Mauibaby2008

I recently booked LAX LIM rt in O class.

I hold LATAM Platinum status. I believe O is discount economy. Is there any way to upgrade this ticket with coupons or is that not possible? Thanks !

JoseDD

Is possible, but you will be always beaten by Latam Black / Black signature, is quite hard to get that upgrade on coupons.

Good luck and safe travels.

Mauibaby2008

Thank you .. I figured that my only chance is that it's on 9/11 and maybe people will choose not to fly that day lol

Carolinas

Actually, I don't think you can. According to LATAM rules, upgrades can be done for the tickets of certain fares only. Look more carefully at this table:

https://www.latam.com/en_us/latam-fi...grade-coupons/

If you're Platinum, then to be eligible for an upgrade your ticket fare must be at least "Access", which is definitely not the cheapest one. The "O" fare most probably corresponds to "Base", which would make you ineligible for an upgrade in this case.

Semphyra

Most certainly it's a base fare.

In general, classes S, N, Q, O, G and A correspond to discount fares and they are not elegible for upgrade unless you are Black

PABLOCO

I have fly LIM LAX and also LAX LIM a lot of times. I use that route since out of SCL you will have more upgrade chances. I am Latam Black and on all of this flys i have always get updraded. Also when i look into the upgrade list i can tell you that even Gold FF had been upgraded on this route a few times. But most of the cases you will have about 5 Blacks and 2 Platinum upgrades on average (sure some times you will have 7 seats and 7 blacks, or 8 seats and non black, but that is what i have seem)

The problem is that you dont have a Fare that will allow to us coupons. So you will need a miracle to get upgraded. Since you are behind all the flyers using coupons, behind company workers, behind pay upgrades... and they will only give you and upgrade if after all that economy is overbooked

Mauibaby2008

thank you and everybody for your input.

One more question, is there any way LATAM let's you pay the fare difference to upgrade to an applicable upgradable fare? I believe some airlines do that

but also if not I think I will submit the paid upgrade request for the LAX LIM leg, the minimum offer is $350. I think it would be worth it.

dbasulto

They let you pay to upgrade to a higher fare that can work for upgrades, but they do charge the change ticket penalty besides the fare difference.

PABLOCO

As Dbasulto says, you can upfare but you will need to pay the penalty for the change plus the diference of one fare and the other. The penalty is 300 USD (i think you only pay 300 for the round trip) and the diference on fare is by each segment since the price of one fare maybe higher one day that the next.

Still on a low fare week you will find the BASE fare and the ACCESS fare about 50 USD higher by segment. So you will be spending about 400 USD to have the chances to upgrade both ways.

Or you can bet for an upgrade, the lower bet is about 350 (so is about the same) and even if you 1300 USD.... you are behind even the Gold upgrades :P

Mauibaby2008

That is crazy, I hate this system! Sounds like I'll be flying economy :'( lol

PABLOCO

If you where FF Black and fast with the check in .... i will say that you are crazy for not paying those about 400 usd, even for 600 usd it is a great deal since you are almost certain to fly Business both ways.

But on Platinum your chances are lower. Also if you score a great great (or mistake) fare like the one from LAX to LET with a LAX LIM fly and then conections, your Base fare will be a lot lower than the Access.

jlarroulet

Just an addendum:
After clearing courtesy (coupon) upgrades, company workers on business -not leisure- travel (which aren't many on that route, other than the ocassional flight crew being relocated) and paid upgrades, the OP will only get the upgrade if economy remains overbooked AND there's a standby/nonrev getting bumped because of it.

LATAM's airport manual states that "free" upgrades are only awarded on otherwise empty J seats if needed to accomodate a standby passenger that would benefit from the empty Y seat

intltravel90

Two questions related to this helpful thread:
- One of the terms on the LATAM upgrades page is that flights must be "marketed and operated" by LATAM to be upgrade-eligible. Is a LATAM-operated flight, with a LATAM flight number, booked on United ticket stock, eligible?

- Similarly, is there an easy way to tell what my LATAM fare code is? United calls it "O" (which I believe is ineligible as Base on an international LATAM Chile flight) but I don't know if that maps directly to LATAM's O.

Thank you.