The Latin Pass promo ends today. I finally completed all the requirements for the million mile bonus yesterday. Way back on April 4 when I was in Guatemala and checking in for my 5 flight segments I had the misfortune of having the Copa ticket agent take my passenger receipt when I checked in for the flight. After three months and numerous e-mails and phone calls I never was able to get a copy of the ticket from Expedia.com (no expletives allowed on this board, but I am thinking them!) All the talk of having original passenger receipts made me nervous that I might lose 500,000 miles of the bonus. So I flew to Puerto Rico two weeks ago and took a Copa flight from San Juan to Santo Domingo and spent a few days in an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic. Great fun, gorgeous weather (I mean it was sunny, but still hot and sticky). Last week I flew National Airline from San Francisco to Las Vegas. The next day I flew Las Vegas to Los Angeles on National. When I checked in at the counter the agent looked at my record and said "I see you are a frequent flyer with LP. Now what program is that?" I said, "That's Latin Pass." She replied, "Oh Latin Pass!" She then tore up my boarding pass for seat 29A and printed out a new boarding pass for seat 3F. She never said a word about upgrading me. Now is that respect or what?
I only had Lacsa, Lacsa(Nica segments), Taca, Aviateca, and Taca Peru post automatically. 3 Marriott stays and 3 Avis days also posted automatically. Yesterday I submitted boarding passes and receipts for Avianca, Aeropostal, Aces, Aces(Saeta), Copa, 1 segment on KLM and 4 segments on National, a Holiday Inn night, and 8 more Avis days.
Overall the bonus trips cost $4,500 (and that is "every" little expense associated with the trips except gifts) and 130,000 miles (1. California-Miami business class on UAL 40,000 miles, 2. California-Guayaquil, Ecuador, American business class 60,000 miles,
3.California to Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic - California, American economy 30,000 miles), with 4 trips for a total of 21 days away from home.
Flying for the bonus seemed like an endurance test at times. I am glad I did the journey and the bonus will be highly appreciated. Thanks everyone for all the insight this board offers. And thanks LatinPass for providing the incentive that brought so many of us to Latin America. I think this promotion has done much to enlighten those of us who ventured to the international destinations of Latin America.