How do Upgrade Coupons Work?
 

I’m new to LATAM Pass and have a few questions about using upgrade coupons. I know you can’t apply these until 48 Hours before departure time.

1. Can you apply these Upgrade Coupons online, or do you have to call LATAM?
2. How much time does it take for the Upgrade to clear? If I’m a Black Elite member and there’s no other bidders, does the Upgrade instantly clear? Or do Upgrades not clear until day of departure, etc?

Thanks,

I thought their site outlines it pretty clearly: https://latampass.latam.com/en_us/cabin-upgrade

Technically speaking, the process couldn‘t be easier. After checking-in 48 hours before your flight (mostly, this is an automated process these days), the upgrade option opens up immediately for the same trip, provided that your fare bucket qualifies. Make sure you make your coupon bid quickly, so that you stay ahead of your tier peers to enhance your chances. You can monitor your position and the number of bidders at all times.

Confirmation of the upgrade at the earliest happens twelve hours before scheduled departure.

I have recently (actually this week) had two very different upgrade experiences: my SCL - LIM flight cleared at -12, whereas my LIM - MAD upgrade yesterday was literally confirmed minutes before the boarding started.

Apart from load aspects, it seems to me that intercontinental flights are more prone to confirmation upon boarding, as the airline waits for last minute customers or paid upgrades before dishing out the ones against coupon.

It may be that Black Signature enjoy somewhat speedier confirmations, but I am not sure, because you can no longer see, which and how many people on the upgrade list have cleared.

Since there's no dedicated thread for the current new LATAM status match for US residents, I matched my AA Platinum to LATAM Platinum successfully. Match submitted 8/23 in the early afternoon, and approved by Status Match same day about 6 hours later. Status now reflected in my LATAM account this morning 8/26. I see the 6 upgrade coupons for me and my companion also reflected in my account :)

In the app you can see your place on the upgrade list though there was issue with it this week when I was first on the list and 1 hour prior to the flight it said upgrade not received even though there were 9 seats available in business. I asked the gate agent and gave me the upgrade but I noticed the seat behind me was empty even though there were many people on the upgrade list.

The UPG process seems quite buggy

The other day I bid on an upgrade for a domestic flight. 1 Hour before boarding then I got the email that I got the upgrade, but when I tried to get the new boarding pass from the app I got an error

I went to the gate agent and found that somehow my check-in was cancelled and my old boarding pass didn't scan successfully. They told me to board anyways and asked me to seat on the row before Premium Economy. I guess they radioed field services to check me manually.

After the door closed, a crew member invited me to seat on Premium Economy. A happy ending after all

New to LATAM black status through the recent status match challenge - if my husband and I are both LATAM black now, and we have a reservation with 6 people, including us, should I contact LATAM to break up our reservation into 3 PNRs (my husband + a no LATAM status passenger, me + a no LATAM status passenger, 2 no LATAM status passengers) to maximize our chance of at least some of us getting upgraded? It doesn't say explicitly in the T&C, but I think it only allows one complimentary 'companion' upgrade per status member? We would honestly be happy to pay for the upgrade (and in fact have bids in place), but it sounds like LATAM black upgrades trump bid upgrades, so we would like to improve our changes. Thanks!

It doesn't matter if they are in the same PNR or not, you can ask for an Upgrade for your companion as long as both of you are on the same flight

At the time of applying for an Upgrade you can select if you want to also add a companion within your same reservation or enter the info from another PNR.

For flights within South America you have 4 coupons per year for your companions, you can have more than 1 companion on the same flight using those. For flights outside South America you have 8 coupons that you share with your companions.

Thank you Semphyra - this is very helpful!

This probably means that award flights issued by e.g. British Airways do not qualify? Any recent experience on that?

Yes, coupons only work on LA operated flights and under LA flight number.

Upgrades on partner airlines must be purchased with miles, but personally, I have no experience if and how this works. I doubt that the prices are attractive though, especially since LA is not a member of any alliance for the time being.

That is good to know. So you have 8 coupons per year for longhaul outside of S. America (e.g. GRU-U.S. or GRU-EU)?

The flight I'm talking about (LIM-AEP) is an LA flight number, operated by LA. But the ticket has been issued by BA (with Avios).

If I could upgrade it with the coupons from Black status, I might think about doing the LATAM Status Match. But not sure if it's possible with Award tickets

Yes, for Black https://latampass.latam.com/en_us/cabin-upgrade


Probably not, unless the ticket was issued with a LATAM farebasis

Yep 100% correct