I am new to this site as of today. I want to do the million mile run, but I could use some help figuring out how to book it. Can anyone refer a travel agent who has already done work on ticketing one of these runs? If not , what resources should I use to figure out the most efficient routings?
Another question, will I need to book in advance to get a good fare or can I go next week ?

TG, unfortunatly if you didn't join LP by 11:59pm on 3/20/00 you DO NOT qualify for the 1MIL BONUS (thats Miami time!). If you did join then just go thru this thread and you will find all you need.I am going in a couple of weeks and found that a reg travel agent was able to get the same if not better fares than those on the web(Travelocity or Expedia) again theres enough on the past 4 pages to get you all the flights needed you can also check out "Iteneraries"thread you might have to use the 'GO' button and set it to past 10 days or more. Good luck if you can go.

Back in the USA. My day in Guayaquil was interesting. The airport did not have the tourist facilities of the Quito, Lima, and Cusco airports. There was a small tourist booth in the domestic terminal and the girls there got a room for me at the Hotel Doral, Best Western in downtown Guayaquil. The hilton is very close to the airport but about $200 night. There are 2 and 3 star hotels about five miles downtown which run $15 - 25/ night. I paid $25 for the Best Western. The hotel restaurant had steak dinners for $1.60 and 34 cent beer. I had a pretty decent time. I didn't notice any other tourists in the downtown area. I felt like I saw a different side of Ecuador. It was intense with the street kids begging, the hawkers selling goods on the sidewalks and the parks, the armed guards outside every store entrance. My favorite things were the city park with dozens of iguanas running loose and a kid I saw with a pet sloth. I have grown fond of HTV with the Latin music videos and I think Discovery Channel in Spanish provides a common media knowledge background for us in the North and Latin America since it was everywhere I went.
The Guayaquil airport was nice for airport shopping.
I read in American Way magazine that traffic accidents are the number 1 cause of death for travellers abroad. I'd like to know the breakdown of self-drive accidents vs. death in taxis.
I survived and I am thankful for that. I enjoyed the trip and the hardships really were minor. I look forward to future travels south.

With talk of the UAL acquisition of US Airways, does anyone know how this will affect the ability to use the Latin Pass miles on US Airways? It seems like it is likely that UAL will drop US Airways affiliation with Latin Pass. However, could one transfer Latin Pass miles to their US Airways account before the merger is completed and the ties with Latin Pass are severed, so that when US Airway's frequent flier program is integrated into UAL's, we will have converted some LP miles into UAL miles?

LatinPass miles cannot be transfered directly to US Airways' program.

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Scruffy,

I looked at the same problem and simply decided to do all 10 and get the Million. I think it depends on where you start and end. Good luck finding cheap flights.

BSL

I did the whole million for $1575 + 20,000 miles, and expect to get almost $200 back for an unused ticket. So far, 7 have credited in less than 3 weeks. The other 3 were all Y so should be no problem. It can be done...the 500K for <1600 should be easy, I'd think.

For those of you who will need to send in boarding passes/receipts to Latinpass via snailmail for things that didn't post electronically, the mailing address is:

Latinpass
1600 NW 42nd Avenue
Suite 200
Miami, FL 33126

Cheers,
NSW

Congratulations FD and thanks for all of your tips throughout this "adventure". About half of the flights for my million have posted. All of my TWA's have now been credited, but so far no hotels or car rentals. My miles still haven't posted from Y-flights taken in mid March on Copa and Aeropostal. I am going to be in Miami next week, so I will be stopping by Latin Pass with the rest of the documentation. The lady that I have been working with there since the beginning said that once they have that, there should not be any problems with posting. Also according to Distancia my LIM-CUZ V-fare has posted--we will see. So far so good. Good luck to those of you who are just beginning, it's a fun and interesting quest. I, like some of you, plan on using a good portion of my miles on the Latin Partner airlines.

1)toppshelff; Dont know how you pulled it off for $1575, were you in restricted coach? when did you go or book it?I just finished working it all out many an hour and with buying it overseas(saves alot tax wise,also less departure txs) it came to $2400 most in 'Y' a couple in 'M'.Sure be interesting to hear how you got away SO GOOD.
2)scruffy; either on pg 2 or 3 a few of us have posted ways it can be done in 4 days, depending how you fly it'll codt different amounts. i tried first going the way others posted before me but I found my plan to be a few hundred cheaper but the fares are constantly changing sometimrs in a 5 min period it 'll go up then down the up again. When I get the actual tkts in hand I'll try and post the way the tkts were issued(eg sometimes its cheaper to buy 2 separate portions :SAL-MIA can be purchased like that with 2 coupons SAL-MGA & MGA-MIA or to buy them each alone depending when you look it'll price out cheaper, same with ACES BOG-LIM.
3) I found that by contacting the 800# of the hotel res dept that the rates were far less expensive and aviable eg;HI in LIM was sold out on a # of different travel sites,while others listed it at a higher rate HI gave it to me for $99 as a priorty member which one must be to get LP miles. Also The Intercontinental in CCS is listed as $159 on their site call the 800# and got it for $125 wknd rate. In GUA Rad is $80 Marriot is $115(can use a $59 off from MYPT) both of these were also via the general res #.

Craz, re Hotel rates. I found cheaper rates for the Radisson (for Gua City & Antiqua) over the Internet than I did by calling the 800 number. As I recall, for Antigua it was $90 vs. $130.

I emailed to the Radisson's reservations address to get confirmation that these rates were valid for mileage accrual... this was around 10 pm - I had a response within about 20 minutes!

I also had an interesting experience with rates at the Intercontinental (Maracaibo). I call the 800 number... the first time they said rates were $165-220 (ouch!), called again a few mminutes later and a weekend rate of $115 appeared. I booked the $115. When I arrived at the hotel, they had no record of a reservation (!) but gave me a cabana room for $90.

HIKER, thanks for the imfo. To prevent what happened to you from happening to me I asked the res agent(in Amsterdam Im overseas now and the 800# was picked up there) to fax me a comfirmation so that I dont get there to find no rooms,being told its a higher price or that it wont earn miles. I usually make it a policy when it comes to car-rentals or hotels to do this since both are known to play games if they can get away with it. I once had a fantastic price at a hotel only to be told they were no res in my name seems the hotel was short of rooms and uped their rates so w/o a comfirmation they were able to get away with it. Needless to say I didn't stay there and will never do so.But who needed the hassles,the next time something similar happened all I did was rip out the comfirmation and of course the guy says he needs to check with the mgr, the ans was the computer spelled my name wrong.Of course I looked over the counter and it did not, he turned red when I caught him in the lie, was rewarded without opening my mouth to say a word w/a suite and alot of goodies on the house.I would have preferred being taken care of properly w/o getting the extras.

Thanks everyone for all the great info on this thread (and other related ones on this board). I'm busy booking a full million mile run and your help has made it a lot easier.

I just checked out the CDC site and noticed recommendations for yellow fever and malaria meds. What has everyone else done regarding these and other immunizations?

BosTraveler:

Whether you need to get the yellow fever immunization or take something for the malaria is largely dependent upon whether you plan to make this just a mileage run, or whether you plan to spend some time to see these countries while you are there. In general, if you are going to be staying in the airports or just the major cities, you probably do not need either. If you go to Cuzco and head to Macchu Pichu (which is in the jungle), you might want to consider getting something for the malaria. While a lot of people are taking Larium (mefloquine), in South and Central America, the mosquitos have not yet developed a resistance to some of the drugs that have fewer side-effects, such as Aralen. I've taken Larium in the past and had no problems, so I took it again on this trip. My wife on the other hand took Aralen. It appears that you probably really don't need the yellow fever vaccination for the Latin Pass tour for medical reasons, but sometimes immigration officials in other countries will refuse you entry if you come from an area that has previously had yellow fever outbreaks and you don't have an immunization. My medical plan covered all of this stuff, so I just got it. The yellow fever vaccination can sometimes be a bit of a pain to find, as it isn't requested all that often in the U.S. However, Boston should be one of the easier areas to find it in due to the high numbers of college students, many of who travel abroad for the summer after graduation. (I know this because I lived there and did this.) The guidebooks should all talk a bit about this too. I would checkout the Footprints Handbook to South America (or Central America), or one of the Lonely Planet Guides for the area and look in their health sections.

Hope this is helpful and Happy Travels!

Rhinochaser