LATAM Award space not showing up on BA.com?
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: SEA
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold
Posts: 539
LATAM Award space not showing up on BA.com?
In the past I've been able to use British Airways' site to look for LAN/TAM award space for intra-South America flights, but now I can't find any, for any dates, on any routes LAN/TAM operate. Any reason why these wouldn't be showing up anymore?
#2
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 187
Interesting. I just posted this in another thread as I'm trying to find seats to Easter Island. Nothing, doesn't matter the class, on any day. Don't see anything.
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
I use www.awardnexus.com (click "more signup options" under the green Purchase button to sign up for free as a FlyerTalk member) which can pull either BA and/or QF for OW award inventory (but uses a much simpler user interface that's the same no matter which airline's site it's searching behind the scenes). QF often produces results that BA doesn't, though you'd think theory they should have about the same results.
Ie, BA often has trouble showing inventory that exists, so it's far from the best way to check OW inventory.
Ie, BA often has trouble showing inventory that exists, so it's far from the best way to check OW inventory.
#4
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 187
I use www.awardnexus.com (click "more signup options" under the green Purchase button to sign up for free as a FlyerTalk member) which can pull either BA and/or QF for OW award inventory (but uses a much simpler user interface that's the same no matter which airline's site it's searching behind the scenes). QF often produces results that BA doesn't, though you'd think theory they should have about the same results.
Ie, BA often has trouble showing inventory that exists, so it's far from the best way to check OW inventory.
Ie, BA often has trouble showing inventory that exists, so it's far from the best way to check OW inventory.
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
Also, be aware that at least on its own site, LATAM does not allow single-flight one-way redemptions. Officially it requires round trip redemptions, though some people have been able to trick it with "open jawish" redemptions.
I don't know whether they apply the same restrictions to redemptions through partners or not.
So especially if the flight you're looking for is just one leg, you may want to try a round-trip search if you first search one way and get nothing. And vice versa.
I don't know whether they apply the same restrictions to redemptions through partners or not.
So especially if the flight you're looking for is just one leg, you may want to try a round-trip search if you first search one way and get nothing. And vice versa.
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: SEA
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold
Posts: 539
Also, be aware that at least on its own site, LATAM does not allow single-flight one-way redemptions. Officially it requires round trip redemptions, though some people have been able to trick it with "open jawish" redemptions.
I don't know whether they apply the same restrictions to redemptions through partners or not.
So especially if the flight you're looking for is just one leg, you may want to try a round-trip search if you first search one way and get nothing. And vice versa.
I don't know whether they apply the same restrictions to redemptions through partners or not.
So especially if the flight you're looking for is just one leg, you may want to try a round-trip search if you first search one way and get nothing. And vice versa.
#7
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
Tried booking a round trip, still no results. I know one-way has worked before, because I remember searching for these flights months ago and seeing the results show up just fine. There's gotta be something wrong with LAN award space just not showing up on any BA system, online or phone. I called BA and they weren't able to see any availability either. What's going on??
If neither BA nor QF can see it, I'd say it's mostly likely than LAN has not released it. But if QF can see it but BA can't, that would obviously be a BA problem, and it would so not the first time.
#9
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: CNF
Programs: Priority Club, TAM Fidelidade, BAEC, Marriott Rewards
Posts: 2,184
Well, they have award seats for their own program (they vary in price, so if a flight is not full, you can always find an award seat for some ridiculous amount of points/kms). BAEC shows nothing, and it did show a lot of availability for Easter island in November, so the problem comes and goes...
#13
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Kansas City, MO
Programs: AA Gold
Posts: 3,648
I saw award space for the flight I wanted on the exact day of travel on BA.com, called AA to grab it, and it was a breeze to do. I fed the AAgent the date and flight number and he got it for me. This was at 330 days out, as soon as the flights showed up on BA web site. Seats are there far I advance.
#14
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: CCR
Posts: 326
This isn't for intra south-america flights, but I've seen some weird behavior with LAN awards through OW partners. LAX-LIM for example will never show more than 1 available seat, BUT make that SFO-LIM and as long as there is AA saaver availability for the SFO-LAX leg you'll get 2+ seats available on the same LAX-LIM flight that showed only 1 seat. I noticed similar oddities with MIA/MCO. I've tried calling AA/BA to see what the agent can get and they as well can only see that single seat for booking LAX-LIM
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
This isn't for intra south-america flights, but I've seen some weird behavior with LAN awards through OW partners. LAX-LIM for example will never show more than 1 available seat, BUT make that SFO-LIM and as long as there is AA saaver availability for the SFO-LAX leg you'll get 2+ seats available on the same LAX-LIM flight that showed only 1 seat. I noticed similar oddities with MIA/MCO. I've tried calling AA/BA to see what the agent can get and they as well can only see that single seat for booking LAX-LIM
But, OTOH, there sometimes is a glitch in airline award searches where if you search A-B-C, and A-B has 3 seats but B-C has 1 (or 0!) seats, if you search as A-B-C, it'll claim 3 seats, but 2 (or all 3!) of those are "phantom" on B-C, and you only get the true award availability results by checking each segment individually.
So it depends on which of these two situations is going on as to whether 3 seats really are available SFO-LAX-LIM or not.