avlfutbol

Recently relocated to Bogota from US. I am EXP with AA and will continue to fly more than the top threshold than the elite status with this job. Problem is, I will not hit the top tier status this year due to AA's qualifying miles system. Having said that, I will clear 150K miles but will not hit EXP status.

Does LAN/LATAM status match? If so, what is the best time to attempt a status match so that it includes 2017. If it includes 2017, I can gain status the hard way that year and not have anything to miss out on.

Thanks for any experiences.

FairDinkumMate

Latam will status match as long as you can show at least one flight on Lan or Tam.

That said, if you are living in Bogotá, LatamPass Black only requires 100,000 KILOMETRES(roughly 60,000 miles) or 50,000km + 4 premium cabin(Business or Prem Economy) legs.

If you then fly Lan from Bog-USA you will receive unlimited free upgrades where available!

jlarroulet

As FairDinkumMate says, LATAM does match statuses (only once in a lifetime per passenger) as long as you have a non-reward LATAM flight in the previous 6 months.

If you don't, you may want to take advantage of the fact than domestic flights within Colombia are quite cheap and take a weekend getaway somewhere.

The status match lasts until the next requalification and you may hold the status if you meet the tier requirements for that tier.

If you don't meet elite requirements, you get a hard landing (ie., going back to whatever LATAM tier you currently hold). This is different from some airlines and applies only for matched statuses.
Once you hold an "earned" elite status, if you fail to "retain" it, you get a soft landing to the status immediately below it

IanWorthington

LATAM will status match from another OW partner? I thought that was verboten?

jlarroulet

Apparently not entirely:
http://statusmatcher.com/report/53890

it is a very unofficial source of information, but I've heard from a bunch of people of successful matches from another OW airline to LA

ACC2008

Thanks for posting the source and the link. Sending copy of my 1K card and statement now to LATAM.
Will post the results once I hear back.
Thanks

FairDinkumMate

Still waiting!
Received 9th May:
Dear Mr(s). :
Your application/request has been received successfully and your reference number is XXXXXXXX. The response time will be available within the next 18hours.
If you have pending documentation to be sent, we will contact you as soon as we receive the information

Best regards,

LAN Airlines

I assume that it was meant to mean within 18 hours they'd tell me when they'd respond by, but that was the last contact I've received!

Of course, the system problems right now mean that trying to track that reference number online is simply impossible.

Edit: I've just spoken to the customer service centre.

Firstly, after following the prompts & inputting the reference #, I was just left on hold for 20 minutes.

I then hung up, called back & & didn't enter the reference #. I was put through within 1 minute! So I gave the rep the reference number & he couldn't find anything. Gave him the Latam Pass # & the email address(at his request) & he advised that there was nothing in the system & I should email the person I first contacted again!

It seems Latam is going to be no different to Lan - They can put a great product in the air with wonderful flight crew, but the service from the company on the ground is absolutely horrendous. What a pity.

ACC2008

I had similar experience and even took a LATAM flight. Still waiting back to hear!

Is there a better way to contact LATAM FF Customer Service?

Thanks

TeamCarryOn

I'm curious to hear how this worked out for anyone. Although, the administration of the FF program is what makes me wary of going with LATAM. I had a recent experience where I couldn't get anyone to answer the phone in English, so I had to go with the Portuguese-speaking phone agent, who was very nice.

jlarroulet

AFAIR, the contact center team that takes calls in english in LATAM is not H24... you should get lucky if you try between 9am and 5pm CL time (GMT-4)

ACC2008

This is awful customer service when you cannot find someone who can speak in English. I am not saying they should only speak in English, I am glad they are assisting Spanish and Portgs. speaking customers. But give me a break, if you are going to fly to English speaking countires get some agents who can put an English sentence together.

I have called at least 4 times only to be connected (on English line supposedly) with an agent who cannot put two English sentences together.

HELP!!

jlarroulet

I hear you. I really wish I could do something about it but I no longer work @latam

The "not H24" may be outdated info anyway... it's been a while.

But yes, english is a topic on its own at Latam. It's hard to find fluent english speakers and latam hasn't done a very good job about it (not only on the contact centers, give it a shot with flight and cabin crews.... with some exceptions, it's easy to find abysmal english which is indeed terrible)

avlfutbol

Took a month and finally got a status match from AA Exec Plat to Black...but at least it is through 2018. I had to hassle daily, send multiple documents, and then called a friend who is relatively high up in LatAm and she sent it to a colleague who processed it in 5 days. A pain to get it but it is done. I am going to try avianca for a bit to see what the service level is.

ACC2008

It is shame that for a legitimate request, one needs to know a friend on the inside to be able to get the process done. What should some of us do who have a legitimate request but cannot get anyone to talk to.

So sad for this airline!

nancypants

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, or if anyone will be able to help

I asked for a status match from BAEC sapphire to LAN around January. This was accepted almost immediately.

HOWEVER
6 months on, i still have nothing in my hand from LATAM. No card, no guide, no number, nothing

I appreciate they're busy with the change over etc but really?

I emailed around march and was told it was being dealt with. I emailed again early june and was assured it was being sorted out. I then got an email 2 days ago telling me my case has been cancelled due to lack of information received from me (although they are unable to state what information they're looking for...)

Meanwhile I'm in a state of limbo, as I have a big south american trip coming up, which I can't book while LAN are being useless. I won't meet the criteria for another year BAEC because none of the roots is a codeshare and I have no plans to go to europe now until 2018. Should I wait? or should I start checking out AAdvantage? I could potentially fly with them some of the way but...?

Any help appreciated!