LatinPass/GlobalPass - TACA will not honor Global Pass reservations for travel in 2006!

I spoke with a supervisor from TACA this morning and he advised me: no Global Pass reservations will be honored for next year, and all travel must be completed by December 31, 2005. The supervisors name was Richard and he advised me no reservations should have been made in June of 2005 for travel anytime in 2006. I advised Richard that this may very well be a very big problem and he advised me to have anyone who had a problem with this policy to speak with him directly.

Richard was extremely cooperative and supportive of our position, he implied he would do everything in his power to have TACA honor its commitments. He seemed surprised any reservations were issued for travel in 2006 but said he would welcome calls from people who were offered reservations in 2006 using Global Pass miles. If you have a reservation for 2006 you should contact Distancia and ask to speak with Richard about “Global Pass reservations for 2006” Please be respectful, remember you can catch more bees with honey!!!!!!!!! TACA phone number is 800-400-8222, talk to frequent flyer Distancia program.

if i have taca tickets already in my hand I assume they are good? These are for a missionary traveling to brazil in february

Milesrus:

I think if you already have the ticket it would be very difficult to deny boarding. I would not be concerned too much if I had a ticket. What is interesting is it is TACA's position "reservations made in June for travel next year will not be honored" yet those already ticketed are honored and those not ticketed are not honored. Very inconsistant, but they realize this and still say they are working on the problem so hope still remains.

Here's my suggestion get tickets for late December then take the paper tickets to the airport and change the reservation I have done that twice no problem, probably can change out one year or so

For a single trip, my friends and I made ticket request at three different times. The trip is to Cuzco in January 2006.

My best friend and I were the first to request tickets. We didn't pay the expedite fee because the GP agent said the tickets would go out the following week. We have ticket numbers, credit card was charged, but no tickets yet.

Our two other friends booked their tickets next. Paid the expedite fee and received their tickets a few days later.

Our last two friends put in their requests on June 27th. They got the letter, no cc charges, no ticket numbers, no communication from GP one way or the other since.

Now TACA won't honor reservations in 2006? Any guesses as to who in our party might actually make it to Cuzco?

One of my friends redeemed miles for 7 tickets to Panama for January 2006. She reserved them back in April of this year. The reservations are ticketed, taxes have been paid, but will the tickets be sent, and if sent, will they be honored?

I booked and had my credit card charged for 6 tickets for travel in Jan/Feb 2006. I have no intentions of travelling then, but planned on changing the dates to late May/ June 2006 travel.

Have I just be swindled?

At the time of booking, I was told the tickets would be valid till June 2006 and changes can be made to dates. Now . . . . .

I booked and had my credit card charged for 6 tickets for travel in Jan/Feb 2006. I have no intentions of travelling then, but planned on changing the dates to late May/ June 2006 travel.

Have I just be swindled?

At the time of booking, I was told the tickets would be valid till June 2006 and changes can be made to dates. Now . . . . .

Changes can me made subject to availability of GP award seats...availability just went to 0 :)

i have changed tickets on Taca several times without any problems at the DFW airport

GP just messaged me (in response to my question of whether I could get the tickets if I changed the dates from 2006 to sometime in 2005 before the end of this year). Told me if I could get award reservation changed to this year, they could ticket me.

So, gonna see if I can do something.

I just spoke with GP and they informed me that June 26th was the cut-off date for having made reservations with TACA to be able to fly in 2006. (I wasn't paying attention to whether you had to make the reservation before June 26th or by June 26th, as mine were made slightly earlier than both dates.) One of my flights for May 2006 has been ticketed (I can see the ticket #'s on the GP award tracking website, and my CC was charged), but won't be sent out until closer to the trip. My other reservations have some small glitches regarding confusion over the date that the reservations were made, but I provided record locator information to GP prior to the cut-off date and the GP representative thought that she would be able to get it cleared-up and ticketed.

I'll keep everyone posted.

My award tickets for Jan/Feb 2006 travel were issued on June 23rd. Will I be able to change my travel dates to June 2006?

Received this email today:

"Dear Mr. Cygone:( (Name and booking codes changed)

Sorry for the delay in contacting you, unfortunaly GP has permition only to issue the tickets for your reservation code xxxxx made on June 11th but not your reservation code yyyyyy made on June 27th.

My apologize for not been able to help you more with your case. Any further questions please contact GP for more information..


Sincerely yours,
Daniel Morales
Customer Service Center
Loyalty Programs
TACA


Have we made your day? visit http://ecommerce19/b2cv3/mail/dis/dis2308/eng/disheroeng.htm and share with us your experience "

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

So what does this mean: well for me it means GP will issue the two business class tickets too Bolivia I requested. I should explain my situation a little more clearly. I made my reservations originally on June 11th LAX – LPB, and made a date change to the reservation on June 27th ; instead of making a date change the agent created a whole new record on June 27th. Fortunately for me the old reservation of June 11th still exists and I was able to make a date change to it yesterday, and because it was made before June 26th a ticket for travel next year can be issued. This has been verified by both GP and Distancia.

What did I learn from this that may be of help to others:

1. It is Distancia that is enforcing the June 26th or 27th cut off; still not sure which day is valid cut off date.
2. Tickets for reservations in 2006 issued before, well let’s say June 25th for certain, can be changed.
3. Information I posted (TACA not honoring reservations next year is wrong) this was told to me by a supervisor from TACA but that information is incorrect. Distancia has clarified position only reservations made after June 26th will not be honored.

If you are one of the people that made a reservation after June 26th I still believe what TACA is doing is clearly wrong. If you told a TACA reservation agent you would be using GP miles and the agent made a reservation for travel next year you should have a valid reservation.

Thanks Cygone for the info. It looks like I should be okay for ticket changes on my Jan/Feb tickets for June 2006 travel as they were issued June 23rd (although I have not received them yet).

I am in the situation where the reservations were made after June 26th for travel in 2006. I called Globalpass yesterday and Marissa restated the above comments about no tickets in 2006 for me. LOL. :rolleyes:

Anyway, I called TACA and changed all my reservations to October/November dates with the intention of changing them with TACA directly. I know there has been some talk of this, but before I plunk down the cash for the taxes and expedite fees I just wanted to confirm with a few of you that this should workout. Most of the hassle will be getting to Chicago at some point to change the tickets and then hoping that dates are available in 2006 close to what I had previously.

Let me first try to understand what you are trying to do. You have a ticket booked after June 26th you originally booked for travel in 2006. You were told that you can not use next year but can use if you change travel dates to this year. You want to change reservations to the next couple of months and have GP send you the tickets. You than are hoping to change the tickets to travel next year. If I got that correct; I don’t think you will be able to do it.

First I am not certain that you can change the reservation back to this year and I am not sure GP will ticket the new reservation. If you did get the reservation I am fairly certain it will contain an endorsement that specifies last day of travel as December 31, 2005.

That being said I think if you booked a reservation after between June 26th and June 30th I think it is TACAs’ responsibility to honor the reservation since they are the ones that changed the rules in the middle of the game. I would point out to them they sent email on June 30th stating the last day of participation in the GP program was June 30th. Not much notice but I don’t think they can change conditions retroactively.
.

Cygone, you have my strategy correct. I have already made the changes with TACA, so that's a done deal. I was talking to Marissa and she stated that if I could get the reservations changed to 2005 they would issue the tickets. :confused: So, there you go, a nutty response to a nutty situation. I agree that I think that they really ought to issue the darn things, but honestly, I don't feel like fighting with them over this. This is one way I see around it. The only bummer is that I have most likely lost my preferred dates for travel next year.

If you did get the reservation I am fairly certain it will contain an endorsement that specifies last day of travel as December 31, 2005.

I don't know why they would do this>??? Has anybody else been issued tickets with this restriction? I don't think so. I don't know why they would go to the trouble of changing just for me.

My only risk here is that the tickets won't be able to be changed. In that case I'll send the tickets back to GP and get my taxes back. Now that may be a fight, but I'll cross that bridge if/when I get there. I'll only be out any expedite fees should I choose to pay those.

tfjim,

They will not be changing policy just for you, my son just returned from Ecuador, he changed his reservation on June 28th and his tickets clearly stated (hand written of course) no travel after December 31, 2005. Have another friend who actually tried to do what you are attempting. Had tickets too Costa Rica requested on June 29 for travel in March of next year. He was able to change travel dates to November 2005: tickets have endorsement of no travel after December 31st. I have seen several other posts in this forum mentioning the tickets they received had a December 31st endorsement. I would assume these people also had booked after June 26th.

One thing I am certain about GP and TACA is: they are never consistent, what they did last week, may change this week, so your strategy is worth a try. What I would hope is some screw up occurs and they forget to put the endorsement on your tickets, or maybe the policy change again.

If I were you I would get the tickets and hope they don’t contain December 31 endorsement. If you can travel this year you have lost nothing, if not it is a small gamble (you will loose taxes and delivery fees). You will know once you get the tickets if you can change them but I would not count on it. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

That is bad news that there is the endorsement on there now. I am speaking to Marissa at this moment and she states that people have had varied reactions to the whole situation and maybe we should write to someone in administration. Crazy. :rolleyes:

For the time being I am going to have them all issued and see what I can do about changing them back. LOL. I'm in Chicago on October 10th, so I'll head to the airport and see what I can do there.

Thanks though for getting back to me with your experiences.

What are you going to do at the Chicago airport? Does Taca have an office there?

TACA has a desk at Chicago who can reissue tickets I presume. This seems to be the procedure.

Ok, well the Latinpass tack of changing the dates worked. So, ok there. I will take my chances with the reissue matter and the endorsement date when I get to the airport. My guess is that the date changes with reservations will be ok, but I'm not sure what the counter folk will do....

Get this, I specifically asked the Globalpass people that if I do not use the tickets how do I go about having my taxes refunded. She said it's not possible to have the taxes refunded!!! :eek: So, here's another insane issue that will have to be worked out.

Whos administrator! TACA or Global Pass?

Get this, I specifically asked the Globalpass people that if I do not use the tickets how do I go about having my taxes refunded. She said it's not possible to have the taxes refunded!!! :eek: So, here's another insane issue that will have to be worked out.Not sure it is worth the effort. Taxes are low (since some of the taxes in Central/South America are paid on departure rather than included in the ticket). Not usual for airlines to charge you a service fee when requesting refund of taxes, that often ends up higher than the amount of taxes due.

Dear tfjim aka Name removed by the moderator, allow us to clarify (for all) what you are suggesting to do. You made your award reservations on June 28 and TACA accepted erroneously your travel dates for 2006. GlobalPass was unable to issue those award tickets and you have now changed your reservations for travel dates in 2005. This is acceptable by both, TACA and GlobalPass.

However, you are now insinuating to change your reservations directly with TACA after you receive the tickets to your original 2006 travel dates. This will be a huge mistake and GlobalPass will NOT be responsible for your loss of miles and award tickets. Furthermore, GlobalPass will not be able to return or re-deposit miles from GlobalAwards if not used.

As far as the issuance of Award tickets goes, allow us to clarify. GlobalPass (and LatinPass) issues(d) award tickets close to the travel dates for a simple and logical reason. Once a ticket is physically issued, it automatically gets recorded in a Sales Report. All Sales Reports must be paid by GlobalPass to the corresponding airline at the end of each month. It was always agree with the airlines that they would get paid prior to or close to the travel date of each award.

The reason we will not be able to honor re-deposit of miles and refunds, is also very simple. Once GlobalPass has paid a Sales Report, and the airline is no longer a participant, GlobalPass will be unable to obtain a refund from such airline.

Sincerely,
Customer Care

Ok, well there you go folks. Miles down the drain. Now we know for certain that Globalpass is monitoring these boards.

I accept everything they say in their post as true and freely admit it is not only a mistake to try this, but a huge pain in my a$$. However, I followed the procedures set forth by Globalpass when they announced the change in the program and made reservations prior to the June 30th cutoff. This was then retroactively changed by them to June 26, when? in August sometime???? :mad: I was just trying to find a way to use my miles when originally following the rules set down by them. Oy.

Am I wrong? Shouldn't I expect to have had this handled properly in the first place and have Globalpass honor their original specifications????? I mean really, this is too much. Not only that, what in the world could have prompted them to finally respond here to my messages above. We have been here for years now wondering about Latinpass/Globalpass intentions and now the FINALLY decide to respond? Not only that, they go and put my full name in the post. Wonderful, what a professional organization. Not much gets me really mad, but this one has now burned my goose to the limit.

For my friends here at FT if my postings above have in any way affected something you were trying to do I apologize well in advance.

Dear tfjim aka (gee, thanks for posting my name :mad: ), allow us to clarify (for all) what you are suggesting to do. You made your award reservations on June 28 and TACA accepted erroneously your travel dates for 2006. GlobalPass was unable to issue those award tickets and you have now changed your reservations for travel dates in 2005. This is acceptable by both, TACA and GlobalPass.

However, you are now insinuating to change your reservations directly with TACA after you receive the tickets to your original 2006 travel dates. This will be a huge mistake and GlobalPass will NOT be responsible for your loss of miles and award tickets. Furthermore, GlobalPass will not be able to return or re-deposit miles from GlobalAwards if not used.

As far as the issuance of Award tickets goes, allow us to clarify. GlobalPass (and LatinPass) issues(d) award tickets close to the travel dates for a simple and logical reason. Once a ticket is physically issued, it automatically gets recorded in a Sales Report. All Sales Reports must be paid by GlobalPass to the corresponding airline at the end of each month. It was always agree with the airlines that they would get paid prior to or close to the travel date of each award.

The reason we will not be able to honor re-deposit of miles and refunds, is also very simple. Once GlobalPass has paid a Sales Report, and the airline is no longer a participant, GlobalPass will be unable to obtain a refund from such airline.

Sincerely,
Customer Care

They will hand write on the ticket " Not valid after 12/31/2005 " Trust me!!!

All my tkts , some for travel in Nov 05 and some for travel Apr 06 have " Not valid after Jun06" in the endorsment box. Does this mean I will be able to travel in 2006 ?

Ditto those are my plans unless they stamp date for no extension of travel on the ticketI am in the situation where the reservations were made after June 26th for travel in 2006. I called Globalpass yesterday and Marissa restated the above comments about no tickets in 2006 for me. LOL. :rolleyes:

Anyway, I called TACA and changed all my reservations to October/November dates with the intention of changing them with TACA directly. I know there has been some talk of this, but before I plunk down the cash for the taxes and expedite fees I just wanted to confirm with a few of you that this should workout. Most of the hassle will be getting to Chicago at some point to change the tickets and then hoping that dates are available in 2006 close to what I had previously.

I originally had made reservations to use my remaining miles on a trip for my family of 4 from Chicago to San Jose from Dec 26-Jan 2, 2006, but the trip was denied by TACA when Globalpass tried to get the tickets issued because of the "NO travel after Dec 31st" rule. I was successfully able to get TACA to change the reservation to Dec 26-30 so I lost 3 days, but GlobalPass agreed to process. Looks like it is a go as I have award numbers for the 2 reservations and they charged my credit card. Now I just need advice on what should I do with my 4 1/2 days in Costa Rica besides visit San Jose for a few hours.

I remember a thread, in GP forum I think, were there were lots of posts on what to do. Do a search.

I was there 3 mos ago on an Award. Picked up a rental car and drove to the northern coast. I got a nice all inclusive hotel from the Travel Auction site - and just vegged out much of the time. Roads are a bit rough, but not too much traffic once outside SJO (you do not need to go through the town).

Also went to Jaco area (Marriott). It is very touristy and I do not think beaches are as nice. But then I did not think any of beaches I saw were up to Hawaii or Mexico standards.

There is an ATM in Airport near the TACA help desk and airport info desk by, I think, Gate 4. So you can get some colones before heading out - although many places take US $$.

I remember a thread, in GP forum I think, were there were lots of posts on what to do. Do a search.

I was there 3 mos ago on an Award. Picked up a rental car and drove to the northern coast. I got a nice all inclusive hotel from the Travel Auction site - and just vegged out much of the time. Roads are a bit rough, but not too much traffic once outside SJO (you do not need to go through the town).

Also went to Jaco area (Marriott). It is very touristy and I do not think beaches are as nice. But then I did not think any of beaches I saw were up to Hawaii or Mexico standards.

There is an ATM in Airport near the TACA help desk and airport info desk by, I think, Gate 4. So you can get some colones before heading out - although many places take US $$.

Sapman:

Thanks for the tip on the older than 3-4 months posts on the GP forum. I had searched that forum for posts, but only had been looking for newer posts, and I had checked the Travel & Dining forum for posts on Costa Rica. Was the Travel Auction site Skyauction.com? With 4 1/2 days, I was thinking the volcano/rain forest area for 2 days and the beach for 1 1/2 days with SJO for a day. My kids are college age and I want to give them a quick flavor of the country.

Yes, it was Skyauction... I am quite sure. If you have not used before, watch for the "hidden charges". They are posted, but read carefully.

We stayed at the:

Grand Papagayo by Occidental
P.O. Box 48-500
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Phone: ( 506 ) 672-0191

There was a related Papagayo hotel (not Grand, maybe Alegro?) that I heard was quite good also, and cheaper.


It was a nice hotel with new mgmt. I had read of problems from visitors 5 months earlier, but we had none and it seemed they had made improvements. We were in off season and not many people. Food was very good (2 upscale restaurants - make reserv. before you go if you can- and a buffet). As it was only 15% full when we were there, restaurants were always avaiable. Probably, for us, an 7/8 on 10 scale.

I think cost was $130/night for both of us, incl. all meals and drinks, taxes, etc.

The area is remote and quiet. On the penisula, the Four Seasons. Not too far from volcano, but I think about a 3 hr. drive, so a stop there and then to coast (or vice versa) There are rainforests all over C.R., not sure which are best.

There are many other hotels around, not all-inclusive. But not major towns within 15 min drive.

Not only are they running from credit card fraud charges (via FL atty. general from what I understand)....but they seem a little edgy.....check out this thread from another GP forum that is uncensored by Flyertalk:

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2 Posts
Posted - 10/18/2005 : 11:19:26 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Weekly Fare-Grams from Globalpass and my correspondence with Customer Care.

It starts out tame enough......

-------Original Message-------

From: GlobalPass eNews
Date: 10/12/05 10:03:07
To: khunbill1@gtomex.com
Subject: The Best Airfares to Latin America

Dear William Byrnes,

Log-in to your GlobalPass account and search for Web Airlines flights and airfares
to Latin America and compare with Travelocity!

FROM TO Web Airlines Travelocity
Miami Santiago $863 (DL) $877
Miami Lima $504 (AM) $536
Miami Buenos Aires $653 (TAM) $744
Los Angeles Sao Paulo $884 (DL) $1001
New York Buenos Aires $762 (Varig) $936
New York Sao Paulo $829 (Varig) $977
Miami Guatemala $492 (TACA) $547

Above airfares include taxes and fees and are valid through November 30th, 2005.

Travelocity and other so-called Travel Suppliers do not allow the use of Miles as Money™,
nor do they allow customers to earn miles for the purchase, nor do they allow the flexible
form of payments that GlobalPass offers.

To search for Web Airline itineraries and airfares, log-in to your GlobalPass account and access
Web Airlines. Transfer miles from participating Transfer Programs to use our unique
Miles as Money™ form of payment.

Hope to see you online soon!


Sincerely,

GlobalPass
Customer Care Center

PS Availability is limited.

REPLY to GP:

From: Bill Byrnes
Date: 10/12/05 10:51:42
To: GlobalPass eNews
Subject: Re: The Best Airfares to Latin America

I can beat you on over 50% of your fares this week
[all incl taxes and fees]

LACSA $787 MIA -SCL Nov 2-9 Save$76
AeroMexico $446 MIA-LIM Nov 2-9 Save$58

AVIANCA $674 JFK-GRU Nov 2-9 Save$154
USAIRWAYS $383 FLL-GUA Nov 2-9 Save$109

REPLY from GP:

From: customercare@globalpass.com
Date: 10/12/05 13:23:40
To: Bill Byrnes
Subject: Re: The Best Airfares to Latin America

Dear Mr. Byrnes,

Thank you for your response, however, you are NOT
comparing "apples and apples".

LACSA MIA/SCL has many stop-overs, US Airways is NOT from
MIA but FLL, etc.

We are comparing same flights, same travel dates between
Travelocity and GlobalPass Web Airlines.

Sincerely,

GlobalPass
Customer Care Center

REPLY to GP:

From: Bill Byrnes
Date: 10/12/05 15:05:18
To: customercare@globalpass.com
Subject: Re: The Best Airfares to Latin America

Dear GP:

Well, thank you for your response it was quite a surprise.

Certainly its not Apples/Apples -- but GP doesn't give exact dates. I am sure too these fares are "subject to availability"*.
On Price alone -two weeks in a row- I have beaten the majority of GP's fares.

Yes, I am aware US flies out of FLL and I noted that by not saying MIA. For an over $100 savings a great many travelers would divert the 27 miles north from MIA to FLL - for travelers say from Broward and Palm Beach counties, FLL would of course be much nearer than MIA. And, should a traveler wish, he/she could be routed on US MIA/MCO/CLT etc. and gain both extra miles and segments for the trouble.

But the real point here is this: GP's "Fare-Grams" prove without a doubt that GP can communicate with its membership if and when it wishes - unlike the Un-Fair [non-gram] of the limited notice in the change of GP award policy.

Please note the following:
Lacsa with 2 stops down & 2 back takes a total of 33:30 travel hours [including ground time]
Delta takes 34:13 38 minutes longer and more expensive too. $787 LACSA
+ others MIA to SCL
SCL to MIA
SJO, LIM
BOG, SJO
Wed-Thur, Nov 2-3
Wed, Nov 9
7:00a-2:30a
8:00a-10:00p
17h 30m
16h 0m
Coach
Coach
overnight flight,
long layover

$812 Delta
+ others MIA to SCL
SCL to MIA
ATL
ATL
Wed-Thur, Nov 2-3
Wed-Thur, Nov 9-10
10:28a-9:30a
10:40p-9:51a
21h 2m
13h 11m
Coach
Coach
2 overnight flights,
long layover



On MIA/FLL-GUA: I cede the point as TA makes the r/trip in 5:20 minutes vs US Air's 10:35 but none-the-less the $109 in savings remain.


khunbill

* which is only noted in the very last line of the announcement's closing

REPLY from & to GP:

ed. note: for reasons of conciseness this exchange is posted as a unit with my 10/17/05 introduction of response above GP's 10/12/05 2nd response to me and finally my reply last. With fingers crossed, I hope my latest e-mail provokes an even hotter-headed reply.



From: Bill Byrnes
Date: 10/17/05 21:43:00
To: customercare@globalpass.com
Subject: Re: The Best Airfares to Latin America detailed response to yours of 12 October

Dear GlobalPass Customer Care Center:



Thank you for your follow-up response.



Below I have commented on items keyed to the [[letter]] references I have inserted into GP's unedited text.



I look forward to a continued, lively and informative discourse on this issue.



khunbill







From: customercare@globalpass.com
Date: 10/12/05 16:48:03
To: khunbill1@gtomex.com
Subject: The Best Airfares to Latin America
Message response ===============================



Dear Mr. Byrnes,



GlobalPass is not sure what you are attempting to prove with your recent correspondence. [[A]]



We are simply comparing airfares to Latin America with the largest online Travel Suppliers on a same-flight, same-day basis which your comparison does not reflect. [[B]]



For your information, the majority of our customers are not willing to save $100 on an airfare to spend 5 hours more on an airplane. However, there is no doubt that a small number of passengers are willing to go the long route to earn a few more segment miles and save a few dollars for award seats that are hardly available![[C, D]]



Our records indicate that your miles expired from the lack of participation and use of our services. Frequent Traveler/Mileage (so-called “loyalty”) programs have been established for customers to “use” frequently the services of the program or company offering the program! It is evident, in your case, you have not been a “frequent user”.[[E]]



As far as communications go, we reserve the right to communicate what we wish, just as other programs do. We are not different in any way to other programs for communicating changes. [[F]]



If you don't appreciate our emails, you can simply log-in and remove yourself from any future email promotions.[[G]]



Sincerely,



GlobalPass

Customer Care Center

===





GLOBALPASS MEMBER RESPONDS:



[[A]]: That a single member can -sometimes- get GP's attention which is what many GP members have been trying to do for some time -especially in regard to GP admitting it has a rat-in-the-house expropriating members credit card data and then using it for personal purposes [at least we think 'personal'.]



[[B]]: What dates does GP use? I'll do the same.

For the record: My data comes from an engine that powers many of the largest on-line travel suppliers. I have used no 'tweaks' [but give me affordable CRS access //- the public Internet is a joke in this regard- // add my 25+ years experience and I can usually turn another dime or two. Also, I have LH Tariff Certificates I and II {in Spanish} (...no time to go to Germany for III but I can assure anyone that I'm qualified].



[[C]]: If I can find a lower fare on the same route and carriers as GP I'll post it.....but savvy consumers would take lower fares and faster flight times if so presented especially on airlines that participate in major 1st world FF programs [e.g Lacsa/GrupoTaca partnered with AA's AAdvantage].



[[D]]: USAir/FLL 10 hrs etc. I did cede the point [except in the case of maybe those living north of Dade County. Also, I believe we are both referring to what the airlines affectionately call "revenue seats". I do not understand why GP brings up the subject of awards. I made neither a mention nor suggestion of award usage on a route such as this - those who do accumulate vast sums of FF points may find it easy to do so in such circuitous routings but it has been my experience knowing some few of these travelers that they prefer to make redemption [use awards] on non-stops and preferably in C or F classes.



DL/LR --One of the principal reasons it takes so long to get to SCL on the GP route is that DL goes the wrong way to start - the long way MIA-ATL-SCL (north then south) whereas Lacsa heads southwest/south and just keeps on going.... SJO-LIM-SCL



[[E]]: I have so many miles I cannot, never have been able to, use them all. I have actually forgone more miles I think than most flyers have ever accumulated in earnings. Such was the case with my LP/GP miles.The irony here is that I did indeed screw up [and that's public knowledge] just prior to GP making those miles practically worthless. It’s kind of funny, but still everyone I know prefers to have their treasure chest full rather than empty.



-side note here: In my correspondence with GP I have used in my address to the reader, the third person [using GP instead of 'you' as I was addressing the company [GP] and not an individual.] I caution my respondent not to take this correspondence personally and, further so, not to make personal attacks on me, my flight habits or 'loyalty'. Let me be quite clear about this: I never ever intended to be loyal. I responded to a public offer made by the then LP. I fulfilled the terms of that offer to the letter and claimed [with some exertion] my 'prize'. How I choose to use or lose that prize is my affair: Not GP's. As GP has delved into its file on me it surely must have found the 100,000 miles I donated back to the LP sponsored charity - and reference to the others I encouraged to join in this giving. [Should you not have this information, I will happily provide copies of my correspondence with Bobby and Guy Booth when I proposed the idea of a charitable giving program. This was at the same time the company came up with a program of its own.] I would hope that GP has taken my lost hoard and put it into 'good works' instead of just happily taking it off its books.



[[F]]: Communications I agree, I read the disclaimer on the enroll page. But, -and GP may not be aware of this- , not all companies are 'just like GP'. For a recent example, let me cite DL which has given a 15 month+ notice of an upcoming program change. I think the GP membership would have appreciated maybe at the very least a 60 or even 30 day notice via direct communication. But GP is entitled to play its game the way it sees fit. After all, it wrote the rules.



[[G]]: Future communication. I do appreciate GP's e-mails and would not choose to forgo them. As my mentor, Henry Root, might say, "...perseverance brings its own rewards".



khunbill