kangarooflyer88
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I thought I'd start a thread that goes into some detail about how to book award flights with LATAM which is the predominant airline serving South America. In particular, I thought I'd start covering some details about which airline's frequent flyer programs you can book an award flight on LATAM and fare wise how those flights are booked as.
Before I begin I should probably point out that there are actually quite a few frequent flyer programs which allow you to book award flights on LATAM, here are the ones that come off the top of my head:
First, using LATAM miles to book an award flight on LATAM it is fairly straightforward, you enter your origin and destination on the LATAM site and choose the option to use miles. You will then be presented with a list of flight options as per usual. As with a cash booking, you simply choose the flight you want and the fare you want (i.e. Basic, Light, Top, Full, etc.) with the number of points required going up. LATAM uses a dynamic pricing approach meaning YMMV in terms of value. However, LATAM miles do expire and so it's better to use those miles on something than to let them go away. For instance, last year I was able to book SYD > AKL return for 2 passengers for 19,355 miles + $341 USD in taxes and fees, for a cent per point value of 2 cents. Here's what the fare selection looks like:
The benefit from booking with LATAM provided you have the miles is you know exactly what fare you are getting as you literally select it during the booking process. There is no "surprise" that you are booked into a light or basic fare which might only include a personal item under your seat.
Alaska Airlines is another program that allows you to book LATAM flights using points. However, there are some limitations on this program. For instance, there does not seem to be a way to get availability on flights between Santiago and Australia (so far as I can tell), nor flights within Brazil (so far as I can tell). But there are excellent sweet spots for flights between Latin American countries. For instance, yesterday I booked an open jaw Porto Alegre, Brazil to Santiago and Chile to Curitiba, Brazil for 15,000 points and $67.20 in taxes and fees (one fee to watch out for is the partner booking fee of $25 meaning if you plan on booking several LATAM flights using your miles, it's best to stick it on a multi-city ticket so you only pay that fee once). To my surprise, this award appears to book out as a Full LATAM fare which includes not only a 23 kg checked bag but also a carry on bag and seat selection:
Now there are some downsides to Alaska miles. They aren't as easy to earn in Australia as only AmEx cards which earn Membership Rewards allow you to transfer to Alaska (via a two step process: first you transfer to Hawaiian miles then after you link your Hawaiian account to Alaska, you will be able to transfer miles over to your Alaska account) but it seems likely this will go away once Hawaiian and Alaskan are completely merged. Miles can be bought directly from Alaska with bonuses anywhere from 50% all the way up to 70% per ORAAT. However, a caveat is the miles will be priced in US dollars and like many US carriers, the airline tacks on a 7.5% tax recovery fee. In my case the 14,000 miles I had to purchase to book this trip cost me $295.63 USD (I already had 1,000 Alaska miles in my account) so all in $362.83. It's a slight savings over a basic fare, but considering this ended up booking out as a Full fare there were considerable savings to be had here (also it allowed me to use an Alaska voucher I had that was about to expire).
This is my experience booking LATAM flights so far. I will try to keep people posted as I collect more data from the other programs.
-RooFlyer88
Before I begin I should probably point out that there are actually quite a few frequent flyer programs which allow you to book award flights on LATAM, here are the ones that come off the top of my head:
- LATAM
- Qantas
- Delta Airlines
- British Airways
- Lufthansa
- Alaska Airlines
First, using LATAM miles to book an award flight on LATAM it is fairly straightforward, you enter your origin and destination on the LATAM site and choose the option to use miles. You will then be presented with a list of flight options as per usual. As with a cash booking, you simply choose the flight you want and the fare you want (i.e. Basic, Light, Top, Full, etc.) with the number of points required going up. LATAM uses a dynamic pricing approach meaning YMMV in terms of value. However, LATAM miles do expire and so it's better to use those miles on something than to let them go away. For instance, last year I was able to book SYD > AKL return for 2 passengers for 19,355 miles + $341 USD in taxes and fees, for a cent per point value of 2 cents. Here's what the fare selection looks like:
The benefit from booking with LATAM provided you have the miles is you know exactly what fare you are getting as you literally select it during the booking process. There is no "surprise" that you are booked into a light or basic fare which might only include a personal item under your seat.
Alaska Airlines is another program that allows you to book LATAM flights using points. However, there are some limitations on this program. For instance, there does not seem to be a way to get availability on flights between Santiago and Australia (so far as I can tell), nor flights within Brazil (so far as I can tell). But there are excellent sweet spots for flights between Latin American countries. For instance, yesterday I booked an open jaw Porto Alegre, Brazil to Santiago and Chile to Curitiba, Brazil for 15,000 points and $67.20 in taxes and fees (one fee to watch out for is the partner booking fee of $25 meaning if you plan on booking several LATAM flights using your miles, it's best to stick it on a multi-city ticket so you only pay that fee once). To my surprise, this award appears to book out as a Full LATAM fare which includes not only a 23 kg checked bag but also a carry on bag and seat selection:
Now there are some downsides to Alaska miles. They aren't as easy to earn in Australia as only AmEx cards which earn Membership Rewards allow you to transfer to Alaska (via a two step process: first you transfer to Hawaiian miles then after you link your Hawaiian account to Alaska, you will be able to transfer miles over to your Alaska account) but it seems likely this will go away once Hawaiian and Alaskan are completely merged. Miles can be bought directly from Alaska with bonuses anywhere from 50% all the way up to 70% per ORAAT. However, a caveat is the miles will be priced in US dollars and like many US carriers, the airline tacks on a 7.5% tax recovery fee. In my case the 14,000 miles I had to purchase to book this trip cost me $295.63 USD (I already had 1,000 Alaska miles in my account) so all in $362.83. It's a slight savings over a basic fare, but considering this ended up booking out as a Full fare there were considerable savings to be had here (also it allowed me to use an Alaska voucher I had that was about to expire).
This is my experience booking LATAM flights so far. I will try to keep people posted as I collect more data from the other programs.
-RooFlyer88
