Upgrade Fine Print
I just had a conversation with the LATAM Call Centre for some seat arrangements for a forthcoming flight to Europe together with my sons (one adult, the other still a "child" at 11),
By the way, I asked the agent to check upgrade availability, as our tickets do allegedly qualify.
To my surprise, I was told that my younger son could not upgrade, since he was travelling on a "discounted tariff", i. e. not even USD 50,00 cheaper than the regular fare.
I am 100% sure that I have upgraded children's tickets in the past, so I am suspecting that this is just another "enhancement" to our dear programme with the additional side effect of limiting under-age presence in the premium cabin.
The agent of course told me that this has been like that forever and is written somewhere in the LATAMPass terms and conditions (loved his wording, when he said I should read them carefully, so "that I would be aware of all my Black benefits and not miss out on them". Oh, thank you!) , but I did not have the time and energy for an extensive research. Yes, I saw that it says that infant and discounted tickets are not eligible, but I was rather thinking that this implied heavily discounted industry or staff fares and not tickets that are issued by default at a marginally lower price because of age only.
Well, I am psychologically preparing for a Y class long haul (yes, this is what I paid for, however... to make things worse, it's JJ metal), unless someone can confirm that the agent was mistaking (what I am silently hoping anyway).