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Looking for the cheapest ways to get to South America? This post outlines the best options available to get there in using frequent flyer rewards programs available to the major US transferable currencies, including American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou points, Marriott Bonvoy points and Wells Fargo Rewards.
With a relative lack of luxurious premium cabin options and what are in some cases relatively short flights, economy class might be a desirable option for some award travelers. This post includes both the best ways to get to South America in economy class and business class.
What are transferable currencies?
If you want to use airline miles, it’s great to have transferable points. Transferable point programs let you transfer your points to any of a number of airline programs. This is appealing because it gives you the freedom to book many different flights through many different methods, some of which are strikingly cheaper than others. If you’re not familiar with transferable points programs, please check out our guides:
- Amex Membership Rewards Complete Guide
- Bilt Rewards Complete Guide
- Capital One “Rewards miles” Complete Guide
- Chase Ultimate Rewards Complete Guide
- Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide
- Wells Fargo Rewards Complete Guide (coming soon)
Buying cash fares to South America using bank points
Before you transfer points, keep in mind that cash fares to South America can sometimes be quite reasonable. If you have a card that enables you to redeem your bank points at 1.5c per point (like the Chase Sapphire Reserve or US Bank Altitude Reserve), you may be better off using your points to book a paid fare and earning miles on your ticket.
For instance, a $913 round trip business class fare from New York-JFK to Quito, Ecuador could alternatively be booked for around 60,000 points round trip for someone with a Chase Sapphire Reserve card.
That would be about 30K each way in business class, which is comparable to what most other programs would charge for an award ticket…but this is a paid ticket that would earn miles that could be credited to Delta or other Aeromexico partners. Award flights are a better deal in some cases, but it’s always worth comparing against paid tickets.
Best ways to get to South America using miles (economy class)
The deals below are sorted alphabetically, not in order of best to worst. Remember that the lowest price isn’t always the entire picture: be sure to consider which airlines levy fuel surcharges and the ease of amassing the miles for your chosen award. Each description describes where to search, how to book, and which partners you can use to transfer for the given award. It’s always best to confirm availability before transferring miles to be sure that the award you seek can be booked with the miles you intend.
Air France / KLM Flying Blue (for Delta / Copa)
- The short story: Air France has variable pricing that isn't great but could be attractive if you hit a transfer bonus and/or need to combine points from different programs to book an award.
- Miles required: Varies, but starts below 20K one way and prices become more attractive when a transferable currency offers a 25% transfer bonus. Keep in mind that in addition to Delta, Air France partners with Copa.
- How to find awards: For Delta flights, use the Virgin Atlantic 5 week award search to find availability (see this post for details). Next, confirm your findings at AirFrance.us (you’ll need to create a free Flying Blue frequent flyer account to search).
- How to book awards: Book online at AirFrance.com. Can also book via phone when the website returns errors.
- Key warnings: Air France's website is buggy and will often return errors when trying to complete a booking. If that happens, try calling.
- Transfer from: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi Thank You Marriott Bonvoy, Wells Fargo.
Alaska Mileage Plan (for AA or LATAM)
- The short story: Alaska has excellent rates to South America on both AA and LATAM and allows a free stopover on a one-way award.
- Miles required: From 12.5K-25K miles in economy class.
- How to find awards: Search AlaskaAir.com.
- How to book awards: Book at AlaskaAir.com (for both American and LATAM flights).
- Key warnings: With Alaska joining oneworld and LATAM's departure from oneworld (and heavy investment from Delta), it may be questionable as to how long the LATAM partnership will last.
- Transfer from: Bilt, Marriott
American AAdvantage
- The short story: American now offers variable pricing for its own flights (and a much-improved cancellation policy), which can sometimes make them very good deal for award flights to South America.
- Miles required: Varies. While the traditional pricing was 20-30K miles each way in economy class to Southern South America, web specials make it unpredictable and can base as low as 12K. You'll need to search AA.com for your dates and compare to prices from oneworld partners.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at AA.com
- How to book awards: Book online at AA.com.
- Key warnings: Variable pricing means that deals come and go and prices are unpredictable. It is inadvisable to collect American Airlines miles for a specific future award since you can not predict the price, but if you already have miles or have earned them through a credit card welcome bonus it is worth checking to see if AA has specials for your dates and cities.
- Transfer from: Marriott
ANA Mileage Club (for Star Alliance)
- The short story: ANA offers one of the best deals for economy class travel to South America, particularly for those looking toward the southern half of the continent. The catch is that you must book round trip.
- Miles required: 50K miles round trip on Star Alliance carriers between North and South America (United / Copa / Avianca).
- How to find awards: Search for available space at United.com (Note: Do not log in — logging in may show you expanded availability based on your credit card or elite status that is not available for partner bookings) or ANA's website (though ANA requires searches to be round trip, so it is easier to find availability by searching one way at United first).
- How to book awards: Book online at ANA.
- Key warnings: Note that transfers to ANA are not instant. Transfers typically take 2-3 days from Amex Membership Rewards or a week or more from Marriott, so there is risk of award space disappearing while you wait for a transfer. While ANA does pass along fuel surcharges, there shouldn't be any on the Star Alliance carriers serving South America (United, Avianca, Copa).
- Transfer from: Amex, Marriott
Asiana Club (for Star Alliance)
- The short story: Asiana offers excellent award pricing on Star Alliance flights to/from South America. The difficulty is in earning the miles since they only transfer from Marriott, though they do have a credit card.
- Miles required: 17.5K miles each way in economy class to South America 1 (includes Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Peru) or 25K miles each way in economy class to South America 2 (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay). Here is a link to search the award charts, though note that Asiana lists the round trip prices. Travel is Free has a handy one-way chart.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at United.com
- How to book awards: Book over the phone with Asiana.
- Key warnings: Asiana miles are only available via the Asiana credit cards (no longer available since 2021) or transfers from Marriott Bonvoy, making it hard to accumulate the miles necessary for an award. Note that Asiana is in the process of being taken over by Korean, so it is unclear how much longer they will operate as a separate entity.
- Transfer from: Marriott
Avianca LifeMiles (for Star Alliance)
- The short story: Avianca LifeMiles offers competitive Star Alliance pricing to both Northern and Southern South America with no fuel surcharges. Note that you can mix cabins on partner awards to save miles, which means that in some cases you can fly your long-haul flight in business class for not much more.
- Miles required: According to the old award chart, flights to Northern South America are 20K each way in economy class and Southern South America costs 30K one way in economy class. However, flights on Avianca metal may price out at less than 20K each way in some instances (and always keep your eye out for Avianca pricing anomalies).
- How to find awards: Search for available space at LifeMiles.com (you’ll need to create a free Avianca LifeMiles frequent flyer account)
- How to book awards: Book online at LifeMiles.com. Can also book via email. Phone bookings are known to be a hassle but also possible.
- Key warnings: Availability at LifeMiles.com does not always match what you’ll find at United.com. Phone agents generally do not see better availability than what is shown at LifeMiles.com. Always check the LifeMiles site before transferring points.
- Transfer from: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Citi, Wells Fargo, Marriott.
Etihad Guest (for AA)
- The short story: Etihad Guest offers decent pricing on short AA flights to Northern South America. Etihad devalued its partner chart in 2023, longer flights are no longer competitive.
- Miles required: 15K each way in economy class to/from Columbia, Guyana and Venezuela.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at BritishAirways.com or Qantas.com.
- How to book awards: Book online or call Etihad Guest at 1-877-690-0767.
- Key warnings: Note that the British Airways site sometimes fails to show AA availability, so using Qantas to search for availability may be your best bet.
- Transfer from: Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Citi Thank You Marriott Bonvoy
Qantas Frequent Flyer (for AA)
- The short story: Qantas offers good award pricing on shorter oneworld routes, like Miami to parts of Northern South America.
- Miles required: Qantas has a distance-based award chart that goes by cumulative distance whether one-way or round trip. The shortest-distance flights to South America measure fewer than 1,000 miles one-way but the longest can be more than 5,000 miles one way. Here are the first several distance bands:
- 12K miles for a cumulative distance of 601-1200 miles
- 18K miles for a cumulative distance of 1201-2400 miles or
- 20.3K miles for a cumulative distance of 2401-3600 miles
- 25.2K miles for a cumulative distance of 3601-4800 miles.
- 31.5K miles for a cumulative distance of 4801-5800 miles
- See the full award chart here. No fuel surcharges on American Airlines.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at Qantas.com (you’ll need to create a free Qantas Frequent Flyer account)
- How to book awards: Book online at Qantas.com.
- Key warnings: Avios might be a better value if you have direct flights (though this varies with precise distance) if you have access to points which transfer to Avios. However, for flights with connections, Qantas can be a better deal.
- Transfer from: Amex, Citi, Capital One, Marriott
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club (for Delta)
- The short story: Virgin Atlantic offers distance-based pricing for award flights on Delta flights, which potentially makes for a better deal on shorter flights. Since Virgin Atlantic partners with most major transferable currencies, it is very easy to put together the miles for an award.
- Miles required: From 18.5K each way in economy class on routes of 1,500-2,000 miles (e.g. Atlanta to Cartagena). See the award chart here.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at VirginAtlantic.com. Keep in mind that it may not always correlate to the lowest pricing on Delta.com.
- How to book awards: Book online at VirginAtlantic.com.
- Key warnings: The Virgin Atlantic website can be a bit finicky to deal with. See How to book Delta flights with Virgin Atlantic miles for more info.
- Transfer from: Amex, Bilt, Chase, Citi, Marriott
Best ways to South America using miles (premium cabins)
Air France / KLM Flying Blue
- The short story: Air France has variable pricing that isn't great but could be attractive if you hit a transfer bonus and/or need to combine points from different programs to book an award.
- Miles required: Varies, but starts in the 40K's one-way to Northern South America in business class or the 70K's to Southern South America in business class. These prices become more attractive when a transferable currency offers a 25% transfer bonus. Keep in mind that in addition to Delta, Air France partners with Copa.
- How to find awards: Use the Virgin Atlantic 5 week award search to find availability on Delta (see this post for details). Next, confirm your findings at AirFrance.us (you’ll need to create a free Flying Blue frequent flyer account to search). For flights on Copa, check United.com.
- How to book awards: Book online at AirFrance.com. Can also book via phone or app when the website returns errors.
- Key warnings: Air France's website is buggy and will often return errors when trying to complete a booking. If that happens, try calling.
- Transfer from: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi Thank You Marriott Bonvoy, Wells Fargo.
Alaska Mileage Plan
- The short story: Alaska has terrific rates to South America on both AA and LATAM and they allow a free stopover on a one-way award.
- Miles required: 25K or 35K miles one-way in business class to northern South America and 35K or 50K one-way to southern South America. See award chart here.
- How to find awards: Search AlaskaAir.com.
- How to book awards: Book at AlaskaAir.com (for both American and LATAM flights).
- Key warnings: Finding premium cabin space on AA is generally very difficult. With Alaska joining oneworld and LATAM's departure from oneworld (and heavy investment from Delta), it is questionable as to how long the LATAM partnership will last.
- Transfer from: Marriott
American Airlines
- The short story: American now offers variable pricing for its own flights, which can sometimes make them very good deal for award flights to South America.
- Miles required: Varies. Pricing starts at 25K in business class to Northern South America or 55-60K miles in business class to Southern South America, but we have seen web specials for less. You'll need to search AA.com for your dates and compare to prices from oneworld partners.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at AA.com
- How to book awards: Book online at AA.com.
- Key warnings: Variable pricing means that deals come and go and prices are unpredictable. It is inadvisable to collect American Airlines miles for a specific future award since you can not predict the price, but if you already have miles or have earned them through a credit card welcome bonus it is worth checking to see if AA has specials for your dates and cities.
- Transfer from: Marriott
ANA Mileage Club
- The short story: ANA offers one of the best deals for round trip business class awards to South America. Unlike other programs, they do not split South America into two regions. The catch is that you must book round trip.
- Miles required: 96K miles round trip on Star Alliance carriers between North and South America (United / Copa / Avianca).
- How to find awards: Search for available space at United.com (Note: Do not log in — logging in may show you expanded availability based on your credit card or elite status that is not available for partner bookings) or ANA's website (though ANA requires searches to be round trip, so it is easier to find availability by searching one way at United first).
- How to book awards: Book online at ANA.
- Key warnings: Note that transfers to ANA are not instant. Transfers typically take 2-3 days from Amex Membership Rewards or a week or more from Marriott, so there is risk of award space disappearing while you wait for a transfer.
- Transfer from: Amex, Marriott
Asiana Club
- The short story: Asiana offers amazing award pricing on Star Alliance flights to/from South America. The difficulty is in earning the miles since they only transfer from Marriott, though they do have a credit card.
- Miles required: 27.5K miles each way in business class to South America 1 (includes Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Peru) or 35K miles each way in business class to South America 2 (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay). Here is a link to search the award charts, though note that Asiana lists the round trip prices. Travel is Free has a handy one-way chart.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at United.com
- How to book awards: Book over the phone with Asiana.
- Key warnings: Asiana miles are only available via the Asiana credit cards (no longer available since 2021) or transfers from Marriott Bonvoy, making it hard to accumulate the miles necessary for an award. Note that Asiana is in the process of being taken over by Korean, so it is unclear how much longer they will operate as a separate entity.
- Transfer from: Marriott
Avianca LifeMiles
- The short story: Avianca LifeMiles offers competitive Star Alliance pricing to both Northern and Southern South America with no fuel surcharges. Note that you can mix cabins on partner awards to save miles, which can be useful if you need a positioning flight.
- Miles required: According to the old award chart, flights to Northern South America are 35K each way in business class, Brazil is 50k and the rest of Southern South America costs 60K one way. Flights on Avianca metal usually price out slightly differently, from 40K - 55K.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at LifeMiles.com (you’ll need to create a free Avianca LifeMiles frequent flyer account)
- How to book awards: Book online at LifeMiles.com. Can also book via email. Phone bookings are known to be a hassle but also possible.
- Key warnings: Availability at LifeMiles.com does not always match what you’ll find at United.com. Phone agents generally do not see better availability than what is shown at LifeMiles.com. Always check the LifeMiles site before transferring points.
- Transfer from: Amex, Citi, Capital One, Marriott
British Airways Avios
- The short story: British Airways has decent award pricing for longer-distance American Airlines award flights, whereas you're better off booking with another program if you need connections (since British Airways prices each segment separately).
- Miles required: The best deals will be from Miami to central and southern South America for 62K or 77,250 miles one way depending on distance (and assuming direct flights). No fuel surcharges on American Airlines.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at BritishAirways.com
- How to book awards: Book online at BritishAirways.com
- Key warnings: Note that British Airways periodically stops showing American Airlines award availability. When this happens, phone agents are generally unable to book the space either and your best bet is to keep searching or book through another partner.
- Transfer from: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Wells Fargo. Also transfer to Qatar and then to BA with: Citi.
Etihad Guest
- The short story: Etihad's award chart for shorter American Airlines flights is very competitive. It can be a struggle to find award space in premium cabins on AA flights.
- Miles required: 30K miles each way (includes Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Belize, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela).
- How to find awards: Search BritishAirways.com or Qantas.com for American Airlines award space, then call Etihad Guest.
- How to book awards: Book online at etihadguest.com or call Etihad Guest at 1-877-690-0767.
- Key warnings: Finding premium cabin space on AA is generally very difficult.
- Transfer from: Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Citi Thank You Marriott Bonvoy
EVA Mileage Lands
- The short story: EVA offers decent Star Alliance award pricing from North America to/from South America. The best value is booking round trip since EVA allows a free stopover (stopover not allowed on one-way tickets). Note that stopovers can not be booked online.
- Miles required: 52K miles each way. See the award chart assembled at Travel Is Free.
- How to find awards: Search United.com.
- How to book awards: Book simple awards online at EVAAir.com. Must call and book over the phone for stopovers.
- Key warnings: You'll likely need to call EVA for complex bookings.
- Transfer from: Citi, Capital One (2-1)
Qantas Frequent Flyer
- The short story: Qantas offers good award pricing on shorter oneworld business class routes, like Miami to parts of Northern South America. Keep in mind that though LATAM has left oneworld, their flights can still be booked with Qantas points.
- Miles required: Qantas has a distance-based award chart that goes by cumulative distance whether one-way or round trip (booking round trip will work out to fewer net miles each way). The shortest-distance flights to South America measure fewer than 1,000 miles one-way but the longest can be more than 5,000 miles one way. Here are the first several distance bands:
- 27.6K miles for a cumulative distance of 601-1200 miles
- 41.5K miles for a cumulative distance of 1201-2400 miles or
- 57K miles for a cumulative distance of 2401-3600 miles
- 68.4K miles for a cumulative distance of 3601-4800 miles.
- 82K miles for a cumulative distance of 4801-5800 miles
- See the full award chart here. No fuel surcharges on American Airlines.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at Qantas.com (you’ll need to create a free Qantas Frequent Flyer account)
- How to book awards: Book online at Qantas.com.
- Key warnings: Avios might be a better value if you have direct flights (though this varies with precise distance) if you have access to points which transfer to Avios. However, for flights with connections, Qantas can be a better deal.
- Transfer from: Amex, Citi, Capital One, Marriott
Singapore Krisflyer
- The short story: Singapore typically beats United for pricing to/from Southern South America and there are no fuel surcharges. Fly United, Copa, Avianca, or Air Canada.
- Miles required: 65K miles each way in business class to/from South America (note that Singapore prices all of South America at the same rate, whereas United charges fewer miles to Northern South America). See the full award chart here.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at United.com (Note: Do not log in — logging in may show you expanded availability based on your credit card or elite status that is not available for partner bookings) or SingaporeAir.com
- How to book awards: Book online at SingaporeAir.com or over the phone with Singapore KrisFlyer.
- Key warnings: Note that transfers to Singapore KrisFlyer may not be instant. Transfers can take 2-24 hours and Singapore does not hold award tickets.
- Transfer from: Amex, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Marriott
United Mileage Plus
- The short story: While award flights to Southern South America are cheaper with other Star Alliance partners, United offers good pricing on award flights to Northern South America whether on United, Copa, Avianca, or Air Canada. The excursionist perk could be leveraged for a free flight within Northern South America when booking round trip.
- Miles required: Variable, but generally saver awards are 55K miles each way to Northern South America or 80K miles each way to Southern South America.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at United.com
- How to book awards: Book online at United.com
- Key warnings: Since United eliminated its award chart, pricing can now be variable and "saver" rates may not always match those above.
- Transfer from: Bilt, Chase, Marriott
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- The short story: Virgin Atlantic offers distance-based pricing for award flights on Delta flights, which can be beneficial in some situations (particularly very short itineraries). Since Virgin Atlantic partners with most major transferable currencies, it is very easy to put together the miles for an award.
- Miles required: From 66.5K each way in business class on the shortest Delta flights to South America (e.g. Atlanta to Cartagena). See the distance bands here and use a tool like gcmap.com to calculate distance between airports.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at VirginAtlantic.com. Keep in mind that it may not always correlate to the lowest pricing on Delta.com.
- How to book awards: Book online at VirginAtlantic.com.
- Key warnings: The Virgin Atlantic website can be a bit finicky to deal with. See How to book Delta flights with Virgin Atlantic miles for more info.
- Transfer from: Amex, Bilt, Chase, Citi, Marriott
List of transfer partners
The following chart shows which bank currencies transfer to each of the above airline frequent flyer programs:
| Rewards Program | Amex Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Chase Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Citi Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Capital One Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Bilt Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) | Wells Fargo Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 via Qatar (~1 day) | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Unknown) |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Unknown) |
| Alaska MileagePlan | 1 to 1 (Instant) | |||||
| ANA Mileage Club | 1 to 1 (~1 day) | |||||
| Asiana | ||||||
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Unknown) | |
| British Airways Avios | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 via Qatar (~1 day) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Unknown) |
| Etihad Guest | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (~1 hour) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | |||
| EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | 1 to 1 (~2 days) | 1000 to 750 (~1 day) | ||||
| Iberia Avios | 1 to 1 (~12 - 72 hours (slower over weekend)) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 via Qatar (~1 day) | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Unknown) |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (~1 day) | 1 to 1 (~1 day) | |||
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | 1 to 1 (12 - 24 hours) | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) | 1 to 1 (~1 day) | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) | 1 to 1 via BA (Unknown) |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1 to 1 (~1 day) | 1 to 1 (~1 day) | 1 to 1 (~1 day) | 1 to 1 (~12 - 24 hours) | ||
| United MileagePlus | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | ||||
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Instant) | 1 to 1 (Unkown) |
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It’d be great to separate these out for West coast v/s East coast+Central US, as these posts tend to anchor more on east coast (coz of generally much better award availability). But for us West Coasters (non-LA even more so), it’d be helpful to see what are the best ways geared to us.
LATAM Business through AS is disappearing. We returned last week in LATAM Business/AS First IAH-SEA-LAX-SCL-LIM-LAX-SEA-IAH for 45K each roundtrip. Now I can’t find even one Business seat IAH…SCL on LATAM.
Nick, I would also suggest using Jet Blue for economy.
Did anyone have success finding award flights to South America via ANA? I found a bunch of COPA business class seats from SFO-EZE on united.com . However, I can’t find anything on ANA’s portal, not even economy. And I searched roundtrip. 88K roundtrip on business would be really nice.
United seems to have broader access to Copa flights than other *A partners. United has G bucket space and I / P bucket space available for Copa. The former is not bookable on other *A partners, while the latter is. Suspect it relates to United’s part ownership in the Copa legal entity. Would suggest cross-referencing with either Avianca or Air Canada.
Thanks for the explanation!
But it is important to note that Copa is actually much nicer than United in in flight experience!
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)
Just had a pretty tough time trying to find J seats one way from PDX to EZE with no more than one stop that were not exorbitantly priced in miles. There was a vast difference in the cost in points between premium economy and business seats. Did not want to fly United. PointsYeah was quite helpful.
In the end I used Chase URs to buy Delta tickets, with the 1.5 cent uplift from my CSRes. This used fewer URs than it would have cost using Delta points. Much as I try to save URs for other things, it was not only cheaper than using Delta points, but as you say, I will earn Delta points on the UR paid ticket.
I also chose Delta because they have two versions of so-called premium economy: Comfort Plus and Premium Select. We were willing to go Comfort Plus from PDX > ATL, but wanted the better Premium Select seat for ATL > EXE.
I would have gotten 15% of the award miles back had I used a Delta card, but I wanted to pay with a CSRes for the travel insurance benefits that come with using it. The trip cancellation and trip interruption benefits are valuable to me; I have had occasion to use them previously when a flight was delayed more than 6 hours in NYC.
As for intra South America flights, I checked a few routes we’ll need and was surprised at how cheap they were in cash. So I’ll likely just use cash for those, once we know exactly what we need. PointsYeah can help me make the choice.
We’ll be traveling 6+ weeks and wanted to go home comfortably. We used AA points to book a mixed cabin in F and J, going through Miami on Christmas eve. I wanted to avoid any stops in places where snow could be an issue. While MIA may be crazy busy, we’ll have access to lounges and the CSRes to offer compensation for expenses if we have a delay. Since we don’t celebrate the holiday, and we are just heading home, a delay will matter not at all, especially in MIA which should be much better weather than PDX!
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!
And everything I mentioned was for business… sorry I didn’t clarify.
Amazing! I booked LATAM for 45K in J to SCL and they weren’t allowing a stopover to go to IPC. Had to book with Avios for about 38K pp. which hurt. I called in after their recent changes to see if there was anything they could do and no dice. Glad they finally merged them.
Enjoy Easter Island! We just got back last week and it is amazing.
So you have to book with the multi-city tool and there needs to be at least a 2 day stopover. You can “edit” your trip after the fact to make everything same day, but you can’t do it online or through calling. It was a pretty ridiculous process. I had to play around quite a bit with it.
I would also add that Asiana is in the process of being absorbed by Korean Air. Japan gave their go-ahead earlier this year and it’s only the US DoJ. I’d be surprised if Asiana will be able to book *A flights this time next year… Seems to be something that’d go in the “Warnings” section.
Surprised there’s no Air Canada on the list. We just flew Copa for 50k Aeroplan points for business from DC to Paraguay.
Aeroplan is typically the best method for booking partner award flights to PTY on COPA.
One note on Avianca pricing. As of right now, business class on partners to Southern South America is 50k each way.
Was trying to look at LATAM availability and pricing on Alaska site for MIA/NYC to GRU. There’s for some reason no direct options avail, all with a stop in LIM. For biz class, only LIM to GRU leg is biz for every available option. @Nick Reyes Any reason why no Direct flights avail? Was hoping to use BA miles and call up to book but wanted to confirm availability first.
I don’t know the answer to your question, but I suspect it’s one of two things:
1) LATAM Just isn’t releasing availability on the non-stop during the dates when you want. It’s very common that airlines won’t release availability on their more popular non-stop itineraries since they know they’ll sell those tickets.
2) more likely, my guess is that this route was a TAM route. The airline LATAM was formed by a merger between an airline called LAN and an airline called TAM. Alaska was historically partners with LAN. The last I knew, and it’s been a few years since I’ve dug into this so I don’t know if it’s still true, Alaska was only able to book flights that were former LAN flights, not former TAM flights. As I recall, LAN was mainly headquartered in Peru and Chile and TAM was mainly headquartered in Brazil, which is why I’m assuming this was a TAM flight. I believe that they still fly these flights with the old two-letter code that belonged to TAM. Or again, as of a few years ago, that’s the way that it was. And so Alaska wouldn’t be able to see availability on those flights with a flight number that starts with TAM’s old code. So, again, my bat is at Alaska. Probably just can’t see that availability, though I don’t know that for sure. I’m not sure what Iberia can or cannot see. The bloggers behind the blog No Mas Coach are very familiar with Alaska Mileage Plan – you might find more info from their site on this question.
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 update, Nick. Thanks.
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.
Hey Nick – I just looked into this extensively while booking a trip to southern SA (Chile/Argentina) and found that across the board flights to/from the US to Santiago are much cheaper with points than flights to/from Buenos Aires. The (relative) sweet spot I found is one-way US to/from Santiago for 61k Avios booked with Iberia and flying on LATAM. As you mentioned, business class can be hard to come by to SA. From what I’ve found LATAM offers the most options to/from SA and one of the best products in SA with lie-flat seats.
With regard to booking Asiana flights on united.com, I have never seen an Asiana option out of SFO to anywhere other than Korea or Singapore. Just want to confirm that is truly an option. Just looked now and don’t see any Asiana options for the entire month of Feb
I do not think you will find Asiana flights from SFO to South America. The section related Asiana is about using Asiana miles as the currency to book star alliance flights (partner award), like United, Copa and Avianca.