Points to Patagonia
 

What airlines would be the cheapest in points from NYC to Patagonia (PUQ)? I saw on another site that it is 50k miles via Mileage Plan/Alaska Airlines via LAN. I called LAN and they told me it was over 200k miles to make the trip. Wondering if I am doing something wrong, or if anyone else has any suggestions. I have visited multiple sites that give prices of awards but still unsure my cheapest option...

Would be leaving on the 23rd of December and leaving on either Jan 1 or 2
Thanks!

Are you sure LAN told 200k miles? LAN uses kilometers, not miles.

Meanwhile, cheapest in theory and available for the date you need are two different things. Many programs raise the price when the cheapest is not available, so maybe there's simply no "cheapest" avialable currently for the dates you wanted?

LAN availability is best 11 months out for a couple of days, then most of their availability can get pulled.

And it's a high-demand destination, relative to capacity, so I think it's harder to get with miles all the way there than most other places in South America.

You may want to look into getting with miles to Santiago, and then paying money for a separate local flight to PUQ. (Just allow enough time to cover delays on the incoming flights, if you're booking separately, since you're not "protected" on separate bookings.)

I've made this trip several times with AAdvantage miles flying LAN (sometimes flying AA to SCL first). Until recently, there was a great off-peak coach deal of 20000 miles each way (it included November, a great month to visit). But AA just eliminated this option, so it's 30000 in coach. You can look at their chart for the biz award.

Frequent flyer miles/points/avios/km are not equal between ffp's. They are always not 1 to 1.
They are not equal to earn or burn(use). Sometimes they are equal, but not always.
Some airlines/ffp's charge carrier imposed cash surcharges.
Award availability is not guaranteed, especially at peak dates, like yours.
Award cost varies

http://www.awardace.com/
http://www.awardace.com/redemptions/...p_type=one_way

Thanks for the responses.

Yes it was in Miles. He gave me a quote in the high 200's for Kms. He said the availability was next to nothing for a good 2 months in that time frame, and understandably so. I can try the Santiago search and see what I get, but like you said must be careful about missing flights and lack of protection.

As far as AA goes, I just checked and it says there is no award availability from JFK to PUQ...I guess I could keep checking? I know I read a post from a while back that someone said every day would vary with LAN, and some days you would see availability and some you wouldnt...wish there was an easier way to check for them than calling

You will never see award availability to PUQ on aa.com: AA does not fly there on its own metal, and aa.com is not capable of displaying award availability on LAN. You must either call AA or use some third-party website to check LAN award availability with AAdvantage miles.

You seem to be confusing whose miles you have with whose airline you want to travel.

If you have AA miles, you are using AA's award chart to fly on LAN and it is irrelevant what LAN charges their members for that flight. Since AA.com doesn't show LAN award availability, you would have to call AA for availability and remind them to waive the phone booking fee since you can't book online.

You might find this thread useful: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-aa-miles.html

PHLisa, I have UR and SPG points that I can transfer to many different carriers. I will check your link and see if it helps. Much appreciated

I checked out the post. It seems like I cannot search LAN airlines through most of these airlines. Maybe still somewhat new to points and such, I see on a few websites that AA, Alaska, JAL and another were "partners" in some way shape or form of LAN? So in theory, if it says 60k miles for a RT from JFK --> PUQ, I could call up AA and if available, I can book this flight through AA or Alaskan air for that price, and not through LAN itself?

United charges 30k one way to Southern South America. I haven't checked availability, but there is a ton of availability to Northern South America on United, TACA, and Copa, even in J.

Thanks travellingwine...I had previous tried united and while there are flights there, there is no award availability unfortunately

There tend to be LAN seats available to PUQ, so redeeming oneworld miles is almost certainly the way to go.

That said, if you buy domestic Chilean tickets in Chile (which includes setting that as your online location from abroad), such tickets are cheap, so it can sometimes make sense to buy your travel beyond SCL. PUQ is about as far as you can go, though, so it won't be dirt cheap, which is why you probably want to figure out how to redeem oneworld miles for the entire trip. It really shouldn't be that hard to do. From experience, I personally would consider this a relatively easy int'l award redemption.

If you want to use Alaska miles, don't call LAN (even though the flight will be on LAN). Call Alaska airlines and ask them to check for availability etc and the pricing.

Similarly if you want to use AA miles, call AA not LAN. They can check for availability.

Try www.awardnexus.com. Click "more signup options" (under the green Purchase button) to sign up for free (and do some searches for free) using your FlyerTalk account info.

Award Nexus can use BA and/or QF to show what oneworld flights should be visible to AA. You can't do that on aa.com. You'll then have to call up AA and book the flights over the phone if there is availability.

But beware: The interface between LAN and other airlines is a little glitchy, and sometimes AA cannot see the flights you look up through another airline. (That's why I used the word "should" rather than "will" in the previous paragraph.)

BA usually shows LAN availability - doesn't show any availability for the dates around Xmas that you are mentioning.