Originally Posted by
bhomburg
Just a word of caution: When you actually use AA metal to anywhere in the world from your home airport you have to connect in the US. The US does not allow transits but makes all incoming passengers pass through immigrations and customs. Assuming you're a Brazilian citizen, you'll need a $160 visum and have to endure the long lines at immigration...
I only started to use AA from Europe to South America via the US after I got Global Entry/PreCheck and could get around the horrendous lines. Your tolerance may be higher (I'm not that young anymore, and my backpacking days are pretty much history), but MIA immigration lines at 6am when all the SouthAmerica flights arrive is definitely not a pretty place to be.
You're right, that 160 USD and needing visa for transfer is really going to be a problem for me, I am currently in the process of arranging an italian passport but that could still take years, so for now its unlikely I'll benefit from this, combined with the fact that I need to take an hour flight to Rio just to get the US Visa.
And I am sorry to bother again with this but some new information just came up, and I actually managed to scramble around my bank rewards website to realize I can credit miles to the following FFPs in oneworld: Iberia, TAM and LAN(options outside of OW include Aeromexico, Gol, Azul, TAP and Delta). Considering that this bank rewards could be my main source of points(family doesn't use them and I could get about 100k-150k miles a year with it), could it be better to get one of those 3 instead of AAdvantage?