Booking TACA Tickets with Miles
 

Can anyone give me a quick refresher regarding the process, timeframes and any potential problem areas with using my miles to purchase flights for my self and several others on TACA from LAX to SJO (Costa Rica)?

GP told me to make reservation with TACA and to call back with reservation number. Is it really that simple? What are the GP fees for processing all of this? How long does this process take, and does GP have any additional seat availability restricts if TACA is able to make a reservation for me?

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Happy Travels,

Rhinochaser

[This message has been edited by rhinochaser (edited 11-06-2003).]

Yes, it's really that simple. Call Taca to make the reservations and then call GP with the reservation number. Using miles to travel on TACA -- by far the easiest award travel reservations I make.

I didn't answer all your questions last night, so here goes...

The fees are about $15 per PNR and I'm not sure if taxes are the same to every destination. We're flying to Chile next week and the taxes were about $17.

If you find seats on TACA, which in my experience has been very, very easy, GP doesn't pose any other restrictions. They just ticket the flights.

I'm flying with my wife and 1 year old son to San Jose, Costa Rica out of LAX. Does anyone know what planes TACA flies on this route and whether it is worth upgrading to business class from coach?

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Happy Travels,

Rhinochaser

Yes - it is worth sitting up front if you have a little one. This will ensure ejectiva check-in (a real time saver).

You need to call Taca first, this is easy, tell them you will use a Latin Pass award.

You then need to call Latin Pass and recite every detail of the reservation...very time consuming compared to every other program. They will take your money and give you 'ticket numbers.'

Now you have to call Taca to give them the ticket numbers. They may be confused about this at first.

The actual paper tickets (old red carbon paper) will not arrive for a long time. Even though they take your money and miles right away. If you do not get them within a month, you must call them.

Taca will be very confused with a minor in first class. I actually have been told that a minor cannot travel on 'free' travel in first class (not true). Just make sure they know you used first class miles for a full seat.

Once on board Taca is a great airline and either coach or first class is better than an equivalent domestic carrier.

I just returned from TACA flight to Argentina. Went MIA - San Jose on LACSA, San Jose - Lima on TACA and San Jose - Buenos Aires on TACA. (all part of Grupo Taca)

All flights were pretty much on time. Planes are new Airbuses, very nice. In coach, got a hot snack on all flights (like a ham/cheese sandwich). Sat in Exit row and bulkhead. Bulkhead was great as extra room and they have an opening at bottom where you can stow your carryons. NOTE: TACA made us put carryons overhead when in Exit row, even though there was under seat space in front. We found coach very comfortable - although 1st is nicer and better food. Oh, they had 110 v outlet on all seats!! And movies also. Board rear to front - but not strictly enforced.

We had a fairly short 45min connect time in Lima, but no problems.

The new airport section in San Jose, CR is nice - but still use old section for all but 2 gates (gates 1 & 2 are new and nice). Some shops and fast food (Burger King), but no real restaurant.

The ticketing process as above is correct. Just write down everything you make by phone. We made seat assignments after ticketing and no problem. We got out tickets about 10 days after giving info to Global Pass (yes the old handwritten ones). Check them out as soon as received to insure all is correct.

If you go to Argentina - a super place (sort of like Paris) and VERY inexpensive - I can g
ive you info. Steak dinner for $5. Wine with dinner $3 a bottle.
Taxis about $1 for 2 miles.

Thanks for all of the replies. My wife called GP about booking some flights and they told her that they had to make the reservations and would check on availability. This is just the opposite of what everyone has posted and the opposite of what someone at GP told me about a month ago. Does anyone know if the policy has changed? We couldn't even tell them what flight. They said they would check availability and tell us what we could have.

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Happy Travels,

Rhinochaser

Yes, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Globalpass is in the process of changing their policy so that from now on all reservations, including TACA reservations, will now be made through them. It's a big change, and I know everyone will be disappointed. However, customer service has been improving at LP/GP, we can only hope for the best.

How did I find out? I called TACA last week to make my own reservations to Argentina for the end of the year. After, when I called LP/GP to book the tickets I was chatting with the customer service gal amicably and asked if there was anything new going on? That's when she informed me of the above. I didn't want to post anything because I wanted to wait to see if anyone else confirmed it.