Okay so i've booked my trip down to south America, it is all in biz on LAN with the following route and a stop in each city. JFK-LIM-EZE-SCL-IPC I need to go from IPC to Ushuaia, Argentina, MPN, and then hit as many cities as possible on my way back up to the USA. I understand it's probably better to create two separate awards. Thanks in advance!
I'm not really sure what your question is here. Ushuaia's airport is USH, not MPN. MPN is the Falkland Islands. Are you asking about that? I'll put these facts out there: It's 20K BA miles for a one-way J (10K Y) ticket within a South American country and 25K (J) for a one-way that spans 2 countries. That means that you could fly IPC-SCL-PMC (Puerto Montt, Chile)-PUQ (Punta Arenas), take a bus to USH. That's 20K miles in J, which seems worth it since the IPC-SCL flight will be on a 767 for 5 hours. From there you could fly USH-FTE-AEP/EZE-USA.
By the way, if you are looking to see what routes LAN flies, I find this page useful: http://www.lan.com/en_us/sitio_personas/southamericanairpass/index.html (warning: Flash, so no iPads). It shows possible routings. If you click a set of city pairs and it gives you a direct routing from City A to City B, then it is possible to fly that route without having to fly a hub (like PMC-PUQ or USH-FTE).
Well I keep changing my mind. RIght now i'm trying to book IPC - MPN but its not looking promising. Simultaniously i'm trying to get from South America to Asia, but it seems that BA is way too expensive for that (coming in at 140k miles one way in F? with a ba only award from brazil - lhr - hkg).
Actually, a one-way South America-Far East award is 140K in Y RT, meaning one-way it's 70K Y/ 140K J/ 210K F If you're trying to do South America to Asia, why not do 2 back-to-back awards -- Brazil-USA, then USA-HKG? It'd be 40K J + 50K J = 90K total or 60K F (only AA) + 75K F CX = 135K total. I think the best would probably be a mix -- J in LAN for 40K, then F on CX for 75K = 115K for a pretty good set of premium products. If you're one of those people who likes to spend as much time in the air as possible enjoying F/J, I'd do Brazil-LIM/SCL-JFK, then JFK-HKG. It'd have to be booked by 11/15 though. You could also do it via New Zealand/Australia for 125K in J. Brazil-SCL-AKL on LAN, then AKL-Australia-HKG on Qantas or AKL-HKG on CX.
The reason i'm heading back to asia is i'm in the middle of an aeroplan mini-rtw, and need to catch my bkk-syd portion + the return. So going australia/new zealent is already ticketed. With the 75k in F on CX award, would it be possible for a stopover in London (cx has flights from both london and ams to hkg) Thankms for the help, and i know i need book it quick, i'm doing so as soon as i can get all the info i need. Thanks for the help!
No, the 75K F rate for Asia is only for USA-Far East without transiting another region. If you transit LHR, you will have to use the "BA + 1 partner chart" or the general "BA only" chart, both of which are one-way 60K Y/120K J/180K F. Not only that, but this value likely will not change after 11/15 -- both GRU and HKG are around 6000 miles journey from London. Both will likely be 30K Y/60K J/ 90K F one-way each. Not only that, but you will pay substantial fees because of BA's fuel surcharges and the UK APD. If you're absolutely determined to transit LHR, then realize that flights to LHR aren't that great of a value with BA miles because if you must fly BA from Brazil, so you will be hit with massive fuel surcharges as well as the UK APD for any flight. It's ironic that if there were a direct flight from South America to the Far East, it would price out at 150K one-way in F under the new BA chart next week. Unfortunately, such a flight doesn't exist for an 11K mile journey and JL no longer runs the GRU-JFK-NRT flight on one number. I think we'd be able to help you out a little better if you told us exactly where you needed to go in what order, and what miles or points you have available.
I've a little over a half million ba miles. I'm traveling for a year, so things are very flexible. At this point I have a trip from BKK - syd - BKK - FRA - ord booked via Aeroplan mini rtw. So far I've planned a trip around south America, and need to figure out the best way to get back to Asia to catch my Sydney flight. I like to stop in Europe whenever possible to visit my parents (so long as I'm not paying alot extra for it). So I'm currently trying to decide if I want to use ba miles to get south America to Europe to Asia or something else. It looks like my best bet may be rouse LAN to get back to the USA then something else to get from USA - eu - Asia. I'm very flexible though, the most important thing to me is to not waste miles unnecessarily (ie pick up the bet deals when they are available). Thanks again for the input!
Would Buenos Ares - Bogota - Caracas - JFK Be a valid routing for 40k miles in biz? Using the LAN South America Pass Website, I am able to see all those as valid destinations, but not sure if that is a direct enough route. Thanks again!
I don't think that will work since it requires too much backtracking through the LIM hub. There is a CCS-MIA flight, but that's it. Europe is nowhere along the way from South America to the Far East. The most direct route to a place like Thailand would seriously just be a straight line through Southern Africa. To a place like Japan would be a polar route through NYC. There's no way around it, if you want to go through Europe, you will pay a premium (in miles, fuel surcharges, and taxes). Next week, Brazil-Madrid on Iberia should be around 50K J one-way, while LIM-MAD on LAN will be 60K. AMS-HKG-BKK will be 65K J and 97.5K F. So you are looking at 115K minimum in J. Not much difference from now. The only thing is to avoid BA for their fuel surcharges and for the UK taxes.
