Best ways to get to South America using points and miles (2024)

All the South America airlines are complete crap if you are flying in less than business class. GOL of Brazil in particular is a complete and utter horror show regardless of class of service. Planes are very old and the food and service is like being in super max prison except that maintenance of bathrooms are much better in prison. Why American carrier, no picnic in and of themselves, would partner with GOL must be based on pure greed. Other things you should note: all flights usually have a minimum 8 hour layover if your first stop is not your destination but mostly it 10 to 12 hours because frankly then can get away with it and do not care. You ultimate destination may be a large city but without direct service you will spend 12 hours suffering in the airport while waiting. Only 20 percent of the population of South America can afford to fly regularly so they have got a captive and helpless audience. They charge ridiculously high fares and were doing so even during the COVID. My advice: if you have family or friends with appropriate visas then have them come here. Also-if you are connecting through Miami you need at minimum 3.5 hours to make it to the South American airlines in Concourse A if you are not flying in on American Airlines.( If you don’t believe me you have never traveled through Miami.)South America has many beautiful things to see and great food and culture but you need the patience of JOB to travel there because there is no logistical infrastructure and complete and utter chaos when it comes to connecting flights to other places then the largest 2 or 3 cities in the respective country and Brazil is just a bloody nightmare the whole way around with GOL setting an all new low in service and awful airplanes. Flying GOL? Where you winter rubber boots if you are within 10 rows of the bathroom in coach. If you are flying coach they treat you like the maid or gardener they assume you are making that one in 20 year trip back home which is just disrespectful and cruel to all….. I have been flying these routes for 35 years at over 5 million miles total so this is not a one time bad experience!
( I should say COPA based in Panama is the only airline I would recommend because they have a minimum service standard and are much more professional)

Hi Nick,

A few things that are incorrect or I would add…

1.) Asiana no longer has a credit card with BoA. They made me convert to a BoA travel card or cancel last year (your application link no longer works either). Asiana is probably the best way to book to South America if you can find United Polaris availability. It was 35k with $77 in taxes and fees for IAH to SCL in Polaris.

2.) British Avios and Virgin Atlantic can be used for Latam which has a ton of availability. British Avios just devalued like 2 weeks ago (no one reported this… this was before the AA devalue), but it’s still not horrible with a 30% transfer bonus. Virgin Atlantic is only 50k on latam if the distance is under 4,000 miles which can be very helpful in certain situations, especially with a transfer bonus. I booked Cancun to Santiago for only 50k for each person since I needed a positioning flight no matter what.

3.) Not sure if it was specifically because I booked Easter Island, but Alaska for some reason adds 10k to book a stopover on Latam. To Santiago it was 50k, but to Easter Island it was 60 with a stopover.

Hope that helps as someone who was just in the weeds on this!

I think its fair to conclude that award flights, especially Business class, to South America are difficult to come by… one great reason for your next challenge should be something like 2 cards 2 continents… South America and Africa!

Great post Nick! I go to Brazil every year to visit family and have been using Aeroplan since I can rely on star alliance + both gol and azul. If you take the Gol international flight it’s only 30k economy.