Starwood points transfer 1:2 into LAN. Such generous transfer ratios used to be common, e.g. with Qantas (and the Qantas award chart used to be more generous to boot) so folks would transfer their Starwood points to Qantas and redeem for flights on the Concorde.
Starwood transfer ratios have eroded in these few exceptionally generous cases over the years, but the 1:2 ratio with LAN remains. And Starwood doubles their transfer bonus as well, so 20,000 Starwood points yields 50,000 points in LAN.
This used to be an exceptional value for constructing oneworld business class round the world awards. But then LAN introduced their new award chart, where they charge for each flight segment separately, and I wrote it off. It’s not longer good for connecting flights, to be sure, so no more oneworld round the world values. But writing off their award chart entirely was a mistake as this Dan’s Deals post underscores.
LAN actually offers a pretty decent award chart for non-stop short-haul redemptions on partner airlines. And coupled with Starwood’s still generous transfer ratio, the deals can be smokin’.
If you live in a oneworld or LAN partner hub or focus city, and would otherwise buy short-haul coach tickets, and you have some Starwood points, this is very useful for you.
Here is LAN’s oneworld award chart.
Reward table for legs flown in oneworld and affiliated airlines
ONLY ONE-WAY amounts
Combine the fare of each leg to complete your round trip ticket.
Travel distance in kms LANPASS kms required for the award From To Tourist Executive First 1 500 6.000 12.000 15.000 501 750 8.000 16.000 20.000 751 1.000 9.000 18.000 22.000 1.001 1.300 10.000 20.000 25.000 1.301 1.500 12.000 24.000 30.000 1.501 2.000 14.000 28.000 35.000 2.001 5.000 27.000 54.000 67.000 5.001 10.000 50.000 100.000 125.000 10.001 15.000 70.000 140.000 175.000 15.000 100.000 100.000 200.000 250.000
Dan’s Deals took this chart and illustrated what this means in Starpoints and offered some example routes:
QUOTE:
Most of the flights below on are for travel on AA, but some routes include flights from Alaska, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas.
| If the actual one-way flight distance in kms. is between: | Then the one-way flight in coach will cost the following LAN kms. | Which is equivalent to the following amount of Starpoints at a 2:5 ratio. | Sample Routes (actual distance in kms.) on OneWorld and partner carriers such as AA, Alaska, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and others. |
| 1-500 | 6,000 | 2,400 | London-Manchester (242) LGA-Boston (297) London-Paris (348) LAX-Las Vegas (380) |
| 501-750 | 8,000 | 3,200 | LGA-Montreal (522) LGA-Toronto (574) LGA-Cleveland (674) Chicago-Toronto (702) Sydney-Melbourne (706) |
| 751-1000 | 9,000 | 3,600 | Miami-Atlanta (957) |
| 1001-1300 | 10,000 | 4,000 | LGA-Chicago (1,180) Hong Kong-Shanghai (1,254) SFO-Vancouver (1,288) |
| 1301-1500 | 12,000 | 4,800 | LAX-Portland (1,341) Chicago-New Orleans (1,347) |
| 1501-2000 | 14,000 | 5,600 | LGA-Miami (1,765) LAX-Dallas (1,987) |
| 2001-5000 | 27,000 | 10,800 | SFO-Honolulu (3,860) LAX-Maui (4,000) Tel Aviv-London (3,593) Seattle-Kauai (4,346) |
| 5001-10000 | 50,000 | 20,000 | London-Johannesburg (9,046) |
| 10001-15000 | 70,000 | 28,000 | Chicago-Delhi (12,044) JFK-Hong Kong (12,990) |
| 15001+ | 100,000 | 40,000 | Does not seem to exist??? |
Here in DC I have great options for cheap awards to Chicago, Raleigh, New York-JFK, and Boston. It would be even better if I lived in Chicago or Dallas or Los Angeles. Or if I were based in Seattle and looking to fly short-haul on Alaska, not to mention London for British Airways.
LAN doesn’t charge last minute ticketing fees or fuel surcharges, so these tickets really do come out cheap.
Do note, though, that LAN kilometers do expire. Points transferred into LAN are only “valid for a period of three calendar years, and expire December 31 of the third year after they were earned.” That means if you transfer the points in today, the points will expire December 31, 2011. So I may wait until January to do this, so the points will expire December 31, 2012. Although you can actually fly LAN to reset the expiration date on your miles, from here on the US East Coast I could take their JFK-Toronto flight…
(Hat tip to Rick.)
Does it REQUIRE a RT or can you book them as one-way?
no rt required…
So I can travel R/T SFO to Honolulu for 21,600 Starwood Points, instead of the 35K to 45K points usually required by AA?
under the radar routing to TLV!
Royal Jordanian ORD or JFK to AMM is under 10000 km threshold, so 20K SPG in Y or 40K SPG in J one way, plus a measly 2400 SPG AMM-TLV in Y.
Total RT calculation JFK/ORD-AMM-TLV:
Y- 44800 SPG
J- 84800 SPG
The Y routing is untouchable by any other program unless you luck out and can find a Promo Award 50% off sporadically with AF/KL Flying Blue with is 20K SPG in Y or 40K in J RT via CDG or AMS each way to TLV.
Thanks for passing this on Gary, nice original work by Dan’s Deals to lay it all out plain and simple.
Beaubo, nice idea with RJ, I really like that one. Is there a tool to find RJ award space? I have KVS, etc, but have never seen RJ awards displayed.
This is terrific information. What has been your experience in redeeming LAN kms on OW partners? I’d love to use SPG to get LAN kms and then redeem on AA or BA for international trips, but this seems too good to be true.
How do you book one way awards on LAN? Their website does not allow it.
Sanity check time….Starwood points are generally considered more valuable than airline miles. For example, I regard 21,600 Starwood points as having about the same value as 35-40,000 AA miles. (Others may disagree if using AA miles to book premium class international travel, but I think most would agree if booking domestic Y to Hawaii.)
LAN does not offer single leg tickets. I just called and checked on FLyertalk – consensus is you will need to book at least two legs (the second one can be short though). Too bad.