLM award seats are no longer available.

Please log-in to your GlobalPass Online Account and search for flight itineraries and airfares with our Web Airlines booking engine.

Sincerely,

GlobalPass Customer Care Center"

I actually had a couple of opportunities to get business class awards from SFO-AMS over the past two years, but the itineraries missed my preferred dates by a day and two and it just didn't work out.

Looks like Taca and Aeropostal are the only remaining options for using up the LatinPass miles. I'm heading down to Santiago. The San Cristobal Tower (Starwood Luxury Collection) has Cash & Points rooms for $45 and 2,800 points for July-Sep.

Is this available for all Starwood properties using Latin Pass miles with a dollar amount?

Per Tom posted today (6/14) in other thread:

Ok, today GP told me that they are sending out all newly booked tickets before the end of June.. the reason that they gave me is that Taca wont be doing any more rewards, so GP is sending all the tickets out in the next few weeks.. regardless when the travel date is...

we booked a ticket today to Central America for next March, and GP claims that they will send it out in a couple of weeks...( hope so.).. and with no extra fees.

the only change that can be made to a ticket is the dates, and to do this ,you call Taca directly and pay taca a change fee.

tom

Satori,
I sent an email to GP on Friday asking for KLM tickets, and followed up with a phone call on yesterday, and they said they had forwarded it to KLM - I haven't got much hope though that it will work....

Does this mean that the "last day to travel" will actually be 1 year from date of issue rather than June 29th, 2006?

Does this mean that the "last day to travel" will actually be 1 year from date of issue rather than June 29th, 2006?


Here's the problem I've found: when you call TACA (but this may depend on destination) they don't seem to have award inventory allotted past 2 or 3/06. YMMV. I havn't found inventory for my destinations beyond that date yet, anyway. Have others?

Rember, too, that tickets supposedly can only be issued for travel up to one year from date of actual ticket issue. So if issued today, the ticket's return should be no later than 6/14/06, I do believe. Is GP waiving normal ticketing rules?

So EVEN OUTBOUND changes can be done w TACA for $35? I know the answer from past experience has been yes. But this might not be the case once GP dies, if things start 'to get technical.'

BTW satori, hold on to that e-mail. It looks like the KLM rules have just change again!

Is this available for all Starwood properties using Latin Pass miles with a dollar amount?


The Starwood Cash & Points are Starwood Preferred Guest offers; nothing to do with LatinPass. It is just a good option considering the lowest available rate for the San Cristobal is $170. 2,800 SPG points saves $125/night in room cost and that is a good cost/benefit redemption opportunity.

I have the same question Davistev had earlier about mileage requirements. I am wondering about miles needed for intra South America, specifically an award in business from SCL-EZE-LIM, that I can tack on to an SFO-SCL/LIM-SFO itinerary.

I'll ask tomorrow when GlobalPass opens if nobody has the answer before then.

All TA South American destinations are served from LIM, so you have to back-track to LIM to go from SCL to EZE (with an all day wait in LIM).
Intra South America 2 is 30/45K.

Just booked 14 tix today both business and economy. Followed the instructions above to request "T" class for economy seats and "D" class for business from TACA reservations and then just use the record locator to ticket with Globalpass. I asked for the expedited process ($150 for 3 record locators) and was told I should have tix by next week. Immediately after hanging up with GP I could track the awards on their website (with ticket numbers, etc). Breakdown was 4XGUA in July, 5XSJO in September and 5XBOG in December. Tried Flores to hit Tikal and Cuzco to hit Macchu Picchu but had no luck ... nevertheless, happy if I get the ones I pulled the trigger on.

Thanks again to all for the heads-up on using up the miles.

I was thinking of the EZE - Santiago RT 6 mos. ago, but the connections are terrible (ones wastes 2 days). Also there is an appox. $100 entry fee per person for US passports - to offset the VISA cost for Chileans that come to the US.

One can fly direct EZE - Santiago and not too bad. I suppose the US fee still goes. I took bus from Mendoza to Santiago through the mountains and no entry fee by bus. Then flew back to EZE and no exit fee.

Too bad one cannot have a stopover in LIM and then drop down to Chile on way to or from EZE.

Thanks to FlyerTalk ^ , this long-time lurker has a chance to salvage some small award portion, rather than finding out about it after GlobalPass's absurdly short-notice "news" posting!

Flight Hound: Sent you an email.

I think your miles are about worthless as few Award seats left on TACA. So without seat availability, the miles can't buy anything.

I think TACA may have pulled back some Award seats out of available inventory when they realized the GP group would swamp them and take all the seats and leave none for Distancia (TACA FF program) members. If anyone else has found seats to S. America on 16 June or later, please let us know the details and difficulty getting them.

Transfers out were eliminated a couple of years ago.

Sapman,

I have two bookings for two tickets each to Satiago Chile in business class one in November and one in January, I can only use one of them I think I am going to cancel the one in November if you want I can probably just change the name on the booking and you could pick it up with your miles.

Taxes for SFO-SCL were $283.15. I had sticker shock. Add on the $100 tourist entry fee and that runs $775 for the two of us just to get there (albeit in business class).

Makes my ANA first class award from LAX-AKL ticket taxes of $19 seem like a real award ticket.

What are the taxes for other destinations in Central and South America?

cygone, Thanks for the offer. But I will be busy in Nov. and going to do a long trip to Japan and NZ in late Jan, so need to have some time before that to get stuff done. Maybe someone else wants them?



Sapman,

I have two bookings for two tickets each to Satiago Chile in business class one in November and one in January, I can only use one of them I think I am going to cancel the one in November if you want I can probably just change the name on the booking and you could pick it up with your miles.

Taxes for SFO-SCL were $283.15. I had sticker shock. Add on the $100 tourist entry fee and that runs $775 for the two of us just to get there (albeit in business class).


What are the taxes for other destinations in Central and South America?

Travelling around Latin America is expensive. Aside from Africa, I would rank Latin America as the most expensive place to travel in the world where taxes are concerned. I have never heard of a Latin American country that does not have a departure tax that needs to be paid at the airport. Often, tickets may say that taxes have been paid but in my experience this means nothing - the rank and file at the airport always asks for more money. (the airport I hate the most is SJO which charges $26 tax if your connecting flight departs after ONLY 12 hours).

The average departure tax throughout Central America is $25 per departure. South America can be higher (Brazil and Chile come to mind, the latter has an arrival tax depending on your citizenship - USA & Australia get hit hard).

I was actually thinking of redeeming more miles but once I added on GlobalPass fees (from $25 to $50), Departure taxes ($25 to $50), Ticket taxes built in ($0 to $75) and change fees ($35), for each ticket I am looking at anywhere from $85 to $205 per ticket in fees alone.

Not cheap and something to think about when redeeming all the miles. Out of our 2 million miles, we redeemed 1.6 million with GlobalPass. 400,000 miles left. I may just keep them with GlobalPass and see how their new business model pans out. If their prices are competitive, I will certainly give them my business in the future. The promotion was a great deal.

The program ends June 30, leaving them there gives you no value ever!

GP charged me 50.20 for two tickets to Ecuador and 51.40 for two tickets to Costa Rica. Was in Ecuador a couple of months ago and they have a $25.00 departure tax. Costa Rica has gone up from $18.00 to $26 in the past couple of years. Roatan has a $10.00 entry chage and a $25.00 departure tax. Have not ticketed my Chile flight yet but know it will be expensive. I think the departure tax for Peru is $25.00 as well, Peru even has a departure tax for domestic flights but it is less than international flights. Mexico departure taxes seem to be based on the Airport your depart from. Paid a lot of money (can't remember exactly from Cozumel) and not much from Mexico City. Have not been to Mexico in at least five years however.

Was in Asia this past summer, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos all have departure taxes of around twenty five dollars. What gets me angry sometimes are the hidden charges like VISA fees. China, India, Kenya, and Brazil have some incredible charges.

Davistev,

Take a look at the new redemption levels before you decide to participate in the program. Understand you can not use any bonus miles until you earn new miles in the GP program, they will release one bonus mile for each mile you earn in the new program. In order to have all your bonus miles (400,000) released you will have to spend $100,000 on airline tickets, (one hundred thousand dollars that is not a misprint). You may be able to save a little with purchases from the Global Mall, but I believe you would still have to spend at least $75,000 to have all your miles released.

Global pass internet booking engine also ads substantial surcharges to any ticket they issue making them more expensive than any other internet site. If you decide to be loyal and stick with the program you will be rewarded (after spending between $75,000 and $100,000) with enough miles (800,000 including your 400,000 mile bonus) to purchase two business class tickets to South America and you will still pay a delivery fee for the tickets.

I know naysayers have been stating this program would fail before it even started but now the writting is on the wall. A frequent flyer program without any participating airlines? I have seen some pretty wacky business plans but this one is incredible. To break business plan down simply: GP expects to add 10% to the price of whatever they sell on the site. $100,000 in airline tickets could be purchased for $90,000 from other sites. Remember: if you are not a Million mile bonus baby $100,000 spent at the GP site will only get you one $2,600 dollar ticket. Who do you know who will spend 10% to get a 2.6% return? When you consider you will pay less for tickets at airline sites and receive legitimate bonus miles for the booking, you have to wonder who will be using Global Pass.

It is not that I am not grateful for the bonuses, I am, my family has benefited a great deal from this promotion but waiting to use the miles is not a good idea. I just donated some tickets to an organization from the University of California at Santa Barbara called Engineers without borders, they are doing a reconstruction of water supply system in a small town in Peru this winter. If you can't use the miles please don't throw them away, many organizations are looking for tickets to Central and South America and are more than willing to pay the taxes on the ticket: they will tell you what name to put on the reservation. Although selling frequent flyer miles is banned, gifting tickets is allowed by this program!

I just donated some tickets to an organization from the University of California at Santa Barbara called Engineers without borders, they are doing a reconstruction of water supply system in a small town in Peru this winter. If you can't use the miles please don't throw them away, many organizations are looking for tickets to Central and South America and are more than willing to pay the taxes on the ticket: they will tell you what name to put on the reservation. Although selling frequent flyer miles is banned, gifting tickets is allowed by this program!

I would appreciate hearing about this and other charities where mebbe I might put some of my remaining miles to good use. Any suggestions and phone numbers?


I had a feeling this was going to happen w GP, so began making inquiries in another thread, but I didn't get much response. (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=440076) :(

cygone and others:

I heard the complex New GP program will let one BUY new miles and use them with 50% of old miles. Also heard this would be equivalent of about a 20% savings - and one could book on any legacy airline such as AA, UA.

This is a complicated program, I guess, and not exactly sure how it works. But I understood one did not have to buy tickets (and get the NEW miles), build up to 1/2 of needed miles, and then get Award miles.

If someone understands this better, perhaps he/she can give an example on how to use OLD bonus miles. For example, a $400 ticket to SJO and how to get it.
-------------
I don't think I would ever get more expensive tickets thru GP (to earn new miles) and "hope" they stay around long enough so as to be able to use the Bonus miles. Especially with their poor web site, high fees for various services, poor telephone hours, rare call backs with info, etc.

cygone, how are the donees going to be able to use the donated miles? Don't they have same restrictions as we do?

Taxes for SFO-SCL were $283.15. I had sticker shock. Add on the $100 tourist entry fee and that runs $775 for the two of us just to get there (albeit in business class).

Makes my ANA first class award from LAX-AKL ticket taxes of $19 seem like a real award ticket.

What are the taxes for other destinations in Central and South America?


Apparently we had a communication issue. I work with numbers all day long and I asked the agent to verify that the taxes were $283.15 and that is the number she repeated. It turns out the ticket cost is $2,083.15, but the actual taxes are only about $75 for the award.

I just saved $400 on my LatinPass 2 trip :D .

Sapman,

Four hundred dollar ticket, would cost 54,000 miles in new program. You may use your bonus miles for half of an award ticket so you would have to buy 27,000 miles to release 27,000 bonus miles. Miles cost $15 per thousand: $400 ticket in new GP program costs 27,000 bonus miles and $405! Golbal pass adds a surcharge to all tickets! If ticket is available with Global Pass booking engine for $400 it is more than likely available at TACA or other airline website for $360. If that is a 20% savings, than I need to go back to school. The math just does not add up or make any sense.

I know this sound absurd but I actually tried to book a ticket las week with United and the Global Pass "new program" using bonus miles and it was far cheaper to use no miles and book on the United site. You may book with any airline but you will not pay the lowest available fare using the Global Pass booking engine.

Your question about donated miles is a good one: you can not donate miles, you can book a ticket and donate the ticket to an individual. You must contact the charity and find out when and who will use the ticket. I am trying to find out more now, how many more tickets Engineers without Borders needs. When I get information I will post it here.

Cygone is right on the new program. The surcharge added by GP (hidden in the overall price, BTW, rather than identified separately) varies on airline, route and price (how exactly I cannot fathom) but can be quite substantial. On some low-ish value tickets, it can work OK if you are just using existing miles + 'freed' bonus miles. Without that, however, I just cannot see how buying on the GP site provides value. They would have to give you a heck of a lot more than 4 GP miles per dollar spent for it to be reasonable value. Under the current system, in the majority of cases, you would lose value by using the GP engine. I got a ticket from them using the new system (so that my 'freed' bonus miles + newly acquired miles would not be swallowed up by old style awards I was about to order) and it was not tremendous value, but nonetheless OK in my circumstances as I was using some available miles. If you don't already have a substantial amount of miles available (for at least something in the region of half the value of the ticket you want to get), it is just not worth it.

To be fair I should clarify one issue. If you have earned a great many miles in the program, (traveled extensively on TACA, hotel stays etc) and had the miles credited to GP than you MAY get some value from the new program. I did say may because you also may not. If you have been issued an award ticket recently you probably have no bonus miles you can use.

My example best demonstrates this: I am HH Diamond, have had over150 stays credited to LP/GP. I like almost everybody (sorry Flight Hound) have had award tickets issued including a couple fairly recently. In GPs existing program they use up all your earned miles first and then use your bonus miles. Even though I had earned over one hundred thousand miles since the LP run I was not entitled to use any when I tried to get a two hundred dollar ticket last week. I was told my most recent awards had cleared my cache of available earned miles. With no earned miles to free up bonus miles I had no usable bonus miles! Confusing yes, I am sure the creators of this program have read one of my favoriet books "Catch 22".

:( I too am thankful I just happened to log onto flyertalk (thanks for those e-mails) I would have waited and it would have been (or is?) too late. I did the 500,000 run and have used all but about 70K+, and was going to do a KLM tkt. guess I need to contact them Monday. Hey gang "thanks again" for keeping us up-to-date. I hate to see GlobalPass not make it they have been VERY good to me! A little more work to get a reward, but worth it. BURN those miles ;)

Bob,. From what we have seen, not much chance of getting a KLM award. But if you do, let others on this forum how you did it!! Good Luck

Can I make reservations and then change the names for the $35 fee. On hold for 33 minutes still no answer. Hope they will expediatee this tickets would not do so on other tickets.

Was overseas the past 2 weeks and didnt have my info with me. I thought Id have enough time when I get back to use up the miles (alot) still in the acct.

I called Taca twice just now and 2 different reps said that they are accepting GP Miles for free tkts. I hope hes right and will see what happens when I call back shortly to make the res

Summary of my knowledge gained during redemption over the last few days. All information is for tickets originating in USA for south of the border and return to USA. Information for intra Central/South America will be different:

1) All miles in your account can be used. Doesn't matter whether they are "real", transfer, or bonus miles. No annual redemptions limits like there had been in the past.

2) There are no transfer out options. Your miles must be used for a Global Award by June 30th 2005 or the ONLY available option after that will be miles as money.

3) As stated earlier, one real or transfer mile releases one BONUS mile if you use miles as money after June 30th.

4) The web airlines booking, miles as money, and the programs they have left after June 30th are working well for them. According to Global Pass they are changing their business model because the Global Award portion was marginally effective. Therefore, according to them, the changes haven't come about due to financial difficulties.

5) You can pay $50 for the expedite or $15 if your booking is for more than 21 days in advance. As of June 21st, they are allowed to PROMISE tickets about 6 to 8 weeks prior to travel via FedEx to your house. Unofficially, they want to get them out and they have a large number of tickets, so you should receive them "soon" after June 30th. They will process the expedites, the tickets under 21 days as normal, and all the bookings more than 21 days out will be processed and charged to your credit card when you call, but they will actually be written June 29th/30th. All tickets will be paper. Because of the way the tickets will be processed, all travel must be completed by June 29th 2006 (I note this because if you called them and booked your reservation June 17th 2005, for example, and took the normal $15 delivery, your ticket will actually be written June 29th/30th and be valid until June 29th 2006.)

6) Airlines that can be booked are ONLY TACA and Lacsa. Aviateca (GUA to Flores for example) can't be used. No other airlines available--including KLM!

7) To book, call TACA at 1-800-400-TACA. Option 1 for English, Option 3 for mileage awards, Option 2 for "other information". You will then get a distancia qualified TACA representative. Don't worry if they answer in Spanish, all the distancia qualified reps I spoke to were more senior types and spoke excellent English. Tell them you would like to make a booking and that you want to make it in T (for coach) or D class (for business) for Global Pass award travel. I had some problems initially asking for a distancia award booking and was told distancia was closed (they wanted to transfer me to the frequent flyer desk the way I phrased my request). I made bookings with and without mentioning Global Pass and had excellent availability so it didn't appear at all like they had modified any availability to tailor the availability to the type of award mileage used. Make your booking, verify with the agent that all segments are in T or D class, verify the spelling of the name, and ask for the confirmation number or record locator. Then verify that the booking will be held until June 30th--they are aware that this is the proper date to hold the reservations. You can then immediately go to www.taca.com, select "my itinerary", enter any last name on the booking and the record locator. You can expand the booking that comes up, or print it out and can verify that everything is exactly as you want it.

8) Mileage required is based on Central America (CA), South America 1 (SA1) and South American 2 (SA2). Oddly enough, SA2 and CA are the same mileage Coach (T class) is 35k, Business (D class) is 50K. SA1 mileage required is Coach (T class) 45k, Business (D class) 65k. (Note SA1 coach is different than an earlier post here, but I triple checked this as 45k is correct.) CA and SA2 include all of Central America, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Columbia. SA1 includes Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.

9) Charges assuming greater than 21 days advance booking and standard processing for tickets that originate in USA. Taxes are $17.60 per person regardless of CA, SA1, or SA2 destinations. Visa charges and airport departure taxes that must be paid at the airport are not included. There is ONE $15 charge per record locator--not per person in the booking. Therefore a two person booking from DFW-EZE-DFW would be charged $17.60 x 2 plus $15 for a total of $50.20.

10) After June 30th 2005, any name changes, destination changes, and/or redeposits are NOT allowed. Loss of the paper ticket=too bad. The ONLY thing you can do with an award ticket after June 30th 2005 are date changes. These date changes are valid for completion of travel up to June 29th 2006 and they are made directly with TACA with no involvement from Global Pass. TACA may or may not charge a fee--there has been mixed info on that, but from reports it is $35 or less per person.

11) TACA releases award inventory 330 days in advance. Therefore, if you are booking award travel with them on June 21st, 2005, your award booking must have travel complete by the end of day May 17th, 2006. The only way to book award travel between May 27th and June 29th, 2006 is to make a booking and make a date change later. If you need to reach Distancia for any reason, the email address distanciasoporte@taca.com works well, with a couple day delay in response.

12) Travel may be open jaw, but no stopovers permitted. Layovers due to no connections available are permitted provided the first flight out the next day is scheduled.

13) My experience with TACA showed that if one was booking from USA to Central America then the booking was easy. They would query the availability of DFW-GUA-DFW, for example, and would get plenty of award seats. Whenever I wanted to book to South America I was initially told everytime that nothing was available on any date (I suspect this is why some initial reports said award availability was low). Whenever I wanted to book something that required a layover to connect to the next morning's flight, there was initially no availability. The secret here is asking them "Could you check the availability of D/T class if you manually check each individual leg", and viola, lots of award seats. Everyone was always mystified why the "normal" way of doing it didn't work. With that process, all of South America opened up, albeit with one or two (!) layovers for lack of connections.

14) To complete your booking with Global Pass, call them at 1-877-946-4537 Monday through Friday 0900 to 1800 Eastern time. Be prepared for a wait (it's never been shorter than 25 minutes). Be prepared with your record locator, your global pass number, and your credit card. They will call TACA on the spot and get the record locator "processed". They will read back your Passenger names, destination, and dates of travel. They will have already verified that it was all booked correctly and in the proper award class (T or D). You'll have to ask them how many miles they plan to deduct to verify it's done correctly as the process isn't automatic and math errors are always a possibility. They will manually come up with the charge, but you know what it will be by reading above if you want to verify it. Give them your credit card number, contact phone in case of processing problems, and the shipping address for the tickets. Except for the wait on the phone, it was all very professional, cheerful, and competent by both TACA and Global Pass. Frankly, the award availability was almost easy to get plus or minus one day of request; name ANY US carrier that has that many award seats with such good availability?!?

15) If the phone hold is a problem for you, there are two other ways to contact Global Pass to make sure you beat the June 30th deadline: email or fax. Log in the Global Pass website and email them via "customer messages". My response time was 1.5 business days. You can also fax them at (305) 870-7555. Provide them the record locators, your global pass number, your name, a contact phone for you, shipping address, standard or expedite shipping, and your credit card number (if you wish). You may ask them to call you for payment or to call you to complete the transaction because you have questions.

16) If you find yourself short a few thousand miles, for $15 per 1000 miles you can purchase miles on the website under your log in. The miles are INSTANTLY credited, so you can use them same day for ticketing.

17) Within a day of Global Pass processing, you can see, while logged in on their web site, your ticket information. When the tickets are written by June 30th, you will be able to see the names and all the itinerary details on the Global Pass website (for that warm fuzzy). The Global Pass system will also email to your Global Pass profile email address that your are ticketed, so you don't have to check the website constantly.

I hope this helps someone. I don't know much more than what I've put down here, but I'll look for questions and see if I can clarify something if needed.

Good Luck on spending those last miles! (or saving them for the miles as money :D )

Fantastic summary Flight_Hound ^ .

Fantastic summary Flight_Hound ^ .

Must value quality over quantity (6 posts over 4.5 years). Thanks Flight_Hound!

Excellent post! Can we use our miles on Aeropostal?

WOW, THAT'S THE BEST POST OF ALL TIME , I've booked 15 tickets and I concur with all information in your post... thanks a lot.

tom

WOW, THAT'S THE BEST POST OF ALL TIME , I've booked 15 tickets and I concur with all information in your post... thanks a lot.

tom

Tom, how long did you have to wait on hold for GlobalPass?

Flight_Hound: In my 5? years on FT, I can easily say that you've made the BEST POST OF ALL TIME!!!!

my on hold times have been quite short for the most part.. usually between 3 to 10 minutes.

I tried to book tickets for next June , but award space is only open up to the end of May, 2006 now

tom

^ Good info Flighthound!
I just cleaned out my GlobalPass account and got a r/t MIA-GRU-MIA.
It was fun while it lasted, and they were very good to me.

^ Good info Flighthound!
I just cleaned out my GlobalPass account and got a r/t MIA-GIG.
It was fun while it lasted, and they were very good to me.

I checked at www.taca.com and have not seen GIG as a TACA destination. How did you manage getting there using Globalpass bonus miles?

I was amazed when I also didnt see Rio as a destination, seems they Only serve Sao Paulo. with the exception of Cuzco, it seems Taca/Lacsa only goes into Biz Cities or Capitals which down there is usually one and the same.

please do inform us on how we also can score tkts to GIG

FlightHound, thank you very much for the PM and for the post above.

I just got off the phone with TACA and it seems that (and this was also noted in another post in this forum) award travel to South America is now blacked out. I tried a lot of dates, and the very nice agent checked economy and business class availability for each segment individually. None of the segments to EZE (I think from SAL, but might have been SJO) were available. My desired dates were Dec 25 to Jan 2 (wishful thinking I know), but every other date I tried was also not available. I tried random dated in Dec, Feb and March.

Has anyone been able to book an award ticket to South America within the last day or so using these miles?

I got Sao Paulo from Dallas on Tuesday. Took almost 1.5 hours they said iligal connection I said only choice based on flights they said OK. Really sad thing is TACA must be taking a massive bath on this Global Pass thing.

My wife and I each received the Million Miles. We each have just under 300,000 to burn. We are going to Belize with our 2 year old and another couple in business class, are sending my parents to Nicaragua in January, and going there ourselves with another couple with young son in May.

If I have 50,000 miles in each of two accounts, do I need to get two separate record locators for Global Pass, or can I do it with just one? The itineraries will be identical.

It's been a great ride for my wife and I. Initially thought we would end-up losing this last chunk of miles when I happened to log onto this thread (hadn't checked it for probably 6 months!) a few days ago. Reservations with TACA have been a breeze so far. Now it is just getting the flights booked and receiving those tickets.

Is the current thinking that the expedite is not necessary?

It cost $15 for your tickets or $50 to expediate. Don't you think with their track record that $35 is good value to assure yourself that they won't pull anything/close shop etc?

I checked at www.taca.com and have not seen GIG as a TACA destination. How did you manage getting there using Globalpass bonus miles?

Oops....I meant GRU but I am going on to Rio w/ a One-Way RG 10K Award and flying GOL for $28 back to GRU.

I was amazed when I also didnt see Rio as a destination, seems they Only serve Sao Paulo. with the exception of Cuzco, it seems Taca/Lacsa only goes into Biz Cities or Capitals which down there is usually one and the same.

please do inform us on how we also can score tkts to GIG

Again, It was a slip since I am going onward to Rio using a RG One-Way 10K award tkt. and flying GOL back (GIG) to GRU for $28. I changed my post to relect GRU...Thanks for correcting me I don't want to give out false hopes or wrong information!
For the record I log onto TACA and see the ticket number and that it shows issued...let's hope I get the darn thing. I am flying (ATL-earning miles-to) MIA-SJC-BOG-LIM-GRU (then onward to RIO) & back...whew :p

This morning I was able to book 3 tickets to La Paz, Bolivia in business class from Chicago for a friend of mine who will have burned almost 500 miles today.
I haven't had any problems booking tickets to SA this week.

However, when I called GlobalPass to ticket, they asked me to email the information to them so they can ticket them next Tuesday. I'm a little nervous about this, but to be honest I've never had any problems with GP, and so am expecting that the entire transaction will go well. I imagine that they don't have the telephone operator capacity to handle all the requests that are coming in at this time.

I also asked about when to expect the tickets. They told me that currently they are telling everyone that tickets will be mailed a month prior to travel. She did say, however, that that procedure may change after next week.

milesrus, I wont pay the fees, since unless the travel dates are in the next 2 weeks they wont issue before 6/30 IMO. And if they shut down then its a dispute with my CC to get the $$ back.

I called GP this afternoon to ticket my reservation and got thru right away. Surprise! The agent explained that they have been overwhelmed and are running low on seat allottments, so they would not issue tickets at this time.
I told her that I was able to book with TACA, so awards were available. But she referred to directions from administration for this new procedure.

I then was instructed to e-mail the reservations details and it would be handled on a first-come-first-serve basis. Further, the agent asked me to include on the e-mail my credit card information which I refused to, but instead I sent it by fax.

I was also asked to email the request but was given a slightly different explantion. They are apparently out of Taca ticket stock and expect more on Tuesday. The strange part is that they said that they could NOT guarantee that my award tickets would actually be issued. We can only hope that this isn't some sort of attempt by Taca and/or GP to hold up delivery of the required ticket stock until after Taca's participation in the program expires.

Looking up my res at taca.com: It only shows "Status: confirmed". Is there a way to show cabin/class of service you have reserved?

Looking up my res at taca.com: It only shows "Status: confirmed". Is there a way to show cabin/class of service you have reserved?

No "T" or "D" class is indicated on TACA site. I recommend you call back TACA just to confirm with an agent on the phone that you have "T" or "D" (one or the other) for all of the segments. Globalpass would not ticket when we had mixed "D" and "T" so, on one trip we needed them to issue two tickets (and use more mileage). One ticket was all "D" segments and the other was "T" segments.

Thanks to all for the info. Now holding out til Tuesday.

. Loss of the paper ticket=too bad. The ONLY thing you can do with an award ticket after June 30th 2005 are date changes. :D )

I just wanted to know if TACA told you (or anyone else) that they would not be able to replace tickets issued by GP that were later "lost". I wondered about the source of that, because, as far as I understand, Airlines give a ticket number and then they show on their system that they are ticketed and they all have a policy for paper tickets to be reissued with some fee involved. Just because the tickets have been issued by a travel agency or a partner would not effect that policy, right?

My situation is that I have many tickets that have ticket numbers but we have not received them yet.

I'm having a difficult time getting another award ticket. So far I have been told by different agents that South America is blacked out for November and December and that no awards are being released for 2006.

Is Aeropostal still an option for awards?

Is Aeropostal still an option for awards?

No, only what you can see at www.taca.com

It really depends on luck and an accomodating reservations agent. I just secured a confirmed reservation for SFO-Quito next January with Taca :) .

Just booked Boston - La Paz, Bolivia in D biz class for my father for eight days beginning at the end of September. Hopefully will be able to ticket this next week...

I paid the fee's and now have five tickets that arrived by FEDEX. Miami to Panama City and one ticket from Dallas to Sao Paulo.

Would someone please post the GlobalPass FAX number? I don't see it on their website.

Would someone please post the GlobalPass FAX number? I don't see it on their website.

Customer Service Fax (305) 870-7555

If the phone hold is a problem for you, there are two other ways to contact Global Pass to make sure you beat the June 30th deadline: email or fax. Log in the Global Pass website and email them via "customer messages".

Is anyone else having trouble with the customer message feature? For me, its not taking messages. :confused:

Also, does anyone know the intra South America award mileage requirements? I cant remember them and I can't find them on the website.

Thank you....err gracias amigos!

Within SA1 or within SA2, coach r/t = 30k, biz r/t = 45k. Between SA1 and SA2 = 45k coach, 60k biz. SA1 = Brazil, Argent, Chile. SA2 = balance of continent.

Summary of my knowledge gained during redemption over the last few days.

7) To book, call TACA at 1-800-400-TACA. Option 1 for English, Option 3 for mileage awards, Option 2 for "other information". You will then get a distancia qualified TACA representative. Don't worry if they answer in Spanish, all the distancia qualified reps I spoke to were more senior types and spoke excellent English. Tell them you would like to make a booking and that you want to make it in T (for coach) or D class (for business) for Global Pass award travel. I had some problems initially asking for a distancia award booking and was told distancia was closed (they wanted to transfer me to the frequent flyer desk the way I phrased my request). I made bookings with and without mentioning Global Pass and had excellent availability so it didn't appear at all like they had modified any availability to tailor the availability to the type of award mileage used. Make your booking, verify with the agent that all segments are in T or D class, verify the spelling of the name, and ask for the confirmation number or record locator. Then verify that the booking will be held until June 30th--they are aware that this is the proper date to hold the reservations. You can then immediately go to www.taca.com, select "my itinerary", enter any last name on the booking and the record locator. You can expand the booking that comes up, or print it out and can verify that everything is exactly as you want it.

Good Luck on spending those last miles! (or saving them for the miles as money :D )


Flight Hound--Let me add my thanks for your great job. This one tip--checking "My Itinerary" was invaluable for me. After I made our reservations, I checked online, and found they had spelled the name of our son's friend (who we are taking along) incorrectly. So, rather than get a ticket which was incorrect (and having to deal with that traveling with a non-related teenager overseas), I called back, corrected the spelling, checked it again, and then sent my e-mail to GlobalPass requesting them to ticket me.

Great Job Flight Hound! Comprehensive and incredibly helpful.

Within SA1 or within SA2, coach r/t = 30k, biz r/t = 45k. Between SA1 and SA2 = 45k coach, 60k biz. SA1 = Brazil, Argent, Chile. SA2 = balance of continent.

Thank you very much, amigo! Appreciate it.

Lemme confirm. Peru to CR would be 45/60?

They are still making the bookings at TACA, seems not much left and nothing available to Southern South America EZE, SCL, CUZ, GRU. Was able to get what I wanted for SJO and UIO. So maybe if you gonna go on a non-stop or a 1 stopper they are more giving. Besides I really dont know if I would have liked a 4 stopper in order to get to EZE, I would liked going back to CUZ & MP, its a 12 hr down in LIM on the way there but only an hr down on the way back. Thats not so bad as on the run we all had at least a 6 hr at LIM, this way at least I could get into a reg bed and not the couch at the DC lounge.

So now got to try for Belize, GUA, another SJO and maybe PTY

Thank you very much, amigo! Appreciate it.

Lemme confirm. Peru to CR would be 45/60?

My notes have ONLY Argen, Chile, and Brazil in SA1 (but my notes are a few years old). Therefore, I think it's only 30/45 as its wholly within SA2.

17) Within a day of Global Pass processing, you can see, while logged in on their web site, your ticket information. When the tickets are written by June 30th, you will be able to see the names and all the itinerary details on the Global Pass website (for that warm fuzzy). The Global Pass system will also email to your Global Pass profile email address that your are ticketed, so you don't have to check the website constantly.


As others have said, this was an incredibly useful posting. Thanks for taking the time. I'm curious as to where you see ticket information on the GP website. I would think they'd also show up on the Taca website. True?

As you can tell, I'm still waiting for my reservations to be ticketed.

It has been said before and by many, but let me add my heartfelt thanks as well to you for taking the time to compose the best and most useful single forum post I have ever read.

I've got several reservations with TACA for this year and next, now I just wait with everyone else to see if they actually get booked by GlobalPass.

[QUOTE=stephlac] I'm curious as to where you see ticket information on the GP website. QUOTE]

1) Log into the globalpass website.

2) Top links: select Profile Manager

3) Make sure your contact and email information is correct.

4) Top links: select Account Manager

5) Left Link: Pending Transactions - this pop up window will tell you if you have any awards that are processed. If your pending transactions is empty, they haven't gotten around to your request yet (assuming they received your request). If you have pending transactions, you should have received an email with your award tracking number for each request you submitted. If you haven't received an email and you have pending transactions, you'll have to contact customer care to get your award tracking number.

6) with the award tracking number from your email (e.g. 2567) Left Link: Award Tracking. In this pop up window you will see the names, dates, cities, etc...and best of all the ticket number down at the bottom.

As of 29th, per Marissa, if you've submitted a request on time "you've done your part". Even if they process through the 2nd week of July to get all the ticket requests processed, it will still be done.

The way the ticketing process works is that they contact TACA to coordinate and verify the reservation. They get a ticket number back from TACA and you get your email and can see the results in award tracking on the Global Pass website. But, the tickets are all written manually at GlobalPass. Eventually, your ticket will actually be written/printed and mailed--it's akin to an unusable-for-travel-e-ticket until it is printed to a paper ticket, but it's a 'done deal' in the reservation system once you can see it in award tracking. She assured me that as long as they receive the request on time, the tickets will be done as they wade through their backlog.

I wanted to make sure I had proof of submittal, so I faxed via FedEx Kinko so I could have a time stamp and copy of what I submitted. I also used the global pass website top link My Messages. Click on that and it will open a poorly formatted window. It will have a hyperlink "click here" which is how you open up a customer create message dialog. I cut and pasted my same request there and submitted it. They read it within two minutes. You can see the messages by selecting the drop down box "select all" with the last "30 days" and hit the "search" tile. You will see your message as "pending" and a "read" from them (assuming they're read it). When the reply to you with a ticket number, your pending will change to "responded".

As everyone may know by now, they are no longer taking phone calls to book awards, you must use the my messages, fax (305-870-7555), or customercare@globalpass.com email.

Questions I haven't resolved yet is what happens if your TACA reservation is held to June 30th and they don't get to it because of the backlog until July 2nd, or so? Also, I made reservations for 2006 on TACA before they shut down the availability in 2006. Will the process go smoothly to ticket tomorrow or the day after on a reservation for 2006 (since I already have it 'in hand')? Can't do much about the 2nd question but I tend to believe from my conversations that it will work out OK, but I'll be on the phone about the "held until June 30th question".

I have to second the statement about Marissa. She has always had the answer, and when she wasn't sure, would put me on hold to get a definitive answer. So Kudos to her and her pleasant attitude. ^

I appreciate the kind comments regarding my original post, but I want you to know that it and this post are killing my lurker status!

First off: Flight_Hound .. you are a God!

Next: given the number of posts (pretty small) on FT with questions about redemption and the fact that we're able to get through to GP lickety split, it doesn't seem to me that a zillion folks are trying to redeem awards before 30Jun (i.e., I'm not concerned about actually getting the tix from TACA and GP).

I would, however, suggest, that folks call TACA to confirm their res ticketing deadlines. After submitting my request to GP, one of my reservations was cancelled by TACA due to non-ticketing (it was only being held for a few days). Suggest you call TACA just to make sure that you have at least a month to ticket. They were v helpful with me in this regard.

... given the number of posts (pretty small) on FT with questions about redemption and the fact that we're able to get through to GP lickety split, it doesn't seem to me that a zillion folks are trying to redeem awards before 30Jun


Of course the vast majority of people w GP accounts probably dont even know what's happening. Regarding possible low redemption: I think you may be right.

I finally was able to e-mail via the GP msg'g service. In a 24 hours period, the message count only went up about a hundred numbers.

My thanks also go out to Flight_Hound. I learned several good tips from that post--I wish I'd known these years ago. The best tips were how to reach the more experienced TACA reservations people and prompted them to check by segment. I frequently was told no only to be told yes after they switched to checking by segments.

I sent in two ticket requests in the past week. I took Flight_Hound's advice about posting the request on the GP website this morning. I subsequently found that GP had already posted a copy of my e-mailed request in "my messages". That was comforting. I'm hopeful that GP will come through for us with all pre-July ticket requests.

For my last four tcikets, I've booked a family trip to Panama over Thankgiving, a trip for 6 to Cuzco the first week of January, and a quick "chicken-run" to San Salvador over President's Day next February. Drop me a note if any of our paths might cross.

Thanks again Flight_Hound. I'm afraid you're no longer a lurker. But your secret is safe with us! Actually, after this little flurry I'm afraid there will be little reason to come back to this forum...unless GP has some more surprises in store (of a more positive nature).

I hope we see you on one of the other forums offering detailed and incredibly useful advice.

It is interesting that there isn't more activity the past couple of weeks. Taca must have had quite an increase in activity, judging by the fact that the Reps all seemed pretty knowledgeable about what was going on (at least by the time I started calling) and they adjusted their policies midstream. Perhaps Flight_Hound's post made all others redundant.

I managed to book 5 reservations including some for next year. I faxed my information to GP but plan to follow it up with an email today just to be safe. I had been planning to take a few months off work and go to Africa in the Fall. But instead I'll be going to Panama, Argentina, Roatan, Peru and Brazil! Once things settle down a bit at Taca I'm going to try to extend my Brazil trip (currently 6 weeks from the beginning of January to the middle of February) for a couple more months and try to get an award from Delta to fly from Sao Paolo to Capetown. So I'd fly to GRU, hang out in Brazil for a few weeks, fly to CPT and travel around Africa for a couple of months, then back to Brazil (Rio for some R&R on the beach) then back home!

I left some miles on the table but I'm certainly happy with the value I've gotten out of my million mile run. No complaints.

I feel that GP's actions, which in essence 'forced me to cash out,' in and/of itself, devalued my miles. I would have much rather used them (at some point) on KLM to South Africa in J than to be 'forced into purchasing' MIA-SJO for a quick weekend, for example. Those paid tickets to South Africa are much more pricey!