Is there a FOR LIFE level on LATAM?
 

Hi everyone, I've heard talk about the existence of a non publicized FOR LIFE frequent flyer status on LATAM. Does anyone know anything about it for sure? Does it exist and if so, how does one qualify? I've been a Comodoro/Black frequent flyer for some years now.
Your input will be greatly appreciated.
Tks!

it is a secret... shhhh!

at least on AA you get Gold for life at 1 million miles (flown) and Platinum at 2 million miles.

I remember receiving a letter when I earned my first million kilometers.. and included a LanPass Premium for life.. not that it's worth much... that was some years ago.. and I think I shoudl have already 2 million flown kilometers with them but since there's no way of keeping track of it on an easy way not 100% sure.. hopefully there will be a premium silver or whatever is called now..

There's always the"Gold" option for as long as one has Santander's WorldMember Black Mastercard but the truth is that Lanpass or now Latampass has been going downhill in the past couple of years. Yesterday I received an e-mail from Santander saying that from February the maximum limit of Kms one can earn a month is the equivalent of its credit limit, meaning, if you shop to your limit, pre-pay your bill, free up your credit and shop again, you'll only be credited once.
I wonder if they are at all interested in having top tier frequent flyers...

When I read that email it looked to me that they want to put a stop to manufactured spending, something that eventually dilutes the benefits that top frequent flyers receive at the end. Made sense to me.

Pardon my true ignorance, not familiar with "manufactured spending". What is it?
Tks!

If there is a for-life level on Latam, it must be for seat kms on Latam. One of my best friends has more than 1.5 M kms on his account (and I don't know how many he has spent) mainly from flights on British Airways credited on Latam and hasn't received any for-life status, special letter, gift or anything. I hope they launch an official for-life status with clear rules!

Absolutely, for life should be based solely on flown Kms and not credit card ones (that was a side comment). LATAM pays a lot of attention (as do others) to how many Kms were actually flown on LATAM itself, so flying BA and crediting all earned Kms to your friend's LATAM acct would not necessarily earn him a special LATAM status. Example (forgetting revenue for a second): 2 ways to become a Black Signature ff. 1 entails flying 210.000Kms per calendar year on LATAM (oneworld flights not considered); the other is 180.000Kms per calendar year on Oneworld with a minimum of 16 Premium class (premium economy or premium business) flights.
So despite both being members of Oneworld, they still have their own separate criteria re the status they are willing to confer on their members...
Totally agree with you they could pleasantly surprise us with a clear FOR LIFE programme.
Rgds

Has ben discussed in other threads. 2 million km (seat) will give you Sapphire for life. Got it some years ago, with nice Lan 767 replica as a gift.

Do they still do it?
Given that you're black your Saphire for life doesn't do anything for you, right?

Good to know! when i get that email i didn't get it exactly, because it was obvious that the limit of kms per month was the limit of you credit card. But now that you clarify that are people spending more than USD$15.000 each month and then keep spending more!! it makes sense.

@jafetzjaim
The reference to "manufactured spending" I think is referring to people simply putting everything they can on a credit card(rent, etc) to drum up miles without actually flying with the airline much.

"I wonder if they are at all interested in having top tier frequent flyers..." - They certainly are, but they want ones that ACTUALLY FLY!
Credit card bonuses & points are offered by the airlines to credit card companies because the airlines get great value from them(many people get the points & don't use them, but the credit card companies have already paid for the points = free money!) & because they want frequent flyers to choose them over their competitor airlines (a FF can earn 100,000 points on flights in a year but if Airline A lets them get 100,000 more on their credit card & Airline B doesn't, which do they choose?).
The obvious flipside of this is people like yourself that want to rack up 200,000 points a year on their credit card without actually flying much & then claim status - the status is designed for Frequent FLYERS, not Frequent Shoppers!