Latam Premium Business Z-fare No Longer Eligible for TPs/Avios?
 

Thinking of booking BOG-GRU (or BOG-SCL-GRU for additional points) in Premium Business as the difference is not so big on my dates ($250 more each way). These book into Z-class.

Now, they used to accrue 140 TPs on BA, but since Latam Chile and Brazil merged their booking systems, Class Z seems to have fallen off the eligible accrue fares (per BA's website). It's a normal revenue class, so any ideas if this is a fluke or it's viewed as a deeply discounted J product which should not accrue? Confusingly, it shows Z still accrues under TAM (but not Latam).

Who should I contact at BAEC to clarify?

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...922f14b507.jpg

Full TPs prior to May 11
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8b667351c2.jpg

No TPs after May 11

I believe its a deliberate change. I was looking at this last week for Frankfurt to Madrid

It does look like it. What's weird is that BA award tickets in coach book into P-class on Latam, which earns TPs per Premium Economy. So for once that I'm willing to splurge on J I don't get any.

I wonder if this has to do with TAM coming from Star Alliance where Z is discounted business, and LAN from OneWorld where Z is award first class. As they harmonize booking classes, Z will stop being a revenue booking class, and BA is just a bit early on the trigger?

How certain are you on this? all the tickets I have on LAN on award tickets are all showing as T class for economy on Latam, Has this also changed?

This is really annoying and I hope an error on the part of BA similar to when R class fares on QR were tagged as ineligible for TPs and Avios. They later fixed the chart. I made several Latam bookings last month that fall into the Z bucket but I won't be flying them until the end of the year. If I had thought BA was going to pull a stunt like this I would have booked with Avianca and topped up my Star Alliance balance instead.

Bob

Sounds similar to what I experienced earlier in the year on a BA ticket via KUL in I-class with an onward MH connection. Apparently I-class on MH is not eligible for even reduced TPs/Avios, whereas even a discounted economy ticket will be! Quite disappointing - surely even a discounted business class fare should earn more than the cheapest eligible Economy given the price tag.

MH I fares have been an issue on many OW programs for a long while now. If you bid for an upgrade on MH it reissues in I (or used to) which then makes earnings zero.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d79089fa4.jpeg


I got Z avios and tier points from flights last week. Even bigger shocker.. they posted automatically!

The cut off was the 11th. When did you fly, and when did they post?

On the positive side - and I hadn't noticed that BA was changing earning rates for LA/JJ (thanks for pointing it out) - Economy earning rates have improved. Really good to see that A fare is now eligible for earning (I've missed out on a few of those in the past year), and quite a few fare classes moved up to 50% earnings.

10th May! That was close then. Anyway, apologies.. I didn't read the thread in it's fullest to realise there had been a cutoff.

Presumably they would honour TPs for tickets issued before the changes were announced? Or not?

Airlines generally don't honour tickets purchased before the announced changes Maybe BA is generous?

That's what I find strange: A-fare is Basic Economy (in Brazil at least), so why they would add that while eliminating a discounted business fare is beyond me.

I think something similar happened with the QR R class fares and people did eventually get credit after "appealing" the decision to BAEC based on terms when booked. However, I was not affected and only saw that here afterwards so I would appeal to the FT institutional memory for more concrete information...

Not technically true, The R class on QR was a mistake when setting the table up and was completley unintentional the BA rep even replied to the post to confirm.

Take the A to I class changes on AA anything after the change date regardless of when booked got the lower rate

Fair enough, I figured the institutional memory would know more!

Just contacted BAEC-Gold Hotline regarding that very same question (No Avios or TP on Z Fares of LA) and they have confirmed me that this has been a change done on purpose by LATAM on the 11th of May. So i guess we will really need to live with the fact that Z will not give any Avios & TP anymore. Very sad and strange indeed. Especially because on one of my standard routings (MAD-UIO, operated by IB) the Z fares of LATAM are regularly 1k EUR cheaper than the ones on IB itself, which is also kind of weird anyway.

Cheers from Switzerland

Good to know - glad I saw all this before trying to integrate the MAD-FRA flight into a TP run!

I've asked BA on twitter a few days ago about this: (not aware about this thread). My main question is - "Z" got removed, while "R" got added. LATAM doesn't sell "R" fare class. To me it looks like a copy & paste error from another table. Also looking at https://www.wheretocredit.com/latam-airlines/z it seems weird that BA doesn't earn avios / tier points, while other OW airlines still do, including IB.

Did you here back from the BA Team?

Not yet :(

This looks like a copy paste of the QR one as they had R as a screw up in the past also.

From BA's website on June 22:

LATAM at a glance

• Included: LAN (LA), LAN Argentina (4M), LAN Colombia (4C), LAN Ecuador (XL), LAN Peru (LP) and TAM Airlines (JJ). Excludes the following flight ranges flown prior to 11 May 2018: 5200–6369, 7000–7859, 8200–8209, 8250–8341, 8350–8353, 8450–8499, 8600–8699, 9520–9529, 9542–9887..
• Minimum Avios: no minimum.
• Avios tier bonus? No.
• Collect Tier Points? Yes (discount economy fares will earn fewer Tier Points depending on the fare purchased).
• Reward flights: Infant must be booked as a child on LAN operated flights.

Avios awarded (percentage of flown miles)

Fare class (up to 10 May 2018) / Fare class (from 11 May 2018) / Avios

• Economy lowest (V1, X3, S1, N2, Q2, O2, G3) / Economy lowest (A, Q, O, G) / 25%
• Economy low (K4, M1, L1) / Economy low (K, L, M, N, S, V, X) / 50%
• Economy flexible (Y, B, H) / Economy flexible (Y, B, H) / 100%
• Premium economy (P5) / Premium economy (P) / 100%
• Premium economy flexible (W) / Premium economy flexible (W) / 110%
• Business (J, C, D, I, Z) / Business (J, C, D, I, Z) / 125%

1. Avios and Tier Points are not available on flights operating wholly within Peru or Argentina.
2. Avios and Tier Points are not available on flights operating wholly within Peru, Chile or Argentina.
3. Avios and Tier Points are not available on flights operating wholly within Peru, Chile, Argentina or Ecuador.
4. Avios and Tier Points are not available on flights operating wholly within Argentina.
5. Available on certain flights within South America.

LAN Colombia (4C) is applicable for accrual of Avios in economy (discounted) class operating wholly within Colombia.

Although Z Tier Points are not specifically addressed, it looks as if we can be cautiously optimistic :)

I've seen the new layout a few days ago and it still was showing R fare code, not Z. So So hopefully it's now fixed and it indeed was a copy&paste error.

I am also planning a TP run which includes the MAD-FRA 163EUR fare.
Can anybody report that there will be no troubles by crediting Z on QR ? The earning chart has Z listed regularly.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e3c6adeb0f.jpg

As they list it, there should be no issues what so ever. However, it is really a question for the QR forum....

Quick question: has anyone in a European country actually been able to book the 162 EUR Z-fare which is currently floating around?
I tried it in Belgium with multiple computers, operating systems, browsers and also on a mobile device. No luck :-(

book this fare @ www.flugladen.at

I've sent another tweet to BA to ask when can we expect an update to the flight calculator. Avios earning table for LATAM has got updated over a week ago.

Anyone's been able to credit the Z class tier points recently? I booked a MAD-GIG Z class in August after checking the partner airline/ LATAM table on ba.com (where they do mention Z class) but have now found this thread...My year end is early September, and I need those points to renew my Gold. Thanks in advance!

Any news?
This books into Z https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/prem...biz-class.html

This looks to be resolved it's back on the TP Calculator page was obviosly similar to the R class that dissappeared on QR for a bit,

Normal service resumed :)