LANPASS changes rules
 

I think we LANPASS members have to complain to LAN about this. Email address for complaining at the end of this post.

First change (available in english here):
Base (cheapest) fares accumulate only 25% miles on flights less than 7 hours long. This includes practically any combination inside southamerica.

Second change (not even available in english, spanish version here):
Kilometers flown on fare families that accumulate 25% (see above) or 0% do not apply as elite qualifying kilometers (not even the discounted kilometers).

Changes apply to LAN flights. AA flights still accumulate 100% even flying Q, no matter flight duration.

Examples on how this impacts your pocket

• EZE-LIM. Cheapest fare: $228; First elite qualifying fare: $504; you are paying $276++ more to get 3910 EQM. This change adds an extra $0.07++ per EQM to the cheapest EQM cost. (++ means taxes calculated as percentage of fare).
  
• EZE-SCL. Cheapest $138; Cheapest or EQK: $269; You pay $131++ more for only 1418 EQM. An extra $0.09++/EQM.
  
• EZE-GRU. $132; $274; You pay $142++ extra for the 2140 EQM (miles, not km). An extra $0.066++/EQM.
  
• EZE-BOG. $635; $853; You pay $218++ extra for the 6244 EQM. An extra $0.035++/EQM.

Same rules apply to AAdvatage members flying LAN.

This confirms I will never ever fly LAN anymore for the EZE-SCL route choosing either AR or Gol. Most EZE-GRU would go to TAM as it accumulates 50% of the flown KM for most of the discounted fares. EZE-LIM will be based strictly on price and UPG opportunities, and some of it would probably go to TA.

Choosing other airlines for south america will not change my chaces to regain COMODORO, but will get less business to LAN. I will just probably need to do an "extension" (aka MR) to some originally shorter AA routes. Like EZE-MIA-DFW-JFK-SJU, instead of EZE-MIA-SJU; or something similar.

Final thought... This only punishes frequent travelers.

WHERE TO COMPLAIN

Please send your complain to LANPASS Management.

LR

does anyone know how much miles can be earned in fare bucket K (the bucket for the south america pass) ?

EEk!
 

Thanks for posting this - I have sent my complaint to LAN. What are they thinking? We have been loyal LAN fliers down here, but they have basically removed all our incentive to be loyal to them. I mean, if I fly with someone else, it's not like I am missing out on much (we try to fly the cheaper fares as much as possible obviously). It's really too bad because we like LAN quite a bit. BUT, as with most things, dollars dictate. I think it would be helpful if people would post something here if they read this post so LAN can tell that we have all noticed.

Here is the email I sent if anyone is interested:

Dear LANPASS:

We are frequent fliers on LAN and enjoy your service. In fact, for our travels all across South America (we live in South America), we ONLY ever fly LAN. We have never even tried any of the other airlines such as SKY, Aeorlineas del SUR, etc. Unfortunately, with the new LANPASS changes, I am afraid there is no reason for us to continue to fly with LAN - you have basically removed any incentive for our loyalty with the recent changes that only give 25% accumulation of kilometers for flights less than 7 hours long. I can't even fly to Easter Island now and hope to accumulate much of anything, let alone anywhere in South America.

Please don't think that these changes have gone unnoticed - there is an entire flying community on the web that discusses these very types of changes and helps us decide where to dedicate our frequent flying dollars (pesos). The bad press for LAN has already started and will only get worse if LAN doesn't re-evaluate its LANPASS changes: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=842161

We are both business and pleasure customers, but will take our accounts to where we feel our business is valued and appreciated. I encourage you to re-evaluate this program change before the bad press of this on-line gets worse.

Your time and consideration is appreciated,

I had been considering joining Lanpass, but this is even more reason to keep accruing my Lan miles with Alaska.

According to AAdvantage, 100%, link here.

For LANPASS, a flight such as EZE-LIM, will also get 100%.

LR

Thanks sandramrau.

I hope the LAN Customer Service Rep that gets your email forwards it to its manager and/or an executive. Today I got their response to my complain.

Among some diplomatic language, they said "we will take in count your comments in our constant program reviews". I'm not satisfied wih this, but I didn't expect anything else.

To our community of road warriors: Please keep sending your notes to LANPASS. Hopefully some LANPASS executive will read this forum and learn something about AA, CO, UA and any other airline.

LR

More power to you if you guys can get Chile based LAN headquarters to change something.

Chilean customer service is usually not known to be responsive especially in extremely large hierarchical corporate entities.

No kms, this is really the worst. If a was a local traveller, I'd be even more disappointed. :td:

Considering how much extra LAN is charging for similar routes, this change is surely certain to alienate many of their frequent fliers. On routes within Chile, they are charging more than 2x their competitors fares. Granted that LAN offers more frequency, but paying $400 for an overnight SCL - PMC (versus $120 on Aerolineas del Sur), plus no Lanpass miles, certainly will make me reappraise loyalty.

When I try to book online, for anything more complicated than a direct flight, I do not see "Base", "Base Plus", I see Economy-V, Economy-B instead. How do I know how many kms I'll get?

Click on the first and second link of the first post for more info. It will teach you how to know based on the extended fare code.

I read that, but I do not see these codes in the process of boking a ticket, probably after I have bought the ticket, but that is not useful.

In my experience, LAN messes up sometimes with LanPass Kilometers, back when O fares were up for sale for Joung Chilean Students (somewhere between 2004-2006, and a 50% off the cheapest price), even when fare said no LANPass accrual, 75% of the time I got the kms. anyway, this between CCP and SCL. Now they don't sell those anymore, but new fares really stand close to those O fares.
In my last paid trip with LAN, also btw CCP and SCL, flying in "Base" fares, but different booking classes on each leg, I got 25% kms for the first leg, and 100% kms. in the second leg, and though it was a higher class, it was still "Base" and got 100% kms, and got the qualificating legs for both flights.

Not going to strive for more this year, though, I'm a premium because of the credit card from the bank, so going to Silver would require a lot more time, and college is really giving me a hard time now.

I sent an email very similar to the one from leandrorar and got a response from LAN today saying that my comments would be "analyzed". They at least mentioned the problem by name ("We inform you that we have received the mail where you request that our new way to earn kilometers to be re-evaluated.") so if it is a cookie-cutter letter, then they have definitely been receiving complaints.

I have two LAN flights (LIM-LPB and LIM-GYE) booked on a mix of O and Y fare buckets. Will be interesting to see if I actually earn 12.5% EQM miles on American. Should be a whopping 82 or 88 miles for each leg :(

What's the big deal?
 

I actually like the change LAN made. It is the continuation of a la carte pricing. If I do not want airline miles, why should I have to pay for them? Conversely, if I want to pay less for a flight (because I will not receive airline miles for it) then I should be able to. I think this change will benefit some budget travelers. For example, I am thinking about going to Easter Island and I noticed that the base fares from SCL are now $60-$80 cheaper than the economy fares were before the mileage accrual change. All airlines should offer cheaper fares for the traveler willing to forgo miles.