scabstump

Hi!!! I am looking into the frequent flyer miles programs for the very first time, and yes it is daunting!! I know I will always be looking to to go to Argentina, so can anyone give me pros and cons, and inside notes about the better looking programs?

My situation is - I am a single mom whose family lives in Argentina and I am living in the USA - It is difficult for me to fund two tickets out of my pocket and yet I would like to be able to travel at least once a year.

Things that worry me -

Is it worth it to sign up?

How do i accumulate miles?

Is it as easy as I hope to use them? (probably not)

I have started looking at LanPass - is this best for me or are there better ideas out there ??

OK Probably a good place to start!! I appreciate all helpful comments! Thank you thank you

IanWorthington

Questions:

o How much will you be flying?
o Is LAN your preferred airline to AR?
o Is AA you preferred airline in the US?

scabstump

I hope to fly once a year, stay in Arg. for 1 to 3 months june--august and return to the states...

generally I like LAN over AA!!

IanWorthington

Welcome to TMI:


You won't be flying enough to get status.


At the moment this will be your earnings:

http://www.lan.com/en_us/sitio_perso...lan/index.html

You haven't said where in the US you'll be departing from, nor where in AR you'll be flying to, so for example, MIA-EZE r/t would earn you something like 11900 kms:

MIA-SCL: 6627 x 100%
SCL-EZE: 1141 x 25%
EZE-LIM: 3147 x 25%
LIM-MIA: 4198 x 100%

You'd have to fly a minimum of 40k kms/year to get any status, regardless of whether you register in the US or AR:

http://www.lan.com/en_us/sitio_perso...ber/index.html

http://www.lan.com/es_ar/sitio_perso...car/index.html



You'll have to keep an eye on

http://www.lan.com/en_us/sitio_personas/special-offers/

to know how many Kms you'll have to learn to get free flights



A potential problem might be if LAN downgrade what you can earn as a US member. This for instance is what they're doing in Colombia (I can't find any similar notice for the US):

http://www.lan.com/es_co/sitio_perso...ajeAcumulacion

If the US follow suit then those 100% numbers above become 50%



An idea, at the moment, would be to see if you can fly on AA /marketed/ flights (could be actually on LAN planes), which would you earn you 100% miles on the LAN FF program.

bingocallerb22

Yes, welcome to FT scabstump! And welcome to the wonderful world of FF programs.

Yes, do sign up to a FF program so eventually you can get a flight from it. But once a year is not really the frequent flyer that these program are geared toward. It looks like you will not be flying enough to achieve any elite status, as IanW indicated. But you can still collect kms to eventually use. Best to find a credit card that will give you bonus kms to give you more quickly a leg up on having enough to redeem for a flight. And even “churn” credit cards, if that suits you.

scabstump

I have more questions! thanks for the responses -- I should clarify a little more

If I were flying -- I would be flying with my daughter and she would have to have her own seat , so, that should count as double miles since I have to buy two tickets....

Also, my dad flies quite a bit - maybe I could get him to use this card for me.... - - - Is that what you mean by "churning"

IanWorthington

No, you have one account for you, one for her: in the game the piper does NOT call the tune You can transfer the points though if you have to redeem them, together: not sure what the charge for that is though.

I forgot to mention you can also BUY kms on sale at 1c/km to buy award tickets later on with. Very occasionally there are some outstanding award sales on.

Churning: http://www.theman1000.com/credit-card-churning/

scabstump

I knew it wasn't a simple thing, but I have to admit it is all very intimidating -- I'll need to look into it more -- Thanks for all your help!

fedechat

Your best option (if you live in Miami/NYC/DFW) is open a credit card like Chase British Airways, they will give you 50,000 Avios points after spending $2,000 in the first 90 days. With that amount you can use cash+points for awards on LAN Argentina or American Airlines, the regular Avios cost for that route will be 50,000 avios + $87.xx in taxes for 1 ticket (RT), but if you use cash+points, it will cost you 15,000 avios points + $487.xx ($400 cash, 87.xx taxes) for each passenger (round trip).

Another option is open a Business Credit Card from Chase, INK/Bold, then buy Visa Gift Cards on Staples, you will earn 5 points per $ spend, then load it to BlueBird (at Walmart), and pay your credit card bill, then transfer those points to BA Avios, this is known as manufacturing spending, check the credit card section in this forum, you will find more information about that, and read the basic on "the points guy" blog.

Mwenenzi

From scabstump's other thread on 30 Nov (yesterday) on the same topic http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lan-l...o-lanpass.html