Thanks much for the quick answers. Sorry for my ignorance as I am completely new to the LAN experience. I must say that it has exceeded my expectations
Early on I had convinced myself that it was the program of great saver award availability. That was when the schedule had just been released and every date I looked at showed 100k kms from SCL-IPC. So I embarked on gathering as many SPG points to transfer to my new LAN account so that I could take my family of 4 to IPC when we are in the SCL area late Dec. I should have paid more mind to the post up thread that stated something along the lines that LAN determines award space with a monkey and dartboard. The award space that was 100k is now nearly 3x that. I don't have any hope that that will change much.
Ok, so I'm over that. Time to move on. At least I have plenty of SPG points now that I won't likely be transferring to LAN. One point that strikes me is that there appears to be essentially no seats taken on most flights from SCL-IPC-SCL in late Dec. Relatively speaking it is early in the schedule. One last hope based on much reading here on Flyertalk: is it at all reasonable to expect a sale between now and Dec instead of forking over more than $800US for a coach RT?