Black Signature and upgrades
 

Flying mostly international I still see Black Signature elites in upgrade list (on flights from Chile). I am genuinely curious - who are those people who ask for upgrade these days ? :confused: :D It seems since LATAM introduced elite dollars and there is no other way to become Black Signature but to spend at least 32000$ per year, I would expect that those high spenders would have to fly business class pretty much all the time.. Well, the buffer year (2017) is well over (those how didn't re-qualify became just Blacks), but surprisingly I still see upgrade requests from Black Signatures pretty much on almost every of my international flights in this April and May.

Any ideas ? I am really curious :D

For me it is not a surprising because there are many people who travel in business class because their company's are paying for tickets on business trips (in case of South America). I would like to point you out that many people from Europe have Black Signature (especially from Spain) because there is no Elite Dollars criteria for them, just Elite Points. And when you fly to South America from Europe you get a lot of points (depending on your fare).

But that is exactly my question :) If companies (or who ever) pay business class, then those people will not not be in the upgrade list because they already fly business :D Interesting about the Europeans though.

Well actually I just wanted to point out that it is relatively easy to get Black Signature by flying like 3-4 times in Business Class from Europe to South America. I don't know on which flights you have seen those members on upgrade lists but if you say international then probably between Chile and Brazil which is very common route for business trips and if the flight is in Boeing 777 then it's quite common to observe a lot of people applying for an upgrade.

That minimum spend doesn't apply to all countries. Brazil doesn't have it for example, which with Latam being the local airline, you can be sure there will continue to be plenty of Black Signatures from here!

... and this proves once again that the super merger has been nothing but disadvantageous for the Hispanic (and in particular for the Chilean) part of the company and their local passengers.

The only thing that I have observed in the last two years is just dramatically declining service levels in all areas and of course shrinking benefits. Extremely sad!

It does seem however that those countries NOT forced on to Multiplus are winning when it comes to redemptions. Multiplus tickets, particularly on LA (as opposed to JJ) flights, are pricing out at 50%-100% more expensive on Multiplus than on Latam Pass.

So it seems whichever side of Latam's FF merger you are on, you're getting screwed one way or another!

Maybe Carolinas asks about ex-SCL flights? Because the MAD route... uffff... always full of Black Signatures.

For every LATAM Pass/Fidelidade member in every country.

This is my third year as Black Signature, with no single paid premium segment. Hard earned status...

Could you please elaborate, if possible ? Are you based in Chile ? If so, I am really curious how much do you have to fly in economy in / from Chile to reach Black Signature level under the new rules :eek:

Yes, indeed. I am asking about the Chileans only (those based in Chile). As for the others it's obvious that it's much easier to get to Black Signature in some countries.

I wanna know too :D

Of course this is only guesstimating, but this could be someone with the following travel pattern:

- on average one intercontinental trip per month which earns 1.800 Elite Dollars - x 12 = 19.200
- on average one regional trip per month which earns 1.200 Elite Dollars - x 12 = 14.400
Total: 33.600 Elite Dollars

Reaching the required mileage of 130.400 Elite Miles should not be a major question under this scenario.

Not sure, if everyone would call this life, but it is definitely feasible and would perhaps imply that you travel 40 to 50% of your working time.

For sure, in the past, many of the weekly commuters between Santiago and the mining centres could obtain Black Signature fairly easily. The spending criteria might have banned these people to a huge extent and it would probably require an average of at least two (rather expensive) round trips within Chile per week to reach the status nowadays.

However, I would say that Black Signature is mainly interesting for the international traveller, where the benefits such as upgrades, lounge access etc. really kick in in a relevant way.