Mileage bonus FAQ changed!
 

Has anybody noticed this?! I received an email today asking just where I had read that bonus miles could be transferred to HHonors or any of the LatinPass member airline frequent flyer programs, such as Taca's Distancia or Avianca's Mileage Plus. It's answered in question 14, I replied, taken from the FAQ stored on my hard drive:

Well, guess what, the current website FAQ is now only 15 questions long, not 16, with the above question deleted.

As anyone who read my May 5 trip report knows, I had a very positive experience with the LatinPass carriers and my trip to Latin America in general. But maybe this bonus promomotion is going to end up being too good to be true. I hope that the hordes of flyertalkers (myself included) and others who are continuing to take advantage of this promotion don't end up killing the program.

I anticipate further restrictions on the use of these bonus miles after July 1, just wait.

Just becuase LP removed this from the question portion does not mean you can't transfer miles through HH. LP may not want to draw attention to this.

I question why most people would want to do this in the first place? Washing miles through HH will cost you roughly 50% of your miles--a very steep price. If you transfer miles to a different program (through HH) just becuase you do not want to fly on any of the LP lines or partners then why did you partake in the program in the first place? There are very few places on this planet that are not served by TWA/KLM/US Air and the LP airlines. If enough people try to do this it could threaten the program.

I think this is a matter that Randy Peterson has taken up with Latin Pass. This is another subject that was beaten to death in past posts. It sounded like this issue had been resolved and the bonus miles could be transfered.

I too have looked at Latin Passes' site and the past reference about transfering points has been deleted! I printed out these rules and they have changed since I printed them. Randy was supposed to have a meeting with Latin Pass to follow up his previouse discussions. If the meeting has not taken place yet, maybe he can bring up this matter.

My take on this situation is LP SHOULD honor what they promised when the promotion started. It's a matter of principle. They already cut the promotion prematurely. It is only fair to keep the options they presented at the beginning of the promotion intact.

I agree with Tango. Just because LP removed the question from the FAQ does not mean that they would not allow you to transfer LP miles to HH or other LP partners' FF programs, e.g., Grupo Taca's Distancia. The only way to know for sure is to ask LP. If they don't respond, I am sure Randy Peterson would be happy to intercede for us. I've already queried LP via e-mail yesterday. Anyone care to follow my lead?

I want to move the miles into HH to use them as HH points. I already have 600,000 Delta miles in the bank and I want more hotel stays to go with my flights.

Good news freeflyer. LP will still let you transfer your LP miles to Distancia. See LP´s e-mail response to my query below.

Date: Thu, 18 May 00 10:28AM CDT
From: "LatinPass" <[email protected]
To: AusTXHiker
Subject: RE: Mileage transfer


Good Morning:

Yes, you can still transfer your miles to Hilton Honors or any member airline.

Thank You,
LatinPass


-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2000 7:14 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Mileage transfer


Sir/Madam,

I noticed that you have deleted the last 2 questions on your FAQ regarding the 1M/500K/100K mileage bonus promotion. One of the questions dealt with where I can transfer my mileage bonus. The options were Hilton and frequent flyer accounts of partner airlines, e.g., Distancia with Grupo Taca. As this was part of your original promotion,can I assume that you will still honor these mileage transfers even though they were deleted from the FAQ? I'm sure this was part of a discussion between Guy Booth, LatinPass' CEO, and Randy Petersen of
InsideFlyer during their recent meeting. Your response would be highly appreciated. Thank you very much.

Well, this is good news. If one can indeed tranfer miles to HH and the Member Airline ff programs, that should mean more choices, such as using Distancia to get reward travel on AA. Also, ff programs from Aces and Aeropostal seem to indicate rewards available on other carriers as well, such as Delta and Continental, though don't quote me on this as I can't read their Spanish websites too well.