Originally Posted by
jbalmuth
The next time you're in the U.S., you can use BA miles to fly LAN to South America. Imho, LAN have the best hardproduct J cabin, specifically the seat and IFE, in OneWorld. A roundtrip from JFK to Easter Island in J, with free enroute stopovers (i.e. Santiago and Lima) costs 80k BAEC miles, minimal taxes (no fuel fines) and there's generally very good availability. The only downside is that any BAEC itinerary with stopovers requires a phone call to your local BAEC office (and associated telephone booking fees).
This is an excellent excellent suggestion. I'm just completing such an itinerary - waiting in the LAN lounge at LIM right now to get back to SFO. No YQ only taxes + 25USD phone booking fee. LAN has a pretty good 180-flat hard product (haven't flown any other OW carrier in J so can't compare) but their service is very hit or miss. And their vegetarian food just flat out sucks.
BTW, you can do free stopovers at Santiago, Lima AND Buenos Aires (both directions) on an itinerary to Easter Island.
I think LAN also flies out of Europe so saad doesn't have to go all the way to the US for such an award. More miles will probably be required though ex-Europe.