FlyerTalk Forums - LatinPass - Who's Really Going? (replacement)

My wife and I finished our Million Mile Run last weekend. Here is our report.

ROUTE: (28APR - 14MAY)
SMF-STL-MIA (TWA)
MIA-CCS (Aeropostal)
CCS-BOG (Avianca)
BOG-LIM (Avianca)
LIM-CUZ (TACA-PERU)
CUZ-LIM (TACA-PERU)
LIM-UIO (ACES)
UIO-BOG (ACES [SAETA])
BOG-SJO (LACSA)
SJO-SAL (TACA)
SAL-GUA (AVIATECA)
GUA-SJO (AVIATECA)
SJO-MGA (COPA)
MGA-MIA (TACA [NICA])
MIA-STL-SMF (TWA)

We flew from Sacramento to Miami and spent the night at the Fairfield Inn - Miami West. There are two Fairfield Inn's in the vicinity of the airport with two completely different shuttle buses. WEST is a little farther than SOUTH, but has a cheaper rate. You often have to call WEST to send the shuttle, but the SOUTH shuttle seems to run regularly. WEST was nothing special, but fine. They also had free shuttle service back to the airport every half an hour, or so, I believe.

Our AEROPOSTAL flight from MIA-CCS was a disaster. It was supposed to leave late in the morning, but was cancelled. It had been cancelled the previous day which caused a bit of a back-up on passengers. Problems seemed to be mechanical, and Aeropostal was trying to put people on other flights. They put us up for the night at the Airport Regency Hotel, which was a dump with lousy food. Even though the food was free, we went next door to the Daily Catch, which was good. They "found" another plane to CCS early the next morning (ended-up leaving about 6:00A). Aeropostal seems to have a reputation for having problems, so you should be prepared for delays or cancellations, if possible.

On arriving in CCS, we had the option of catching an earlier flight to BOG to make our next connection to LIM. It was a question of waiting 10 hours in CCS or BOG. (We had already pushed our CCS-BOG-LIM flights back a day when we were delayed in Miami.) We should have gone to BOG on the earlier flight. (Always keep moving towards your final destination!) The CCS airport was fairly quiet. The high end numbers for the gates (around 25, I think), don't seem to be in use and are a good quiet place to hang-out if you don't have access to one of airline clubs. This is one airport where it was more difficult to communicate if you didn't speak some Spanish. Our Avianca flight from CCS-BOG was delayed by about 4 hours (I think they had to borrow another plane or something due to mechanical problems.) This forced us to miss our BOG-LIM connection, and then our LIM-CUZ connection.

When we finally arrived in BOG, it was about 2AM. The flight from BOG-LIM which we had missed, had actually been cancelled due to mechanical problems (do you see a pattern here?) The next flight was at about 7 or 8 the next morning, so they put us up in a hotel for a couple of hours. The hotel was an extremely nice place called Parque '97 Suites Hotel, or something. It was $150 or $200 per night! If he had taken the earlier flight from CCS to BOG, we actually could have gotten closer to a full nights sleeps. AVIANCA was very good about arranging the hotel and the transport. The streets of Bogota do not look too safe at 2:00A, let me tell you! In any event, the airport seems extremely secure, and quite efficient. Because of our delay in CCS & BOG, we had Avianca arrange to push back our TACA-PERU flight from LIM-CUZ by a day. We had this arranged in BOG, so when we arrived in LIM, a gate agent gave us a confirmation for the change in reservation, as well as a voucher for transport, meals and a night at the Sheraton in downtown Lima. Because I had booked my CUZ flights through a travel agent in Lima, I had to have the travel agent meet me at the airport with my tickets! Toon Meusen with Raymi Travels is an ANGEL! He brought the tickets to me and helped me reconfirm all of my onward flights. The stay at the Sheraton was great. They never told us that we had limits on what we could order for food, so while we did not go crazy, we ran up a little bit of a bill. When we checked-out, they wanted us to pay the difference, but they relented when I explained we were told that meals were included and that no one told us we were limited in what we could order.

Flight from LIM-CUZ was smooth and efficient. Makes sense to only book one direction of the flight at a qualifying fare. Cost to get into the center of town (Plaza de Armas) is 5 soles. Stayed the night at a wonderful place called Hostal San Isidro Labrador on Calle Saphi, about 2 blocks from the Plaza de Armas. The place is about 6-months old, so in great shape any not very well known yet. Hired a private guide for a day to tour the Cuzco area the second day(highly recommend this if you are the inquisitive type like me). Took the Autovagon train option in a package deal for about $90 per person to Macchu Pichu and back through SAS Travels or Tours? This was nice, but I have to admit I liked the private tour we received even better from a guy named Antonio A. who is listed the Footprints Central American Handbook. Good restaurants in Cuzco include Inka Grill and Pacuare. Internet access is readily available in Cuzco and dirt cheap. If you don't have much time, the helicopter tour of MP is probably worth considering. Expect to be tired the first day as you acclimate if you stay multiple days.

Flight from CUZ-LIM left about 30 minutes early on Taca-Peru. As other have said, TACA makes arriving on time a very high priority, and will often leave early! I think we arrived early on just about every flight we flew in South and Central America. The flight times also appear to be conservative to give them a bit of a buffer.

Back in Lima had Toon pick us up and we stayed at his very nice little guest house for US$12/person called Mami Panchita. It is reasonably close to the airport, but not in a particularly exciting part of town such as downtown Lima, Miraflores or Barranco. You need to take taxis to get to these areas, but they aren't too expensive and we found staying with Toon where he also runs his travel agency, to be a great security blanket for us. Had a very nice dinner in Miraflores at a place called Las Tejas.

Flight the next day from LIM all the way up to GUA with lots of stops went smoothly. Booked the two segement of the Aces 520 flight separately, but received one boarding pass. The suggestion to reserve different seats to get two different boarding passes mentioned by someone else sounded like a very good idea. Ended up having to pay half of the departure tax in Bogota with the Transito stamped on the back of the ticket, although I know others have paid nothing. It seems somewhat arbitrary, and dependent upon who you speak to. I wasn't up for arguing about it, so ended up just paying. Bogota has a very nice airport in my opinion. Met Schutzee and hung-out with him while we waited for our flight.

Picked-up all of my GRUPO TACA boarding passes in BOGOTA. They seemed to note on a sheet of paper that I needed to make the two connections to get to GUA, which was reassuring in the case of a flight delay. All of the flights were on time or early, and the 16 minute connection in San Salvador was not a problem.

On arrival in GUA, we had arranged to stay at the Radisson in ANTIGUA, rather than the one in Guatemala City. We didn't have to fly out until late the next afternoon. Shuttle bus took about 45 minutes to get to Antigua, which is a cute little town with lots of nice shops, restaurants and places to stay. The Radisson did not want to give us frequent flier miles (Radisson Gold Rewards with points accumulating on Latin Pass) for our $110/night rate. I told them I would not stay there unless I got the credit, and they eventually relented, saying they would make an exception. They told me that I needed to pay at least $175 to get the miles initially. When we checked into our room, the rate card said the maximum they could charge was $155! The front desk of this hotel seems very badly managed. One woman arrived about when I did, but did not have a reservation. She asked what the rates were, and the woman behind the desk said that only a supervisor could give her a rate, and he wasn't there! Can you imagine a hotel not being able to even quote a RACK RATE! The hotel had a shuttle bus to the airport with set times every 1 1/2 hours or so. When I tried to reserve a spot initially, they told me it wasn't necessary. When I checked again the next morning, they told me that the shuttle wounld not be available because it was being used to pick some other guest up at the airport and wouldn't be back in time. They told me I should take a cab for US$25. Found a nice woman behind the desk eventually who helped us out. The shuttle bus got back in time to take us to the airport.

When we flew into GUA, had immigration stamp TRANSITO on my passport. Although we didn't depart until the next evening (I had been told you had to fly out the next morning to avoid the tax), the immigration official was pretty low-key, so it wasn't a problem.

Flew from GUA-SJO. Stayed at the Radisson Europa Center in San Jose. Rented a Suzuki Sidekick 4WD at Avis. They meet you at the terminal and then shuttle you to their off-site facility. Everything was pretty smooth. It was a little complicated trying to find our way to the hotel, but we managed. There is actually a Thrifty Car Rental office very close to this Radisson, but we were a little learly about Thrifty's service, and I don't think that the hotel provide a free shuttle service to the airport in any event. Casino in the hotel, but lousy odds. If you gamble, do so it the local currency as the minimum bet is much lower.

Drove the next morning from San Jose to Manuel Antonio on the Pacific Coast. Took about 4 hours. Roads were generally quite good. Only a few short bad sections and some bridges that don't look too safe, but must be fine because huge 18-wheelers were passing over them. Stayed at a nice place called Villa Nicholas for about US$55/night. If you are willing to spend $135 to $175, I would highly recommend Makanda by the Sea or Tulemar Bungalows. Si Como No got good reviews, but we didn't like it as much. Great coffee and baked goods at Cafe Milagro. Lots of great activities and food in the area. Sunspot Restaurant at Makanda is very romantic. Highly recommend horseback ride with Valmy Tours, estuary tour with Damas Tours, and nature walk with Leo's Nature Tours. After staying there for 4 days, drove back to San Jose and stopped at an incredible property called Villa Caletas just east of Jaco on the road back to San Jose. This place has got to have the best setting for watching the sunset that I have seen anywhere, and I've been all over Europe and Asia (40+ countries).

Spent another night at Radisson in San Jose. Drop-off of the rental car at Avis was very smooth. Make sure you carefully checked and marked all of the scratched on the car when you checked it out. We probably didn't need the 4WD given where we drove, but it was nice to have it, and you do need it in most areas in Costa Rica.

Flew from San Jose to Managua. Inter-Continental has a desk at the airport and well transfer you to the hotel. Managua was a pit in our opinion. Went to the mall across the street for lunch and caught a movie. Had a nice dinner across the street from the hotel at Los Antojitos. TACA has a desk at the hotel that is open from 6-10P on every day but Saturday. They will check you in for your flight the night before and give you your boarding pass. You also pay the departure tax here. You only have to go to the check-in counter at the airport if you need to check luggage, and you go to the business class line. We had TRANSITO stamped once again at the airport on our passport and we only had to pay a US$3 departure tax rather that the normal US$25 tax. When you get to the airport, you need to go to the Departure Tax counter to get a "waiver form" for the US$22 of tax you aren't paying.

Flight from MGA to MIA went smoothly. Rented a car from Thrifty for a day. Free shuttle from terminals to Thrify's car lot. Checked into the Radisson Deuville in Miami Beach. The rate was $99 + 12.5% tax, but they also make you pay a $7 "resort fee". They don't tell you this when you book the room, but they tell you when you check in and make you sign an acknowledgement form. This supposedly covers use of the in room safe, the beach towels, beach chairs, etc. Breakfast was included in this rate. There is no free parking at or near the hotel. The hotel will valet for $7 (0-4 hours) and $16 for the night. Street parking with meters wasn't too hard to find. It cost $0.25 for 15 minutes with a maximum of 2 hours. Meters were 7-days a week from about 8AM to 8PM by the hotel, I think. Differed in other places. Had a great dinner at Yuca on Lincoln Road in South Beach. It is expensive, but they have great "cutting edge" Cuban food. We ended up getting a bunch of appetizers. The desserts are divine. Highly recommend the coconut flan.

We packed Eagle Creek Continental Journey Travel Packs for the trip and were only asked to check them on the TACA-PERU flight from LIM-CUZ. Picked-up somethings in Costa Rica, so needed to check our bags after that. Had no tight connections, so no problems. Also, the fact that the flights were international and you had to clear customs meant it was much less likely someone was going to steal your bag.

All in all it was a great trip. The first three days were rough because of the cancelled flights and having to reschedule, but after that things went quite smoothly. We stretched the trip over 17 days, which allowed us to spend about 4 or 5 days in each of Cuzco and Costa Rica. Other than the one day when we flew from LIM to GUA, and flying into and out of the region, the other travel days were quite light.

Hope some of this information is helpful to others. We will definitely be going back to Peru and Costa Rica. Also want to visit Equador in the future. Will probably pass on Nicaragua and Guatemala in the future.

Happy Travels!

Rhinochaser

I just want to say that the MM Run ToppShelf and I just made was as positive as all the other posts! We had extra time to see Quito and Cusco which were amazing as previously described. The flight out of Quito was cancelled due to weather and they put us up in the Four Points Sheraton (real nice) with 3 free meals. Luckily we had an extra day for emergencies. YES, it was an adventure that we plan to visit again many times in the future. We also feel that getting the Million miles is a bonus to the beautyand adventure of the trip! I also want to thank ToppShelf for letting me tag along with his itinerary. It was a vaction of a lifetime and I feel I have met a lifelong friend! We hopefully will meet again next year (with our miles if my wife doesn't use all of mine!) and hike the Inca Trail. Below I am pasting the message from a USA Today reporter who took the run. Too bad she did not see Quito and Cusco in depth or Machu Picchu - then maybe she would have been more positive! (I guess you loose focus when it is a "job" ...)Again - Thanks to all for the great messages and opening the world of South and Central America to me!
David Blausey

from USA Today on Friday, 5/19/00:

Page 1D

How far would you go for a million miles? Our frequent flier visited 14 airports, across 10,000 miles, for 82 hours, to earn the prize
By Jayne Clark
USA TODAY

QUITO, Ecuador -- Nichol Barros, front desk manager at the Quito Crowne Plaza Hotel, first noticed the curious comings and goings about a month ago. Americans were checking into the hotel in the early morning and checking out by nightfall. Couples were requesting separate rooms. Sometimes these on-the-fly travelers arrived solo. Other times they came in packs as large as 15. Though most were U.S. citizens, they were arriving from Bolivia, Panama, Costa Rica and elsewhere.

''I wondered, 'What's up with these people?''' Barros recalled. Finally, she asked them. Their response: Latin Pass.

Latin Pass is the frequent-flier program for a consortium of eight Latin American airlines (Aces, Aeropostal, Avianca, Copa Airlines, Aviateca, Lacsa, Taca and Taca Peru). In January, it offered a million-mile bonus to customers who by July 1 flew at least one international segment on each of its member airlines, plus took three flights on partner carriers, stayed three nights in partner hotels and rented a car for five days from a partner rental agency. The promotion sparked such a sensation on Internet message boards frequented by mileage chasers that Latin Pass officials on March 20 restricted it to current card-carrying program members.

More than five months into the promotion, Latin Pass still isn't certain how many people will qualify for the bonuses (variations on the promotion offer 500,000 and 100,000 miles). About two dozen people have qualified so far for the million-mile bonus, says program director Guy Booth. And the total of 500,000-mile and million-mile qualifiers could reach into the hundreds.

''No one really knows,'' Booth says. But the program's popularity, which caught the Latin Pass people off guard, is just one indication of how far frequent-flier junkies will go for a mile.

An estimated 92 million travelers (73% of them American) are members of at least one of the 90 frequent-flier programs worldwide. Since their emergence in the early 1980s, these programs have morphed into veritable shoppers' warehouses of mileage-earning possibilities. So many Americans now earn miles from sources other than actual airline flights (among them affinity credit cards, long-distance phone services and even grocery purchases) that experts estimate half or more of frequent-flier miles are generated from non-airline transactions.

My own grab for a cool million began at the crack of dawn in late April at Reagan Washington National Airport and ended a week later in the same spot. In between I traipsed through 14 airports in nine Latin American countries and the USA, flew 10,000 miles and spent 82 hours in transit, a mere 23 of which were actually airborne. The goal was to fulfill Latin Pass' requirements as rapidly and cheaply as possible.

Call it perpetual motion leading nowhere. Or an insane act of faith.

In the days before my departure, some message board habitués were questioning the viability of the program. It seems no one had yet actually seen miles posted to their Latin Pass accounts. Not even David Phillips, the legendary ''Pudding Guy'' who last year nabbed 1.25 million miles from a $3,140 pudding-for-miles investment and subsequently completed a million-mile Latin Pass run in early March, had received Latin Pass' recognition of his south-of-the-border foray.

I didn't have the luxury of doubts, given my $2,800 in non-refundable tickets -- to Charlotte, N.C.; Miami; Managua, Nicaragua; Guatemala City; San Salvador; San Jose, Costa Rica; Bogota, Colombia; Quito; Lima and Cuzco, Peru; Caracas, Venezuela; and Orlando. At the special services desk in the Charlotte airport, the agent at US Airways (a partner airline) hadn't heard of Latin Pass. Neither had her computer, which refused to accept my number.

''What Latin airline are you taking?'' she asked.

''All of them.''

''I hope you survive this trip,'' she said, after massaging my Latin Pass number into the computer's resistant circuits.

Thanks to connections that were rarely convenient, I wouldn't touch down in Managua for another eight hours.

Shortly after 6:30 p.m., I was airborne again, this time on Copa Flight 318, which carried me, after a 17-hour day, to Guatemala City and the Melia hotel. A pianist played show tunes to a recorded drumbeat. It was the closest I'd get to Guatemalan culture before heading back to the airport at daybreak.

As I settled into my seat on Aviateca Flight 961 to San Salvador, the voice in 17A asked, ''Ever had one of those trips where everything goes wrong?'' Joshua Landis, a 30-year-old fitness trainer from Aspen, Colo., was the ideal seatmate. He had suffered illness, lost luggage, hotels without water, passport troubles, flight delays and unexpected expenses. Nothing short of prison could make my journey more miserable than his, I reasoned.

By the time I landed in San Salvador on Day 2, I was fast becoming inured to the soul-sucking, concrete blandness of the airports. I spent much of the five-hour layover pacing the long, lean corridors past a blur of duty-free shops. Lancome. Lacoste. Licores.

At the Camino Real Inter-Continental San Jose in Costa Rica, the clerk glanced disparagingly at my Latin Pass card. ''We don't take that.'' The hotel was a white cube ensconced within a walled compound out on the highway 10 miles or so from the capital. It had a big, blue, curvaceous swimming pool and palm fronds that skittered in the tropical breeze. But this trip was about miles, not suntans. And so I spent my free hour before sunset haggling over how to secure the hotel points.

The scene at the San Jose airport the next morning resembled the fall of Saigon. A line snaked out of the terminal and onto a sidewalk littered with backpacks, boxes and suitcases the size of meat lockers. Passengers checked their watches as they inched forward.

But while the check-in process at the Latin American airports was generally cumbersome -- the airlines tell you to arrive two hours early, and they mean it -- the flights themselves were as punctual as a Swiss train. And on the single occasion when a departure was delayed, airline personnel kept us updated in a way U.S. carriers might consider emulating.

Ditto for the food. Though it usually wasn't any tastier than the fare on U.S. airlines (think chicken bits smeared with red sauce), at least there was food. And on flights as brief as an hour, too.

By Day 3 I had touched down in six Latin countries in an unremitting propulsion through space and time. The tedium was broken only by the occasional frisking at the odd security checkpoint.

What's a solo gal with a day to kill in Bogota to do? The State Department has warned U.S. citizens to keep out, citing threats, kidnappings and murders. In front of the Hotel Tequendama, a distinguished hostelry with a top-hatted doorman and bellmen in old-fashioned monkey suits, eight machine-gun-wielding military policemen stood at perfectly spaced intervals.

''Lock your door,'' advised the bellman as he departed my room.

At breakfast the waiter told me to take off my watch before going out. The desk manager handed me detailed safety instructions. (''If any person approaches you on the street pretending they are the police . . . return to the hotel before answering questions.'')

''Is Bogota as dangerous as it seems?'' I asked the desk clerk.

Just then, Jorge Madrigal, a visitor from Mexico, bolted into the lobby appearing ashen. He had been robbed of $150 by two men claiming to be police. They offered to show him their guns. He declined and handed over the money.

''First time in Bogota?'' I asked.

''My last,'' he replied.

Bogota was a breeze to enter but proved tougher to exit. There were multiple document checks. Beyond the usual X-ray and hand-wand check was a gantlet of 16 uniformed military types. A young male guard with polished nails rummaged through my bags, and a female officer gave me a thorough pat-down.

In contrast, Quito, where I'd also have a day off, was a stroll in the park from start to finish. Within 20 minutes of arrival I was in a $70 two-room suite at the Crowne Plaza, where the most expensive item on the menu was $4.

The next night I girded myself for a 23-hour sprint that would take me from Lima to Cuzco and back, a stop in Bogota and finally on to Caracas. At midnight, the Lima airport was hopping. People milled about. A jet-lagged rooster crowed his head off somewhere near baggage claim. The 24-hour happy hour at the Aerocafe was in full swing. I located the Diners Club lounge, flopped on a sofa and set my alarm for 4 a.m., in time to line up for the 6 a.m. Taca Peru flight to Cuzco.

Cuzco's setting at 9,000 feet within the emerald accordion pleats of the Andes is surely one of the world's most spectacular. I didn't even have time to get altitude sickness, however. After disembarking, I followed a group of Japanese tourists in new alpaca sweaters back onto the plane, feeling exhausted, grimy and keenly aware of the absurdity of this exercise.

On the flight from Lima to Caracas, I was digging through my assorted boarding passes when a voice from the aisle whispered, ''Ah, Latin Pass!'' as if uttering the passwords to a secret fraternity. The voice belonged to Kiyoshi Nishikawa, 44, of Osaka, Japan, whose English vocabulary consisted primarily of those two words. His traveling companion, Masaru Hashiguchi, 44, a computer engineer from Tokyo, withdrew a lengthy itinerary sheathed in plastic that would orchestrate 15 days, hopping from Tokyo to Las Vegas to Miami, plus the fast-paced trot through Latin America.

Hashiguchi had paid $3,000 for airfare, but he didn't have much interest in the region. He planned to use his million miles for flights to Europe on KLM, another Latin Pass partner.

''Colombia and Peru are dangerous, but this is a very big bonus,'' he said, summing up the trip.

We parted company on the curb at Caracas' Simon Bolívar Airport, where the cabbies have a license to extract whatever they can from unwitting tourists. The seven-minute ride to my hotel would set me back $25 ''because it's a five-star hotel,'' the driver said.

And if it were a three-star hotel?

''The taxi would cost less. And haven't you heard about the floods? The hotel is bad. You don't want to go there.''

Indeed, the hotel was bleak. The guest room smelled of sewage. The dark, depressing restaurant charged New York prices. And the room tab totaled an appalling $200, which the hotel got, given it was the only airport-area hostelry still operating.

Back at the airport at 5 a.m. Huge signs greeted passengers with helpful reminders not to transport drugs. Leaving required standing in no fewer than six lines. As I waited, I reflected on a week of being neither here nor there, but always in between. Pondering whether the million-mile payoff would ultimately materialize, I had to admit I hadn't a clue. But at that instant, I'd have sworn I'd traveled a million miles.