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SUMMARY: I am posting this here as one of my two cross-referenced award km/miles tickets is issued by LAN and the other by BA, all flights are on LAN, and LAN has made several schedule changes to my BA ticket.

My original flights on Dec 29/30/31 were booked as:

Ticket 1 (using LANPASS miles – only the return of the R/T GPS rez shown below as Flight 1)
Flight 1: Dec 29 XL 1550 dep GPS 12:05 arr UIO 17:20 (3:20 connection)
Connecting to…
Ticket 2 (3 segments using BA miles on LAN)
Flight 2: Dec 29 LA 2589 dep UIO 20:40 arr LIM 22:55
Flight 3: Dec 30 LA 2639 dep LIM 00:35 arr SCL 05:10 (1:40 connection)
Flight 4: Dec 31 LA 297 dep SCL 01:25 arr PUQ 04:55

Schedules have changed to what currently shows:
Ticket 1
Flight 1: Dec 29 XL 1550 dep GPS 12:35 arr UIO 17:15 (same 3:20 connection)
Connecting to…
Ticket 2
Flight 2: Dec 29 LA 2589 dep UIO 20:35 arr LIM 22:50 (5 min early)
Flight 3: Dec 29 LA 643 dep LIM 23:35 arr SCL 05:10 (Different flight, 1hr early, only 45 min connection)
Flight 4: Dec 31 LA 097 dep SCL 01:50 arr PUQ 05:15

Obviously Flight 2 LIM-SCL has changed times (and apparently flight numbers also?!). The problem is that it only gives me a 45 min connection in Lima. I called BA and they said everything looks OK and the reservation was not flagging or error messaging this as a misconnect in LIM. However upon checking the system, the agent determined that the MCT was 55 min. Houston, we have a problem.

The BA agent said that with partner award seats, even if schedule changes were caused by that partner, BA does not have a liaison to go to for resolution. BA can only rebook on the next miles-available flight. My problem is that the next miles-available flight is on Dec 30 - LA 531 dep LIM 08:15 arr SCL 13:40. This is not acceptable to me for 2 reasons: (1) I’ve already booked a tour and everything for the day of Dec 30 in Santiago to go to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar – and (2) A crazy connection at the worst time in LIM. I will have to wait in the airport for 9 hours overnight – and lose the day in SCL.

Questions:

1) There appears to be a new flight LA 601 on Dec 30 dep LIM 00:25 arr SCL 05:45 which is 10 minutes earlier than LAN 2639 which I was originally booked on – BA does NOT show this as miles-available, but it is the only one which will let me connect acceptably and keep my SCL plans intact. How can I get on this flight? Normally if I had booked using AA miles, AA would have requested this through their AA-LAN liaison as the most reasonable alternative, since it is the closest in time to my original flight – which LAN changed in the first place. But BA says they do not have a liaison for these types of issues.

2) Since the new flight I am booked on is arriving in SCL at the same time as my old flight BUT leaves an hour earlier!!!, unless they’re running a different aircraft which adds a whole hour to the original time, I suspect this is some kind of Daylight Savings type time change. Can someone confirm?

3) Does this have anything to do with the airport shutdown in LIM from 1-7AM or something like that through January for repairs?

4) BA asked me to call LAN to check if they will even let me board the flight in UIO because of the MCT violation in LIM. LAN has already made 3 schedule changes to my flights - but can they reprotect me on LA 601? Or should BA be calling LAN?

5) What if I don’t do anything? At this time no record is being flagged, BA shows the reservation as OK on their systems, and no one is calling me to report a problem. Should I just leave the 45min connection as is and deal with it when I get to LIM if I misconnect? Will my boarding passes even print out in UIO? Because I obviously will need a BP before boarding in UIO so I can connect in LIM. Will they notice the 45 min connection and put me on the 00:25 flight in UIO?

Apologies for brainstorming multiple alternatives but I am in uncharted territory as usually it’s the ticketing carrier that does the back end work.

Thanks