My husband and I will be trying for the 500K promo. We plan to travel in late Mar-early April, starting and ending in MEX, connecting to a TWA flight (SFO-ST. Louis- Mex). We plan to use the miles pretty fast too http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I'm beginning to grow a bit weary and leary of this entire program! Rules may well not be made to be broken, but what the heck are they?!

I'm going to go for the full 1,000,000, but will transfer all of them to HHonors except for 150,000 miles - enough for 2 Biz. Class Europe --> Australia.

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Cheers.

Leo.

Hey Leroy11! I thought the last word was that we CAN'T transfer the miles to Hilton Honors!! Did I miss something?

leroy11, I get it. You're going to try to hold them to the original post of the rules, right?

Randy wrote a letter to LP in the latest edition of Inside Flyer and they revoked this rule. See the thread under "Only Randy Petersen."

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Cheers.

Leo.

Anybody planning a mileage run from ord? Email me if you are and maybe we can plan to fly at the same time. Open times for me are march 4/5, 11/12, 18/19.

vman: I'm considering doing the run from STL and would be interested to know your dates and itinerary.
Cheers.

Thinking about doing it here, possibly with my wife, and possibly with one of my partners and spouse also. Partner speaks fluent spanish (3 yrs. teaching in Madrid) and we have a big client in Montivideo that we might stop in to see (tax writeoff too, you say?). but haven't made final decision yet.

An update from a cafe in Bonaire: 6 down, 4 to go. Details when I return...

way to go Pudding Guy. Good luck and enjoy the trip (not just the miles)!

If anyone is considering going from LAX i have just booked a ticket that can be done in a couple of days.
3/11
LAX->GUA (lacsa)0015-0700
GUA->SAL (Aviateca)0820-09100
SAL->MGA (TACA)1348-1453
MGA->PTY (COPA)1600-1820
PTY->BOG (SAM(Avianca)1905-?
3/12
BOG->LAX (via miami)(ACES connecting to Quantas codeshare)0945-2000

The price in Business (except for SAM flight and ACES) was about 2500. The only connection that i was worried about is pty->bog the reason being that i have found different times for this flight. (1650) i booked a seperate fair from pty-UIO, UIO->bog just in case i miss the connection. if not i will send it back. An easier flight can be had as Avianca has a route BOG->LAX but it does not fly on Sundays.

Also- i think that they took the codeshare restriction off of the web site...


[This message has been edited by fabsco (edited 02-21-2000).]

Bon voyage to all the LatinPassers.


Besides the 1,000,000 miles you also may unfortunately earn the attention of US Customs. I went to Colombia on business last summer and ever since then I'm often singled out for special questioning and searches when returning from the likes of Canada and Switzerland. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

We didn't end up with a stamp from Columbia, since we just made a transfer there. Connections through Bogota on two different airlines seems to require you to make a long circuit out of security and back in, but they didn't require any entry/exit fees in the process. Security was tight relative to everywhere else we went. Many people checking papers and tickets, plus a full bag search and pat down. I'd recommend at least 1.5 hours for connections, we had 2 hours and I was still a little worried.

[This message has been edited by Pudding Guy (edited 02-22-2000).]

Is there anybody in ATL who is going, I wouldn't mind some company if I end up doing this.

Tomphot:

I'm not from ATL, but my flight to Guatemala City on DL stops there. I'm thinking of leaving at the end of May.

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Cheers.

Leo.

Leo,
Do you already have an itinerary figured out? Since we are on the east coast, I was thinking about starting and ending in MIA thereby reducing the amount of connections needed outside the US. I was going to go for 500K, what about you?

Tom

I'm looking at leaving from Atlanta on May 4th. Going for the whole gazillion miles on this one. Might have a friend with me, but always looking for more company

Hey Toppshelff. I'm from Indy also (Fishers area). I've been comtemplating going for the bonus. Do you have an idea on a schedule that is cheap? I'm leaning towards the 500,000 bonus.

How safe are the airports and cities in MGA ,PTY, GUA,SAL,BOG and UIO ? I get the feeling that Central America is now ,what the Soviet Union was immediately after the breakup. That is hold on to your wallet and use alot of caution .

How safe are the airports and cities in MGA ,PTY, GUA,SAL,BOG and UIO ? I get the feeling that Central America is now ,what the Soviet Union was immediately after the breakup. That is hold on to your wallet and use alot of caution .

Anyone from the Midwest put together a trip routing ?

Pudding Guy, did I notice that your itinerary started with an American Airlines flight in and out of the U.S. Gee, what a coincidence http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif!

Everybody what's with this sudden emphasis on "anybody from near my city" going? I thought one of the advantages of this board was that location doesn't matter. Seems to me the only "same city" advantage is that my first flight wouldn't be alone (well, I've done that plenty of times!). Wouldn't "Anybody looking at the second or third weeks of May" seem like a more productive pairing mechanism?

Re: LatinPass 1,000,000 miles promotion.

I've got two weeks off, March 17-April 2 and want to do this thing! If anybody wants to work out an itinerary for sometime during this period let me know, otherwise I'm going solo.

[email protected]

Yes, I used 25k AAdvantage miles to fly into Guatemala and out of Caracas. This kept costs down since I was starting from SFO.

In response to the questions about safety, I'll share a few observations. We spent nights in Guatemala City, Managua, and Caracas, and transferred through airports in San Salvador, San Jose, and Bogota. Other than a slightly wild taxi ride from CCS to our hotel, we felt very safe and comfortable throughout. If you don't check luggage, you can stay in transit behind security at most of these airports--and save yourself the need to pay for tourist visas and exit fees. Without exception the secured transit areas seemed very safe.

Some notes:

GUA: small airport, friendly service, loads of people crowded outside eager to sell you something or find you a taxi. We stayed in the Radisson and felt comfortable walking about after dark for dinner.

SAL: lots of gates given the volume of flights, exceptionally clean, very friendly service. One of the immigration agents actually took me for a brief walk outside the airport to look around a bit. Since I had a business class Grupo Taca flight, I was able to spent my 3 hour layover in the VIP Salon, which wasn't fancy, but had good coffee and snacks. If you check your bags, you'll have to pay either $25 or $35 in fees (depending on the agent) and wade through some confusion at the immigration booth.

MGA: Not my first recommendation for a stopover. It was a long and not-so-scenic shuttle ride from the airport to the Intercontinental. The hotel area was very nice, though. Had a great dinner at Antijitos across the street, then caught a movie for $4 with popcorn.

SJO: Stayed in transit. Seemed like any medium sized US terminal. Nice shops.

BOG: We were in transit, but had to leave the secured area to get our boarding passes for the next flight. Here's the process: from the plane head to the "Airport Tax" counter, which is located in the main terminal. Show the boarding pass for your arriving flight and your departure ticket to get the stamp without a charge. Then stand in line at the airline counter for your departure boarding pass. On the way back to the planes, you must go through several rounds of showing people your boarding pass before going through security. Security seemed quite tight. My bag was thoroughly searched, and I was given a pat down after walking though the detectors. This was the only airport where I sweat a little, because the airport was very busy, and I wasn't clued into the process. I was worried about catching my next flight.

CCS: Nothing much to note here. Stay behind security in transit to avoid a $21 departure fee. It's a long, $35 taxi ride to the Intercontinental.

In summary, I'm happy to report that we didn't experience any obvious threats to our personal safety, didn't share with planes with livestock, and weren't shaken down by the local officials. Viva Latin America!

Congratulations! Now one can only hope for prompt crediting of miles!

Welcome back Pudding Guy. Congrats on completing your newest quest for miles.

I'm also contemplating a run sometime in the first 2 weeks of May (totally flexible on time right now). Not looking to make either a vacation or marathon out of this . . . just do it in a reasonably short time. I'll start in Orlando and end there too, so it looks like MIA is the first leg that really counts. I'd prefer the 1 mil but would settle for the 500K. If others are going around that time, of like mind, I'd live the company!

On 2/24/00 I posted questions on a new thread and was trashed for not using the old thread for the 1,000,000 LP bonus. My excuse is that I'm a newbie and didn't know any better. Now when I try to look up the latest info on this fascinating subject, I see that a new thread was started here by an established member, and one of the people who trashed me for not using the existing thread has left messages on this new thread too.
So, are the rules different for established versus newbie, or are some of you just e-snobs? Or is it made complicated to confus the newbies?
Now we all have to look up two threads to keep up with current input- correct?

dcraigen -
I'm a newbie too, but if we're talking about the same thread - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/002296.html - I don't think Flying Dutchman and Leroy11 were "trashing you." After all, they answered your questions and politely asked you to post in the existing threads so as not to annoy others not going on this mileage run or something to that effect - sounds reasonable to me. Also, the two threads have different subjects. This one asks who's actually going to do it - whilst the lllooonnnggg one is a discussion of the actual bonus. Just my 2 cents.

dcraigen --

I'm awfully sorry if I offended you, and I'm certain that I speak for leroy11 also when I say that no "e-snobbery" was intended.

Definitely. I'm sorry dcraigen for any offence that I may have caused you.

Like any good sized group, there are a few "characters," some of which think they rule/govern the board- but these folks are not among them, IMHO.

It also pays big dividends NOT to be too sensitive, IMHO! We can all always be more polite and respectful- including yours truly!

Got my tickets in the mail on Friday. My wife and I are going on the trip on Friday back on Tuesday 3/7. Just alittle concern after reading FlyingDut.. posting about Latinpass not wanting to post the miles into your account. FD it would be very helpful if you could say a little bit more on what the their new requirments are, I will be spending about $1400 per person between Hotel/cars/tkt etc, it would be a waste of money if the bonus is not going to happen. We are leaving on Thursday, anything would help

MileSmiles - It should be fine as long as you don't need the miles within the next few months. LatinPass isn't saying that I didn't earn the bonus; they're simply trying to delaying giving it to me as long as possible.

FD, thanks for the prompt response. I wasn't actually planning on using the miles before November or so....So it looks it would work. Did you take any COPA flight in your run, and if yes,did you have any problems getting your Latinpass in the record. I called the other day to get seat assignment and get number in record, the agent said since Copa left the grupo Taca you cannot get miles on the LP program any more ???

MileSmiles - that's one I haven't heard before. I received the new LatinPass member guide last week and Copa is still listed as a member airline. Maybe they were referring to Copa's affiliation with OnePass???

I'Aloha! m working on getting my husband and I booked for somewhere around the 20th or so of March, either for the mil or the 500K, depending on what I can put together. Just so happens that we were already booked on TWA from Maui to MIA on the 15th of March, so I figure since our time is somewhat flexible and we are already in MIA we may as well go for it. I'm not looking for a major marathon, but don't really need to be seeing any sights either. I've read all of the posts pertaining to this so far, but any new itineraries or tips would be greatly appreciated. Mahalo! Also if anyone else is thinking of going at this time--the more the merrier!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

From Miami, a relatively inexpensive full-fare coach trip is the following:

MIA-CCS on Aeropostal
CCS-BOG on Avianca
BOG-PTY on Copa
PTY-SJO on Taca
SJO-MGA on Lacsa
MGA-MIA on Lacsa or Taca

With CCS-BOG-PTY-SJO on one ticket, I've had this priced at < $1050.

The biggest downside is inflexibility on some of the routes. There's only 1 flight/day on the specified airlines from BOG-PTY and PTY-SJO. This seems to force you to spend a night in Bogata.

It appears that some people are booking the mga-mia route to qualify as a nica flight for the 500k. The web site says this qualifies for one of the 10 flights for the million miles, can this also be used for one the 6 flights?

To here-i-go

I'll be doing my mileage run starting in Miami on May 12th, and working my way down to Lima to do the final LIM-IQT-LIM for the 1M bonus. I don't have exact routing and prices yet, but I'll post them.