mizzou miles

In my experience, you can just call TACA and change them directly with them without paying a fee at all. They are very accomodating!

Gotta burn 350K!!!!!!!

MileageAddict

I have a crazy idea. FOr those that have waaay more miles than they can possibly use before they expire, how about sharing them with other FTers and organizing a party in...say....Quito or Panama City or someplace else?

If someone shared their dying GlobalPass miles with another FT, perhaps they could get that FTer to reciprocate by covering their hotel bill or some good meals.

Anyone like this idea?

SAPMAN

Good Idea, if one can coordinate timing. My wife and I used up all our LP Miles, so are willing to "trade" some other miles (AA, CO) for some LP/GP miles for a trip to Argentina (where we have been twice before). If anyone has tons of miles, email me and we can talk. My brother also has some LP miles left, but unsure how many.

Wow, this is a shocker. At least I "spent" my miles and got a good deal for that MR.

BlackBerryAddict

i've still got a lot of miles left. from europe redemption was always very difficult, and became increasingly more difficult over the years as airlines dropped out of London (avianca), or dropped out altogether.

if someone wants to do some form of exchange on miles drop me a pm (although i may not answer until Tuesday as i will be at the paris air show)

cygone

Most of us who received the million mile bonus really have received good value out of this program. The best and most loyal customers are the ones affected most significantly by the changes. My nephew travels to Costa Rica quite frequently; his employer has a plant in San Jose. He has accumulated 140,000 miles in the GP program not by bonuses, but by flying on LACSA and that takes a lot of flying.

I spoke to him today and he had no idea about the changes in the program. He told me he has two business class tickets booked to Santiago, Chile in December using miles. He planned on having GP issue the tickets in October or November, as the old policy called for tickets to be issued within thirty days of departure. The business class tickets cost a little over $2,500 each or a total of 700,000 Global pass miles in the new program. Fortunately for him he now knows to have his tickets issued by the end of the month and pay for it with 130,000 miles from the old program.

My point is Global Pass should have made some effort to contact at least the very best customers and notify them of the changes. Even the notification on the GP web site is disguised to appear as if only minor changes are occurring. I know if I had a reservation and was told it would take 130,000 miles when I made it and by the time I ticketed the amount had risen to 700,000 miles I would be a little more than upset. Certainly they should have sent out a letter, or at least tried to contact participants by email. If you know anybody who still has miles, it is time to call them and tell them of the changes.

Harvey108

Yesterday, we called Taca several times to make 3 different bookings and we just had to book in "D" class for Business Class (or, if you want "T" class for Economy Class). Don't worry about them telling you that the price of the ticket is $2600 each, or something like that. Just ask them to hold it for a few days and get the confirmation code. Then you call Globalpass (I got them right at the opening time of their office this morning) and give them your Globalpass account number and the confirmation codes, and then after you hold the line, they will confirm that the reservations were set up correctly and take your credit card information for the international taxes and the $15 issuing fee.

The only question I had was whether we should pay the extra to have them use the expedite service and send you the tickets this week, because as their normal procedure, the GP agent informed me that they would be shipping out the tickets via Fedex about 4 weeks before the date of each flight. Is there a danger of losing the tickets in the next few months, even though their system now shows ticket numbers, i.e. if they go into bankruptcy in the next couple of months which would be still months before my flights?

SAPMAN

If LP/GP will do it, I would definately use Expidite Service, even though it will cost more. Any decent company would waive the fees due to the abrupt change in the program (and one would think they would want to "wash their hands" of any future work regarding Awards asap.) But with LP/GP, I doubt it.

Get the tickets in your hot little hands

tvl4free

Isn't it clear that that is their plan? They've dumped the partners one by one. Now they just bk a small insignificant Miami Co. and get rid of the mileage liability.

This has been a sweet ride...errr a sweet 'liability dump' for the actual carriers involved. I wonder how many miles will get swept under the rug.

dvdexter

I booked some tickets with TACA yesterday for travel in December. GlobalPass told me I could expect the tickets in a week or two -- so apparently the previous practice of waiting to issue the tickets until 4 weeks before the flight has been changed.

Thomas Gregory

they told me that they still send the tickets out 4 weeks prior to flight dates, unless you pay a $50 expedite fee per record locator to have them sent out now.

tom

Harvey108

Yes, that is their policy that they have been following for years, i.e. not shipping out tickets until 4 weeks prior to the flight date. I called TACA today regarding a flight that I had earlier today called GP to use my bonus miles for and TACA already had ticket numbers in the record so that might be some assurance.

Viajero Joven

This is good info.

Just to verify, is all of South America a single zone?? I know TA Distancia has an upper South America and a lower South America--- maybe I'm mixing programs in my mind.

Thanks guys!

freeflyer

As I recall from the old LatinPass reward chart, I'm pretty sure the 35k/50k rewards apply to Central America as well as Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. The rest of South America would be 50k/65k. And too bad flying to and from Ecuador on Taca usually can't be done on a same-day connection.

NickB

Yes, that is right. Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador are 35K/50K

milesrus

so would you pay the expediate fee to be safe or risk that they will mail them out.