LatinPass/GlobalPass - A blast from the past-Determined fliers say earning 1 million free miles is no sweat

aka my 15 minutes of fame:

06-30) 10:10 PDT GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- In the world of frequent flier miles, call it the Holy Grail.

Latin Pass, a frequent-flier program for a consortium of 10 South and Central American airlines, said it would award 1 million miles to anyone who took at least one international flight on each of its member airlines plus a flight on one of its three partner airlines, stayed three nights in participating hotels and rented a car for five days from partner agencies.

They gave six months, from Jan. 1 to July 1, to qualify, but ...


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2000/06/30/international0128EDT0414.DTL

What was the value you got from the miles you used?

Here's the list of awards and transfers I've made:

1) Transfered out 100,000 miles to Marriott which converted to 200,000 MR points used for a travel package award consisting of:

- 120,000 AAdvantage miles (later transfered through Diners to BA at a 1-1 ratio a used for 1.2 First class award ticket WAS-ATH), and

- 1 free week at any Marriott worldwide (used at Los Suenos Resort in Costa Rica).

2) Transfered out 210,000 miles to Hilton which converted to 420,000 HH points (400,000 of which were used on four of the old 100,000 point ALON certs for 6 night stays at Hilton resorts in Hawaii) .

3) 10 business class award tickets from the US to Central Amercia on Taca (500,000 LP/GP miles)

4) 1 economy class award tickets from the US to Central Amercia on Taca (35,000 LP/GP miles)

5) 1 business class award ticket US to Ecuador on Taca (50,000 LP/GP miles)

6) 4 first class award tickets on US Airways WAS-SFO (120,000 GP/LP miles during an award sale)

Total of 1,015,000 miles, which includes the miles earned on the run, the 1 million mile bonus, and a few additional transactions over the years. Anyone care to put a value on it? My (conservative?) estimate based on $200 a night for the resort stays at Hilton and Marriott, $1000 each for the US and Taca C and F awards, $300 for the coach Taca award, and $6000 total for the 1.2 F awards on BA, the total is

$27,500!!!