Well, the rush to Latin(Pass) America is over (at least for us procrastinating FT'ers). On the evening of the last day friends of mine in Honduras were coming up with all sorts of interesting ideas for what to do with the miles (a trip for all of us to the Bay Islands in Honduras, donation of miles to groups that send children to other countries for surgeries that can't be done here, etc.). I realize it may be like "counting chickens before they are hatched" but i thought, still it might be interesting to see what other people are thinking of doing with their miles. Perhaps sharing our ideas might lead to more creative, fun, and perhaps more generous use of our miles. Any takers from the Talkers for this?

OK, I'll start. My wife and I both did the 500K run, so we have 1,000,000 (and some) Latin Pass miles. Our preliminary plans include at least the following (mileage required varies considerably, depending upon use of the Special Awards):

Trip to Europe Coach with 2 kids, prob. on US: 140 - 240,000 miles, depending upon time of year

Trip to Europe WITHOUT Kids (US): 70 -160,000 Miles. May go Bus. Class

Trip to Alaska With Kids (TWA): 120,000 Miles

Trip to Caribbean With Kids (US): 100--200,000 Miles, depending upon Special Awards or 1st class

Trip to Caribbean WITHOUT Kids(US): 50--100,000 Miles, depending upon same

Trip to California with Kids (US):
60-100,000 miles, depending upon calendar.

Well, that's all we have thought about so far. Will still have lots of additional miles. Having a lot of fun planning.

Djlawman

I went with a classmate from Nicaragua. Our plans are:

He will be able to finish his remaining 3 years at Univ. of Michigan without having to pay for tickets to and from his home in Managua. That also means he can go during short vacations like Spring Break when before he wouldn't be able to. We're still trying to figure out how to work around the Christmas black-outs, though.

I'm looking at the miles as a retirement plan of sorts-- I'll probably drop down to low level Elite and cut down on self-funded mileage trips, now after completing the Mother of All Mileage Bonuses. I'll save the miles for when I need them-- they should last me for a few years. I would like to take my family to Ecuador and Panama-- they have never left the US (except for Canada, and day trips across the Mexican border).

One thing I do want to do is get tickets for one of my best friends and his fiancee-- he's from Iowa and she's from Peru and has been in the US for years. They're getting married in the US in late Sept. but he has never visited her mother and the rest of her family, so I hoped to give them tickets for a honeymoon in Peru.

[This message has been edited by Viajero Joven (edited 07-10-2000).]

Can you say HILTON?

Unfortunately I was unable to get in on this promotion, but my immediate thought was to convert the miles into Hilton points.

I am going to spread mine around a bit:

100-200K to Distancia for AA First class to Europe

100-200K to ACES for Air France and/or Contiental First class travel

300-400K to Hilton (600-800K points) for hotels for all these places I will be going!

That leaves 300-500K for LP proper, will use 90K for 2 biz to Rio using the lower-level special rewards chart; other trips will be Kenya (will probably buy on UA to Europe and use KLM freebie from there); Egypt or Oman on TWA or KL; possibly South Africa on KLM (again from Europe only on KLM).

It is amazing how FAST you can burn up a million miles but with friends along and front cabin it is well worth it

I moved all but 70,000 to Hilton today. I am leaving just enough for 2 RT within Europe on KLM.
I have 650,000 on Delta, my wife has 150,000 so we have plenty for everything we need to do coming out of ATL.

Djlawman, how old are the children? For that European trip, you might consider putting you and the spouse up front and leaving the kids in coach. While I was appalled by a post describing that with a 6-year-old, once my boss's kids reached 12 years old he would do exactly that: "When they earn the miles, they can have the upgrades." Of course, his kids were so well behaved they would have been good in coach at age 6, but still not worth inflicting the desertion emotions on the kid until they're old enough to handle them.

[This message has been edited by johna (edited 07-12-2000).]

I moved 250,000 to Taca's Distancia program after they told me at TACA that I could book American Award tickets. Well we got confirmed for SFO-PARIS and TACA won't let me use the miles on American. Also TACA won't send them back to LatinPass!!! They said you can only get American ticket if you have flown on American....Something's fishy here...I see legal actions popping up all over the place. The LatinPass employees are "sweet and overworked" but the one running the show in Salvador is being very crafty scheming us out of what they promised us!!!!