VJ (mejor que Joven, verdad?)

Thanks for the explanation on booking LP rewards. In the member's guide it says that up to two LP participating airlines may be used on a LP flight award. Have you any info on this? I assume by participating airlines they mean any of their member airlines (vs partner airlines). I wonder then how this would be booked? Originating in Canada I have a feeling that I may need to use two airlines to get anywhere! In this case it may be necessary to deal directly with LP. I do agree with you that it's better to deal directly with the airline than going through LP as a third party. It's difficult enough as it is dealing directly so I can imagine how much of a pain the latter would be. I am surprised however that they would book the award reservation if you didn't have any miles with them. For example, with Aeroplan (AC) there's no way they would book you a reward if you didn't have the miles in your account. I am anxiously waiting for my millionaire status to kick in as I would love to return to Bogota by the fall.

Gabriel,

A mi no me importa tanto que parezco joven-- ya con 24 anos, trato de mantener la juventud lo mas posible.

Lacsa does fly from YYZ-- the flight goes YYZ-HAV-SJO. I wonder for U.S. citizens booked YYZ/SJO with an intermediate stop, would this count as a semi-legal way for us to transit Cuba? Anyway.....

Different airlines seem to have different preferences with partners, i.e. TACA may want to send you YOW-MIA on AA and connect to TA, but with LatinPass itself you must use TW and US to connect to the gateway. Also, it happens that the international airlines can't hold space on the U.S. carrier for more than a day. So, what we did is reserve the flights with TACA and hold them for a week, then the day we wanted to ticket, we called TACA and requested they force in segments on TW-- that started the 24 hour clock for ticketing. We then called LatinPass that day with the confirmation code, and they took care of ticketing.

The way the LatinPass office is set up, they are at 1600 LeJeune Rd. on 2nd floor; TACA has an office on the 1st floor, and COPA also has a ticket office in the building. So I don't know if a LatinPass rep physically goes to a TACA/COPA agent to ticket it there, but they did ticket it and send it out.

If you happen to move miles to Distancia and ticket with them, you can use AA flights to connect to TACA. I don't think there's a way to use CO flights to hook up with COPA, though, since you can't actually move LP miles into Onepass, and you must always ticket COPA through LatinPass.

Gabriel,

I asked LatinPass a while ago about this and confirmed that the LP reward chart can indeed include a member airline and a partner airline. So, for example, you could fly US Airways from YOW to a member airline gateway in the US and then continue on to Latin America. The Lacsa flight from YYZ unfortunately is not very convenient for those living outside of Toronto - LR 623 departs YYZ at 8:06 am to HAV/SAL/SJO, LR622 return arrives in YYZ at 10:25 pm. It would seem to be impossible to make connections to these flights.

Viajero Joven wrote:
Interestingly, TACA says on their website that they offer the only regularly scheduled flights between Cuba and North America, I guess this one would be it!

Toronto to Havanna on Lacsa is an excellent reward when compared to Cubanna, Air Transat or Canada 3000. I'll certainly take advantage of this reward even if it means a forced overnight stay in YYZ from USA( I wonder if this is possible due - do they follow the 4hour or 24 hour time restrictions for stopover - I would guess 24 hours as Canada is an International destination if travel originates in USA)

I was curious as to how the awards worked from the cities not served by Latinpass member airlines. It's good to hear that the two airlines includes TWA and USAir. However, it seems that KLM awards are entirely separate.

A question: If using TWA or USAir to connect to a US gateway and booking an award in business class, what class is booked on the domestic portion?

I called Latinpass yesterday to confirm what had posted to my account. I apologized for calling and bothering them (although I still hadn't received my statement yet). The agent was extremely friendly and said if we didn't call and bother them they wouldn't have a job. Pretty great!

Everything had posted except for my domestic TWA and USAir flights, my ACES flights and my Intercon stay. Easily fixed.

I received my LP statement last week. My TA and LR flight were posted as "Economy" instead of "Business." I called LP and they told me that they can add the bonuses immediately.

With regards to my uncredited flights (VX, CM, and 2 on VH), they said wait 4-6 weeks for the credit because they have to verify it with the individual airlines. Why? They have the original ticket and the original boarding passes.

tfjim:

I wouldn't count on the partner airlines and Aces flights to post easily. I took TWA flights in early May and USAir the first of June and they have not posted as of today even though LatinPass has had the boarding passes and original tickets since June. Aces and Avianca from May 4th flights have also not posted.

When I called LatinPass today, they said they were backed up with all the documentation and number of persons going for the bonuses. They said approximately 100 have qualified so far.

------------------

I've spun off a more appropriately named thread on "Booking LP Awards" to be separate from LP Statement talk. Hopefully there won't be too much of a break in continuity.