In Quito now, great ACES flight, very good service...even a movie on a 2 hour flight. Staying at a great little hotel Apart-Hotel Antinea. $35/night per room or $55 for apartment with kitchenette, balcony, even a fireplace if you want. Great location near great restaurants. Very friendly staff...consider it.
Note: attempted pickpocketing on us today in touristy area. Use common sense, and keep valuables well protected.
Looking forward to seeing Maui Girl, Miler and others in Cusco

Billhall - I can't remember about lockers in MIA, but they do have a check baggage in the terminal. One is very close (50 ft to the right as you face Areopostal counter) to the Aeropostal check in area. $2 per day per bag for a small one. More for larger sizes. I think there were 2 other locations for checking bags in MIA, but not sure. I did not use this, but saw very short line and it looked very safe. I do not know if they are open 24 hours.

MauiGirl: re luggage storage in LIM see my trip report dated 0502 in this topic.
Good luck!
Cesco.g

Billhall -- Lockers in MIA
The lockers I used were near the United gates but every terminal has them. You have to go through security and use quarters. I think it was $1.50.
The strange thing was that the locker said it cost $1.50 for 24 hours and a charge for more time. I couldn't find anyplace to put extra money in so I just put my 6 quarters in the slot and took my key. 3 days later, I opened it up and took my stuff, no extra charge.

I thought I'd pass on this bit of information, something I mentioned to SAPMAN in Quito. If I read the rules correctly, it would seem that LatinPass bonus miles could also be used for reward tickets on AA. The promotion rules state that bonus miles may be tranferred to HHonors or any of the partner airline ff programs, which would include Taca's Distancia. Distancia allows mileage accrual and redemption on AA.
http://www.grupotaca.com/ing/distancia/aereos.html

I also got a kick out of the following paragraph which describes their relationship with LatinPass, with emphasis added:

How the Program Operates

Each Frequent Flyer program of the Associated Airlines maintains its own member database. When a member of one of the programs uses the services of a company or airline affiliated with LatinPass, this information is transmitted to the program from which the membership card presented belongs to. Eventually, the corresponding miles will be posted in the member's account.


[This message has been edited by freeflyer (edited 05-06-2000).]

Nice angle on the Distancia transfer! Question now could be - which program will last longest - Distancia or Latinpass. Maybe a tactic of transfering one third to hilton honors, one third to Distancia and one third in Latinpass could be a wise strategy.

The reports are great! Many thanks.

Any suggestions for the most compact million mile run will be appreciated.

Can a MIA-MIA qualifying ten segment run be done in 3-4 days? I'm looking at a June 8 start date. º¿º

I just returned from my 500K run. All went well, but the TACA security in Bogata was very suspicious of my routing. I was questioned about my employment, who paid for the trip, etc. and even had to show my drivers license in addition to my passport. I had nightmares of Midnight Express ! I been up since I woke at 4:00AM in Guatamala, so I need some sleep. Full report to follow.

cfrench:

Yes there are several compact runs, including Fri afternoon to Monday afternoon:

Mia- Mga (Nica)(afternoon 514? flight)
Mga- Sal (Taca)(continuance of 514 flight)
Sal- Gua (Aviateca)(last evening flight)

overnight in Gua

Gua- SJO (Copa)(6 am flight)
SJO- Bog (Lacsa) (afternoon flight)
Bog- Uio (Aces)(7 pm flight)
Uio- Lim (Aces/Saeta)(10 pm flight)

5 hrs in Lim 12:30 am - 5:30 am

Lim-Cuz-Lim (Taca Peru)(6 am/7:50 turnaround)
Lim - CCS (Avianca)(11 am flight thru Bog)

CCS overnight

CCS - Mia (Aeropostal has 2 flights per day)

This itinerary would let you leave Mia on a Fri afternoon and get back to Mia on a Monday afternoon...

We had another fellow in our office just make this run last week with no problems...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cool.gif

-Gator

Gator, do you know what the cost was for the routing you suggested, and how many tkts with which flights on each tkt?Thanks

Regarding Schutzee's questioning about his routing, etc. by the security, I have the LatinPass newsletter issue which describes the Million Mile promotion in both English and Spanish. Our group will all be carrying copies of the Spanish version of it to hand to any inquisitive security people, so that they can understand this loony trip a little easier, without us being able to translate it very easily. I recommend that to all of you as well.

Djlawman

If you did the same sort of routing throughout the Middle East, I am sure the pre check -in security people in the UK would raise their eyebrows and question you. Whenever they look at my passport and see an Arab stamp, they want to know all about "that trip"

[This message has been edited by Tango (edited 05-09-2000).]

Don't sweat the small stuff. I'm sure that the security all ready knows about this promo and if they don't they probably don't even care. As when we flew two months ago nobody even batted an eye.

[This message has been edited by Sydneyjb (edited 05-11-2000).]

Really, they have other things to worry about than a few nutty Americans.

Djlawman,
I also had all the Latin Pass info with me, they weren't impressed !